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MZ-NH1 cradle. No USB? Whaaa?

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girotourvuelta

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I'm the schmuck that won the gold MZ-NH1 unit from Minidisco just recently...and am blown away by it. One thing I did notice: some of the pics show the USB cable plugged into the cradle. My cradle doesn't allow for it, though there is a traced "cut-out" where it looks like it SHOULD go.

So, I can charge the unit in the cradle that looks like a piece of art but to synch...I have to take it out and lay it on the desk? Uhh...mm-kay

Did sony just change this to allow direct cradle/USB charging and did I just get ver. 1.0? Just curious. It's def. something I can live with...but I gotta ask.

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The prototypes had a USB interface on the cradle, but in the end, about 1 month or so before actual final release, they changed the spec so that you can't transfer while the unit is in the cradle.

When its connected via USB, the NH1 is powered by the USB but it doesn't charge the battery.

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On the production cradles, you'll even see the part where the cutout for the USB connector would have been. I think they realised rather late in the day that it was something of a disaster not being able to open the NH1 while in the cradle.

The connector mount for the missing socket is still in the production cradles, as you can see.

user posted image

I can imagine the awkward silence in that product meeting :grin:

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Well, you're kind of right. I think that most usage patterns of the N10 / N1 will involve people ejecting the player from the cradle, swapping discs and sticking it back in again. I have asked about why they removed the socket and I haven't got a fully explanatory reply back. I think they rationalised it on the basis that the battery is not drained while the USB connection to the PC takes place.

What I'm considering doing is to butcher the N10 cradle for it's socket, cut out the appropriate area on the NH1 cradle, solder in the socket and see what happens. It seems like too much trouble to be honest but I do find the entire plugging / unplugging / separate charging steps one step too much in comparison to my iPod Mini.

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I think what I would do is keep the charging cradle somewhere away from my PC (which already has too many wires and power plugs cluttering the floor). Perhaps put it in a convenient location to grab an go like on my dresser or in the Kitchen. Perhaps also a location where I might have it hooked up to some powered speakers. Then, its handy and charged when I want to use it. When I went to make MD's, just grab a cable and plug it in to the PC.

In some respects it is better. When the USB is plugged in, the computer always has to recognize it regardless of whether you plan to download tracks or not. Sometimes I prefer to be able to charge a device (like my N10 or NW-HD1) without the computer being in the loop. I keep my HD1 usb cable unplugged most of the time for this reason.

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Making the USB-socket available isn't a very good idea. I contacted Sony about this and there is a reason why they left out the USB-connector. With the early versions of the NH1 (with USB-cradle) the NH1 had a change of overheating during high-speed data/audio-transfers for long times because the NH1 could not get enough cooling due to the cradle.

So to prevent NH1 units to get damaged Sony decided to remove the USB-connector from the cradle.

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I think sony is copping out of why they removed the USB port.

I have used my NH1 for transfering lots of data via discs (No CD drive on the workstations I use). It involved moving 2GB of files from one PC to another (I didn't mind about the transfer rate)

When I had put the info onto 1 1GB and a few 300MB discs the unit was 1 or 2 C above ambient. The unit itself felt cool.

The only reason I can see that it would cause problems is if the charging circuit on the NH1 is not good at coping with a partly or fully charged being inserted into the cradle.

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AHAHAHAH, now that is cool! tongue.gif Well Done. When I bought my MZ-NH1, that was one of the 1st things I realised... on all pics I had seen, the USB was coming out of the docking stand, and then when i looked, there was a cut out bit.. glued back in. Oh well, we'll have to wait and see some of the ideas 'creative' people come up with tongue.gif

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What is the point? Seriously? :wacky:

It's so that girls will say "Is that a Hi-MD in your pocket or do you just have an enormous shlong?". Or it's a combination meat tenderiser and ATRAC player...

...It's a JOKE.

Sony may attribute removing the dock connector to heat issues, but the area for the heat to dissipate doesn't really vary a great deal with or without the dock. My guess is that there are power-based issues.

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