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Prior to getting the Galaxy S, after I read what Samsung were saying in the manual of not to overcharge, I investigated the reasons and wrote in various topics on the battery and the differences between Li-Ion & Li-Pol battery types.
At that point with all the evidence found it made sense to believe that what Samsung were saying in not to overcharge was accurate.
Basically, at that time it was believed the phone used a Li-Pol, Li-Pol batteries are different in that they are 'wet cell' as opposed to Li-Ion which are 'dry cell' charged.
Li-Pol can be manufactured much thinner but can not be manufactured in different shapes.
This is to allow the wet cells whilst under charge which become hot to move around the battery freely. If a Li-Pol was manufactured in different shapes like Li-Ion it would create a 'hot-spot' in an area where the wet cell could not move fluidly around the remainder of the battery.
However, it has now come to light that this is not the case and that the batteries provided with the phone are indeed Li-Ion.
Anyway, moving on to the present.......
After now getting the phone and doing a bit of testing I have found the overcharging issue NOT to be an issue.
When you commence a charge on the phone the icon changes to a charge state.
However, once the battery has reached maximum charge capacity the battery icon automatically changes to a 'Non-Charge' state and then the phone simply runs off it's own battery. This is despite the phone is still connected to the charger.... It's just that the charger although still attached is no longer charging the battery.
As soon as the battery falls below a certain figure (I've had different figures ranging from 98% right down to 91% which is probably due to whatever the phone is doing at that particular time to wake the phone up from realizing "hey, you are still attached to a charger, now wake up and start charging again").
So to all of us who have been worried about overcharging, my personal advise is to NOT worry and charge as and when you feel the need.
Hope this helps.
Beards
Thanks for clear up, I was always been scared while charging that it may blow up.
Nice find!
However, it has now come to light that this is not the case and that the batteries provided with the phone are indeed Li-Ion.
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When you say "it has come to light", what do you mean? Is it just your deduction from your battery tests, or did you see this info from Samsung?
From what I understood, the LI-Pol overcharging is an issue in theory, but in real life applications its not a problem as long as you use the charger that is designed with LiPol in mind, it will auto shutoff charging once it senses the battery is full.
I have just charged mine from bone empty to full. A notification came up stating that the battery was full and to disconnect the charger. Although the battery monitor app says it is not charging and the normal battery meter has gone solid.
I agree that it seems to stop the charging circuit. Although I thought we were getting LiPo not li ion for these as well it's definitely li ion though.
Morbo66 said:
When you say "it has come to light", what do you mean? Is it just your deduction from your battery tests, or did you see this info from Samsung?
From what I understood, the LI-Pol overcharging is an issue in theory, but in real life applications its not a problem as long as you use the charger that is designed with LiPol in mind, it will auto shutoff charging once it senses the battery is full.
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Take the battery out and turn it over. Now read the battery type and you will see it says Li-Ion.
if such, it will reduce the re-charge cycle....
i suggest, power off the phone and then keep charge overnight will be safe....
otherwise, if it is on and charges only full then disconnect it
hkfriends said:
if such, it will reduce the re-charge cycle....
i suggest, power off the phone and then keep charge overnight will be safe....
otherwise, if it is on and charges only full then disconnect it
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Modern battery's don't have cycles where you loose power by continuously topping up the battery.
The practice I use is I charge whenever I get the chance, then after around 30 charges I run it right down and do a full charge.
As to powering off the phone to charge, this is not always convenient.
I need my phone on all the time in case I get an emergency call-out and I'm sure there are others who need their phones on overnight to use as a morning alarm.
Finally, I'm not sure if the practice you mention in powering off the phone and charging overnight would have the same effect in being able to re-charge when the battery level drops.
I think doing it in your method the charger would continuously hit the battery regardless as to whether or not it is fully charged ~ which in effect is what Samsung are saying in not to overcharge.
Beards said:
...once the battery has reached maximum charge capacity the battery icon automatically changes to a 'Non-Charge' state and then the phone simply runs off it's own battery. This is despite the phone is still connected to the charger.... It's just that the charger although still attached is no longer charging the battery.
As soon as the battery falls below a certain figure (I've had different figures ranging from 98% right down to 91% which is probably due to whatever the phone is doing at that particular time to wake the phone up from realizing "hey, you are still attached to a charger, now wake up and start charging again").
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To me it seems like the phone will NOT use the battery as long as it is plugged in. On my phone the battery meter never drops under 100 % when connected.
Beards said:
Modern battery's don't have cycles where you loose power by continuously topping up the battery.
The practice I use is I charge whenever I get the chance, then after around 30 charges I run it right down and do a full charge.
As to powering off the phone to charge, this is not always convenient.
I need my phone on all the time in case I get an emergency call-out and I'm sure there are others who need their phones on overnight to use as a morning alarm.
Finally, I'm not sure if the practice you mention in powering off the phone and charging overnight would have the same effect in being able to re-charge when the battery level drops.
I think doing it in your method the charger would continuously hit the battery regardless as to whether or not it is fully charged ~ which in effect is what Samsung are saying in not to overcharge.
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AFAIK, the reason to fully deplete the battery is to properly calibrate the % remaining in your battery. Running your battery down to empty causes more stress to the phone than running it down 50%. I happened to get a free battery with my device, but I would've bought a spare if I didn't get a free one, so I can easily go 3-5 days depending on usage, during this time I have my house and work to do charges. However, let's say I were to be expecting to have less frequent charges, such as taking a vacation, prior to that I would be fully depleting the battery to 0% to calibrate because then the battery level is more important to me. The trade off of long-term life vs short term accuracy is a very easy decision for me to make due to my situation.
In older batteries you had to "use the cells or lose them" situation where it was better, to at least occasionally, completely run down the device rather than doing partial cycles. These days, charging @ 50% 2 times is equivalent to 1 cycle of 100% with less long-term "stress" to the battery.
borchgrevink said:
To me it seems like the phone will NOT use the battery as long as it is plugged in. On my phone the battery meter never drops under 100 % when connected.
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Same for me.
The reason it tells you to unplug the charger when done charging has nothing to do with battery. It is to save power. Battery chargers still draw some power just because they are plugged in. And in these green times it is ofcourse very popular to have warnings everywhere so you can claim to a green company. And every lithium ion and polymer battery contains electronics designed to protect them from abuse. Including over charging. So that will never be a problem on any phone unless you have a defective battery.
Is there a way to disable the message telling you to unplug the charger? I charge my phone overnight and use it as a clock, but when I wake up in the morning and try to see the time there's this huge popup in the middle of the screen telling me my battery has charged.
Joans said:
Is there a way to disable the message telling you to unplug the charger? I charge my phone overnight and use it as a clock, but when I wake up in the morning and try to see the time there's this huge popup in the middle of the screen telling me my battery has charged.
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I think I read that the newest, or maybe just a random middle since something has superseded it, firmware fixed this.
interesting topic thx Beards for sharing your insights.
Overcharging - read the manual
Guys, if you will read the manual that came with your SGS, it says there that "DO NOT OVERCHARGE YOUR BATTERY FOR MORE THAN TWO WEEKS". It obviously means that the battery can be overcharged for more than a day as long as it is not more than 2 weeks ( I doubt if someone will be able to do that). So that confirms also that we can recharge anytime and not necessarily have it done to zero before charging. Hope this helps also
i've pretty much quit worrying about the overcharge after the first month of usage
i was following the auto pop up message, just because i wanted to conserve battery
but having 3 spare battery made me though it's futile
and it was extreme annoying to wakeup in the middle of the night, just to unplug it
it was awesome the day i found that patch on the forum to disable the annoying pop up alert that your battery is full.
now i can sleep the whole night without the alert coming online, and rest at ease knowing if the phone actually alerts me, it'll be a phone call or something important, not some annoying "unplug me plz!" message
I realize that much of this is common knowledge on XDA. Still, every day I see people post about how their phone "loses" 10% as soon as it comes off the charger. I also have friends who can't understand why their battery drains so quickly. Trying to explain this to people without hard numbers is often met with doubt, so I figured that I'd actually plot it out with real data.
So it's not a piece that is optimized for this audience, but I hope that you find it interesting.
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Your Smartphone is Lying to You
(and it's not such a bad thing)
Climbing out of bed, about to start your day, you unplug your new smartphone from its wall charger and quickly check your email. You've left it plugged in overnight, and the battery gauge shows 100%. After a quick shower, you remember that you forgot to send your client a file last night. You pick up your phone again, but the battery gauge now reads 90%. A 10% drop in 10 minutes? The phone must be defective, right?
A common complaint about today's smartphones is their short battery life compared to older cell phones. Years ago, if you accidentally left your charger at home, your phone could still make it through a weeklong vacation with life to spare (I did it more than once). With the newest phones on the market, you might be lucky enough to make it through a weekend.
And why should we expect anything else? Phones used to have a very short list of features: make and receive phone calls. Today we use them for email, web surfing, GPS navigation, photos, video, games, and a host of other tasks. They used to sport tiny displays, while we now have giant touch screens with bright and vibrant colors. All of these features come at a cost: large energy requirements.
Interestingly enough, improvements in battery management technology have compounded the average user's perception of this problem. Older phones were rather inelegant in their charging behavior; usually filling the battery to capacity and then switching to a trickle current to maintain the highest charge possible. This offered the highest usage time in the short-term, but was damaging the battery over the course of ownership. As explained at Battery University, "The time at which the battery stays at [maximum charge] should be as short as possible. Prolonged high voltage promotes corrosion, especially at elevated temperatures."[1]
This is why many new phones will "lose" up to 10% within a few minutes of coming off the charger. The reality is that the battery was only at 100% capacity for a brief moment, after which the battery management system allowed it to slowly dip down to around 90%. Leaving the phone plugged in overnight does not make a difference: the phone only uses the wall current to maintain a partial charge state.
To monitor this, I installed CurrentWidget on my HTC ADR6300 (Droid Incredible), an app that can log how much electric current is being drawn from the battery or received from the charger. Setting it to record log entries every 10 seconds, I have collected a few days worth of data. While many variables are involved (phone hardware, ROM, kernel, etc) and no two devices will perform exactly the same, the trends that I will describe are becoming more common in new phones. This is not just isolated to a single platform or a single manufacturer.
Chart 1 shows system reported battery levels over the course of one night, with the phone plugged in to a charger. Notice that as the battery level approaches 100%, the charging current gradually decreases. After a full charge is reached, wall current is cut completely, with the phone switching back to the battery for all of its power. It isn't until about two hours later that you can see the phone starts receiving wall current again, and even then it is only in brief bursts.
The steep drop in reported battery seen past the 6.5 hour mark shows the phone being unplugged. While the current draw does increase at this point (since the phone is being used), it still cannot account for the reported 6% depletion in 3 minutes. It should also be obvious that maintaining a 100% charge state is impossible given the long spans in which the phone is only operating on battery power.
Using the data from CurrentWidget, however, it is quite easy to project the actual battery state. Starting with the assumption that the first battery percentage reading is accurate, each subsequent point is calculated based on mA draw and time. Chart 2 includes this projection.
Now we can see that the 6% drop after unplugging is simply the battery gauge catching up with reality.
The phone manufacturers essentially have three choices:
1. Use older charging styles which actually maintain a full battery, thereby decreasing its eventual life
2. Use new charging methods and have an accurate battery gauge
3. Use new charging methods and have the inaccurate battery gauge
Option one has clearly fallen out of favor as it prematurely wears devices. Option two, while being honest, would most likely be met with many complaints. After all, how many people want to see their phone draining down to 90% while it is still plugged in? Option three therefore offers an odd compromise. Maybe phone companies think that users will be less likely to worry about a quick drop off the charger than they will worry about a "defective" charger that doesn't keep their phone at 100% while plugged in.
Bump It. Or Should You?
One technique that has gained popularity in the user community is "bump charging." To bump charge a device, turn it off completely, and plug it into a charger. Wait until the indicator light shows a full charge (on the ADR6300, for example, the charging LED changes from amber to green) but do not yet turn the device back on. Instead, disconnect and immediately reconnect the power cord. The device will now accept more charge before saying it is full. This disconnect/reconnect process can be repeated multiple times, each time squeezing just a little bit more into the battery. Does it work?
The following chart plots battery depletion after the device has received a hefty bump charge (6 cycles) and then turned on to use battery power. Note that the system does not show the battery dropping from 100% until well over an hour of unplugged use, at which point it starts to steadily decline. Again, however, it should be obvious that the battery gauge is not syncing up with reality. How could the rate of depletion be increasing over the first 5 hours while the rate of current draw is relatively steady? And why does the projected battery line separate from the reported levels, but then exactly mirror the later rises and falls?
The answer, of course, is that bump charging definitely works. Rather than anchoring our projected values to the first data point of 100%, what happens if we anchor against a later point in the plot?
Aligning the data suggests that a heavy bump charge increases initial capacity by approximately 15%. Note that the only other time that the lines separate in this graph was once again when the phone was put on the charger and topped up to 100%. Just as with the first set of graphs, the phone kept reporting 100% until it was unplugged, dropped rapidly, and again caught up with our projections.
So what does it all mean?
If you absolutely need the highest capacity on a device like this, you will need to bump charge. There are currently people experimenting with "fixes" for this, but I have yet to see one that works. Be warned, however, that repeated bump charging will wear your battery faster and begin to reduce its capacity. If you are a "power user" who will buy a new battery a few months from now anyway, this presumably isn't a concern. If you are an average consumer who uses a device for a few years, I would recommend that you stay away from bump charging. The bottom line is that you don't really "need" to do it unless you are actually depleting your battery to 0% on a regular basis.
If you are someone who can top off your phone on a regular basis, do it. Plug it in when you're at home. Plug it in when you're at your desk. As explained by Battery University, "Several partial discharges with frequent recharges are better for lithium-ion than one deep one. Recharging a partially charged lithium-ion does not cause harm because there is no memory."[2]
Beyond that, the best advice I can offer is to stop paying such close attention to your battery gauge and to just use your phone. Charge it whenever you can, and then stop obsessing over the exact numbers. If you really need more usage time, buy an extended-capacity battery and use it normally.
Pretty nice to know why it drops from 100% so fast now .....THANKS!
Sent from my ADR6300 using XDA App
Well written ..even prior to the data presentation!
Are the images not posted or am I doing something wrong?
Great read, well thought out and explained.
The only thing I'll add is that while there isn't a "memory affect" on our batteries, it is still recommended to do a full charge/discharge (don't let it get to <5% though) about once every 3 months.
Thanks for the kind words, gents.
spatton said:
Are the images not posted or am I doing something wrong?
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You should be able to see them embedded in the post. You can try reading it directly from my site: http://byrong.com/PowerTesting/
I'm not currently aware of any issues with my hosting, so hopefully it shows up OK for people.
toosurreal01 said:
The only thing I'll add is that while there isn't a "memory affect" on our batteries, it is still recommended to do a full charge/discharge (don't let it get to <5% though) about once every 3 months.
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Good point for many devices which may learn the wrong battery stats if they are never depleted. I am still not sure how this may or may not apply to our devices, so I hesitate to comment on it one way or the other.
I hope someone takes the time to delve more deeply into the battery stats that our devices record. Given the fact that we can wipe them using clockwork recovery, we are at least aware of where/how they are being kept.
That brings up another point worth mentioning, by the way: some people claim that wiping battery stats after a bump charge is a "fix" to increase the total charge that our phones will later apply. This has not been my experience. I have bumped/wiped in accordance with the various tutorials out there, but even afterward I have still found a large difference between a subsequent bump-charging and regular charging.
For some reason, my employer does not like your site and as such, I could not see he images.
Thanks for taking the time to do this. You confirmed my suspicions that I never documented but certainly experienced.
My take on the battery thing now, especially after reading this:
Actively and aggressively seek chargers
Don't look at he specific % of battery, when it gets yellow, get more aggressive
Relax
Use it in the morning, charge it while you shower - better than running out the door.
Great article!
I used to bump charge now if I'm near a charger I just throw it on for a few minutes. I also always carry a spare battery on me.
Sent from my Incredible using XDA App
Very nice.
I have a couple questions though. So on older phones, leaving it plugged in and it hit 100%, but was still getting full current from the charger for the remainder of the night, damages the battery right? so bump charging is doing the same thing, but not really damaging it as much, becuase we're unplugging it as soon as the light turns green, so its "at 100%" but we arent leaving it plugged in for hours after its green.
Excellent read. Very informative and well written!!
very well written. thank you, sir
spatton said:
For some reason, my employer does not like your site and as such, I could not see he images.
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Wow, I'm a little flattered. This is the first time I've heard of an employer blocking my site.
ufvj217 said:
So on older phones, leaving it plugged in and it hit 100%, but was still getting full current from the charger for the remainder of the night, damages the battery right?
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I don't have hard data for my older devices like I do for this phone, so my answers to this (and your following questions) are a mixture of anecdote, reading, and conjecture.
I don't think that the older devices were still getting full current after hitting 100% but rather some sort of trickle charge to keep them topped off. Battery chemistry itself will limit the charging current that can be applied as the battery approaches capacity.
Depending on the device and its management system, damage could come from too much charge being applied, or it could simply come from keeping the battery at the highest charge level possible for prolonged periods. That may sound like the same thing, but technically it's not.
Batteries are wear items, and even use under ideal conditions will eventually kill them. As shown on Battery University's page on prolonging lithium-based batteries, however, even minor decreases in the final charge level will greatly increase the number of cycles that a battery can endure (note figure 2)
ufvj217 said:
so bump charging is doing the same thing, but not really damaging it as much, becuase we're unplugging it as soon as the light turns green, so its "at 100%" but we arent leaving it plugged in for hours after its green.
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I'm not 100% sure whether:
Bump-charging is simply charging the battery to its physical capacity, which is greater than the capacity that our software thinks is appropriate;
Bump-charging is actually applying a charge to the battery that is outside of the rated specs for the battery; or
Some mix of 1 & 2
Also, since I can't use any logging tools while the phone is off, I'm not sure how the current behaves once the phone hits 'green' while off.
I therefore don't want to make a hard guess at the three options listed, as I don't want to spread false information. With that said, I think it is apparent through both testing and real-world use that bump-charging applies a charge that is higher than what is allowed when all of the phone's protections are "awake." Given that, we have to ask ourselves why the waking protections are stricter.
If you are inclined to believe that the manufacturer is setting limits that are too low, in an effort to prolong cycle life (or limit liability), then maybe bump-charging isn't too bad.
If you are inclined to believe that the manufacturer chose the charging limits for a good reason, and has the best interest of the consumer in mind, then bump-charging should be considered problematic.
I don't know if one of these is absolutely true over the other, but my life is easier without bump-charging, so I just avoid it. That's a personal choice though. I'm not trying to advance a position here as much as I'm trying to spread information and spark discussion.
Thanks to everyone for taking the time to read, and for your questions and comments.
Well put. I rarely bump charge myself, sometimes once i get to work (its at 88-90% by this time, 7am) ill charge it back up, then power it off and bump charge it a couple times. depending on what ill be doing that day after work. since im at a desk though all day, i usually just use it, when it gets to about 50 or so, ill plug it back in, etc. that seems to work fine for me. i do have the htc 2150 battery as well
Like you said, most people probably knew most of that, but still great to see it well written and explained.
Great job on this, I'll most definitely be passing it along to people who ask me what's going on.
Again, well written and very well explained.
Thanks
Thank you!
This has been perplexing me for some time now. Thanks for the info!
Well if youre looking for a batt fix that fixes this issue, you have to take a look in the Nexus and Desire forums. The Desire has it working for sure and I'm not sure about the Nexus. Unfortunately, their fix cannot be applied to our phones because we use a different battery driver...>.< sucks.
And bump charging works sometimes, idk why people turn off their phone to bump charge, thats actually worse than bump charging it when the phone is on. Bump charging when the phone is on is the best thing, the reason why is because percentage means actually nothing with these phones. THe percentage is read from the batterystats.bin file (I think..), which can easily be manipulated. Bump charging works because it rewrites that file once it hits 100% and at the same time, charges back to the highest voltage possible.
I've been working on a fix for our phones (i personally dont own an Incredible, I own an Evo and they use the same driver) and I'm pretty much close. Been on it 24/7 for the past few weeks and all I have to deal with now is the charger timer that seems to reset at a certain time that I cant seem to find yet. This fix should also calibrate the battery on each charge so that you will no longer need to wipe stats or bump charge or do any of that stuff.
so you can charge with the phone on until the led is green, unplug, plug back in (with phone still on) and itll change back to amber for a while?
ufvj217 said:
so you can charge with the phone on until the led is green, unplug, plug back in (with phone still on) and itll change back to amber for a while?
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if you unplug and plug back in instantly it wont do jack for ya. You gotta unplug, wait until you hit 99% and then plug it back in and wait for 100%. Doing that while the phone is on is best because if you've ever noticed, the batterystats gets messed up while the phone is off for the most part (ex: Recovery mode and stuff). Also, idk if this is true for the Inc, but with the Evo, if you have the phone on the charger while its off and power it on while the LED is green, it doesnt stay charging, it goes off the charger to use some battery to power on and then it charges and that messes with the batterystats which messes with the voltage for some odd reason.
Very nicely done. There are always going to be people who don't get it, but this is easily the best synopsis I've seen yet. People get all wrapped up in numbers, instead of actual use, and the percentage becomes way more important than it should be. Just do whatever you need to do (keep a charger handy, get a bigger battery) to support your needs.
I'm one of the fortunate ones... between the tweaks I've done with custom kernels and whatnot and the fact that I'm not a real heavy user, I have no problem making it from morning to bedtime with more than 50% remaining. And you know what? I don't care whether my phone's at 70% or 10% when I plug it in before bed. As long as it makes it that far, I'm happy. I could easily go two days between charges, but I don't bother, because there really isn't any point other than to gloat about my great battery life, which doesn't impress anyone. I've got a charger, and I use it every night. It works for me.
One of the best posts i ever read here! Kudos from an electrical engineer
I've been seeing "Battery Calibration" a lot lately especially with custom Roms and how to improve battery life. Here is great info on prolonging battery life for your epic. And what NOT TO DO!
Forgive me if this is in the wrong section of the forum but I saw a lot here on this topic so I thought I would share the information I have.
Lithium Ion batteries DO NOT NEED TO BE CALIBRATED. Forgive me for yelling but I can't stress it enough. The current lithium ion batteries for your computer and most of all, your Samsung Epic4g do not have an internal memory. All they have is an internal chip that prevents them from overcharging, and of course the cells for the Lithium Ion process to occur.
Nickel Cadmium or NiCad batteries do have an internal memory that acts much like a fuel gauge in your vehicle, it tells the battery small information on % charge etc.
Your Samsung Epic 4G has to interpret the amount of charge left and % from your battery. That's why it saves battery stats. It really works by averages and the only thing the battery tells the phone is "I'm Full!" when it reaches 100%. or "I'm Dead!" when the cells are empty. Your phone does the rest and interprets to you in % how much life is left in that battery.
Someone got the not so bright idea of calibrating the battery, maybe because it worked on a NiCad battery, maybe it should work on a Lithium Ion battery? WRONG!
Lithium Ion batteries have a prescribed life. The average life of a 1500mAh battery is around 2000-3000 charges. The reason behind this is the Lithium Cells become unstable and are prone to explosion.
So, every time you fully discharge your battery and recharge it, you just shortened the overall life of your battery. And if you're one of those people who discharge and recharges 3 times consecutively, you're really messing up your battery. Heat is the biggest enemy of Lithium Ion Batteries, if they get too hot, from forced discharges they actually develop tiny crystals on the inside of the cells that prevent it from being truly 100% charged.
So, in reality your phone is telling you your battery is 100% charged when it is only 85% fully charged inside the battery.
Please, please, please, do not discharge your battery and consecutively recharge it again. I love my epic and I hate to see other epics abused like that.
If you want to prolong your battery life follow these short and simple steps:
1. The closer you keep your phone to 100% the longer it will live.
2. Avoid unnecessary discharges to 0%.
3. Charge your phone when it is off, not in standby. - Charging in standby causes unwanted heat.
4. Unplug your battery when it's fully charged. - Sure, that "Battery 100% Full" message is annoying, but maybe it was put there for a reason? Hmm.
5. Wipe your battery stats weekly, only after a full power off charge, or Rom Change
6. Avoid doing anything that heats up your phone. - Sure WiFi Tethering and BlueTooth Tethering is awesome, but it heats up the phone in most cases, this will destroy your battery.
I can't post the link because I don't have enough posts. But go to google , search "battery university" and then look for lithium ion batteries.
I am a computer science / electrical engineer and I have done extensive research in batteries and mobile devices.
Please save those batteries!
-George
Interesting post. Thanks!
Sent from my Emotionlessly Bonsai'd Epic 4g.
A cycle is a cycle friend, whether dropping to 50% twice or dropping to 0% once ... it is still a registered cycle. Below is the best write up I have came across concerning battery care. Still trying to figure out the purpose of this thread however, if you are insinuating that a batt stat reset and full charge to discharge is not helpfull after a kernel change (voltage change) then you are sorely mistaken, it WILL, I repeat WILL cause your device to not register the true charge state of your battery unless you do so. And if your phone is not monitoring your battery correctly it could negate symbiance between your batt and your device.
Wiping your stats without a full discharge is useless btw. In the fact that one of the few things your post was accurate on is that the only two way communications between battery and device happen at full and empty. Would probably do a lot of good if this thread wrought with misinformation was deleted. Just in case it is not a really good caresheet is as follows.
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Lithium Ion Battery Care
Batteries are made to be used, so use them.
Just like couch potatoes, batteries need exercise. The chemicals in Lithium-Ion batteries respond best to regular recharging. So if you have a laptop, don’t keep it plugged in all the time; go ahead and let it drain to about 40 or 50 percent of capacity, and then recharge your computer.
The life of a Lithium-Ion battery can be measured in charge cycles. A charge cycle occurs when 100% of a battery’s capacity is used. Let’s say you use 50% of your laptop’s battery one day, charge it overnight, and then you use 50% of the battery again the next day. Even after charging it back up again, you’ll have only had one charge cycle occur. Most laptop batteries are rated for a useful life of at least 300-500 charge cycles, but high-quality, properly maintained batteries can retain up to 80% of their original life, even after 300 cycles.
Periodically calibrate your battery.
Most batteries that have a “fuel gauge”, like those in laptops, should be periodically discharged to zero. This can be accomplished simply by letting your computer run until it reports a low-battery state and suspends itself. (Do not let your computer deep discharge, as I’ll explain in the next item.)
The gauge that measures the remaining power in your laptop is based on circuitry integrated into the battery that approximates the effectiveness of the battery’s chemical compounds. Over time, a discrepancy can develop between the capacity that the internal circuitry expects the battery to have and what the battery can actually provide. Letting your computer run down to zero every month or so can recalibrate the battery’s circuitry, and keep your computer’s estimates of its remaining life accurate.
Don’t practice so-called deep discharges.
Most laptops will suspend operation if the battery drains too low. Even if your computer goes to sleep, though, most batteries that are in good working order will still have a reserve charge available. This reserve will hold the computer’s working memory in state for a little while. A deep discharge has occurred when even that percentage of reserve power is used up. The computer will have turned off completely, and sometimes you’ll notice that it will have lost track of the correct date and time. Deep discharges will strain your batteries, so try to charge them frequently.
Avoid exposing your battery to heat (when possible).
Heat can overexcite the chemicals in your battery, shortening its overall lifespan. In fact, it’s been speculated that the biggest cause of early battery expiration is the heat that batteries can be exposed to when they’re stored in computers that are running off AC power. Laptops — especially modern multi-core machines — can get very hot when they’re plugged in, easily over 100 degrees Fahrenheit. That’s hot enough that extended exposure will negatively affect your battery. If you want to be really protective, there’s nothing saying that you can’t pop the battery out of your laptop if you’re going to be within reach of a power outlet for a while.
There may be times that you can’t help but expose your laptop battery to heat; you may live in a warm climate, for instance. You can, however, try and avoid exacerbating the issue. Make sure your laptop is well ventilated and that you’re not operating it on a surface that retains heat, even when you’re not plugged into mains power.
Store your batteries properly.
If your laptop or portable device isn’t going to be used for a while, you should remove its Lithium-Ion battery, if possible. Even if the battery can’t be separated from the device, it should be stored in a cool environment at about one-half charge. Cool temperature is recommended by experts because that can slow the natural discharge that batteries will undergo even when they’re disconnected from their device.
I’ve seen some people go even further and recommend that spare batteries be stored in the refrigerator. I don’t think this is a very good idea; I’m concerned about condensation that might build up. Don’t put your batteries on ice, but keep them out of the sun.
Ultimately, I believe that buying spare Li-Ion batteries is a losing game, because the batteries start degrading as soon as they’re manufactured. Usually those spare batteries spend most of their time sitting in a charger, losing useful life. If you need to be really mobile, you’re better off purchasing an adapter cable you can use with the power sources available in planes, trains, or autos. And, of course, by taking good care of the battery you already have."
One question in regards to your post. I currently use the desk top cradle to plug in when I get home, will this mess with the battery too? It was made by Samsung I am confused as to why they would make something to use with your epic if it will hurt the battery.
HeisRisen said:
A cycle is a cycle friend, whether dropping to 50% twice or dropping to 0% once ... it is still a registered cycle. Below is the best write up I have came across concerning battery care. Still trying to figure out the purpose of this thread however, if you are insinuating that a batt stat reset and full charge to discharge is not helpfull after a kernel change (voltage change) then you are sorely mistaken, it WILL, I repeat WILL cause your device to not register the true charge state of your battery unless you do so. And if your phone is not monitoring your battery correctly it could negate symbiance between your batt and your device.
Wiping your stats without a full discharge is useless btw. In the fact that one of the few things your post was accurate on is that the only two way communications between battery and device happen at full and empty. Would probably do a lot of good if this thread wrought with misinformation was deleted. Just in case it is not a really good caresheet is as follows."
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Don't quite know if you're trying to "one-up" me on battery life, but this post is not misinformation, I am trying to explain in layman's terms on how a battery communicates with the phone. I don't need to cite my academic pedigree and be all "scientific" about saving battery life.
The point of this thread is an answer to all the threats I've seen on improving battery life and the countless posts I've seen on fully discharging a Lithium Ion Battery to "calibrate it"
The point I don't quite understand about your reply to this thread is that it just restates what I already pointed out only it's longer. Maybe if you have more words than me it makes you smarter...
but I stand corrected, I did mean a wipe of battery stats after a Rom Change and Only after a full power off charge, not intermittently.
but...
"one of the few things my post was accurate on" - Hmm, if it's an inaccurate post to you, just report it. - I assure you these are not claims and theories but pure fact.
I'm not here to get into a pissing contest about battery life, I'm just posting here to help people...
emalia said:
One question in regards to your post. I currently use the desk top cradle to plug in when I get home, will this mess with the battery too? It was made by Samsung I am confused as to why they would make something to use with your epic if it will hurt the battery.
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I would advise that as long as you are charging your Epic in the cradle while it is not powered on, then you'll be perfectly fine. Charging it while it is powered on will cause unnecessary heat.
And I finally accumulated enough posts to cite my sources:
http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries
I have to say that Laptop batteries are a lot different than cellphone batteries, the "do a full discharge after a few weeks" works great for a laptop battery but I would not do this with a cell phone battery. They just aren't the same internally. Laptop batteries are a bit more sophisticated.
actually, lithium ion batteries are best kept at about 50%, not 100
This thread is simply a point of ignorance about what is being described when people talk about "calibrating a battery" on an android phone. The process is not actually about calibrating the battery. It actually calibrates how the software reads battery information. You do see better battery life after going through it, but nothing has changed about the battery.
If you've ever flashed a ROM and suddenly found the battery to significantly higher or lower percentage displayed in the software meter, or if you found the battery seems to drain more quickly than previous(it doesn't, the phone just shows higher than actual charge to start), those are symptoms of poorly or not-at-all calibrated situations. The "battery calibration" process is a fix for that.
And OP, I'd say your understanding is rudimentary at best. While its true that Li-ion batteries don't "have a memory" (no batteries "have a memory", the memory effect was a result of the chemical process used by some batteries), li-ion batteries do show better usable lifetimes when charged according to certain standards. Again, its a matter of how the chemical process works and what wear the battery's internals develop depending on it is used.
akijikan said:
This thread is simply a point of ignorance about what is being described when people talk about "calibrating a battery" on an android phone. The process is not actually about calibrating the battery. It actually calibrates how the software reads battery information. You do see better battery life after going through it, but nothing has changed about the battery.
If you've ever flashed a ROM and suddenly found the battery to significantly higher or lower percentage displayed in the software meter, or if you found the battery seems to drain more quickly than previous(it doesn't, the phone just shows higher than actual charge to start), those are symptoms of poorly or not-at-all calibrated situations. The "battery calibration" process is a fix for that.
And OP, I'd say your understanding is rudimentary at best. While its true that Li-ion batteries don't "have a memory" (no batteries "have a memory", the memory effect was a result of the chemical process used by some batteries), li-ion batteries do show better usable lifetimes when charged according to certain standards. Again, its a matter of how the chemical process works and what wear the battery's internals develop depending on it is used.
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Once again, I'm not in here to get into a specifics and scientific pissing contest on how batteries work, I just put a guide on how to improve your battery longevity.
Not everyone in here is an electro-chemical engineer with a concentration in battery physics. Or whatever. So, stop ripping apart my post with your blabbering physics. Just because I have a low amount of posts makes me inferior to you?
I'm sorry you sensed hostility in my post. But don't ignore what I'm saying about battery calibration.
I think Aki is right, we aren't calibrating our battery, we are resetting battery stats the software keeps. The reason we recommend this is b/c when folks change ROM's some can get miserable battery life in practice until they reset the stats. An experienced dev can tell you why, but it is a common enough fact to warrant wiping battery stats when switching ROM's.
Sent from my Epic 4G on XDA App
akijikan said:
I'm sorry you sensed hostility in my post. But don't ignore what I'm saying about battery calibration.
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It was a bit hostile... I enjoy a good debate and rational thought though, I understand what you're saying, I'm not trying to get into the specifics, but it seems a lot of users are doing this "process" too much, and personally I don't think you should do it at all. I think you should do a full recharge (powered off, not discharge) then wipe battery stats. Period. No need for a discharge to 0.
People, this guy is just trying to help. There is no need to be rude. We are all on this form trying help each other. This whole idea is hurt when someone posts something and gets attacked. There is no need to call someone ignorant if you don't agree
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
codest3r said:
I think Aki is right, we aren't calibrating our battery, we are resetting battery stats the software keeps. The reason we recommend this is b/c when folks change ROM's some can get miserable battery life in practice until they reset the stats. An experienced dev can tell you why, but it is a common enough fact to warrant wiping battery stats when switching ROM's.
Sent from my Epic 4G on XDA App
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Personally, I've gotten the best battery life when I do what I just posted above. Which is a powered off charge to 100% then a battery stats wipe. Viola, no need to discharge all the way to 0 and back to 100. It just tears up your battery in my experience.
tatoniss said:
People, this guy is just trying to help. There is no need to be rude. We are all on this form trying help each other. This whole idea is hurt when someone posts something and gets attacked. There is no need to call someone ignorant if you don't agree
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
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I appreciate the support. If you think I'm dead wrong let me know. But the intent is far more important that the means of which I describe how the battery communicates with the phone.
I just want Epic Users to get the best out of their Epic.
I think a lot of people think they are calibrating their battery, but in all actuallity it's the information in the phone about the battery that needs to be callibrated.
gwcarpenter said:
I appreciate the support. If you think I'm dead wrong let me know. But the intent is far more important that the means of which I describe how the battery communicates with the phone.
I just want Epic Users to get the best out of their Epic.
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You have to understand that the battery percentage is calculated by the phone. If the phone has no way of knowing the actual battery percentage accept with an indication that the battery is full or an indication that the battery is dead, then logic serves that one would have to perform a complete cycle to get accurate statistics. Let's say you have an electric car that's 'fuel' gauge is based solely on an indicator from the battery when it is full and when it is empty. It was initially calibrated to go ~300 miles on a full charge. Now say you get a new engine that might use energy at a different rate than the previous engine (analogous to say a kernel update). You don't really know the percentage of the battery until you record how many miles you've driven before the battery becomes empty. For the statistics to be accurate you must record the statistics over the entire battery discharge cycle. If the only indicator the software has is full and empty, the only thing you can gather from the statistics without a full cycle is the amount of energy that wasn't a full cycle.
Another analogy would be being blindfolded and sipping water through a straw. If you are told that it is full when you start and you drink 25% of it and then we fill it up again. Now you drink the same amount, how much is left (keeping in mind you are still blindfolded.) You have no idea, because you haven't done a whole cycle. You have no idea if you just drank 25% or 50% or 75% because you have never finished it.
My point is, is that you can't record the full capacity of batteries without doing a full charge, discharge cycle.
gwcarpenter said:
Lithium Ion batteries DO NOT NEED TO BE CALIBRATED.
Heat is the biggest enemy of Lithium Ion Batteries, if they get too hot, from forced discharges they actually develop tiny crystals on the inside of the cells that prevent it from being truly 100% charged.
So, in reality your phone is telling you your battery is 100% charged when it is only 85% fully charged inside the battery.
If you want to prolong your battery life follow these short and simple steps:
1. The closer you keep your phone to 100% the longer it will live.
4. Unplug your battery when it's fully charged. - Sure, that "Battery 100% Full" message is annoying, but maybe it was put there for a reason? Hmm.
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Above are some things you said, and below I'm going to copy and paste some stuff from the article.
Although lithium-ion is memory-free in terms of performance deterioration, batteries with fuel gauges exhibit what engineers refer to as "digital memory". Here is the reason: Short discharges with subsequent recharges do not provide the periodic calibration needed to synchronize the fuel gauge with the battery's state-of-charge. A deliberate full discharge and recharge every 30 charges corrects this problem. Letting the battery run down to the cut-off point in the equipment will do this. If ignored, the fuel gauge will become increasingly less accurate.
The worst condition is keeping a FULLY CHARGED battery at elevated temperatures
If possible, store the battery in a cool place at about a 40% state-of-charge.
Avoid keeping the battery at full charge and high temperature.
While the battery is kept fully charged, the inside temperature during operation rises to 45°C (113°F).
Batteries with fuel gauge (laptops) should be calibrated by applying a deliberate full discharge once every 30 charges. Running the pack down in the equipment does this. If ignored, the fuel gauge will become increasingly less accurate and in some cases cut off the device prematurely.
gwcarpenter said:
Personally, I've gotten the best battery life when I do what I just posted above. Which is a powered off charge to 100% then a battery stats wipe. Viola, no need to discharge all the way to 0 and back to 100. It just tears up your battery in my experience.
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That is correct. Discharging to 0% does nothing. The most important thing is getting the battery as full as possible, and then reset the fuel gauge(wipe battery stats.) Personally, I use the external Samsung spare battery charger to charge the battery to full, then insert it in the phone, and boot into recovery and wipe batterystats.
What many don't understand is that wiping batterystats in CWM deletes the batterstats.bin file in data/system. So when you do a data wipe, you are wiping batterystats also. This is why it is important to have a full battery when flashing a new ROM. Something else to remember is that restoring data from a Nandroid backup will also restore an old batterystats.bin file, which is fine if the new ROM has a kernal that is the same or similar to the previous one, but it will negate any batterystats wipe you did before restoring data.
Is this the definitive way to do it?
http://hemorrdroids.net/battery-calibration/
Those steps came from here, xda devs.
1. Run the device down until it turns itself off.
2. Turn it back on and wait for it to turn itself off again.
3. Remove the battery for 10 seconds.
4. Replace the battery, but leave the device off.
5. Charge the device until full and then for another hour.
6 **Root users only** Using a Terminal Emulator, type “su” enter, followed by “rm /data/system/batterystats.bin”
7. Run the device’s battery down until it turns itself off.
8 .Turn the device on and charge for at least 8 hours.
9. Unplug the device, turn off, then charge for another hour.
10. Unplug the device, turn on, wait 2 minutes.
11.Turn off again and charge for another hour.
12. Restart and use as normal.
Quite a performance! Does it preserve battery lifespan, or is it more to do with slowing down battery drain and does it really work?
He mentions 2 interesting things:
"Generally charge them before they get lower than 50%". I didn't know that, so it's actually better to charge more often and not let it drain down?
"USB charging is actually better for the battery and you may get up to 1 hours more standby time." So you gain an hour standby but it takes twice as long to charge the phone.
Nice manual
Will try it
Sent from my GT-I9100 using Tapatalk
Some will say that its complete nonsense .
Overcharge for 8 hours ??? how does the battery not turn charging off at 100%
Recharge 50% the accepted figure is not to go below 20% to often .
They may be right or wrong their are so many contrasting views on battery charging .
jje
Discharging battery and then reloading it fully, it's the normal procedure for battery calibration for almost all the devices in the world (including computers, etc.).
Step 8 to 11 seems quite a bit strange however.
hm, just seen a different way to calibrate the battery. basically, you drain the battery, take it out for a couple of minutes, put back in, then try to turn it on to make sure it's completely flat.
then you charge it fully, then boot to recovery and wipe battery stats then drain and fully charge. so... which one is more likely to be the better?
that guy also advises to repeat that 12 step, 1-2 day long tedious procedure "every month or so".
it is lunacy honestly speaking
does it work? did he died ?
LOL I dont understand .... I just read in another day that NEVER LET BATTERY GO LOWER THAN 15% and know I read "drain drain drain" Oh welll ...
I also thought that at 100% the charging process stops.
Although this thread is about battery calibration, these questions about battery charging always pop up.
Battery calibration is the process by which you set your device with your battery data.
Every single battery is slightly different. Although there are minimum stantards to every spec of the battery, each battery is different.
Calibrating your battery is nothing more than setting your phone to the real specs of your own battery (since the phone comes configured with the battery factory standards). For example, your phone may be set to use a battery which maximum charge is 1650 mAh, but your battery has a maximum charge of 1625 mAh. That may be within the acceptable factory standard, meaning you have a normal battery, but that also means that your phone will never indicate a 100% charge after you unplug the charger.
If you calibrate that hypothetical battery, you will "tell" your phone that its maximum charge capacity is actually 1625 mAh, meaning from that on your phone's battery indicator will be more accurate.
For that reason, it is necessary to fully discharge and fully recharge your battery for the calibration process, since your device must read the actual specs (minimum charge, maximum charge, charging current, etc) of the installed battery.
I don't know about how many times this full cicle (discharging and recharging) must be performed, but that is the reason why it must be performed for the calibration to succed.
A DIFFERENT THING is the normal discharging and charging process during normal use of the phone.
In this case, you should NEVER let your battery go under 20% and, what few people know, it also should never go over 95%. This stresses the battery and diminish its life time.
Also, and there's a lot of doubts about this, the lower the charging voltage, the slower the charging process, but the longer the battery life.
High charging voltages (like the one used by the charger sold with the phone, which is around 5V) stress the battery, diminishing considerably its life time.
That is true for all lithium-ion batteries!
Therefore it is better to charge your phone through USB (which uses around 4,3V) than to do it using the charger provided with the phone.
You may be asking "If the charging voltage of the charger provided by the manufacturer stresses the battery, why does the manufacturer provide such charger?"
For purely commercial reasons! Higher voltages mean shorter charging cycles, which please the consummer. Moreover, the battery capacity loss with the factory provided charger is around 15-20% a year (considering "normal" to "heavy" use). That is to say that after a year your battery will only reach 80-85% of the maximum charge it used to reach when it was new. And by that time your manufacturer expects you to consider buying a new phone, with more features.
Summing it up:
- calibration is just the process by which you "tell" your phone what the real specs of your battery;
- in normal use, charging your phone through USB is better than doing it with the manufacturer provided charger;
- try not to let your battery charge go under 20% nor above 95%;
- if you're interested, read more about it at batteryuniversity.com
Spin three times in clockwise direction with left middle finger on your nose while blinking your eyes with the phone plugged in.
Jump in the air 3 times.
Unplug phone.
Thats some messed up instructions.
Do you have any idea what kind of strain you're putting on the battery while doing all that?
All you're gonna get is some extra minutes, maybe an hour but is it really worth it because you're just reducing overall battery lifespan by doing that procedure over and over.
Specially when you constantly keep the battery at 4200mV (full charge) for a long time. You're practically killing it by overcharging.
Transmitted from a Galaxy far far away via XDA telepathy.
m2smoe said:
Spin three times in clockwise direction with left middle finger on your nose while blinking your eyes with the phone plugged in.
Jump in the air 3 times.
Unplug phone.
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that made me chuckle
Never done a calibration on a battery and most of the time i even didn't let battery to discarge very much and then load it again. Never had a problem with battery life it last how long it should last every time and i've used that battery for years. So the battery "calibration" are kinda useless.
Matriak31 said:
that made me chuckle
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Well then, my job here is done
m2smoe said:
Well then, my job here is done
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it is indeed...i should follow you just to have more laughs like that cheers
RenatoN said:
Although this thread is about battery calibration, these questions about battery charging always pop up.
Battery calibration is the process by which you set your device with your battery data.
Every single battery is slightly different. Although there are minimum stantards to every spec of the battery, each battery is different.
Calibrating your battery is nothing more than setting your phone to the real specs of your own battery (since the phone comes configured with the battery factory standards). For example, your phone may be set to use a battery which maximum charge is 1650 mAh, but your battery has a maximum charge of 1625 mAh. That may be within the acceptable factory standard, meaning you have a normal battery, but that also means that your phone will never indicate a 100% charge after you unplug the charger.
If you calibrate that hypothetical battery, you will "tell" your phone that its maximum charge capacity is actually 1625 mAh, meaning from that on your phone's battery indicator will be more accurate.
For that reason, it is necessary to fully discharge and fully recharge your battery for the calibration process, since your device must read the actual specs (minimum charge, maximum charge, charging current, etc) of the installed battery.
I don't know about how many times this full cicle (discharging and recharging) must be performed, but that is the reason why it must be performed for the calibration to succed.
A DIFFERENT THING is the normal discharging and charging process during normal use of the phone.
In this case, you should NEVER let your battery go under 20% and, what few people know, it also should never go over 95%. This stresses the battery and diminish its life time.
Also, and there's a lot of doubts about this, the lower the charging voltage, the slower the charging process, but the longer the battery life.
High charging voltages (like the one used by the charger sold with the phone, which is around 5V) stress the battery, diminishing considerably its life time.
That is true for all lithium-ion batteries!
Therefore it is better to charge your phone through USB (which uses around 4,3V) than to do it using the charger provided with the phone.
You may be asking "If the charging voltage of the charger provided by the manufacturer stresses the battery, why does the manufacturer provide such charger?"
For purely commercial reasons! Higher voltages mean shorter charging cycles, which please the consummer. Moreover, the battery capacity loss with the factory provided charger is around 15-20% a year (considering "normal" to "heavy" use). That is to say that after a year your battery will only reach 80-85% of the maximum charge it used to reach when it was new. And by that time your manufacturer expects you to consider buying a new phone, with more features.
Summing it up:
- calibration is just the process by which you "tell" your phone what the real specs of your battery;
- in normal use, charging your phone through USB is better than doing it with the manufacturer provided charger;
- try not to let your battery charge go under 20% nor above 95%;
- if you're interested, read more about it at batteryuniversity.com
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Click to collapse
You should post the source for your info, cause I am seeing a lot of incorrect information in here.
If you guys want to learn about your battery, visit the site Battery University
The OEM replacement battery is worth about $10.
Save yourself the stress....use it...charge it when you need to...if the battery ever fails cough up $10.
Sent from my GT-I9100 using XDA App
The way I would calibrate my batteries is a bit different. Lithium ion batteries don't need to be drained then charged to full AFAIK, and I even remember reading somewhere that draining it is actually only for NiCad batteries. It used to be relevant when phones were using NiCad but not anymore.
Read: http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries
As such I have read that the universal way to 'calibrate' batteries is by charging to full, using for a couple of mins and charging again.
What I have been doing is:
1. Charge to full when phone is switched off (doesn't matter if it's from 0% or 99%).
2. Switch on the phone, use for 5 mins.
3. Switch off then charge until full.
4. Repeat step 2 once more
That's it! It seems pretty simple but it seems to have worked for me.
The way i do it is different. Firstly i have the battery calibration app from the market by Nema..then i fully charge my phone and when it says its fully charge i go into the app. There it gives me the instructions on how to calibrate...First i wait till i charge the phone without any interruptions. then click on the app and wait til the battery goes to 4200MV and then i press the calibrate button and then the app does it for me. Then i drain the battery again without any interuptions or breaks during that time and then charge it again once battery dies down and thats it.
there are so many ways being touted on the forums you really dont know which one to go for...but whatever works for each person then who are we to tell someone different just thought i share that
If my battery dies, or gets significally lower capacity after 1 or 2 years of usage, I'll just buy a new one if I plan to keep the phone longer.. Going through these rituals and painstakenly monitor my battery % so that it never goes below 20 % or above 95 % is just not worth it.. Doesn't increase the life THAT much anyway.. I use the phone until I hear the beep for low batt, and from there until I have a charger available.. Most of the time it's before it reaches 10 %, thats good enough for me.. Once in a while it might even go so far that it dies.. Then I charge it till it says 100 %.. Most of the times I plug it when going to bed, and let it charge over night.. This is normal usage and what the battery should be designed to handle, and so far it does..
Using always connected to Charger?
For long term battery health I wouldn't recommend keeping it plugged in for long periods of time. People say today's batteries have protective circuits that prevent overcharging, but I don't really trust this. So I simply unplug it as soon as it is fully charged.
As for actual better battery life, turn off everything you don't need - GPS, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Mobile Data etc. This phone should give you an average of 6 hours SOT. To obtain more you will probably need a custom kernel, but even then the results may vary.
Yeah it has protection circuit to protect overcharging. Lithium based batteries can always take charge, and might self-combust. (ok , worst case. basically, lithium can't get in contact with water. RH in air is just enough to start the self combustion reaction). Nowadays, Li-ion or Li-Po are well made, and this is less problematic.
This as been said, it doesn't mean that this circuit won't trigger the battery every 0.XXX% drop, which is not good, so yeah, until someone do electric reading test on the op5, I won't suggest to let the device plugged in when full.
Simple rules for lithuim based batteries :
- time will kill the battery, even if it's brand new sealed. (normal chemical reaction). Nothing we can do here, limit extreme temperatures, not too cold not too hot.
- heat will decrease battery life and capacity. This mean, dash charging will decrease life. So, 1.2A to 2.0 [email protected] charger is more appropriate. Even if dash tech will regulate the charge, you still have a time that it will optimize to max power, so more heat.
- Polarity direction changes will decrease life/capacity. This mean, do not charge it if you don't need to.
- do not wait to drain it at 0%, I don't know what is the security factor from OnePLus. A single lithium based batterie under 2.60-2.75V, will mostlikely be dead , or will loose more than 50% of his capacity.
Some lithium based battery will perform better, but to keep low price, do not worry, oneplus use standard li-po.
More developed info here :
http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/how_to_prolong_lithium_based_batteries
When the phone is plugged, it doesn't use the battery anymore, therefore the battery is not drained. Once it reaches 100%, it just stays at 100% until you unplug it.
Some says that leaving the charger plugged is not ecological, because it still uses energy even if it doesn't charge anything, but in reality it hardly use energy. I don't remember the numbers, but it is really insignificant.
In the end, there are a lot of superstitions concerning charging and battery life, most coming from old habits and false/outdated information spreading through the internet. The only things very true is that you should avoid letting your battery going to 0%, and don't let your battery overheat, and that's all. Charge when you please, as long as you please, and avoid using low-cost chargers or batteries as some can be dangerous.
I used my Xiaomi Mi3 for 3 years, letting it plugged every night with a QuickCharge charger, and it could still handle a whole day when I finally sold it.