if it will work
-basically a lot of new decks have usb in, either in the front or rear. So my question is would these units be able to control a usb hard drive (such as one that just uses USB for power and not a power plug) and so on? I know a thumbdrive will work, but what about say an external hard drive?

I don't know if it will put out enough milliamps to power it properly though

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822324020 example of a hard drive that I am thinking of.

I will probably just use a thumbdrive up front but if I got a deck with usb in the rear, i'd love to hide the cables and put the drive in my console and have almost infinite music on the cheap.

Thoughts and opinions? I know I could just get an ipod and cables and be set with intergration on a lot of units, but this would just stay in the car. and I have a zune which i could run like my old car with the rear aux in and i already have a power plug for.............

2/20/2009 8:47:33 AM

if the port complies with the usb standard max current of 500 mA (or maybe 1 A) you should be fine

but who knows if they implement the standard exactly, the only way is to try it out

2/20/2009 8:53:21 AM

i'll keep searching online, somebody has to have tried it with a bunch of decks. I'd love to hide all of it and just have a drive to pull out

2/20/2009 8:56:26 AM

from experience, thumb drives work no problem (just got a 16gb at tiger direct for $25) but a 2.5" usb hdd is a MUCH better choice for transfer rates from the computer and capacity. BUT to use those you have to wire up a 12v to 5v (well, 6 worked without problems for 2+ years) converter because the head unit doesn't provide enough juice to intially spin the drive up and during transfers. As SSD become cheaper those may be a better option, but even low power 2.5" drives require about 1a to get going. One other thing you have to research a little bit is the actual capacity limit on the head unit. Kenwoods work up to the max of fat32 and a certain number of folders, files per folder, and depth of directory structure. It seems to be the most flexible out of the brands because others have a 2 or 4gb max.

One other thing to keep in mind is that most will play files/folders in the order they are written to the drive so if you don't want to create playlists for each folder/album you need to rename the files to start with the track number, then drag the folders/albums over in the order you want them in. I just use The Godfather to do that and ID3 tags on my files and haven't had a problem since I got this stuff back in spring 06. Crutchfield was helpful in telling me which units had such limits when I called having to replace my first usb capable head unit.


What you're wanting to do is a GREAT idea and is by far the best option to getting tons of music without switching discs or leaving expensive players visible to be stolen. I had wired up a Radio Shack selectable power adapter to the cig lighter (acc on) wires behind the dash, fed the connector for it and the usb cable to the glove box, and just stashed the hdd in there. Easy to pull it out when I want, doesn't get in the way otherwise. That's why rear usb is preferred for high capacity. A front mount is better if you pull the thumb drive out every time you get out of the car.

I've also been told the interface between hu and hdd is MUCH quicker and easier than hu to ipod. Much easier to change folders and you can play through folders, artists, genres, whatever. One thing to specifically ask if you call is how long it takes to start playing once you turn the car on or switch to the USB source. Early units from Kenwood and others had VERY long initial load times of like 45 seconds or more, depending on how many files you have and such. Newer Kenwood's are less than 10 seconds even for 15+ gb of files (I think I had about 2500 files). I don't know if newer models from other companies have improved as well, but I can't think of why they wouldn't.

[Edited on February 20, 2009 at 9:19 AM. Reason : ]

2/20/2009 9:17:26 AM

why woukld you want to heat your audio?

2/20/2009 11:22:39 AM

thanks stoaway, my console has a power outlet too which means i can stowe all of it right in there as well. I will consider using the outlet if the power can't be provided by entirely usb. I'll keep looking for info online too and share what i find.

2/20/2009 5:13:28 PM