Ah, thank you for the compliments, yes your notion about the fact that it loses the line out when it loses power seems correct.

 

So does this mean that if I want to use a dock connector (OR PocketDock which splits the dock into an audio jack and firewire) I can ONLY LISTEN when the iPod is charging!?!?! DAMMIT! It looks like there's no way around killing the battery!

 

What is it that you want it to do? Any options are possible.

I could care less about full discharge of battery prior to recharge. I bought it at costco, where all products are sold with a lifetime return-if-unsatisfied policy... beats best buy's warranty extension program, no?

If you want it to NOT charge, that's an even easier install... Use a product like this plugged into the AAI-NIS2:
http://cgi.ebay.com/iPod-STEREO-LINK-6ft-RCA-Adapter-Cable-use-w-4G-mini_W0QQitemZ9720836850QQcategoryZ48680QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
I also just found this product that skips the internal amp/volume control/3.5mm jack that the belkin has, but gives you a charge and an RCA out from the dock... seems like a ripoff at $35, but probably a theoretically cleaner signal:
http://stores.channeladvisor.com/bag...itemid=4713460

Or you could just wire a simple power cutoff switch from radioshack to the 2nd product and kill the power charge as you desire. While the belkin needs power to give a signal, it does not appear that the second product would need power for an audio output to stay alive.

You can make it work for whatever you want, I just used the belkin because it is cheap and available... and I hadn't found that 2nd product in time! I guess I'd move to that second product if I were unhappy with my current sound, but I'm very pleased as it is.