New functionality idea: Automatic power-off when disconnecting USB charging for cars

I was thinking it would be a good idea to add a functionality to automatically turn off the Sansa Fuze when disconnected from charger.

I’ve seen that when you connect it [in a car] using an USB charger, it starts the Sansa Fuze automatically and begins to play.
But I think a functionality to be able to power it off automatically when power is removed would be nice.

It could be similar to the Sleep timer that we already have in latest firmware, where we would actually have the possibility to choose a delay before it is actually powered off automatically when there is no power to charge the Fuze.

This would allow you (for example) to leave your car and stop the engine for 5-10 minutes (or whatever you configure) and then come back in the car and the player is still running (so it’s faster to continue playing songs). But if you leave the car for more than 5-10 minutes, then the Sansa Fuze will automatically power off itself.

You get the idea?

To me this functionality would be very useful for normal day to day usage since my car 12V accessory socket automatically power when I remove the key.

Thanks,
JF

Good idea. But if you can just press “Pause” before you leave, the player will autopower off per your Power Saver setting.

When you turn on the car, it will Automatically power up as the power is applied, and press pause/play and away you go.

Yes, that is another idea, but that is not very far from what I’m doing right now, which is holding power off 2 sec…

I mean, my point is that you actually need to do something (I know it sounds lazy), as oppsed to just leave the car quickly.

I was suggessting something that would make it really like a normal car radio, and was thinking from a software programming point of view that it would not be very hard to add in a next firmware update… but I guess if nobody else show any interest for that functionality that it does not make sense to add this.

Thanks

Sorry no answers from me.However I was wondering how “specfic” the fuze usb car charger is.I would think one for an IPOd woud’nt work but how about other generic ones?

Any generic USB charger should work. I’ve only tried one, and it worked fine. Definitely the iPod-specific ones (with an iPod connector) won’t work. There are no Sansa-specific cables with power and line-out (like you can buy for an iPod at any car stereo reseller)…you can try to build one yourself, but you can’t buy one. You’ll have to use the headphone out for audio, which I don’t think sounds very good (but some people seem satisfied with it).

I can’t see Sandisk spending time to add car-specific firmware features when they don’t even sell a cable for such use.

Message Edited by bdb on 02-24-2009 07:58 PM

@marksj wrote:
Sorry no answers from me.However I was wondering how “specfic” the fuze usb car charger is.I would think one for an IPOd woud’nt work but how about other generic ones?

This is not really related to the original thread subject, but I’m actually using an iPhone/iPodTouch car USB socket (charger) and it works. (Brand: Griffin, look for PowerJolt) I like it because it shows if it is charging or not (with a green / orange circle led around the socket).

Using this car socket, you simply use the original Sansa Fuze USB cable and that works very well. In fact, they sell also only the “socket” itself, without the iPod proprietary cable, and they also say it works for most MP3 players and devices that charge via USB (including Sansa).

@bdb wrote:

Any generic USB charger should work. I’ve only tried one, and it worked fine. Definitely the iPod-specific ones (with an iPod connector) won’t work. There are no Sansa-specific cables with power and line-out (like you can buy for an iPod at any car stereo reseller)…you can try to build one yourself, but you can’t buy one. You’ll have to use the headphone out for audio, which I don’t think sounds very good (but some people seem satisfied with it).

 

I can’t see Sandisk spending time to add car-specific firmware features when they don’t even sell a cable for such use.

Message Edited by bdb on 02-24-2009 07:58 PM

In fact Sansa is selling a car charger, like the DLO Auto Charger for Sansa® - Car Charger (http://go.shopsansa.com/content/dloautocharger), I just dont know if it will actually power off the Sansa Fuze using some signal in the proprietary connector… plus not really sure I want to buy another cable just for that.

This is obvious that this could be done in the firmware; if you already understand that Sansa Fuze knows that it is connected or not (as they can animate the charging icon on the screen), then it is logical to say that they could also start a timer when the device is not charging anymore to power it off after a while…and powering on is not an issue since it is already inplemented and working fine.