Hello all.

It's been a while.

So long, in fact, that I can't remember what e-mail address or username I last used to access this forum.

Must be eight or nine years?

Anyway, the point? Ah yes. Well, I was having a clear out and stumbled across the old Empeg (Serial 080000299). It boots OK and starts playing where it left off in 2004. Looks like the hard drive may be starting to die though:Not a problem, I've still got a few drives sat around somewhere.

Anyway. The questions:

1) Is it worth going through the hassle of fitting this and an amp to a car, or is there now an equivalent (UI/features) all-in-one unit made by somebody else I should fit?

2) If it is worth it, does anybody know of an easy way to replace the HDD with some form of solid-state storage?

Cheers,

Nick (with lots of nice memories of the Golf cabbie the Empeg was last fitted in)

Peter recently linked to this PATA/IDE SSD which would work fine in an empeg : http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B007IXORCO

Another route is to use CompactFlash cards, and a CF to IDE converter. Some converters even match the dimensions for the existing hard drives, making for a quick and easy mounting job.

For pure music, the empeg is still one of the best options. If you have a mix of podcasts, most people here have just gone down the route of playing those off a mobile device. The empeg could still be fitted, and use of the aux port would allow a mobile device to be used. If you want to get fancy, adding a Bluetooth A2DP receiver to the aux port would allow the mobile device to play wirelessly to the empeg AUX port.

Good thinking. Ordered.Hmm. So, this has got me thinking. I'm already going to be putting a Raspberry Pi in the car to display and log GPS co-ordinates/speed. If I can add a Bluetooth dongle to that and stream A2DP via that... Hmm. Mind you, if I throw in a Routerboard as well I could get the podcasts directly onto the Empeg through a wireless link. Then I'd need to install a leisure battery (which I am going to have to do for the winch I'm about to install anyway)....

I get the feeling this project is going to creep somewhat.

Nick.

HELP (please)

After sticking a CF card on, I get the following during boot:and then.... nothing. The screen displays "Fixed temp.sensor" as expected, but nothing else happens. If I press any key, the hard drive is re-partitioned and formatted again - several hours later I'm back at square one again.

Anybody got any ideas?

Cheers,

N.

The player flash RAM contains a builder image.
The player flash RAM is trying to format/partition the disk for you.
It's saying that the disk already has data on it and is prompting you to press Enter to continue anyway. (Third line from bottom).
Make sure you're following these instructions carefully.

The confusing point being, once you've done this part (formatting the drive), the next step is to install a player image in place of the builder image (using the same method).

Very many thanks for all you help. I was obviously following the wrong instructions - it all works perfectly now - 32GB CF card works like a charm.

Blimey, I'd forgotten just how slow syncing is though!

Found the cage in the depths of the garage. It was ripped from the old car by the breaker (I wrote the car off smashing into the side of a lorry who pulled onto a roundabout without looking), so some of the labels have gone. Does somebody have a wiring diagram handy? Ah well, never mind, with Google and some trial-and-error I'll work it out.

Next question, though, is does anybody know where I can get new lenses? I have a red one, but want a blue one for the car it's going in.

Cheers,