Database Users

battery metter unreliable

i have noticed that the battery metter is completely unreliable
for example it shows 28% left (btw, i installed FInixNOverBattery for percentage indication) and after a soft reset it shows 41%
or it shows 50% and after soft reset it shows 31%
in this way i can never estimate how long the battery will last
does anybody faced this issue? any solution fot it? (i also tryed to calibrate by completely drain the battery followed by complete charge withe the device turned off)
thank you in advance!

noris08,
it is completey normal to experience big jumps in % after a reboot. The battery % is just a representation of the actual voltage of the LiPoly battery, which usually recovers (rises) quite a bit when there is no load on the battery (even for a short time).

maybe what you say it is true, but i never experienced this behaviour with any of my previous phones. and i had a few, including wm for a few years
and variations of 10-15% - i find them too big

I noticed the same thing. Any explanation for this? Or it is just that FInixNOverBattery is not reliable/compatible/accurate ?

Voltage may vary/jump around due to environmental changes and power consumption or voltage sensor may be insufficiently accurate to provide reliable voltage readings for 1% steps. This is one of the reasons why many battery drivers in WM only provide remaining charge percentage in 10% steps.
In this light, voltage on its own is not a sufficient indicator of remaining charge percentage. Other parameters, such as voltage deviation and other factors, such as power consumption and temperature may need to be taken into account to obtain a more accurate evaluation.

Battery Level Issue - Fix Suggestion

I don't know if my suggestion is wrong or if I'm a total n00b or what the deal is, but what is up with the battery level issues on this phone? It goes from 100% down to 80% in like a matter of minutes even with no usage, it then drops steadily down to 50%, then it drops suddenly to 15%, then goes down to 10%, then 5%, then 1%. How can it be so hard to calculate a battery level?
Now I bet someone is going to come in here and bash my idea, and I apologise in advance if I look like a moron, but shouldn't the calculation for the battery level be something along the lines of:
((Current Voltage - Minimum Voltage) / (Maximum Voltage - Minimum Voltage)) * 100 = Current Battery Percent
If that would work (even if only a little better than the current method), can someone PLEASE write at least a widget or something that displays the actual battery level, not this inaccurate level that Samsung claims it to be, and if possible modify whatever it is that calculates it and replace it with said formula?
I tried this formula on my phone using a simple calculator (using 4.1V as my max and 3.5V as my minimum and a battery level widget to display the current voltage) and it seemed to work fine for me and it was a lot more accurate. I just wish it could be automated.

I think that's a common issue on Galaxy 3. Sometimes it's accurate, sometimes not.
I unplug it, after half an hour it's at 80%, then drops by 10% down to 50% and after that suddenly to 5%. Then I turn it off and on again and it returns to 50% or 60%.
But as I said, sometimes it's accurate, but I don't know what causes it.
I've tried some battery widgets, but they all display the same information.

That was a common issue that happens more frequently when you flash your phone without a full charged battery, when that happens i try to wait until the batery ends and wait 2 o 3 hours and charge the phone while its off until it shows full charge

Racoen said:
I think that's a common issue on Galaxy 3. Sometimes it's accurate, sometimes not.
I unplug it, after half an hour it's at 80%, then drops by 10% down to 50% and after that suddenly to 5%. Then I turn it off and on again and it returns to 50% or 60%.
But as I said, sometimes it's accurate, but I don't know what causes it.
I've tried some battery widgets, but they all display the same information.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, its the same with my G3.. But it always was like that, with eclair and now with froyo.

These are the files that regulate it (its in c, but you my be able to understand some parts of it without it).
They didnt calculate it like that, but used an if..else if ...else method. and with fixed values of multiples of ten (except for lower battery).
I dunno how to compile from the sources, when I do I'll change it and send it to KARMA.
Also, sometimes when its low it doesnt show it correctly. Try rebooting if you suspect that.

I've noticed that last 20-30% stays for almoust 10h, but first 80% only 1 day.

If it was only the faulty display of the percentage I normally wouldnt even care. There are many widgets that display the actual battery voltage which gives a much better indication of the actual SOC.
BUT: what really gets on my nerves is, that when the calculated battery level drops below some 10%, the G3 reduces the display brightness, doesnt let me use the camera, doesnt let me start my music app... even if the battery voltage is still at 3.7-3.8V.
The problem seems to be (correct me if i am wrong), that the G3 calculates the battery level with the minimum of the measured voltage in that discharge cycle. So if I use some app which consumes more power, or if I have many active downloads or whatever, the voltage of the battery can sag for a short time, which also causes the calculated battery level to drop. When the phone is idle again the battery voltage goes back up, but the percentage is stuck (in worst case at a very low level).
Since a reboot seems to make the phone re-evaluate the actual SOC, the question is, if there is an app (or if someone can make an app) that forces the phone to re-evaluate the SOC without rebooting (and so also reactivates camera etc.). Even better if the firmware was modified in a way, that the algorithm for determining the battery level uses a filtered value of the battery voltage so that a short term voltage sag does not affect the calculated battery level.

Draining out battery full - will it work?

This video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DqdHFmKq57c
Says if you drain your htc hd 2 battery full out. And then charge it full. It will work longer.
Is this right? And some pp says its bad for your battery.

106 views... no replies ;(

well.. the idea originated from laptop battery tricks and some facts about the technical side of the problem.
If i try to simply put it, a laptop battery contains (beside the actual battery) a small pcb that has a charge/discharge controller and a eeprom memory chip (among others). The point of having these is also pretty simple. The battery actively communicates with the laptop via a i2c interface, so that the laptop always knows the state of the plugged in battery. The laptop itself can't measure the current or voltage of the battery and doesn't know it's capacity or composition. Instead the chips inside the battery does all this work and reports it to the laptop. That's how the laptop knows when you plug a different capacity battery or other things. The percentage of power remaining is measured by the chip inside the battery and stored in a volatile memory also contained on the small pcm inside. This memory can be accesed by the laptop and from there, it will display you the remaining power left (in percents %). This is updated as long as there is any notable difference from what the chip measures from the battery cells and what was the last measurement made. So.. what would happen if you would charge the battery to 100% full, then disassemble it, remove the 100% charged cells and replace them with 50% charged ones.
When you would start the laptop next time, it will STILL display 100% charge, the last measurement, and will assume this state is valid for the cells. When the physical batteries will drop the charge level with 1% the laptop would display 99%. So around 50% displayed the batteries will actually be empty. When you charge them back, the laptop would start from 50% and go back to 100%. The actual batteries would get only 50% energy, so they won't get fully charged, therefore you get less battery life.
Of course, this is a very exagerated scenario, but in practice, sometimes small errors can occur, when the physical level of the batteries is a bit different to what the battery controller recorded. In this case, a full discharge then recharge can help to correct this issues (but only if you're talking about couple percents - not more).
But... when we're talking about phones, things are quite different. The communication algorithm between the battery and phone is more simpler and the battery itself doesn't know it's charge state. The phone will actively probe the battery in order to update it's status. So, if i remove the battery and drain it somehow, the phone will display it's correct physical charge next time i plug it in. This is possible because a phone battery and the phone itself is simpler by design then a laptop for example.
So why laptops used such complicated charge algorithms? Mainly because 2 reasons. One because laptop batteries are dangerous things. If improperly charged or damaged they CAN explode. If the cells are damaged, overcharged or the temperature is high, the controller chip will change the state of the eeprom memory so that the laptop and it's OS to see that the battery was damaged/empty and shutdown at once. The other reasons is quite commercial based. The charge controller counts each charge cycle and stores it in that eeprom memory. So if the manufacturer specified a specific number for the charge cycles, when this number is reached, the controller will simply rewrite the eeprom and state that the battery is "dead". So.. go get a new one.
I disassembled many batteries and among "dead" ones, i found many cases where the cells were actually in pretty good shape and functional. I measured cells with more then half the original design capacity still available, but the battery pack was reported as being "dead".
So back to hd2. As i've stated, phones use simpler charge/discharge algorithms. The better part is that they are more simplistic and efficient at measuring the actual physical state of the battery. So, a calibration isn't required like on some laptops.
However, sometimes is good to have a full discharge/recharge cycle. This being because of the chemistry of such a battery. It won't do miracles, it won't make the battery last longer on a charge but it could prolong overall battery life. Lithium is a very reactive element, a deep discharge about once a month will help reduce the effects of naturally occuring oxidation of such materials in an electrolytic compound.

[Q] Isn't a battery still a battery, regardless of OS?

I was just wondering about the whole deal with wiping the battery stats. To me it seems as if the point of this is strictly to get the OS to report and understand the battery more so than anything to do with the battery itself. I mean, the OS can't actually change the physics of the battery, right?
But the OS needs to understand what a full charge is and what an empty charge is, so that it knows when to shut down and when to stop charging and all that sort of stuff.
What I'm thinking is that if you wipe the stats and it's not at 100%, it will think that the discharge from that point to an actual low level is the full breadth of charging and adjust accordingly.
Is any of this remotely accurate? Or am I just making wild assertions?

Actually...it's the software that can make or break battery life...take for example background notifications. Wifi uses battery power and if you have different programs all polling for updates at x amount of times per hour..even when asleep..it will eat up battery juice...another example is the cm bug that kept the speaker on all the time and the nook never really went to sleep...it used tremendous amount of juice for not doing anything...another example..screen brightness..does not the software control how dim or bright you want it...and say you could not adjust the settings..your right..a battery is just a battery but how the kernel, drivers and loaded programs determine how fast or slow the battery power is to be used. Clearing the stats gives more accurate measurements for the kernel and hence will power down(power saver mode ) or other items for the kernel depending on what type of governor is on the nook..software wise.

I think you misunderstood what I was saying. What I'm trying to say is that the OS can't change the physics of the battery. Drain is drain, no matter what software is running. In other words, say you have two perfectly identical systems, both running the exact same software. The battery capacity is exactly the same on both and they both have the same drain. The battery doesn't actually drain faster on one vs the other, but the OS can *think* it's draining faster. That's why we have all these battery stats and such...right? Or am I wrong?

Oh Ok...you are right in the fact that it cannot and the software..depending on what it's state(charge level) is will determine how to run..it just makes it more accurate.

Wiping the Battery Stats tells the OS to start learning what the new High and Low are.
It doesn't matter what level of charge the battery has when you do this....
- As the battery gets lower the stat keeps updating the level as the new low.
- As you charge the battery it continuously updates the stat as the new High.
Once you have taken the battery to both of these extremes then, in theory, the OS will have accurate info on your battery.
At a certain point in time the battery stats stop updating which is exactly why it is important to do this.

[Q] Battery Calibration

Hi everyone!
Wondering if there is or are anyway to calibrate Omnia battery? I think it is draining too fast, first i left my phone charging for 5hours to completely charge and just send 1 message and download Samsung App "Now" and in 1 hour since has now 92% of it. I use brightness in minimun, use Edge connection and nothing more to spend so much...in moment im using "mirolg" mi7ROM mango 8107 DFT, great by the way!
Any ideas?
Thanks!

after each ROM flash i recommand the battery dicarger tool from MS Market Place.
really it works, really! It allow the battery circuitry to calibrate to the right energy level.
After flash a ROM, I let the battery completly discharging and then I charge my device for minimum 8 hours. then on 30% battery level I repeat this process. my battery has 40 - 50% longer life with the same usage.
"Even though lithium batteries don't have the memory effect issue, they still have a phenomenon called state-of-charge (SOC) mismatch. Battery Discharger employs various hardware resources available on the phone to discharge the battery power at a faster but controlled rate. Charging the phone completely from this state would allow the microprocessors on the battery circuitry to recalibrate and start reporting accurate energy levels.
Battery Discharger is a smart app that lets you discharge the battery of your phone at various discharge rates in a controlled manner. User can configure Battery Discharger app to use one or more of the following hardware resources to achieve the optimum discharge rate"

Thanks for your suggestion, miro!
I tested the application you mention and it works really well.

First thx miro for a great rom, this tip gives me 4 Hours more power !!!