Well then, got the empeg fired up in the car. I'd had enough of 'Hi I'm Wes' on radio 1 so I selected the player and up pops Future Sound of London's Papua New Guinea. Good tune, so I turned it up. Big mistake! It worked for a minute or two, then nothing.... silence.

I look up to see the empeg still playing happily. Look at the amp, the power light has gone out. Right then, out with the multi-meter. Measured 6v across the power terminals of the amp, can't be good. I always thought the ground might be dodgy. I checked on the terminals of the battery and got 13v. I then had a look at the amp remote wire WRT ground on the amp. With the unit powered up I read 5 volts and with it powered down I read -5. I think i'll double check the ground.

In the meantime, could someone confirm the voltage they get from their amp remote wire. Also, is there a maximum current the remote wire can supply? I've got my steering wheel adaptor but if that's drawing more than a few milliamps i'd be surprised. I'll also do an insulation and earth leakage test on the amp power cable.

I'd really like to hear the rest of the FSOL track in the car....

same thing happened to me. check your inline fuse from the battery to the amp would be my recommendation. even if it didnt blow, change it.

The amp turn on lead should be 12V but with very little current. The bad thing is that with some amps if the ground on your amp was not good the amp may seek ground from the first place it could find, wich would be the patch cable ground wich then could damage the sig. ground out in the empeg. The first thing I would do though is find out why you don't have 12v at the power leads on the amp and then go from there.

Cool, pretty much what I suspected. I'll go home at lunch time and find a better grounding point.

I tried the empeg at home last night through the Hifi and it sounded fine. So I don't think I've hosed the output stage.

Seat belt mounting points are not too bad unless you can find a proper ground somewere in the back of the car

Don't use the mounts for shocks as they are bushed and therefore insulated

just hunt around and make sure its nice and paint free since cars tend to be dip painted for some layers

Yeah, I used a seatbelt mount in the Orion which worked a treat. It's currently stuck under a seat mount, although I fear I haven't scratched enough paint away.

Accelerator - good album, although I prefer Dead Cities.

It sounds like a bad ground to me. IIRC, the RA line is fused at 1A.

Sometimes in newer cars the metal under the dash is attached with plastic clips and does not provide a good ground at all. Sometimes they add grounding straps but the rest of the dash components are using that path and may cause some problems. I would mount a ground that is isolated of any other ground leads, at least a few inches and make sure that you scrape down to bare metal before fastening.

I had a amp under my back seat one time in my Datsun and every time I turned on the lights, used a turn signal and used the brake pedal at he same time my amp protection cut in or it blew a fuse. The ground spot I chose was even a few feet from the rear light harness ground strap. I had a theory that the body was getting enough of a "buzz" that it may be feeding back through the amp ground and causing problems. I moved the amp ground by adding a 6' lead and grounded it closer to the battery and had no problems afterwords.


Sean in NC

Well, I've got chance to listen to the rest of the album now. Got the sandpaper out and gave the metalwork a good seeing to. Bingo bango, 12.6v at the amp terminals. Now i've just got to drag the laptop out to the car and debug the stalk!

Bostin!

Seat belt mounting points are not too bad unless you can find a proper ground somewere in the back of the car

Do not use seat belt mounts. That's covered in one of the pages sub-linked from the FAQ. Seat belt mount screws have goo on them to prevent rust, making them a worse ground point.

I scraped away the paint around the mount so it's not relying upon the bolt. The ring is in direct contact with the bare metal of the bodywork. Which reminds me, what's the best stuff to put over the terminal to stop it from rusting?

Roofing tar or automotive underbody rust proof spray. If you pierce the body panels, then use it outside as well as inside.

-Zeke

vaseline, grease, hairspray, varnish, paint, silly grease, electrical varnish, denso tape

In that order?

Yes, otherwise it doesn't protect the joint from cosmic rays, mind control beams and subetheric interference.

oh yeah and custard

and then it safe from anything including the death ray from an empeg with no front cover