I was woundering if anyone know how I could use my bus aux in (there is both rca and the weird cable type input) to bring in my empeg sound. I have everything hooked up but the source button doesn't select the actual aux-in, just cd and radio.

Thanks,
-Greg

You'll probably have to buy or make something to connect to the Sony to fool it into thinking it has a supported aux device connected. They make these types of adapters for a lot of head units. I don't know a specific place to get what you need though. A local car audio shop would be a good bet, but you should be able to find something by searching the web. You can also do searches in here as well as the Neo Car Jukebox forum over at www.funmprplayers.com (I remember a lot of people looking for and fiding adapters for this purpose for all sorts of head units).

The other alternative is to connect in the other supported method: You connect the pre-outs of your Sony to the AUX input of the empeg. You then use the volume control on the empeg. I went the first route however. My Clarion just blindly switches to AUX - it's not a control-related input.

Bruno

I'm pretty sure this question is covered (in a somewhat generic form) in the "installation" section of the FAQ at www. riocar.org.

Yeah, i figured it needed something to trick it into thinking it was a cd changer or something, but i've looked everywhere and can't seem to find anyone who sells or tells how to make these.

I've also ran into another problem, when i have both the empeg and my cd deck running at the same time the batter icon shows on the empeg. I have 2 15" subs running 1200 watts.. When the empeg isnt on they run fine but when i turn the empeg on the empeg shows the battery icon and shuts off. Would anyone recommend a new battery or like a 1.5 farad capacitor? My car is getting kind of spend ; /

I could run my cd deck out of my empeg but im already using my sony cd deck that puts out 52w to each speaker then an amp which powers the sub.

-Greg

I have 2 15" subs running 1200 watts.. When the empeg isnt on they run fine but when i turn the empeg on the empeg shows the battery icon and shuts off. Would anyone recommend a new battery or like a 1.5 farad capacitor?

The problem is not your empeg. (By the time you finish reading this, you're going to wish it were the empeg!)

If you are running 1200 watts (just for your subs!) then you are pulling more power than your charging system (battery-regulator-alternator) can provide. A capacitor will do absolutely nothing for you in this situation. A new battery might help for a while (an hour or so) but that's not the answer.

When the battery icon comes on in the empeg, that means that the system voltage in your car is low -- somewhere around 11 volts if I recall correctly. There are two ways to fix this: generate more power, or use less power. Nothing else works.

My personal recommendation is to use less power -- get rid of that 1200 watt amp feeding the subs and replace it with a nice little Class-D 175 watt amp. It'll sound better, but of course it won't make 1200 watts worth of noise, which I am pretty sure is your primary goal here, so forget that option I guess.

To make more power, you need a bigger alternator. You'll be looking at $175--$450 for that, depending on just how big, how good, and how powerful an alternator you want. You're going to want something that will put out at least 200 amps to power the monster stereo system you are running.

It would be nice if you could just replace the battery or add a capacitor... but you're not going to get off that easy.

tanstaafl.

Everything runs fine though without the empeg running.. I power loss i very minimal. Im having a bunch of problems with my empeg. One is the power problem. The other is getting my cd deck to think there is a changer or somethign on there so it will open up the aux in. and the last is that my empeg (ever since i got it) randomly reads that there is no drive found... i think its because of the cable but im not sure..

Your missing drive problem is almost definitely the cable. If the player is under warranty, support can send you a new cable or take the player in for repair.

The power loss issue is either a wiring problem (perhaps a loose wire on the docking connector, that has been known to happen), or simply because the empeg is more sensitive to dips in power than your average CD deck. It is a computer with hard disks, after all.

The problem with the Aux-in on your CD player is of course not the empeg's fault, that's just Sony being tight-assed about the CD-changer interface. What you want to do is wire them the other way around if you can: Send the Sony into the empeg's aux-ins.

Question: How is the Amp Remote Control line connected? You have two of them at this point, the CD player and the empeg player. You're not connecting both of them together are you?

Nope, the amp control wire is on my sony deck.
but now that I think about it, when I have my engine off right after its been running but leave the key in acc the empeg has show the batter icon as well even with my sony deck on a low volume. I'm thinking this maybe just a bad power connection somewhere, i may be wrong though.

I just brought my player inside and plugged it in to see if it would give me the no hd found, and whala it found the drive... I tried contacting empeg/rio today and they have a message saying they no longer have phone support but to email them. Thats kind of nuts. Anyone have a number I can get ahold of someone with?

I also found the ip-bus adapter.. $99... i wounder if someone has hacked one together. I tried searching for about 2 hours but havnt found anything. ; (

-Greg

Voltage is easy enough to measure with a multimeter, so you shouldn't have a problem checking various wires or right at the battery terminal for a dip.

If your wiring isn't at fault, and you are just sucking too much power from your charging system, then you should be able to run those 2 15's with a more efficient amplifier as suggested. Of course, if you didn't mind spending money, you'd replace those 15's as well with something smaller, which will be tighter and _can_ be just as loud.

I have found that one SONY adapter is model XA-107 - don't know if it will be the one for your head unit. Then there's also the XZ-300 which sounds pretty damn cool but is definitely overkill (it allows multiple RCA aux sources into Sony's unilink). It's available at Crutchfield.

Just search google.com for "sony aux adapter" and search the funmp3player forum I told you about for "sony aux" or "sony adapter"

Bruno

Yeah i found that model. Its $99. Kinda steep considering there are other ways of doing it that are like $30. I;ve been trying to find out if someone has made their own unilink but I havn't seen anything. I just with rio would have a phone support.

Oh yeah, if i hadn't mentioned it, thanks to everyone who is providing help ; )

-Greg

You know, the "no HD found" might actually be the EXACT same problem as the power loss and battery icon.

See, if there's not enough juice to spin up the drive, then it would give you that message.

The fact that the player boots fine under AC adapter power means that the problem is definitely external to the player: Either in the sled wiring or in the voltage the car is supplying to that wiring.

Maybe it's something as simple as a swapped ignition/constant wire? Or a blown fuse somewhere?

In any case, I'd say it's time to triple-check the wiring.

The hard drive problems first started happening in my home. before i even tried anything in the car.

Oh, it's probably the cable, then.

Has anyone tried a FM Modulator for sound input? This is about half the price of that stupid sony unilink adapter, but i have no idea how it would make the empeg sound.
Something like this:
http://www.crutchfield.com/cgi-bin/S-V2NXTmqyH5n/ProdView.asp?s=0&c=2&g=42500&I=020FM200S&o=&a=

The XA-107 is what you need; it allows daisy-chaining too, which means you can still use an existing CD/MD changer with the head unit as well as hooking the empeg up.

Hugo

It'll work, but won't do the empeg output justice; do you have an existing changer? If so, you can plug the bus connection from it into the head (to fool the head unit) but connect the audio from the empeg.

Hugo

Nope, I dont listen to cd's much so i didn't need a changer. I just like how it looks and the 52wx4 power it puts out to my speakers.
Now i just need to figure out why my car can't handle the empeg as far as power when my cd player is on. And get in touch with rio so i can get a new HD cable (hasnt been easy to do since they dont have the phone support ; ( )

-Greg

Sorry about the lack of phone support, but the support operation is minimal (basically, it's David). He's officially on holiday until the 2nd January anyway, but has been coming in and trying to make a dent on the email backlog.

One thing is that with the number of players sold recently, support will be more backlogged than usual as all the installation questions arrive at once!

We have spare HDD cables in stock (and more on order) so solving your problem shouldn't be hard.

Hugo

http://www.cus.org.uk/~cleggy/ has all the info on making your own Sony AUC enabler. You will need to be dandy with a PIC tho to get it to work.
The source is at sourcforge, but you'll be able to find it from that site.

Cheers

Dave

OK thanks!... now to figure out the power problem... and to find a fairly cheap va-107 (dont think i've seen one under $100) ; (

-Greg

have faith the support from empeg is the best i have seen from any company once they get over this sudden rush and crimbo everything should be back to normal

Yeah I saw that link on how to make one. I was hoping to find something that didn't need any programming. I used to do some pic programming but i dont have any tools whatsoever anymore, so by the time i get all the parts i'd be equal to the sony one.

Thanks though.

Mmm, but your outlay to get that project done (pic, pic programmer, hours of time) is likely to be higher than $99...

Hugo

Now i just need to figure out why my car can't handle the empeg as far as power when my cd player is on.

Where are you getting the power for the two head units? If you are using the factory wiring you may be exceeding what you can pull through crappy 22 guage (or whatever) wiring. You may want to try running power to both units straight from the battery (through an appropriate fuse of course). Likewise, check your grounds and make sure they are solid and to the frame.

-Mike

I just like how it looks and the 52wx4 power it puts out to my speakers.

So you've got 1200 watts worth of subwoofer amplification, but you're running the head-unit's speaker outputs?

Im getting the power from the factory wire. The amp on the otherhand is getting power from a 4g wire ran from the battery. I would run a wire directly from the battery but getting through the firewall is close to impossible as everything is sealed off and the engine is right up to the firewall. (Mitsubishi eclipse, 1992)

-Greg

Yeah the 52w really push for some reason. I forget to mention that its not a full 1200w. Its an 800w amp bridge to 2ohm mono to bring it to 1200w. Its made by Crunch, which proboly rates it way higher then it can put out. My subs hold 600 each, but then again thats full, rms is 400 think.

I would run a wire directly from the battery but getting through the firewall is close to impossible

May be worth running a temporary wire through the door or from you amp's power wire to test. Anyway, that is what I would try before dumping money into a new alternator, etc.

-Mike

Even though he's on holiday he has cleared most of the email from the Christmas period. He also cleared the voicemail yesterday (15 hang-ups and 2 messages!).

Our support operation may be small but I'd still take it over that of 99% of our competitors.

Rob