I miss Nicolette

[MaestroMatt]

I am between radios at the moment (read too bone idle to put the wiring in for uprated stereo while it is so damned cold) but I miss Nicolette's lilting tones whenever I want to switch from seeing what time it is to seeing what breathtakingly inefficient MPG A82 is currently doing. At the MGM show in early summer last year I saw that Tony had put a wire in which connected two holes (what is the opposite of a pin?) in the multiplug to effectively provide an earth to the trip computer and let her speak without a radio in place. I would be ever so grateful if anyone (Tony?) could tell me which two holes to jam a wire into (with a diagram if possible!).

[tony]

mat empty your pm,s

[tony]

its just dawned on me who nicolette is, its nicolette mckenzie the voice of the maestro,i will wake up soon :giveup: :rolleyes: :thumbup:

[talkingcars]

I would also like the answer to this question as I have her sister to fit in my maestro and don't wish to wire her into my radio but have her through a seperate speaker.

James

[tony]

it will be the weekend before i can get to the car and take a pic of it ,but basicaly your just linking on to the earth side of the speaker back onto the cars earth ,ps i still havent put a radio in mine yet:(

[Ricky]

Just out of interest, what sort of figure does the trip computer put on "breathtakingly inefficient"? I remember when driving the MG round for the week, bearing in mind the head gasket was gone it averaged a frankly pitiful 29mpg, on a tankful of fuel! I wasn't even trying to drive it hard, just taking it easy and all, but i'm hoping quite a bit of this was due to the MG's noticeably closer ratios and a fair bit of motorway cruising hence trundling along at 75mph showing about 3500rpm on the tacho (from memory, this was a while ago!), which i'm hoping the longer legged box from the HLS is going to cure..... I live in hope!!

Ricky.

[MaestroMatt]

I wish she did give a qualitative assessment when you pressed the average fuel consumption button: "breathtakingly inefficient," or, "fair to middling," or even, "Better than expected, but stop driving like a miserly old man".

Anyway, my first new transducer (which was they type that had the third pipe blocked off with a bolt - MG variant?) was returning figures in the summer of around 35-37 MPG during normal driving without really racing around. My new new transducer (type with only two pipes so probably the right one for the car, although thinking about it the one that was on the car from its birth was the three piper) was giving about 32 in autumn but I am now getting more like 25. As I only use it for fairly short commuting journeys in the cold morning and cold evenings, I am not too concerned about this. The transducer's accuracy can be assessed by zeroing it at the garage after filling up to the top so that the next time you fill up you can convert it to litres with the MPH/KPH button and compare that with the amount dispensed by the pump. Mine normally says I have used a couple more litres than I have so I take the MPG calculation as a worst-case scenario.

[MaestroMatt]

Originally posted by talkingcars
I would also like the answer to this question as I have her sister to fit in my maestro and don't wish to wire her into my radio but have her through a seperate speaker.

James

That's what I am going to do. I am going to have Nicolette speak through both the existing dash-mounted speakers only. I plan to fit some decent front-door speakers (a non-original mod, I'm afraid, but I have some original brown grilles and promise to do it sympathetically!) and some good rear speakers (in the current speaker position) for the stereo. If you take a wire from the +12v side of the trip computer relay to the mobile phone mute socket on your stereo, it will still mute the stereo when she speaks to keep the feel of originality. I plan to take the dash out to get all the wiring in properly as I want to put the wiring in for the electric sunroof and electric mirrors I have waiting in the shed as well. Going to be a long weekend fraught with difficulty, I reckon! I had better wait for the summer.

I expect that picture on here first thing Monday morning, Tony!

[talkingcars]

The problems I have are a 1989 MG maestro and a disire not to effect my stereo at all, if I am listerning to it loud I am not interested in Nicky.

I will look into this when I get time.

James

[Ricky]

I had a three pipe transducer on the car anyway, and the replacement was the same (apart from it was blocked off with a nut), this is because the webers need a return line to the fuel tank which the SU does not, so you have the option to fit the nozzle on to the transducer, which is what I had to do!
I didnt realise there was a two hole transducer, maybe it is for the 1.3 (didnt know the 1.3 had one, but the haynes manual shows how one would go in there!)
I see your point about assessing the accuracy of the transducer, should have tried that when I had the car on the road, but I will give it a go when the car is up and running, which if im lucky will be relatively soon (depending on finances!)

Also, while i'm here, which wire is the one i would need to connect to my tlelphone mute from the trip computer to mute the stereo and let nicolette speak? I thought i would have it so stereo mutes and nicolette comes through drivers speaker, as standard.

Thanks,

Ricky.

[MaestroMatt]

If you were being strictly standard then she would speak through the driver's side front and rear speaker, but that seems stupid to me so in my car, she will speak through both dash-mounted speakers only. You need to locate the +12v side of the relay and use one of those little blue clips to attach a wire to it. I have no idea as yet what it looks like as I haven't taken my dash apart but there is a good black and white picture of the disassembled (Stephanie!) trip computer on the EPC CD. If you haven't got a copy then I should be able to post a screen-grab next week sometime. Not sure how much use the Haynes is.

[tony]

hi on the monty its the orange and black wires that are connected together

[tony]

one more

[MaestroMatt]

Thanks Tony, that's brilliant. I take it the brown wire is the one that earths the lady, so where on earth is that blue wire going?

[tony]

hi it was a spare wire please ignore :)

[matthewsemple]

After trying to fit two standard Unipart cassette players which both didn't play tapes, I have fitted a more modern RDS stereo which I bought about 7 years ago.

I have two problems with it. It has a auxilary power from the battery that needs to be wired up for it to work. However this is the only power supply that makes it work. It does not respond to the power supply from the ignition which should switch it on and off when I turn on the engine.

Also the voice now only works when the stereo is on and it sort of quitens (but does not switch off) the tape when speaking. If she speaks when the stereo is off it sounds like she is trying to talk to a dentist whilst having her teeth examined.

Obviously I have wired it up wrong but it was the only way that I could get it to do anything at all. Tony's looped wire looks like a good idea. I wouldn't mind her talking over the stereo as long as she spoke properly when it is off.

By the way, Nicolette MacKenzie is the voice in your Montego as well as the Maestro. She speaks much longer sentences in your car than in our more lowly Maestros!

[tony]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by matthewsemple
[B]After trying to fit two standard Unipart cassette players which both didn't play tapes, I have fitted a more modern RDS stereo which I bought about 7 years ago.

I have two problems with it. It has a auxilary power from the battery that needs to be wired up for it to work. However this is the only power supply that makes it work. It does not respond to the power supply from the ignition which should switch it on and off when I turn on the engine.

power for the aux power can come from the battery or, i think from the cig lighter making sure you have a in line fuse in,
when you get the radio working its just a matter of checking the wiring to the speakers :)
failing that,i will find you at one of the shows and have a little look see.

[F690OTF(RIP)]

Cigarette lighter only comes on with accessories (key position 1), the same as the normal radio circuit, so you'll have to take it straight from the battery, pretty much. There are only a few things I can think of that work without the key, namely sidelights, some degree of headlamps (never quite understood how this works) and hazard lights. The clock, of course, is also getting a little power all the time. Wouldn't be an illogical place to take aux. power for the radio from, actually, provided you checked that it goes through a high enough rated fuse, etc.

Hope this helps,

[tony]

another thing just popped into my head is that she only comes out of the right side speaker

[Dave]

The radio will require both a permanent feed straigt from the battery (or the clock etc), and a accesory feed from say the cigar lighter. It will not work with just one of these connected - it requires both. If you want it so you can switch it on without accesory on (i wouldnt recommend it) just connect both straight to the battery - but it does need power on both pins.

Dave.

[talkingcars]

The purple wire to the clock and the interior light is always live, insert a fuse between this and the radio.

The dim headlights (dim dip) works by sending a low current to the headlights through a resistor mounted near the front of the engine bay.

James

[matthewsemple]

I do have it connected to the original power supply that the old Unipart radio used and direct to the battery. Although it is behaving like it is only connected directly because it does not respond to the ignition key, when I had the direct power alone, it did not work.

[Ricky]

As I understand it, I think they cheated when wiring in the stereo, I noticed mine has two earths for the two speakers but they are put into the same terminal (i'm not very good with this technical talk!) so that they share an earth, which i then assume the trip computer can cut out all the sound by disabling the one earth. This is why she sounds a bit "garbled" wth the stereo on, as in standard setup there would be no speaker earth at all while the trip computer is working, but if you wire a stereo in "properly" you still have an earth to a speaker therefore you are able to hear something when she kicks in!

Hope some of this makes sense, I'm sure it doesnt!!

Ricky.