Optimising battery life - JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General

Optimising battery life - JASJAR, XDA Exec, MDA Pro General

I was really annoyed with my JJ as I did not know that the USB connection for syncing also charged the unit. When my JJ was new I was using the USB link for trying a lot of s/w and therefore was charing my JJ for short periods of 5 minutes a number of times. With my Exec I had worked out how to sync with BT. So I did what you shouldn't do I did not charge the Exec until the battery was down to about 20% and then for the next three charges i waited until the Exec was down to around 15% charge. Now after 4 full charges I find the battery of my Exec lasts much longer (my estimate is 20% better at least), especially now that I don't keep PIE running in the background. My Exec has no problem lasting a whole business day while the JJ struggled.
(note: the Exec uses a O2 3G SIM while I used a Vodafone 3G SIM with the JJ. I am not sure how significant the battery drain can depending on the 3G coverage/operation as I would say the Vodafone coverage is much better)

Its a Li-on battery isnt it? Not Ni-Cad.
This means it doesnt respond well to being almost or fully depleted.
Best to keep it topped off on the move if you're working longer hours just plug it in at the office or during the board meeting.
I can however tell you that the USB charging is pants on mine and unless you plug it into the mains it wont charge at a rate sufficient to not actually drain the battery.
This could be because I dont have USB 2 and am using a low power iBook.
But I found it didnt work well at all, best to use the mains adapater and stick to the USB for sync.

@gubbs, I am aware of the theory behind Li Ion batteries but I have now tested the idea of not charging fully the battery after purchase on my Nokia 9500 for which I had two batteries and I could compare the effects. The difference on the Exec battery is less than on my Nokia. I don't fully discharge the battery I just avoid the first full charge (why bother when your battery is say 70% charged anyway from new) and I avoid the frequent charges from the USB (my USB is fine, it really does charge faster than the Exec can drain the battery). I have also found my battery now seems to be drained less when using WiFi, which normally kills my PDAs.

Related

Battery Life

My wizard seems to have an amazingly long battery life.
After owning every previous XDA (1, 2, 2s, 2i) I expect - in fact demand - that my PDA needs charging daily.
I feel positively cheated by the fact that I hardly ever seem to need to charge my Wizard - it goes for days without seeing the USB cable; I just checked it after four days and it still had 40% power left. Plus even if I do let it run down I still don't lose my data. What do HTC think they are doing?
I'll definitely be sending mine back.
Anybody got an old Rex going spare?

i'm confused... why you sending it back? mines been running for i'd say about 24 hours since i took it off its initial charge cycle and its at 52%

I actually have two rexi. They're still pretty much the cutest PDA I ever saw. Got them when I was in Singapore, was so chuffed! Reading ebooks on the bus was a new idea back then :shock: Needs a new battery now though!
V

LOL
If you really wanna drain the battery, just surf using wifi with the screen on full bright & powersave mode off. it'll be just like using a crappy old PDA (battery wise) - dead within a few hours :lol:

Sorry fone_fanatic - it's called the "British sense of humour" (or humor to you). Ask a Canadian - they can probably explain it to you :wink:

I have just noticed that my wizard battery lasts much longer (a few days also) when I charge it with the USB cable (attached to PC). It seems that, for some reason, the power adapter does not charge it the way it should (it reaches 100% in a couple of hours while it takes longer with USB sync cable)...
Am I the only one ?
Cheers,

wizard draining battery !

Dear All,
I have a strange problem here.
I just purchased a used wizard and installed a new t-mobile rom, but, once I connect the charger or the usb, the orange charging light starts blinking!
The battery doesn't charge, but drains very fast.
I re-installed another rom, but it's the same, and I installed another, but also the same.
I checked the battery on another phone, but nothing was wrong with it, then I installed the battery of the other phone on my wizard, and it did the same problem!
I checked another charger, but it's the same thing!
The phone is fully functional, and works 100% other than when charging it!
Any suggestions???

Same problem here. The battery drains almost emidiatly when I charged it. After a couple of time it wont even charges anymore. Tried 3 batteries. All batteries seems to have died. Horrible.

Please... anyone recognize this problem?????

To add: I put in a brand new OEM battey from Sanyo. Charged it with the wallcharger. Then when I put on the device it drains almost imediatly. A brand new battery !! Then tried to recharge the batery and then the phone shows a red led light? What is going on!.

OH, AND NOT FORGET i DID install a new ROm from Moski but the same problem. So, replaced the ROM and battery. Is the wallcharger defect or my QTEK 9100??

RichardV said:
OH, AND NOT FORGET i DID install a new ROm from Moski but the same problem. So, replaced the ROM and battery. Is the wallcharger defect or my QTEK 9100??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like a defective wizard to me. Might be time to return it and get a replacement.

If you have already purchased new OEM batteries, and you're still having this problem, one would have to assume that it's the charger you're using. A buddy that works with me bought a mini USB wall charger for his Cingular 8125, and on the 1st charge, it completley drained his battery, and it was unable to charge again. $50 bucks later for a new OEM battery and charger, and never had this problem again.

Thanks for the responces. I ordered an aftermarket charger and hope that that solves the problem. I recently bought it for about 210 euro 2ndhand. Sometimes it does startup and looks ok but then in less then a minute the power dies. I will look after the 5 volts and 1 amp. on the new charger by the way.
Once again, if someone recognice this problem I really are interested in the solution if found.
Offourse I will let now if I found out. I'm praying that the wallcharger is the problem.

i had that problem when i was using the razr charger with my 8125. i thought it was the same because they are both mini usb. WRONG!
i hope this is not what you are doing. is your charging cable oem?

Hi. Got a replacement wallcharger and when i plug it it in the led on my Wizard turns RED emediatly. Charger has the same spec. as the OEM. So. Still a dead wizard. Anyone any thoughts?
By the way. I cant even find out what the red light on my wizard means. Should be orange when charging. Red doesnt looks good.

same problem
I'm having almost the same problem
The red light
My wizard won't start, and by the way, I was charging it with a motorola charger cause I only had the car charger , and the cable is 2 short. I actually charge it several times... a month and some, no problems, till now I posted a new thread,
I don't know what to do ... Can it be the main battery ... mabe my charger depleted it I had resco tools installed an it said that my main battery is at 100% ...
Now when I plug it in the car charger, it does nothing..., and when I plug it in the moto charger it shows a red light.
If someone finds anything, please reply.
I found a thread...
Plug in your pda without your battery inside. It shows the red light. Insert your battery, and the led will turn off. Press the power off button, and, voila....it starts. By the way, after it was brought back to life, I quickly pluged into the usb...and the led turned orange. My battery was 0%
Hope this helps. By the way, it's not necessary to work from the first time. Worse possible scenario, let your pda to "rest" without the battery insite for an hour and then try again. I heard it has something to do with heat...I mean, if it's cold, there are less chances... don't laugh It may be true. For me it worked the first time. Good luck.

I was having the same problem. It was fine for a week using this other USB charger then yesterday it was not charging and today it was totally dead.
Thank you guys for the information
but what is different about the chargers? or USB cables I mean?

There are a few scenarios going on here.. (some of these things people have tried and got the same result, but i want to lay them all out on the table here)
A. The aftermarket chargers you are using may not meet the 5V 1A rating as the factory chargers... aftermarket chargers or even factory chargers for other devices such as motorola have an output of 5v 0.5A. Now the .5amp charger can charge the device just as long as its idle and not draining faster than it can be charged.
B. Defective Charger
C. Defective battery
D. Defective Phone
*Note- i did not mention roms due to the fact that phones will charged when they are completely off (not asleep)
Now that we have identified the possible problems we can start to identify possible solutions. (If your phone is completely dead and wont turn on then you may need to search for a thread entitled "Dead Wizard, Never lets revive" in the upgrading board)
Before you go to bed, turn the phone completely off and plug into the OEM charger that is rate output of 5V 1A, make sure the the orange charging light is on and go to sleep (you, not the phone, its off remember ) If this does not solve the issue then try this same thing with another battery and the same charger, if that fails, then try this the old battery and a new charger.....
If after you do all of this and its still not charging properly then your phone is defective.
if i didnt make much sense its cause i am tired and will clarify in the morning if i can

I'd like to make an observation here about some rather choppy battery life that I have been experiencing with my Wizard. I'd like to know if this is inside NORMAL behaviour parameters.
At 8AM this morning, my battery was disconnected from the charger with the battery fully charged.
Between 8AM and 11AM my total phone usage duration was 10 minutes. At 11AM, my battery displayed 91% Charge.
Then exatcly at 11AM, I turned on my Opera Browser and used it for 12 minutes, after which the battery dipped another 7% from 91% to 85%. I noted this reading at 11:12 AM.
After this I put my phone on standby. From 11:12 to 18:30 hrs, I recieved 1 missed call and a total of 2 SMS plus 4 emails. During this time I have not made or recieved any other calls. At 18:30 hrs, I noted that my battery was at 71%.
My phone is set to send and recieve emails every 15 mins. I have only one pull email account and one push email account.
Other than what I have mentioned above, there was no other phone activity. I do not have any background apps running except for SPB Pocket Plus and the Battery Status Application.
Please let me know if this is similar to what all of you are experiencing or should I get a new battery? My phone still has about 6 months of warranty on it? Will I be able to get a replacement for it on these grounds?

leepriestenator said:
I'd like to make an observation here about some rather choppy battery life that I have been experiencing with my Wizard. I'd like to know if this is inside NORMAL behaviour parameters.
At 8AM this morning, my battery was disconnected from the charger with the battery fully charged.
Between 8AM and 11AM my total phone usage duration was 10 minutes. At 11AM, my battery displayed 91% Charge.
Then exatcly at 11AM, I turned on my Opera Browser and used it for 12 minutes, after which the battery dipped another 7% from 91% to 85%. I noted this reading at 11:12 AM.
After this I put my phone on standby. From 11:12 to 18:30 hrs, I recieved 1 missed call and a total of 2 SMS plus 4 emails. During this time I have not made or recieved any other calls. At 18:30 hrs, I noted that my battery was at 71%.
My phone is set to send and recieve emails every 15 mins. I have only one pull email account and one push email account.
Other than what I have mentioned above, there was no other phone activity. I do not have any background apps running except for SPB Pocket Plus and the Battery Status Application.
Please let me know if this is similar to what all of you are experiencing or should I get a new battery? My phone still has about 6 months of warranty on it? Will I be able to get a replacement for it on these grounds?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
from what i can remember when i had my wizard i think that sounds pretty good actually...

thanks for that shogunmark. Do you have an approximation as to how much battery drain there would be for apps like Opera? 7% in 12 mins seems to be a lot. Also I have a feeling that if Opera is running in the background, the battery drains very quickly even though the device is set to go into standby after 1 min of inoperation. I can't confirm this but I have a feeling this has happened to me.
Also, since my messaging app checks for email ever 15 mins, how much of a battery drain will that be?

leepriestenator said:
thanks for that shogunmark. Do you have an approximation as to how much battery drain there would be for apps like Opera? 7% in 12 mins seems to be a lot. Also I have a feeling that if Opera is running in the background, the battery drains very quickly even though the device is set to go into standby after 1 min of inoperation. I can't confirm this but I have a feeling this has happened to me.
Also, since my messaging app checks for email ever 15 mins, how much of a battery drain will that be?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i cant offer an approximation since it has been a month since i switched to the hermes.. but i can say that i would pull mine off the charger around 8am and by 11pm i would need to charge.. but i used data heavily.. opera, pushmail, at LEAST 30 text a day, and maybe 45 minutes in calling a day. now 7% in 12 minutes does seem excessive, but running java apps is demanding on the phone, takes a lot of resources.

Tips on extending battery life.
shogunmark said:
i cant offer an approximation since it has been a month since i switched to the hermes.. but i can say that i would pull mine off the charger around 8am and by 11pm i would need to charge.. but i used data heavily.. opera, pushmail, at LEAST 30 text a day, and maybe 45 minutes in calling a day. now 7% in 12 minutes does seem excessive, but running java apps is demanding on the phone, takes a lot of resources.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can not aggree with this. I use my windows live and it syncs every 15 min I send out at least 300 txts a day and I use around 90 min of talk time during the day, (thank God for unlimited txt msgs and free nites and weekends). I use the web at least 40 min total and I listen to my MP3s on it on the train ride to and from work which lasts about 20 min from Manhattan to BKlyn. I dont recharge the phone the until I get home around 7pm charge for an hour and go out again.
I have noticed that certain Roms tend to suck out power much like my x-girfriend sucks out my money for Child Support. I have played around with running certian programs and adjusting the backlight settings and this has helped me keep the phone running all day.
My suggestion would be to change the rom and see if your drain contiunes. Then try to have your backlight turn off with in the 10 secs. If you are overclocking your phone when you dont need that extra Mhz turn it back down to 195 or if your really adventurous turn it down to the 170's for some extra power savings. Last but not least make sure your Active Sync is not turning on all the time by adding a fake server source. If all that fails buy the cradle with the spare battery charger and carry an extra battery. Good luck and godspeed!

Use 1A charger
This has been stated already, but after buying 5 extended batteries thinking they were all dying, I bought a 1A charger on ebay. Payed about US$25 shipped, but it made all my troubles go away. A reseller sold me my 8125 with a Razr charger and I thought it would be fine but it wasn't. Use a 1A charger!!!

I keep reading about this "Wizard draining battery" issue on here. I can't say that I've EVER had a problem with my battery draining.
I keep mine on the USB sync cable overnight to charge, pull it off in the morning around 8:30 when I leave for work. At that point, the battery is at 100%. Send/receive 4 - 5 text messages, 15 - 20 minutes of phone calls, PocketWeather updating every 2 hours, emails pulled from my POP3 server every 1/2 hour PLUS intermittent internet browsing and data entry into some of my apps. . . also running WA2 in the background. When I leave work at night, I still have between 77% - 83% battery life left.
Maybe it's just that I keep it "topped off" that I'm not experiencing any battery drain throughout the day -- I don't know. But, I've had no problems with mine.

Battery died in a night!!

My hermes standby time was about 2-3 days depending on my usage. but two days ago, i charged my hermes to %100 and then i slept, when i woke up in the morning, my tytn was closed, i tried to open, but it did not.. So when i pluged the charger, red light flashed and then yellow, which means my battery was fully empty and started to be charged, so it worked again.
And now it takes about 2 hours to be fully charged, but it only takes 4 hours to be completely discharged again!!! It happened so suddenly! As i know, batteries die slowly, not that much suddenly??! Do you think there could be another problem?? Or is it just my battery?? is it possible that my battery died in one night??!

I could think of a couple of things...bad battery, faulty device, or you are just doing so much with the phone that the battery is being drained. Do you keep bluetooth turned on, and wifi, and have your phone polling for new emails every 15 minutes? That will most certainly drain the battery really quick. Also, do you have the device set to automatically hibernate when not in use? I just received a new 8525 due to warranty 4 days ago, and I have not done any modding to it yet. Off the bat, I noticed that my battery life has significantly increased.

djan84 said:
My hermes standby time was about 2-3 days depending on my usage. but two days ago, i charged my hermes to %100 and then i slept, when i woke up in the morning, my tytn was closed, i tried to open, but it did not.. So when i pluged the charger, red light flashed and then yellow, which means my battery was fully empty and started to be charged, so it worked again.
And now it takes about 2 hours to be fully charged, but it only takes 4 hours to be completely discharged again!!! It happened so suddenly! As i know, batteries die slowly, not that much suddenly??! Do you think there could be another problem?? Or is it just my battery?? is it possible that my battery died in one night??!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are causes depending on the battery and causes depending on the hermes:
Battery:
1> The battery has a certain lenght of life. This type of battery is very sensitive and can be charged around 300 and 500 times. Each time you connect the charger you "consume" a bit of the life. Nothing to do with memory effect but with the physic of lipo batteries. How old is your battery?
2> Lipo batteries can not be discharged below a certain voltage (3.00 volt per cell. The hermes battery is a one cell type). If this happens, you kill the battery (short capacity, impossible to charge,...) The pda is normally equiped with a circuitry able to avoid this.
PDA:
1> You can have running applications burning power. But you know that
2> In certain circumstances, the motherboard can have a problem and starts to burn your battery. This is a hardware problem which needs MB replacement. This problem is described in the maintenance manual of the hermes and is tested by service people when a hermes is refurbished.
You can try the following:
1> Fully load your battery and close all applications (No phone,nothing). See what happens in one night
2> Fully load the battery and shut the pda down. See if the battery remains fully loaded. If it is not the case, try again with the battery out of the phone. If the battery is partially/totally discharged with the battery out of the pda, the battery is dead.
3> See how much your phone consumes by using this application: http://www.acbpocketsoft.com/Products/acbPowerMeter/acbPowerMeter-Overview-2.html
Start your hermes without anything loaded (no phone,...) With backlight on (default level) and nothing running except this application, the level will be around 70mA (average). Without backlight, you would be around 25mA. At least this is what i get on mine (rom,... see my signature). This test is very dependent of the OS and the radio rom loaded
This will not repair your battery, but i hope this will help you to identify the problem

" As i know, batteries die slowly, not that much suddenly??!"
yes like humans batteries age and die after awhile
but all electronics like humans can die of a "heart attack" too

Thank you everyone is very helpful here Well i found the reason for my short stanby time, i am using pays rom 1.31 and there is a program called HSDPA switch, somehow when i uncheck the `Turn on HSDPA` box, everything seems to be normal again!! After a deep searching week, now i know the problem. I know its very odd, but when i re select that box, again my battery finishes in about 2 hours... Strange yep..

Battery Problem!!

I've just bought a slightly used Mda Vario II,
but i have some troubles with the battery. i fully charged the battery (i suppose 15 hours)and when i checked the led was green. so i began to use my new device. but after 4 hours the battery was empty.
i'd remove the battery and placed it back in the device. and it boots.
with 20% battery and it lasts for i suppose an hour. then it shuts down again and if i do the same it starts again with 10% good for a half hour.
is this a common problem? is my battery dead? does someone has a solution?

Depends what you do with it. If you are using it a lot, depending on what you use, it could be normal. If its in standby with minimal use, a few calls/txt/mms/email, then it may be the battery needs replacing.
Charging the battery should only take 2-3 hours, NOT 15 unless you are using a non standard charger, even then 15 hours is excessive (unless you mean you left it overnight).
I'd look at replacing the battery, if you know someone with the same phone you might be able to borrow their battery to test. Test your battery in theirs and their battery in yours.Only thing I could think to try...
Cheers...

Thanks for the fast respond,
i am using 3g the whole day. automatic recieve email every 5 minutes.
furthermore i'm an average user i think.
how many hours can you use your tytn?

From what I hear 3G eats a lot of power. 4 hours sounds pretty good if you are having it on all the time. A 3G iPhone doesn't do better! I don't use 3G on mine but I am a heavy user. Data connection (EDGE) on all the time, Bluetooth always on, use it as an mp3 player, take about 3 hrs of phone calls, and surf the web. I don't let mine drain all the way down (leave it plugged in the car and at my desk) and I carry 3 batteries as spares. I'd say a battery might last about 9-10 hrs. if I didn't plug it in. I'm sure if I had 3G, it would be about 4-5. Of course it depends on your battery size as well...
If you aren't actively downloading/surfing the web, why not just turn off 3G until you need to use it?

Also need to remember that its not good tolet the battery discharge lower than 10%. People have had problems where the phone then doesn't recognise the battery is plugged in when trying to recharge. If you are gonna keep downloading emails on 3g all the time, it might be worthwhile to invest in another battery or two as vwkess does.
I tend to get a day or 2 out of my battery but I download my emails through activesync when at home or the office. Gives my battery a longer life and is easier and cheaper as Oz doesn't have unlimited data plans that are "reasonable".
Also would suggest getting a Larger capacity battery if lugging around a couple of extra batterries is too much of a pain. Though depending on what size you get it can make your Hermes larger. I have a 1650 Mah but you can get 3000 Mah batterries. Its up to you...
Cheers...

Thanks for the reply's!
I have a original 1350mAh battery.
And EDGE isn't supported in the netherlands.
Is it possible to switch between 3G and GPRS?
So i can set the phone to GPRS when i'm not using internet.
Will a 1500mAh battery last longer? or is it better to pick a even larger battery?

Yes, you should be able to turn off 3G in the Comm manager and just turn it on when you need it. 1500 will last a little longer, probably a couple of hours depending on usage.

Nexus One Battery Charging

Greetings all, I was wondering if anyone else has noticed that their battery doesn't charge to full when using the wall charger or USB? I have LiPo chargers from RC cars and I have used one to discharge and fully charge the battery to 1400mah and found that the phone seems to have much better battery life than when charged with wall charger / USB.
When charged with the external ("direct") battery charger, I can get to 4211mv whereas normally with the wall/usb it only goes to 4173mv max. From what I know of LiPo/LiIon batteries, they need to get to their max charge voltage (~4200mv) or so and stay there for some time to get full charge.
I have noticed that my phone has terrible battery life when compared to my Touch HD which used to get 20hrs+ of full use on 3G/HSDPA, same usage pattern with push e-mail and I can't even get 12hrs with the Nexus One before the battery runs right down. And I thought the Touch HD had bad battery life!
Any help / feedback would be most appreciated. Thanks!

It's interesting I see this as today has been a very odd battery day. I woke up and unplugged it at exactly 5am. For 7 minutes I checked e-mails and twitter and it had dropped 3%!!! By 8am I was down to 82% (ride in to work, listening to music for 25 mins, thats about all) I was thinking this was getting silly. It's now 5pm here and I'm still at 61%?!?! So, over the first 3 hours it went 6%ph, since then it's done 2.3%... that's the best I've ever got from it.
Could this be related? It's not really fully charged, even though it shows 100%, drops very quickly and then when it returns to where it perhaps should be (around 80%) it acts as normal?
What is a LiPo charger and how can I use one to charge my Nexus battery?

http://blog.quantifly.com/?p=2
iMAX B6 is what I have been using. I have another heavier duty one but this one is good enough for the battery. I have a generic battery charger thing which I got from China which holds the battery while the other unit charges it. Right now as I write this, my phone has been on for 1hr 25minutes after being charged with the charger, I have used the browser for 10minutes, on 3G, downloading things etc. and it is still on 4211mv and 100% charge.
Curious if this is an issue with the onboard battery microchip, or the radio/firmware. Does anyone know where to source an original replacement battery (non-generic replacement)?

The batteries in these smart phones makes no sense. The other day, I charged the phone overnight using USB, and the next day, I was at 97% after 3.5 hrs. Then, another day, with basically the same usage, I'm down to 85% after 3.5 hrs. No rhyme or reason. I wish someone could explain it.
I also wish someone could make a battery that lasts for 48 hours on normal use

"Drops very quicky"
same here but ive had this 'problems' since stock firmware. its not CM related.
I also noticed that its dropping from 100 to 80ish very fast when starting many apps in the morning for example. Like stopping airplane mode, starting some apps and opening browser. stays at 80ish for some hours then

xPatriicK said:
"Drops very quicky"
same here but ive had this 'problems' since stock firmware. its not CM related.
I also noticed that its dropping from 100 to 80ish very fast when starting many apps in the morning for example. Like stopping airplane mode, starting some apps and opening browser. stays at 80ish for some hours then
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep. That was the same thing with my Pre. It would never stay at 100% for more than a few minutes, and then it would plummet into the 80's, and then it would be okay.

Battery Antics
I purposely left the phone not to charge last night from about 1AM - and I woke up (around 9:30AM) with it at 99% charge still. Used it for a bit and it dropped to 89% and now it's 1:06PM and it dropped to 75% with calls, web browsing and some other stuff. Previous days to this it would be at 75% after just 2-3 hours!
I also noticed that the phone didn't download any e-mails overnight (since there's no "scheduling" for peak/offpeak like in WM I assumed this shouldn't happen?) which may account for the minimal discharge.
All in all very strange, seems like I am not the only one with these problems - maybe I'll try get another battery and see what happens!

The thing about the battery in a smart phone is that it has a micro chip in it, and the phone reads info from it to give us the battery meter(this is true of any phone, actually)... your LiPo charger reads charge in a similar manner, only it doesn't talk with the batteries chip, instead it does it's own thing(I will spare the details)
With this in mind, what you want to do to get the most out of your battery is get the chip in the battery, and in turn the "circuit" it completes with the phone properly calibrated. To do this, you want to run the phone's battery down until it turns itself off. Do a battery pull and let it sit for a little bit (at least 30 seconds, I usually wait several minutes)... then, put the battery back in, and turn the phone on. One of two things will happen, it will either power off before fully booting, or if it does not you will want to use the phone until it powers off again.
At this point, pull the battery again and let it sit out of the phone for a bit again. Then put it back in, and without trying to power the phone on, put it on the charger and leave it on the charger until it is fully charged "green light comes on" plus a couple hours.(best to leave it on the charger overnight) At this point, take it off the charger, and then turn the phone.
This will properly set the low point and the high point for the battery stats. Do not do this a lot, it is bad for a LiIon battery to be "deep cycled", which this comes really close to doing. Ultimately, the phone is not going to charge the battery as high as a LiPo charger will, nor will it discharge it as low, because unlike an RC car's batteries that are used for rapid discharge, these batteries are designed and used in a slow long term discharge.

Thanks, I'll try that myself
Do you run any risk of damaging the battery when charging with a LiPo?

How to Make Your Cell Phone Battery Last Longer when you need it the most
Tips: How to Make Your Cell Phone Battery Last Longer when you need it the most:
1. Always try to drain your battery or wait till its 15% or below then charge your phone. Its very important to turn the phone off before you plug it to charge. This help maximizing your battery charge.
2. Stop searching for a signal. When you are in an area with poor or no signal, your phone will constantly look for a better connection, and will use up all your power doing so.
3. Switch off the vibrate function on your phone, and use just the ring tone instead.
4. Turn off your phone's back light.
5. Avoid using unnecessary features. If you know it will be a while before your phone’s next charge, don’t use the camera or connect to the Internet. Flash photography can drain your battery especially quickly.
6. Keep calls short. This is obvious, but how many times have you heard someone on their mobile phone say, "I think my battery’s dying," and then continue their conversation for several minutes? Sometimes, the dying battery is just an excuse to get off the phone (and a good one, at that), but if you really need to conserve the battery, limit your talk time.
7. Turn off Bluetooth. It will drain your battery very quickly.
8. Same goes for WIFI, GPS, and infrared capabilities, if your phone has these features built in. Keep them off; save more power.
9. Use GSM - Using your phone in 3G / Dual Mode will drain the battery quicker than if you just use GSM mode - have a look at your phones spec and you'll see it will quote two different battery life times - normally 50% more for pure GSM use.
Very Important:
Anyone purchase a new phone. Its best DO NOT USE the phone with the little remaining power the battery has. It is best that you put the battery in the phone and turn off the phone and change for minimum of 5-6 hours.
The 1st charge for the battery is very important for lithium ion battery. Leaving the phone off will give the full maximize charge the battery can take. Normal when phone shows charge complete by integrator light or on the screen means its 95% complete. To complete the 100% charge you need additional 1-2 hours after the full charge integrator show. Having the phone off also help keep the charge. A phone that is on and charging will never get that 100% charge because there is alway a little battery being drained just because the phone is one even if its plugged in to a charger.
If you see your battery is not giving the same performance what it use to. You can try this method at least 3-4 times for 1 week and follow up every other month. Meaning turn the phone off and charge it every night. It is best if you can drain the battery to 15% or less before charging the phone.

So one person says don't let it drop down low very often, the next person says let it drop to 15% all the time...
Personally I've heard not to let it drop low more often these days. The old 'let it decharge regularly' was talked about a lot 4 or 5 years ago... no?

nuc70st said:
Tips: How to Make Your Cell Phone Battery Last Longer when you need it the most:
1. Always try to drain your battery or wait till its 15% or below then charge your phone. Its very important to turn the phone off before you plug it to charge. This help maximizing your battery charge.
2. Stop searching for a signal. When you are in an area with poor or no signal, your phone will constantly look for a better connection, and will use up all your power doing so.
3. Switch off the vibrate function on your phone, and use just the ring tone instead.
4. Turn off your phone's back light.
5. Avoid using unnecessary features. If you know it will be a while before your phone’s next charge, don’t use the camera or connect to the Internet. Flash photography can drain your battery especially quickly.
6. Keep calls short. This is obvious, but how many times have you heard someone on their mobile phone say, "I think my battery’s dying," and then continue their conversation for several minutes? Sometimes, the dying battery is just an excuse to get off the phone (and a good one, at that), but if you really need to conserve the battery, limit your talk time.
7. Turn off Bluetooth. It will drain your battery very quickly.
8. Same goes for WIFI, GPS, and infrared capabilities, if your phone has these features built in. Keep them off; save more power.
9. Use GSM - Using your phone in 3G / Dual Mode will drain the battery quicker than if you just use GSM mode - have a look at your phones spec and you'll see it will quote two different battery life times - normally 50% more for pure GSM use.
Very Important:
Anyone purchase a new phone. Its best DO NOT USE the phone with the little remaining power the battery has. It is best that you put the battery in the phone and turn off the phone and change for minimum of 5-6 hours.
The 1st charge for the battery is very important for lithium ion battery. Leaving the phone off will give the full maximize charge the battery can take. Normal when phone shows charge complete by integrator light or on the screen means its 95% complete. To complete the 100% charge you need additional 1-2 hours after the full charge integrator show. Having the phone off also help keep the charge. A phone that is on and charging will never get that 100% charge because there is alway a little battery being drained just because the phone is one even if its plugged in to a charger.
If you see your battery is not giving the same performance what it use to. You can try this method at least 3-4 times for 1 week and follow up every other month. Meaning turn the phone off and charge it every night. It is best if you can drain the battery to 15% or less before charging the phone.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you didn't understand a LI-ION battery!!!
1. completely false
2. I've a mobilephone also I wan't to use it!!!
3. Maybe... Have you tested it with a ampere meter?
4. A black display is always a good idea!
5. Why not buying a Nokia 3210 ?
6. Better: Don't use it for call.
7. Correct! (If you don't use a headset)
8. See Pt. 5
9. See Pt. 5
A few facts:
- a new lithium-ion pack does not need cycling through charging and discharging
- Limit the time at which the battery stays at 4.20/cell. Prolonged high voltage promotes corrosion, especially at elevated temperatures.
- 3.92V/cell is the best upper voltage threshold for cobalt-based lithium-ion
- The 1st charge is no different to the 5th or the 50th charge. Stickers instructing to charge the battery for 8 hours or more for the first time may be a leftover from the nickel battery days.
Whole article on: batteryuniversity.com/partone-12.htm (by Cadex Electronic Inc.)

jahmann82 said:
I think you didn't understand a LI-ION battery!!!
1. completely false
2. I've a mobilephone also I wan't to use it!!!
3. Maybe... Have you tested it with a ampere meter?
4. A black display is always a good idea!
5. Why not buying a Nokia 3210 ?
6. Better: Don't use it for call.
7. Correct! (If you don't use a headset)
8. See Pt. 5
9. See Pt. 5
A few facts:
- a new lithium-ion pack does not need cycling through charging and discharging
- Limit the time at which the battery stays at 4.20/cell. Prolonged high voltage promotes corrosion, especially at elevated temperatures.
- 3.92V/cell is the best upper voltage threshold for cobalt-based lithium-ion
- The 1st charge is no different to the 5th or the 50th charge. Stickers instructing to charge the battery for 8 hours or more for the first time may be a leftover from the nickel battery days.
Whole article on: batteryuniversity.com/partone-12.htm (by Cadex Electronic Inc.)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I second this as well. The tips given by nuc70st is only applicable in the old days with nickel based batteries (Ni-cd and Ni-MH), which for the past 5 years mobile phones have in general stopped using and have shifted to lithium varieties. Nickel Cadium and a smaller extent Nickel Metal Hydride suffer from "memory effect" so it was important to deep cycle the batteries to maintain its capacity.
Lithium batteries in contrast should be treated in the opposite. You should keep it charged up whenever possible, and fast discharging (draining its charge as fast as possible) actually does more harm than good. Most mobile phones don't discharge it fast enough for it to be problem, but plugging a lithium battery in a purpose made discharger is still a no-no.

I dont know if anybody else can try this with their N1 but I have recently noticed that when my battery does its initial.. drop to 95% before you can wonder what happened, I can charge it with the phone on and the green light stays on, implying that the phone is fully charged.
Then I turn the phone off and charge it, and the red light quickly comes on and allows another hour? of charging before the green light will re-appear.
I think i'll be trying leaving my phone on and on charge overnight and then turning it off while I get ready in the morning and don't necessarily need it.

The green light comes on before the battery is fully charged

AndyCr15 said:
So one person says don't let it drop down low very often, the next person says let it drop to 15% all the time...
Personally I've heard not to let it drop low more often these days. The old 'let it decharge regularly' was talked about a lot 4 or 5 years ago... no?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm right and the other guy is dead wrong. Deep cycling was better for nickel metal hydride batteries, because it helped delay the memory effect.
No such issue for Li-ion batteries, plus charging makes Li-ion batteries HOT, which isn't particularly good for the battery. So numerous charges leads to less exposure to prolonged heating.

mikesm1234 said:
all very good tips
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Oh dear. Have you read this thread?
No, they are not good tips...

Rusty! said:
The green light comes on before the battery is fully charged
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I noticed that just last night! Are you supposed to keep charging it until its 100% or stop it from charging when the green light turns on?
Cheers,
M

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