Here is a couple pictures of the first "rough" prototype of the empeg facia. It's cut out of scrap particle board I had laying around. I have only run 1 roughing pass while I wait for other other cutting tools I need to do finishing passes. Once I get a perfect finish cut I will move over to cutting the facias out of aluminum. Enjoy!

2nd picture

How much more trouble would it be to make a facia without provisions for the pullout handle?

Great stuff! Looks extremely promising. Can't wait to see how these progress.

Looks great! By any chance, did you move the curve above the vfd out some? Right now the facia covers up a few pixels.

The first batch of facia's will be exactly like the original except in aluminum. From there I will move onto custom facia's.

Hmm great.
What about an MKII lookalike for the MKI??

TommyE

Or a Mark I lookalike for the Mark II?

Marius (Escort Cab + Mark II)

Aluminium? GREAT! I'll get one when it is available! :)))

Yeah!! Count me in too!!!

Looks sweet!

Sign me up!

Great news!

Think about how to send then outsite form US! :-)

It's now on my christmas wish list :-)

That would be where you would come to me because that would be a lens, which is what I make.

Here's the color selection

Steve

Pending Price - I will get one too! This will match the faux-aluminum in my WRX!

Now... it is too bad that more Mk.II's aren't going to be made so that you could sell tons of these things! Wasn't one of the reasons that more MKII's were not going to be make because it would be too expensive to make more facias?.. hmmm..... I bet with some good negoiating and a hades-proof snowball....

Looks great. Any estimate on a price?

My estimate on price is $100. While that may seem a bit expensive, I just can't do it for cheaper. Each unit will take approx 9 hours to create (1 hour of setup and tool changes, 8 hours of actual cutting). I then have to send the plates out to get tumbled and anodized (aluminum gets nasty if not anodized). People will have their choice of anodizing colors (red, blue, black or clear).

Rob

I would still buy one. Do you have pics of how it would look like after anodization in those colors?
Thank you!

Sounds good, let us know how it turns out.

Not yet. I'm "hoping" to have the first complete aluminum prototype this by the end of this weekend. I'll take some pictures of the fabrication process and post them.

Anodizing looks great. Clear anodizing will leave the brushed aluminum look. I'm still looking at December when I will begin shipping out the first units. This is because the first 7 units are already spoken for. 3 are going to the Empeg guys, 4 are getting anodized in each of the available colors for my collection. From there I'll be able to pump out 1-2 a day. My wife is just going to love hearing the mill scream away nearly 24 hours a day. I'll get some pictures of it cutting the aluminum, it's a fun site to see.

When I begin taking orders it will be first come first serve. I will take orders via e-mail and give you a queue number (sound framiliar?). Once your facia is scheduled for cutting I will notify you. Once it is cut and I receive payment I will ship it out asap.

this is truely amazing!. Pictures are a must!

I've certainly never heard of a 'custom' facia being made for any other car stereo. maybe taking panels off amps to show "the fantastic circuit layout" [choke].
This is extreme!

Will you take credit cards? PayPal?

Thanks

Me too, $100 sounds perfectly reasonable considering the labor, etc that will be involved. Any chance of anodized buttons to go with it? I was thinking blue anodized buttons with a black anodized face plate and a blue screen would look pretty sweet!

-Mike

I don't think I will ever get used to this kind of absolutely unprecedented customer loyalty and participation. This is amazing. Empeg guys, I know it sounds absolutely ridiculous to say, since you must have been thinking about this more thay I and everyboy else here did, but I can't help underlying the fact that the kind of support and customer satisfactions that you have with all of us empeggers is really unique. When reading these posts I can't really believe Sonic Blue shut down empeg production... Maybe the market for the empeg is small, I tend to agree with that, but then when I read about people doing so much and so well (think of these fascias and mlord's kernel patches, just to mention ppl that are NOT even among the alpha testers), I wonder whether it is small enough to shut down completely. Empeg could simply be a CULT device, I think in the end it just needs the time to become known and understood. After that, it will be a total success.

It is a cult device, as its amazing how many people don't even understand the concept of mp3's. !!

The problem is that the majority of people don't "get it", and that the only way people will "get it", is by seeing one in the flesh, which of course blows them away, or by stumbling on the BBS, which always amazes me, (as you have said) with the dedication to this single product.

The next thing is they have to LOVE music, as its not for someone with 20 CD's in their own collection, and you need to drive a lot of miles to appreciate the investment.

The next thing is they have to afford it, and they are still 600UKP+, which i know is greatly reduced, still expensive when you consider other components people buy. eg. CD, Video, etc. People don't see it as a computer ? Trouble is ,if you tell them its a computer, they get scared, as people here in the UK struggle with coming to terms with the internet.

But I agree, someone should take this unit to the masses, and also try to keep the good that has been generated so far

The problem is that the majority of people don't "get it"

This has been my experience too. You can't make people understand how good this thing is unless you let them play around with it a bit. I know, I've tried on the Neo forum. Everybody over there says : sure, we know it's good and all, but the Neo does exactly the same thing? (playing mp3's?)
Of course there is no comparing, but I know of no way to put in words how I feel about this product. It's hard, because I must admit, even I, who am a hardcore music-nut, had to convince myself to make the purchase. But the very first day I played around with it I knew I made a good purchase. (something I've never been sure of with the Neo)

Now most of you know from my posts that my Empeg experience hasn't been excatly trouble-free, but still I believe this is one of the best purchases I ever made. Even with the problems I had, I still ordered a backup unit!

The next thing is they have to LOVE music, as its not for someone with 20 CD's in their own collection, and you need to drive a lot of miles to appreciate the investment.

One out of two isn't that bad either. I LOVE music, but I don't drive that many miles. No more than 100 /week. Not a problem : whenever the empeg is not in my car, it's playing at home, or at a friends home.

My Empeg played more in the first week (at home) than my Neo did in the three months that I owned it.

Any idea how long these are going to be available for? I would definately be interested in a few of them.

Its a shame I still haven't convinced my roommate that we need a CNC machine...

I agree. And that convinces me even more that more advertising, demos and even simply TIME would make this one of the biggest success ever. Now, I am not criticising Sonic Blue, I don't have info to do that. I don't know how much "time and advertising" would cost to sonic blue. It must be not economically viable if they decided to shut down. All that I am saying here is that to me it is so unnatural to accept that such a great peiece of technology is no being produced anymore. And when I see people doing such a great job to support and improve the product I just realize I am obviously not the only one who really likes empeg, and the end of production is even harder to accept!

In the weekend I drove for more or less 8 hrs with friends, and all of them, all computer geeks, simply loved it. They were amazed, and wanted to buy it right away. Why they did not do so? Simply, they are college students and don't have the money to afford one. But at least, as you said, a practical demo did the job wonderfully. If they had money in they hands they would have made an order right there.

Tim,
They should begin shipping in December and I will continue making them until I no longer receive any orders. My guess is that there will be a back log of orders that will stretch into late January or February. I will let everyone know a couple days in advance exactly when I will begin taking orders so that everyone has a good chance at getting a low queue number (remember I can only make 1-2 a day).

Rob
Payments will be - money order, check or PayPal.

Right on! Thanks.

Robert: As your next project, how about this: http://www.geocities.com/cmcquigg/wrxinterior.jpg Subaru sells the trim, but for $100 plus shipping it isn't worth it. Could something like this be made?

btw: I tried to PM you, but it looks like you have PM turned off.

I'm also in. I would be interested in a black anodized version. Looking forward to it....
Hope the spousal management re the noise is going ok!
--Andrew

SE_Sport_Driver - The shape itself looks simple. It is brushed aluminum or chromed?

If it is just brushed aluminum you could get away with making it with $5 in aluminum and then just spray some clear coat on it. Or send it away for anodizing but just doing 1 piece is expensive (probably about $35).

Chroming is much more expensive.

Anyone with a CNC mill could easily make it for you. If you have a CAD drawing with the exact dimensions I can make one up for you in no time.

Rob

Rob, please email me at b.barbaza@excite.com... I might be able to help you pay off that CNC machine of yours....

So CruzThs, any good news on the fascia side? I am ready to place my order! :) Post some pics!

I got some good progress this weekend. I'll post some pictures later. I am finding the job much more time consuming than I originally thought (I guess that's how most projects go). About 4 hours into cutting an aluminum prototype I heard a horrible sound, I immediately hit my emergeny stop button. Turns out I had a little bug in my CNC code and the tool tried to take a 1/8" cut into my hardend steel vise. Needless to say the tool had no chance against the steel at the speed it was running and virtually melted. Not a problem except goodbye $12 cutter, $10 piece of aluminum and 4 hours of cutting time. I did fix the bug in the code and I'm awaiting some new end mills to begin cutting again (they should have all been here last week). Now I hope to have a usable aluminum facia this weekend. I'll keep you all posted.

Rob

Great! Can't wait! Thank you!!

The biggest obstacle is probably price and a lack of deals with manufacturers/OEMs. It's well understood that consumer devices don't start selling until they hit certain price points. $299 is an example. That's darn near impossible RioCar to hit until you go into bulk manufacturing, which SonicBlue probably didn't want to risk.

OEM deals would have helped - imagine getting a combo CD/Riocar when you purchase a new Mercedes, but in general, it's a tough market to crack.

It also takes time for people to get it. I don't think Sonicblue did the most effective job marketing. It's well known that most consumer electronics firms send their products to reviewers and journalists to get the buzz going (most PR firms do this for them). I don't know how many Empegs were sent out; I don' t know how many Riocars were sent out when Sonicblue acquired it. There's been a lackluster acceptance of Empeg in the press; ever wonder why? People "get it" when they start using it. And most people need to be told to "get it". Can't do that without marketing or PR dollars.

OK.. Here's an image from the weekend. The first tests cutting the facia in metal. I didn't get much further before I killed the end mill. Hope to get more pictures of the facia further along sometime this week.

I think the closest thing to an Empeg review in mainstream "hard copy" press I saw was in Wired. The Empeg Mark I was reviewed quite favorably in Wired a long time ago. Unfortunately it was in one of the back sections (Street Cred or Just Outta Beta or somesuch) where only four people including myself saw it. Wired deals with so many amazing inventions in those sections that it was easy to overlook the MkI. I don't remember ANY substantial MkII reviews in any of the mags I read.

How did the MkII not make its way into the various car stereo review publications? Or did it and I was sleeping? Did they not take it seriously?

I remember the Wired review was on the same page as Soul Calibur for the Dreamcast. I loved that because I had just bought a Dreamcast and was playing SC for about 8 hours a day. Hmm, how is the Dreamcast doing these days... Oh, about as well as the Empeg... I think I'm going to go burn that issue of Wired now...

Not that I regret getting either.. Well, the Dreamcast maybe, seeing the Playstation 2 and XBox.. With DC I don't care about the hardware, it was the fact that so many games were available at launch, but all of the game developers colluded against Sega in favor of Sony. And now Microsoft's in the mix.. Aye aye aye. At least I have NES and Colecovision emulators on my Dreamcast now. That'll hold me over until the console scene gets sorted out.

Now the one toy I regret getting is my Casiopeia E-100. I took a BATH on that damn thing. I'm going to go back to spending my money on beer and hookers. At least those don't depreciate in two weeks.

There were quite a lot of reviews while we were empeg. The most noteworthy was Car Stereo Review (they're called something else now), which is about the most respected publication in the industry. They liked the player, but the price was still high then.

Rob

The only review I ever saw was in C'T of october. A very sad review indeed. They couldn't get passed "too expensive", and they were comparing it to the Neo and mp3 capable cd players.

There was not even a single mention of the unique database driven mp3 player functions. They only commended the quality of the screen. Which is nice of course, but not exactly what the Empeg is really about.

They also didn't like the way the buttons weren't lit. After reading the first five lines of the review it became pretty clear to me that the reviewers were looking for a christmas-tree like headunit with some mp3 capability, NOT a complete mp audio solution.

OOOH!!! I want a few!!! When you are ready to take orders, let me know!!!

Looks great, CruzThs!

Now, is it going to be rounded as the original, or is it going to stay flat? I'd like flat as well, but of course rounded would be so much better...

I like the Rounded but eventhough I will order .....


when when when .....

That looks amazing!

BTW: I will get back to you about that shifter bezel... It looks like you will be tied up with the facias for a bit, but I want to do just a little more research first. :)

They will just as rounded as the original. They should be "almost" an identical copy. In some hard to reach places they might have a little less detail but overall they will be a match. The backside will be solid, wereas the original is hollow.

In the picture the facia is flat because it is currently undergoing a roughing cut. The roughing process removes as much excess material as it can so that the finishing process only has to remove a small amount of metal and can concentrate on smoothing operations. To give you an example, the roughing process takes about 1.5 hours and removes about 90 percent of the excess metal. The finishing passes total about 7 hours and only remove 10 percent of metal. Once they are finished in the mill they must be manually deburred and then lightly polished. The final step is to send them off to an anodizer who will tumble and polish them even more and then anodize them.

My ultimate goal is to have them shipping in December. The only problem is time. I will only be able to make 1 a day and maybe 2 a day on the weekends.

Is anyone interested in a wood version? I can cut a wood version out of some really nice woods (cherry, walnut, mahogony (sp?)) and then sand them perfectly smooth and coat them with varnish. The cutting time for a wood facia would only be about 3 hours total. If you have any intrest in a wood facia, e-mail me at robv@sprynet.com and let me know what type of wood so I can pick some up.

The idea of a burled walnet empeg to match the interior of my car is intriguing, but I'm wondering how it would look with the plastic handle and buttons (not that wooden buttons would look right either ). I'm quite interested, though, and if you make one for someone I'd like to see what it looks like on an empeg.

-Adam

WOOD!! I'm interested in a wood fascia. Put me in line!! :-)

Calvin

Good point about the buttons.. Good news is that I have all the CAD files for the buttons and in the future will attempt to produce new metal and wood buttons. First I will concentrate on the facias.

I'm getting bounces from your e-mail address.

The following recipient(s) could not be reached:

'robv@sprynet.com' on 11/13/2001 10:12 AM
The recipient name is not recognized
(000B099C) 554 Quota violation for robv@sprynet.com

Calvin

Thanks.. All fixed. I can't believe my ISP didn't let me know I hit my quota.

The backside will be solid, wereas the original is hollow

I am curious about how the lens & buttons will fit with this when it's done.

Exactly as it does with the original. If you took an original plastic facia, placed if face down and then filled in the hollow backside, that is how mine will be. The button and lens holes will still be completely open. If you just mean dimensionally how will it fit. Well it will actually be of higher precision than the original since there is less tolerance in injection molded plastics.

I said that because the original is designed for the lens to fit inside the recess of the fascia. Which means yours will probably be 1/16th of an inch farther away from the unit itself & the buttons as well. Which means the buttons will be closer to the front of the fascia, i.e. 1/16 less of the buttons sticking out of it.

Nope.. It's machined to fit exactly as the original. I should be able to post some photos this weekend of a machined facia on my Empeg.

Rob