I have been trying to figure out the ins and outs of using the USB port with a flash drive, since I got my 8GB drive and I'm trying to organize the music. Some stuff I figured out about the workings of the Fit's radio connected to the USB flash drive:

1) Empty folders seem to be ignored. I've got two flash drives, both had an empty folder, and when either was connected, the empty folder was not on the list when you press the Vol/Select button.

2) If a folder has a sub folder in it, the subfolders show up in the list when Vol/Select button is pressed, but not the folder those subs live in. Example: If you've got a Folder named "Beatles" with another folder in it called "White Album" then the only folder displayed on the list will be "White Album".

3) The folders do not show up on the list in alphabetical order (I'm swift, huh?). Can anyone please tell me what order they're in??? Sometimes I think that they're in the order in which they were created on the drive, but I'm not sure. I'm not seeing a pattern of behavior on the part of this set up yet, so anyone else got that figured out? EDIT: thanks to CVKUNGFU below, who says they are indeed being shown in the order they're created. He recommends a program that can sort them. Not available on Mac though. Us Apple users will have to figure something else out. Drag the files off the drive, erase the drive, drag them back in the order we'd like them to appear on the radio's list? Hmmm. Wonder if that'd work. EDIT AGAIN: That works. Dragged all the files off, erased the USB flash drive, and dragged them back in the desired order (alphabetical in this case). Pain in the ass, but it works since the radio now shows them in that order.

4) Press select to see the contents of a folder, and turn the knob to look through the contents, and use the up or down buttons above and below the center knob to back out to the list where you were last. I think. Gotta confirm that.

5) If you use a Mac, there's gonna be some "unplayable file"s between the playable ones. They're resource fork files that Mac OS puts on the drive. You could probably delete them from the drive if you plug the flash drive into a Windows box and see them there. Or ignore them. I downloaded a program to keep my flash drives from clear of hidden files.

Has anyone else tinkered with this thing and learned anything else?

PS I wonder if there'll ever be a "firmware update" that adds more features that can be done by USB. I've got some home video/audio equipment that can be updated by connecting a USB flash drive with the firmware on it.

 

I also noticed that there is no pause or stop functionality.

 

i think we are stuck with what we got.
that is until we go aftermarket

 

Your folders and files on a USB drive show up in the order in which they are created. There is a cool little program called drivesort that you can use to put all your files and dirs in alpha order.

 

Thanks. Added your info to the original post. That software is available on Mac though. Us Apple users will have to figure something else out. Drag the files off the drive, erase the drive, drag them back in the order we'd like them to appear on the radio's list? Hmmm. Wonder if that'd work. EDIT: it does indeed. Drag off, erase, drag back in desired order does work.

 

I had not noticed that before. Isn't that kinda silly? I guess if you needed to pause you could turn the radio off, it'll start playing where it left off when you turn it back on.

 

I noticed that when you push the vol button, then turn to select the track, the title of the file appears. It would be nice if the <track tag> appeared instead.

Right now I have to rename (in order to see what i'm selecting):

Greatest Guitar Solos - 001 Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven.mp3

to

001 Led Zeppelin - Stairway to Heaven.mp3

or even

001 - Stairway to Heaven.mp3

 

name a stock car radio that has a pause feature.

 

2008 Cadillac CTS my pops has one...... Plenty others have pause feature...

 

Some satellite radios have a pause function where the audio is saved to a buffer for several minutes, to be resumed later, but we don't have that in our Fits anyway.

I noticed if I turned off the audio power while playing from a flash drive, I can resume play (and power on the audio system) with one press of the AUX button.

 

If you could somehow create playlists on flash drives I'd be set. I like having a couple big playlists on my (old 20 gig) iPod. Unfortunately with out this ability I may end up shelling out for an iPod classic, but hey, 6x the storage is a good selling point I guess.

 

SureGuy;

If you skip adding the center armrest, that iPod Classic is pretty much paid for!

Your passenger will probably enjoy it more, too.

 

You can create a sort of playlist on a folder level. On my 16gb patriot (can't hype that enough) I have mostly folders with the Artists name and then the songs in there named with just the song title (works for me). You could also though make a folder and put in song in there in any order since it orders based on creation order.

 

My first USB experience in the Fit was with a 5.5G iPod. Sorted alphabetically by artist, alphabetically by album, then correct track sequence within the album. No worries.

Next, I picked up an 8GB flash drive, to try that out.

With a capacity of a fraction of my mp3 library, I would have to be selective. I chose (almost) all albums by four favorite (favourite, for y'all up North) artists.

In Windows XP-MCE, I copied all albums by one artist, then all albums by the next, etc.

When copying was in progress, I noticed the albums (folders) were copied in reverse alphabetical order, I.E. Rolling Stones copied 'Voodoo Lounge' first, 'Black and Blue' last.

It was not immediately apparent which track within the album copied first.

My top-level folders were artist; Beatles, Elton, Jimmy (Buffett), Rolling (Stones).

Flash card in the Fit, my 'Artist' folders don't show up. The first folder is 'Yellow Submarine' which is the last (alphabetically) and first copied of the first artist copied.

Abbey Road (Beatles) is followed immediately by Victim of Love (Elton).

Tracks within each album are played alphabetically. I originally thought they might be played in sequence by date/time copied, but I found an album which showed otherwise. Mine, at least, are played alphabetically by file (track) name.

Now, if I could just scroll through the artists on my iPod more quickly...

 

Thanks for the sort program tip! Really cool!

Regards,
PO

 

Thanks for the good info.

 

"[Folders] are indeed being shown in the order they're created. He recommends a program that can sort them. Not available on Mac though."

As an alternative to sorting, Super Get Info from Bare Bones Software is a utility that (among other things) lets you manually change the create and modify dates for both files and folders. Also lets you set type and creator, and quite a few other things. Highly recommended for Mac users who want to go beyond the basics. :-)

 

A bit disappointed that the stock radio cannot deal with subfolders. It would have been a piece of cake to navigate if it could interpret a directory tree using:
A/Artist Name/Album/Songs
B/Artist Name/Album/Songs
C/Artist Name/Album/Songs
...
...etc

 

Indeed, I also wish I could cycle through artists faster. I wish even more that I could go back to the artists list and end up where I left off, alphabetically. Oh well...

One interesting thing: I can charge my cell phone from the USB. I ended up giving my car charger to my friend. Pretty much love this feature--it really prevents cluttering up my car with gadgets everywhere and cords winding in an out of every dashboard orifice.

I wonder, has anyone tried a USB HUB? Heh.

 

May be just a standard disclaimer, but be aware that the manual clearly states that USB Hubs are *not* to be used on the USB port, and that you risk damaging the USB port, or the device, or both!