Not as cheap as empeg support but atleast they are out there.

Having a bit of a browse as you do i found this page
http://www.noritake-elec.com/selection_guide.htm
search for MN12832E points to GU128X32
Found another page
http://www.controlanything.com/html/micros.htm
search for GU128x32-800-DO.
$148 so not that cheap, but available.

This board has a MN12832E/J fitted so if desperate this may be an option to aquire a vfd.

Also found another MP3 player that use's the same display.
http://www.dvhart.com/projects.php



C.

The GU is just a PCB with controller, PSU, and -J display on there, I believe. Not a lot of help if you just want the display.

You *can* buy them from Itron (at least in the UK) for about the same as support sell them for. They take personal credit cards and have no problem with dealing with individuals as far as I know.

Hugo

Other folks have reported that Itron is out of them and have no plans to make more until they get a large single order. Unless you know differently.

Dude, that MP3 player at dvhart.com looks WAY too much like an empeg...

Wow, you're right. Looks like a crappy hack-job copy of an empeg with more buttons.

It sure would be nice to have that many buttons on occasion, though...

What is it about homebrew hardware and clear perspex? If the insides didn't look very tidy then I definately wouldn't want to show it!

- Trevor

Ooo-err. Hadn't heard that (I didn't do a lot of catching up whilst I was away).

A J may well fit, but you would probably require some creative bending of the legs in order to get the display to both connect electrically and also clear the chips underneath it. YMMV.

Electrically, they're identical. Physically, I think the nipple clears the rotary just as much as it does on the normal product except above the control as opposed to below it.

Hmmm. Come to think of it, Patrick could do an alternate display board - maybe a few more buttons, more snazzy illumination options, -J display support, etc. That'd be cute.

Hugo

Hmmm. Come to think of it, Patrick could do an alternate display board - maybe a few more buttons, more snazzy illumination options, -J display support, etc. That'd be cute

Quite happy to do so, but how many people would want one? It would require a new fascia if there were more buttons.

pca

If I were to buy something like this, I would probably want a large colour display, making the Empeg double-din (double-dine?) height

Or, how about a blanking plate for the Empeg and a seperate double-din display/button fascia. Could even use bluetooth for connection!

OOOOO!!!! Me! Me! Me! Me!

Extra buttons would come in handy, but not too much of them obviously so it doesn't become overcrowded like on some HU's by well-known brands.
I plan on getting one of 303's new fascia's anyway, so that wouldn't hold me back.

I must say I find it incredible how much people are willing to engage themselves in keeping the Empeg alive : facia's, docking stations, updates to the code which gives new features on a regular basis, lenses, digital out boards, illuminated buttons, the list goes on!

Of course what the Empeg could also use is an updated version of it's motherboard, with added USB 2.0 and/or firewire, 100 base-T ethernet, bluetooth, digital out, maybe even support for a colour display ?
/*ducks*

Reminds me of the Axe joke:

"This is a very old axe. It belonged to George Washington... But it got old, so I replaced the head and the handle. <laughter>. It occupies the same space."

- Michael Davis, Juggler/Comedian

Also raises some interesting philosophical questions.

Well, I was only half kidding...

As long as it supports button illumination, and the kit includes the buttons to cope with this that would be majorly cool.

A plug'n'go replacement?

How about using a 160X32 instead of the 128X32 if we are thinking of replacing the display board as well.
They are pinned different but are part of the same range so i would expect them to be fairly compatible.

Color would be good , Would be more interested in a new motherboard.

C.

I'm happy with the present display board, but if a new one were offered, I'd like it to have five new buttons spread across under the display.

But what I *really* want is a faster ethernet interface -- 100BaseT instead of 10, which might require a mainboard swap... we might find more takers for a mainboard swap than for a new displayboard. Or would we?

I wonder if Empeg Towers might consider doing just a new mainboard? I wonder what it would cost?

Cheers

Yes, with 100mbps ethernet, USB2, 802.11g and bluetooth. I'd buy that in a heartbeat.

same here... Maybe a poll is in order?

I imagine we're probably talking about something that costs in excess of $300, judging from the cost of the tuner kits...but well worth it in my opinion.

If Patrick could be persuaded to create a new motherboard for your Empeg (with more ram, 100bast-T ethernet, USB 2.0 and/or firewire, maybe even digital out and an option for a colour display, would you be interested in buying it?
Yes, I'd like 1
Yes, I'd like 2 of them
Yes, I'd like 3 of them and maybe even more than that!
No, not interested, my Empeg is fine as it is

I would think you may be talking closer to $1000 a board, after you figure in board design, prototypes, testing, components, assembly, new SW to drive it, all split over 500 to 1000 boards.

Remember the MK1 and MK2 when they were released were around $1500, and I am guessing that the cost of the metalwork, display and hard disk wasn't the expensive bit.

None of the above. I just want fast ethernet.

Cheers

I'll bet a hefty chunk of the original cost was in the mechanicals and drives, and much less so on the main circuitboard. And a minimal respin of that board ought to be much cheaper in R&D than creating the original from scratch once was..

Cheers

Agreed, but I guess that implementing that into the current motherboard would ask for such drastic changes that creation of an entirely new motherboard would probably be the easier.
And while creating a entirely new motherboard, he might as well throw in a few extras.

I am sure you are right, but I think I remember Hugo saying they only had 10mbps ethernet as it was easier to design a board with ISA rather than the PCI style bus that would be needed to do 100mbps, so switching to PCI sounds like a little more than a minimal respin.

Of course there is the design for pearl floating somewhere around Cambridge, maybe they can just modify that and get a board out for much less money.

And a minimal respin of that board ought to be much cheaper in R&D than creating the original from scratch once was..

Unfortunately, a minimal respin isn't going to get you 100Mbit Ethernet. Even if someone could dig up a non-PCI fast Ethernet controller, the car-player does not have enough bandwidth in through Ethernet through the CPU and out to disk over PIO to saturate 10Mbit, let alone 100Mbit, and you would see no increase in transfer speeds.

Peter

Current .mp3 upload speed seems to max out at around 6mb/sec.

I know the IDE subsystem is much faster than that.

And there are now lots of chips designed for embedded applications that can do 100BaseTX -- including this one, which sports an ARM compatible interface: http://www.smsc.com/main/catalog/lan91c111.html

Cheers

I know the IDE subsystem is much faster than that.

Yes, the IDE subsystem can manage 4Mbytes/sec to the 20Gb drive I tried it with. And the network subsystem can indeed saturate 10Mbit/sec (say 1100Kbytes/sec) when reading to memory. Trying to do both things at once, though, is what slows down the overall throughput to, at peak, 800Kbytes/sec.

Peter

sounds more like we're talking about empg mk3 here.

Perhaps the arm sa1100 can be replaced with the new arm4 (aka PXA250 (or the new 255)). Not sure if that supports a faster bus or not, but could do.

I'd imagine adding more memory is the only feasible thing that could be done with the currentl board

No such thing as an ARM4, We went from ARM3 -ARM6.

The others are CPU's are XScale.

C.

If the player was able to manage the database like emplode you could have a 'for sync' directory on the drive, then plug the drive into your PC (in linux) and copy mp3's straight to the drive at high speed, next time you start player it see's mp3's in the 'for sync' directory and moves them to where it wants them and updates the database. This would remove the necessity of fast ethernet (Of course you have to remove the drive - but hey, you've already removed the empeg from your car).

Adrian