Sansa e200: Playback while plugged in?

[Lizking]

Is it possible to have rockbox playing while it's plugged into a USB port? 
I'm going to be buying a car stereo soon, and I'd like to have it playing through the AUX port while charging off the USB, if that is possible.  If that isn't possible, then I'd rather just get a stereo that lacks USB connectivity entirely, and buy a car charger for the player, to save some money.

Note that just having the stereo play directly through USB is likely not an option, as my music is distributed across both the internal storage and a 16GB SDHC card.  I doubt stereos are smart enough to read from both sources simultaneously.  I've also read that most stereos can only recognize a max of 999 tracks from the USB connection unless the device is an iPod, and I have nearly double that number on my sansa.

[saratoga]

You can enter charge mode by holding any button while plugging in USB.  That said, charging off an cigarette adapter would be better since then you could use car adapter mode which automatically starts and stops playback with the car ignition. 

[Lizking]

If the player is charging from USB, which is powered by the car, wouldn't it behave the same way -- charged via USB or cig adapter -- in car adapter mode, since shutting off the engine equates to the power source getting cut off?

Also, wouldn't it make sense to have charge mode be the default when you have 'USB HID' disabled?

[[Saint]]

If the player is charging from USB, which is powered by the car, wouldn't it behave the same way -- charged via USB or cig adapter -- in car adapter mode, since shutting off the engine equates to the power source getting cut off?

That depends how your vehicle is wired...
Some cars still apply power to the cigarette lighter (etc.) while the ignition is off completely, others don't.
Most head-units will keep power at all times, to keep the clock powered. Whether or not this equates to the headunits USB always being powered or not I'm not sure, but it would be easy to test.

Also, wouldn't it make sense to have charge mode be the default when you have 'USB HID' disabled?

Why?


[St.]

EDIT: Heh...I completely forget that mounting via USB will stop playback...
That would be rather counter-productive in this case

[saratoga]

If the player is charging from USB, which is powered by the car, wouldn't it behave the same way

Yes, except that its going to be mounted as a USB disk by your stereo which will stop playback.

Also, wouldn't it make sense to have charge mode be the default when you have 'USB HID' disabled?

USB HID means the player can act as an input device.  Disabling that really has nothing to do with charging.