Battery App Question

[hava123]

I have the app Battery Indicator and its really nice to have! The weird thing though, is that when my phone is plugged in and fully charged the battery indicator doesn't say 100.. it'll say 96%. I was wondering if anyone else is experiencing this? I'm not sure if its something with the app or the phone itself just never reaches 100%? Whatever the case I do love the battery on this phone! It lasts even longer than my blackberry did and I use this more! I was just curious

 

[PJnc284]

The Fascinate doesn't like maintaining charge once fully charged. The phone starts discharging once it reaches 100%, drops to 95 or 96% and then charges again. Guessing this is to prevent overcharging but none of the other phones I've had had this issue.

 

[PIYIRIO]

Guessing this is to prevent overcharging but none of the other phones I've had had this issue.

The Incredible has this issue but much worse. Within 10 minutes of unplugging, you'll be at 93%. I have understood this to be an android thing in general, its not isolated to one model of phone.

If you want 100% turn if off when it hits 100% (or 96%), unplug it and plug it back in. Or buy an external charger, which helps more than anything...

 

[PJnc284]

I'm using a wall charger and have the issue. Works fine if I'm plugged into the computer. Below is the Juiceplotter graph from my phone that shows it charging, draining and charging again. Sometimes it may be at 100% when you unpluge it, other times it'll be 96-99%. Didn't happen with the Droid I had so don't think it's necessarily an Android thing in general.

 

[French]

Along the line of battery apps...yesterday my battery app AND the phone itself showed 5% battery left (both flashing red). I took that battery out and swapped in a fresh one.

Last night I put the original battery back in so I could put the phone on the charger, and BOTH the stock battery display and my third party display showed my battery as having 10% capacity left. What is up with that? I gained 5% charge with the battery sitting in my purse all afternoon?

 

[TripSixes]

Actual battery capacity cannot be perfectly represented by a percentage calculation..

The percentage probably takes into account history of the device, current discharge rate, etc... to estimate how much you have left..

The fact that you put the same batter back in later and it had more.. does NOT mean that the battery "actually" had more power... it just means the calculation ended up with a higher number (maybe you had less apps running, screen not as bright.. etc).. so the calculation for the percentage is different ... Also, you were just running on a different battery before that.. so, the phone could have been using knowledge about it's discharge rate to determine the current batteries percentage.



This is also VERY evident in Vehicles which estimate "miles until empty"... the calculation that they present is very biased towards current driving conditions... You may drive home and it say you have 10 miles left... then after sitting overnight.. when you start up the car from scratch, it shows 20-30 miles remaining.. but, it's pretty obvious that some Gas-Gremlin didn't come and put more gas in your car over night..


this was very long-winded to say... they are computers performing calculations and are prone to slight error.

 

[Martian]

Lithium Ion batteries are horribly inefficient when nearly full or nearly empty. The difference between 100% and 96% is probably only about 5 minutes of usage at most.

Also, a batteries voltage drops at a very predictable rate as it discharges. Remaining capacity is calculated by measuring the drop in voltage from that at 100% charge. This is a fairly accurate means of determining capacity but it is not perfect. battery temperate and the rate of discharge (current draw) on the battery also effect it's voltage and therefore will affect the remaining capacity that is display. This is far worse on batteries that are nearly full or nearly empty since, as I stated above, they are horribly inefficient in this state.

Martian

 

[GetOnMahLevel]

yeah.. too bad the battery doesnt act more like a capacitor and keep a complete charge until the charge path is broken.. but the battery life isnt too too bad.. better than my storm..

 

[voghan]

This is not an android thing. Ive not seen this on my other two android phones. I've noticed the phones doesn't immediately shutdown at 0% either.