Mr. Lee:My name is Bryan Nettleton, and I am the head of custom installs at Mobile Car Audio in Aiea, Hawaii. I used to work for Jim Gardener in Japan, and he spoke very highly of you. We had an engineer from Eclipse visit us about two months ago for the exact problem you addressed in your October issue regarding the Eclipse head units shutting off under multiple vehicle loads. While all the suggestions you gave are excellent -- we tried all those (and went even further) and still had the same problems in BMWs, Porches, and a few other select vehicles. The engineer told us the power supplies were not supplying the display and the "high power" 5-axis laser with enough power.
We haven't experienced any problems with the new units or any returned from repair. What is you opinion on this?? Thank you for your time and consideration and keep up the great advice.Bryan NettletonMobile Car Audio
Hi Bryan,Well this explains much!I remember when I worked for manufacturers and there would be the occasional product with some design oversight that affected certain configurations. Many times this info was kept confidential. You have probably experienced informing a manufacturer about a problem and getting this type of response: "You seem to be the only one having that problem," or "No, we've never heard of that problem before."
As much as I hated it, I had to adopt that policy of denial of a product problem when I worked for manufacturers. I think there is a lot of paranoia over what could happen if the competition found out.
It shows integrity that the Eclipse engineer would spill the beans, rather than glossing over it and letting the problem fade away with the secret running design modification. Retailers talk to each other and eventually realize that a problem was more widespread than the manufacturer admitted, but seemed to disappear on its own.
In the column, I encounter 99.9 percent installation faults and 0.1 percent poor product engineering. I've become used to immediately looking for the consumer cause. It must come from years of fixing "do-it-yourself" install messes (sound familiar?).
It reminds me of when Intel brought out their new Pentium chip that could not do math correctly. They admitted it publicly and made it right quickly.
Thanks for the insight. I would never have known about this without the "inside scoop". The vast majority of retailers and consumers also would never have known.If I get to Hawaii, I'll look you up!Thanks again.
[Competition Corner]Are cheaper alarms even worth purchasing? I have just installed a cheap alarm in a Saturn Sl2. It was the first time I have ever done an alarm, but I have an AAS degree in Electrical Engineering Tech (EET). I installed the alarm with only a minor hassle, but it doesn't work the way I want. The only time the alarm sounds is if someone slams on the front windshield. I doubt anyone is going to climb in the front windshield to steal the stereo, know what I mean? Should I just add another sensor on each front door? I know it's not too sensitive; should I make it more sensitive? Any tips on an alarm install would greatly be appreciated; include URLs that might help.Jeremy Kalaf