listen while charging w/AC Adapter?

[coyote2]

Is it possible to listen to the iAudio 9 while charging it with an AC adapter?

(Unless I'm missing something, I find it is not possible to listen while charging via USB.)

[CrowdAds]

[WalkGood]

With AC adapter it works fine, you can not via USB because it connects and you'd have to modify a cable so that it wouldn't connect in order to use it that way.

[robdean]

If you connect the supplied USB lead to a cheap mains to USB adapter then you can listen whilst it is charging. You could even connect it to a powered USB hub which is disconnected from its host computer, or whose host computer is switched off.
Mains to USB adapters are very cheap on eBay, and this player has very modest power requirements so pretty much any adapter will be up to the job.

[coyote2]

Originally Posted by robdean

If you connect the supplied USB lead to a cheap mains to USB adapter then you can listen whilst it is charging. You could even connect it to a powered USB hub which is disconnected from its host computer, or whose host computer is switched off.
Mains to USB adapters are very cheap on eBay, and this player has very modest power requirements so pretty much any adapter will be up to the job.

Thank you very much, robdean, that's great to know!

Particularly since when I connected it to my powered USB hub which is disconnected from its host computer, it did not charge. (I guess that particular model hub must de-power when not connected to a computer.)

[robdean]

My Belkin USB hub is powered (i.e. it has a mains adapter connected directly to it), and it charges my player fine with the lead between the PC and the hub disconnected. I get the impression this is more typical than your experience. It may be worth double checking your hub's power supply, as the hub will just default to an unpowered hub if there is any problem with the power supply, and will still work fine in many everyday situations.

I don't know how common this is, but my Toshiba laptop has a BIOS setting which allows me to leave the USB port power on even when the laptop is shut down: another way to grab USB power without going into sync mode.

By the way, in order to listen whilst charging from any such power source it seems you need to turn on the player before connecting it: otherwise it just boots into charging mode and won't do anything else.

[coyote2]

Originally Posted by robdean

My Belkin USB hub is powered (i.e. it has a mains adapter connected directly to it), and it charges my player fine with the lead between the PC and the hub disconnected. I get the impression this is more typical than your experience. It may be worth double checking your hub's power supply, as the hub will just default to an unpowered hub if there is any problem with the power supply, and will still work fine in many everyday situations.

Good thinking. But I've now tried it with all 3 of my (unfortunately identical) hubs; I guess this model must de-power it's ports when offline.

I don't know how common this is, but my Toshiba laptop has a BIOS setting which allows me to leave the USB port power on even when the laptop is shut down: another way to grab USB power without going into sync mode.

I don't recall seeing such a setting in the BIOS of any of my desktops (makes sense that a laptop would have such a setting, but I have none); and their ports aren't sufficiently conveniently located, anyway.

By the way, in order to listen whilst charging from any such power source it seems you need to turn on the player before connecting it: otherwise it just boots into charging mode and won't do anything else.

Oh yes, since starting the thread I did acquire an AC Adapter, which I see works that way, so I did think to do that (turn the iAudio 9 on first) before connecting it.

Thank you! I think I'll pick up another model hub at some point.