I am putting my battery in first, let it boot into charge mode, press delete to boot to active record mode then I can begin to record... I found that plugging the charger in while it is booting will just lock the record button... i could do everything but press record... I removed the battery, rebooted and it was fine... I then put the battery back in and everything worked as expected.
So I guess the answer is, either BEFORE or AFTER but not during startup.
i just finished reading most of the threads on this topic but i'm still unclear on one thing... when using a fully charged MicroTrack and an external USB battery box - what happens if you're recording and you unplug the battery box? and then what happens if you're recording while using the internal battery and you plug in an external battery box? does either situation cause the recording to stop and/or hiccup? and can you continue to monitor the levels the whole time?
i would assume it's the same answer as when using the included AC power adapter, but my MT hasn't arrived yet so i can't test it.
steve
Usually nothing happens connecting or disconnect of USB power, before, during, or after making a recording.
However, on very rare ocassion the deck has shut down when USB power is disconnected. But this is the exception and seems to not be repeatable in my experience.
USB power has NO jack disconnect switch built in so only thing that happens is +5 volt power either appears or disappears from this port while the internal Microtrack battery continues to be on tap for deck powering. USB power seems to either be applied to powering the charger, but not necessarily soley assigned to power the deck like usual with AC adapter-powered instruments.
If this is truly the case, then whether the deck has USB power applied or not should make NO difference as long as there is a functionally charged battery inside the deck. Keeping USB power applied, the deck will appear to shut down, but is actually still running with a blank screen and drawing ~.21 amps. With USB power, the deck 'instantly' turns on and starts recording with pressing the Power and REC button in quick sequence. This can be handy if in the field and wanting to avoid the 20 sec boot delay to initiating recording.
To this end, the BD-MT Power Sled available from my company
www.sonicstudios.com/batsys98.htmallows keeping the deck powered for over 56 hours in standby or recording on 6 D alkaline cells. Perfect for a full week of music festival or ambient sounds recording.