bump charging?

[jnadelman]

I saw this post on the HTC Droid Incredible about bump charging the phone. Is this something that we should do with the Evo? Has anyone done it? Is this something you do once, or every time you charge?

Here are the instructions

Charge your Incredible to max (green light).
Unplug the phone and then turn it off.
Plug it back in (should have an orange light now) and charge it to max again.
Unplug the phone and turn it on. Wait for it to boot up.
Turn the phone off and then plug it back in (should be an orange light again).
Charge it to full (green light) again.
Repeat this process until the light is green immediately upon plugging it back in.

 

[beezy]

I read that thread,i think them guys do it every morning before they go to work.

 

[jnadelman]

Also, when you charge (regardless of bump or not) do you
1 - leave the phone on or off?
2 - charge overnight, or stay around to unplug soon after it goes green?
3 - do you let the battery drain to a certain level before recharging?

 

[2CupsWithString]

Is it really that bad? I think there has to be something for there to be such huge differences between different people.

I charge overnight. Yesterday I used the phone from like 8AM off charger until 1AM on charger and it was still green. It alerted well over a hundred emails, had like two short phone calls and I straight up abused the web browser for probably 45 minutes total, (watching videos through dolphin HD).

 

[theiphonewannabe]

Just use this and battery life will never be a worry again. Just watch out for leaking battery acid.

 

[lshelmir]

I have noticed a difference when I unplug then plug back in. I unplugged the phone for the second time this morning at 6:30, and my batterey is still at 91% at 10:30, I didn't plug it in while in the car.

 

[AndroidOne]

I charge mine overnight (I leave my radio on 24/7), and notice that soon after disconnecting it the battery drops from 100% to the mid or low 90's within minutes. Lately I have plugged it back while I get ready to leave for work and by then the battery is 100% and lasts a lot longer than before with same usage. Been doing this only the past three days so is too early to know if this "technique" actually works.

There is another post that attempts to explain why this may be happening in terms of the Evo's charging circuit not providing any trickle charge after the battery reaches 100%, in effect allowing the battery to be drained from that point on despite the charger still being attached to the phone. My understanding from that post is that disconnecting the charger and then connecting it again allows the charging circuitry to "reset" and top off the battery again.

 

[jnadelman]

Well, I guess something is different for my phone. I just charged it (while on). A minute or so after it went green I unplugged it and then turned the phone off. I plugged it back in and the light went orange and within less than a minute it was green again. I unplugged, turned on now, plugged back in, and it was green instantly.

 

[bobodobo]

I just learned about this yesterday (didn't know it was called "bump charging") but it caused a HUGE improvement in my battery life. Hard to quantify without a systematic test but it seems like I get at least 50% longer battery life with the same usage. Could it be a placebo effect? Possibly I guess but not likely, I've tried other things that I concluded did NOT help.

 

[spoiledsuperstar]

I tried this too yesterday. Right now my phone says 18 hours since last unplugged and I still have 50% of my battery left. Also, it stayed charged at 100% for a few hours instead of dropping within a few minutes of it being unplugged. I'm pretty impressed so far.

 

[iduarte21]

Well, I guess something is different for my phone. I just charged it (while on). A minute or so after it went green I unplugged it and then turned the phone off. I plugged it back in and the light went orange and within less than a minute it was green again. I unplugged, turned on now, plugged back in, and it was green instantly.

same here. is that good?

 

[scott_0]

Im not going through all that, when I charge my batteries on my Seidio desk top charger, I get a full solid charge. my battery stays at 100% for an hour or more, when I charge the battery in the phone it drops very quickly

 

[AndroidOne]

Im not going through all that, when I charge my batteries on my Seidio desk top charger, I get a full solid charge. my battery stays at 100% for an hour or more, when I charge the battery in the phone it drops very quickly

This is consistent with the explanation offered regarding the internal charging circuitry on the Evo. One of the theories stated on a similar thread is that the internal charging circuitry tops off the battery and then shuts down. Even when the phone remains connected to the power source with a green light the phone in effect is drawing power for it's operation from the battery rather than the charging circuit, draining battery power.

This theory is consistent with my observations: after leaving the phone connected to the charger overnight, the battery indicates 100% charge before disconnecting, just to drop to the mid to low 90's a few minutes after is off external power. The fact your externally charged battery has a good life and shows 100% when you start using it provides some additional support to this theory.

I am using a far simpler charging procedure than the one described by the OP with excellent results. I just leave my phone charging all night and remove it from the charger when I get up. Then connect it again while I get ready for work or in the car on my way to work. Once the battery reaches 100%, remove from charger and continue normal operations for the day. With this "procedure", my battery life has increased noticeably.

 

[tadtam]

I have tried the same procedure that AndroidOne uses and have found the same increase in battery life that he does. I easily get 16 hours whereas previously was lucky to get 10 hours

 

[solo1]

I REALLY wish I knew what to do with my phone ... I have tried many of the advices here including reset but my battery is failing ... I am so pissed ... I am getting 5 hours ... 5 .. No joke ... HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELP

 

[bluediablito]

hey solo1
i had similar result on my wife phone. i would recommend changing the how frequent you fetch email. and what really help was advance app killer. i did all this to my phone and then use the same method that androidone mention it really work.
but one thing that i did that no one mention but they prob did was to leave he phone fully discharge. i was told this would help the battery .

 

[meyerweb#CB]

If you haven't already, load up the Spare Parts and System Panel apps. These will let you track what applications are using CPU, and what's using the battery. Without this sort of information, you're shooting in the dark.

A number of people have found that doing a hard reset has solved their battery problems. It seems that sometimes a process can get "stuck", and use lots of battery. Figuring out what that process is, or simply killing it by doing a reset, might address your battery problem.

Yes, you can use an automatic task killer, but a better approach, I think, is to figure out what is actually causing the problem, and dealing with that, rather that simply killing apps willy-nilly.

 

[misterhyde49]

What are the chances of battery damage with bumb charging? Have any of you done this for a extended time period with ANY phone? Thanks

 

[fr4nk1yn]

I haven't tried this and probably won't. The battery in phones is similar in chemistry to the one used in RC airplanes/helis.

4.2v is the safe maximum. If you unplug and plug them in they will "Charge" some more.
Notice the "". The chargers initially put out a lot of current, I believe phones charge at 1c meaning a 1500mAH battery can charge at 1.5 amps.
That would charge any battery in an hour theoretically BUT at the battery reaches 4.2v the charger reduces the current going into the battery. Plugging it in and reconnecting it will give a really low current "maintenance" charge. It's not adding much. If it did you'd be over that 4.2v limit and risk a nasty overcharge Li batteries like to exploded or at least lose capacity very fast when overcharged.

 

[AndroidOne]

...but one thing that i did that no one mention but they prob did was to leave he phone fully discharge. i was told this would help the battery .

This is another area of debate. Many experts say letting your battery discharge or even go red before connecting to the charger somehow damages these new lithium batteries, decreases the charge they can hold and/or lower their lifespan. I am not a chemist, so I will not argue for or against this statement, someone with the appropriate knowledge can chime in and explain either way.

However, I can tell you from experience (and you can see how many smartphones I have owned over the years) many times I leave my battery go to the yellow or red before hooking it up to the charger. Have done this for years on other phones and have never (ever!) experienced any problem with battery not holding full charge or having decreased service life.


AS FOR MY BATTERY SAVING SETTINGS...

I have Always-On mobile data enabled (makes phone more stable IMHO), I don't have IM/Chat, Twiter or Facebook updating at all (have little use for those and can update Facebook manually whenever needed). I have my mail set to download hourly from 0800-2000 and manually during the night, my HTC clock/weather widget refreshing hourly and WeatherBug the same.

Keep my 4G, Hotspot, WiFi and GPS radios off at all times, only turning on when in use. Turned off the ambient light sensor (keeps my screen too bright all the time), changed brightness to 25% indoors and 50% outdoors. I use the HTC and Adroid Power widgets to control my radios, and Brightness Level (CurveFish) widget for the screen. I find these widgets allow for quick and easy control of these settings.

For monitoring what Android does, I installed Android System Info (ElectricSheep) to monitor power consumption and system resource usage. It also has a simple built-in task manager/killer although I rarely if ever use it for anything. To monitor my battery level I installed SysTray Monitor (Creafire AG), it places a small and elegant percent label on the tray to keep tabs of your battery level at all times. All of these apps can be found in the market for free.

And there you have it, hope you find this information useful.