howarmat
Trusted Member
- Apr 20, 2010
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Battery life not lasting? Your fix is in here
- Thread starter HardHitter#AC
- Start date
I suggest you not try this unless you have a charger specifically designed to charge li-ion batterys...if you don't, you likely will have a fireball on your desk....or burn down your house or something...
Even if you do...3 volts sounds much too low, and trust me, 2 amps would be way to high to charge it on. 1 amp is probably way to high...its just not worth it to mess with it.
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I have several chargers that do the lithium style batteries. They cut off at 4.2v per cell (or whatever I adjust it for). 3.0v should be no problem for discharge as long as I do not go below 2.5v. We push batteries to the limits to where they explode, pop, or light up on fire. So I can see your safety concern. But we also use fire proof sacks to charge them in. I do not think 2 amp would be no problem. Lithium batteries do not get a constant current charge like NiMH, or NiCD where it keeps the current at set rate till the end of the charge. Lithium batteries are constant voltage. The current drops down as the battery reaches peak voltage until the current reaches zero. This is a 1300mah pack. 1C charge would be 1.3 amp charge rate. So I could go with that. 2C charge would be about 2.6 amp. So perhaps 1.3 would be a "safe" bet. I believe right now, our phones are charging between 0.8 to 1amp.
Anyways, I took the pack out for the first time today. It was about 70% charge at 3.93v. Unplugged for 4 hours with heavy use (internet through 3G, music playing, camera use, and picture viewing, and short texts). I do not think I could charge/discharge this pack without making some kind of rig. The tabs are very small. We'll see. I may get bored one day.
Anyways, I took the pack out for the first time today. It was about 70% charge at 3.93v. Unplugged for 4 hours with heavy use (internet through 3G, music playing, camera use, and picture viewing, and short texts). I do not think I could charge/discharge this pack without making some kind of rig. The tabs are very small. We'll see. I may get bored one day.
Jimmy Mac, you seem to have some experience. Do you think it's the battery or the phone that's at fault here? And if the phone, hardware or software? Or something else going on?
How would you explain the phenomenon where unplugging the phone, turning it off, then plugging back in until green light comes on provides much better battery life? I'm at 60% right now after almost 11 hours of use from doing this... previously I'd be dead at 4pm.
How would you explain the phenomenon where unplugging the phone, turning it off, then plugging back in until green light comes on provides much better battery life? I'm at 60% right now after almost 11 hours of use from doing this... previously I'd be dead at 4pm.
I don't want to speculate too much right now. But it all comes down to the charging profile/program and whether or not it is maximizing the full capacity of the battery. I didn't buy this phone to shut off all it's goodies. Otherwise I would of just picked up a freebie flip up phone and cheap service.
Anyways, someone mentioned that the phone could be reinitializing the charge sequence. If that's the case, pending the charge profile, it would start off with a high amp rate (say .8amp or 1amp), then quickly trickle down to zero. Then say the battery is done. So with each plug in, it would get a very slight boost in charge/capacity, bump charging it to 100% capacity rather than say... 95% capacity. That's just a guess.
One test I did think of trying was to charge the pack on my phone till it said it was done. Then discharge it on my separate charger/discharger, and record the mah rating. Then charge it on my own charger outside the phone, then discharge it to compare mah rating. If the mah rating is less from the phone, then we would know that the phone is not charging it to 100% capacity.
Just a thought, but finding a way to hook the leads up would be a problem. I haven't looked into it. Just don't have the time right now.
Anyways, someone mentioned that the phone could be reinitializing the charge sequence. If that's the case, pending the charge profile, it would start off with a high amp rate (say .8amp or 1amp), then quickly trickle down to zero. Then say the battery is done. So with each plug in, it would get a very slight boost in charge/capacity, bump charging it to 100% capacity rather than say... 95% capacity. That's just a guess.
One test I did think of trying was to charge the pack on my phone till it said it was done. Then discharge it on my separate charger/discharger, and record the mah rating. Then charge it on my own charger outside the phone, then discharge it to compare mah rating. If the mah rating is less from the phone, then we would know that the phone is not charging it to 100% capacity.
Just a thought, but finding a way to hook the leads up would be a problem. I haven't looked into it. Just don't have the time right now.
JM,
Well good to see you have some experience in the area. I've heard too many horror storys and I try to err on the side of caution lol.
I too run rc with lithium packs. I think what you would need is to mock up a fixture that hold the pack fixed and maybe an old phone you could take the tabs off of that connect to the battery to use in the fixture.
I haven't looked...are there three tabs or two? I would assume if three one would be for equalizing, but that would make it a 2c pack, and i suppose thats possible, its just so small! What kind of charger do you use? I have a hyperion, its pretty decent for the price point from others I've seen..
I actually keep my packs in a fire proof sack, inside a army ammo box, in the center of my basement on a cement floor with nothing near that could catch on fire. Overkill...assuredly....but its better than my house going up in smoke.
We just had a hobby shop go up in flames a few weeks back. Whole damn place went down. The unofficial story is a pack went up, and took everything with it. I wonder when i see hundreds stacked in hobby stores. If one goes, they all go...raging freaking inferno..scary stuff.
Well good to see you have some experience in the area. I've heard too many horror storys and I try to err on the side of caution lol.
I too run rc with lithium packs. I think what you would need is to mock up a fixture that hold the pack fixed and maybe an old phone you could take the tabs off of that connect to the battery to use in the fixture.
I haven't looked...are there three tabs or two? I would assume if three one would be for equalizing, but that would make it a 2c pack, and i suppose thats possible, its just so small! What kind of charger do you use? I have a hyperion, its pretty decent for the price point from others I've seen..
I actually keep my packs in a fire proof sack, inside a army ammo box, in the center of my basement on a cement floor with nothing near that could catch on fire. Overkill...assuredly....but its better than my house going up in smoke.
We just had a hobby shop go up in flames a few weeks back. Whole damn place went down. The unofficial story is a pack went up, and took everything with it. I wonder when i see hundreds stacked in hobby stores. If one goes, they all go...raging freaking inferno..scary stuff.
The battery only had 3.93v when I measured it earlier today. So it's only 1 cell or 2 cells in parallel. There are actually 4 tabs. The battery has markings on which one is positive, and which is negative. The two other tabs, I did not check. Could be balance ports if it's 2 cells in parallel. Or just voltage readout ports for the charge mechanism. Or temperature readout tabs. I'm not sure.
I have several chargers laying around; my GFX, Thunderpower, Eflite, and a few others.
Sounds fishy about the hobby shop. But you never know. Maybe they discharged a pack down too low and charged it back up and let it sit? Or charged up a damaged pack and let it sit? Batteries aren't shipped fully charged, and they just don't go up like that on their own brand new. I dunno.
I have several chargers laying around; my GFX, Thunderpower, Eflite, and a few others.
Sounds fishy about the hobby shop. But you never know. Maybe they discharged a pack down too low and charged it back up and let it sit? Or charged up a damaged pack and let it sit? Batteries aren't shipped fully charged, and they just don't go up like that on their own brand new. I dunno.
I believe they were messing with a defective returned pack, and left it sitting in the back overnight. I have a buddy who runs rc helicopters/planes etc. who told me a story...i think it happened last year or so but who knows. Basically, guy is flying rc electric plane with li batterys, crashes it and promptly puts it in his trunk and heads back out to the field. 20 mins later car goes up in flames.
I read another story about guy who put his battery on charge in his garage, but picked the wrong setting. Went back in the house and a short time later, garage went up in flames.
Thats enough for me not to tempt fate lol. 4 tabs? If they are balance ports, shouldn't you be able to measure from the positive or negative side to the balance port and read a voltage?
I read another story about guy who put his battery on charge in his garage, but picked the wrong setting. Went back in the house and a short time later, garage went up in flames.
Thats enough for me not to tempt fate lol. 4 tabs? If they are balance ports, shouldn't you be able to measure from the positive or negative side to the balance port and read a voltage?
For what it's worth, I found the Accuweather app keeping my phone awake once I fired it up. A reset fixed it until I used it again. For some reason, Weatherbug and The Weather Channel don't do this, in my hands.
I don't blurb its the phone doing it. If it where the extended batterieswouldn't be getting fully charged. Of course they might not be either because I got 12 hours on my stock battery now and still have a 23% charge.
Maybe, hopefully its just a software glitch causing it and they can patch it up. But I'm starting to get the feeling it may be hardware on the phone. Still not sure on that either though because I didn't do the bump charging on the charge I'm going on now. So I'm basically up in the air about this issue now. Test all week this coming week on it till I feel comfortable that the phone is doing like it should be doing.
Is there a condition with batteries that makes them do this until they are bumped charged once to "fully" use the space left in them.like a built in capacity circuit or something to that effect? Guess time will tell.
Maybe, hopefully its just a software glitch causing it and they can patch it up. But I'm starting to get the feeling it may be hardware on the phone. Still not sure on that either though because I didn't do the bump charging on the charge I'm going on now. So I'm basically up in the air about this issue now. Test all week this coming week on it till I feel comfortable that the phone is doing like it should be doing.
Is there a condition with batteries that makes them do this until they are bumped charged once to "fully" use the space left in them.like a built in capacity circuit or something to that effect? Guess time will tell.
I am now completely convinced the sudden drop in battery life upon removal of the charger is 100% software related.
On my stock battery, it dropped 10% almost instantly when I took the phone off the charger. After that 10% drop, the battery meter seemed pretty accurate and dropped at the rate it should.
I bought the 1750 battery from Amazon. On the first night, I did a 100% full charge, letting it sit on the charger for 9 hours before removing it. The first day it worked fine from 100% to 10% it ran down appropriately. The next day, the same drop, except instead of dropping from 100 to 90, it dropped from 100 to 96, within seconds of removing it from the charger.
I did full battery drain a few days later, and again, the battery drained appropriately, (stayed at 100%) for a good hour after taking it off the charger. That night I put it on at 30%, and it went right back to the same instant drop off the charger.
Not sure what is causing this, but it is annoying as hell. I've been working with this new battery for a week now, and still seeing the same issue that afflicted the stock battery.
On my stock battery, it dropped 10% almost instantly when I took the phone off the charger. After that 10% drop, the battery meter seemed pretty accurate and dropped at the rate it should.
I bought the 1750 battery from Amazon. On the first night, I did a 100% full charge, letting it sit on the charger for 9 hours before removing it. The first day it worked fine from 100% to 10% it ran down appropriately. The next day, the same drop, except instead of dropping from 100 to 90, it dropped from 100 to 96, within seconds of removing it from the charger.
I did full battery drain a few days later, and again, the battery drained appropriately, (stayed at 100%) for a good hour after taking it off the charger. That night I put it on at 30%, and it went right back to the same instant drop off the charger.
Not sure what is causing this, but it is annoying as hell. I've been working with this new battery for a week now, and still seeing the same issue that afflicted the stock battery.
I have been doing the charging while powered off after 'full charge" and it seems to be working very well. This morning I had 60% battery after 24 hours with decent use yesterday. All this with stock battery.
I can attest to that. It's very annoying to see battery level drop at least 5% almost instantly after taking the phone off charger. If this is a software issue, one would hope it's fixable and a fix/update will follow.
Apologies for the long summary of my experience with battery life.
I received my Incredible last Monday. It was completely unexpected as I had ordered it over the phone with telesales, April 30th around 10:30 in the morning, PST.
I immediately charged it completely once before turning it on to activate. I too was a little dismayed that over the first day the battery life seemed a bit lacking. But, after a week spent with it, I realize now it may be because I couldn't keep my hands off the thing.
I did a trial this weekend by modifying the steps discussed earlier. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are disabled. With settings at default, except screen fixed at approximately 15%, removed all the widgets from the screens and disabled auto-sync for Weather. After depleting the battery to critical, 14% (a mix of messaging to my Gmail and replies back, browsing the web while streaming Pandora for at least an hour and a handful of calls a couple minutes each). I turned it off, let it charge to full and left it at green for about thirty minutes. Then turned it on and let it sit idle for about ten minutes.
I have the screen timeout at two minutes, because I tend to zone out while reading and forget to touch the screen. I checked the up/awake time, it was approximately ten minutes up and a little over two minutes awake.
I then turned it off again and charged it back to green and left it for another thirty minutes before disconnecting. Now instead of doing an on off cycle, I pulled the battery and then put it back in after a few minutes. After that I gave it another charge with only few minutes with green this time and then disconnected.
I turned it back on this time with the intent to stress it as much as I could. I opened with a dozen messages and emails to reply. I then browsed the internet for about thirty minutes. Made ten calls to and from myself, a couple minutes each. Turned on Pandora with media volume at 20%. Tried out a new app, Call Confirm (highly useful to avoid dialing numbers from accidental selections). Added a handful of events to synced Google calendar. Checked the calendar on Google to see if it was syncing. All the while Pandora is still streaming, I then browsed and read through the forums here for over an hour.
In total I had about six hours twelve minutes up and four hours twenty-one minutes awake, before the battery went critical at 14%. At that point I repeated my first steps to charge. The next day I tried out a similar process with a little bit less of Pandora streaming. This second time resulted in seven hours two minutes up and four hours fifty-eight minutes awake.
Overall, I have noticed I can get pretty close to the 313 minutes Talk time quoted in the specs, but in my case this is mixed usage. I have absolutely no idea how "Standby time: Up to 146 hours" is even possible. I am guessing that would have to be done in Airport mode, with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth off.
Four to Five hours of constant use seems pretty good to me. Considering this device is like a ULV laptop with the smallest OEM battery being provided (i.e., 4-Cell).
I received my Incredible last Monday. It was completely unexpected as I had ordered it over the phone with telesales, April 30th around 10:30 in the morning, PST.
I immediately charged it completely once before turning it on to activate. I too was a little dismayed that over the first day the battery life seemed a bit lacking. But, after a week spent with it, I realize now it may be because I couldn't keep my hands off the thing.
I did a trial this weekend by modifying the steps discussed earlier. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth are disabled. With settings at default, except screen fixed at approximately 15%, removed all the widgets from the screens and disabled auto-sync for Weather. After depleting the battery to critical, 14% (a mix of messaging to my Gmail and replies back, browsing the web while streaming Pandora for at least an hour and a handful of calls a couple minutes each). I turned it off, let it charge to full and left it at green for about thirty minutes. Then turned it on and let it sit idle for about ten minutes.
I have the screen timeout at two minutes, because I tend to zone out while reading and forget to touch the screen. I checked the up/awake time, it was approximately ten minutes up and a little over two minutes awake.
I then turned it off again and charged it back to green and left it for another thirty minutes before disconnecting. Now instead of doing an on off cycle, I pulled the battery and then put it back in after a few minutes. After that I gave it another charge with only few minutes with green this time and then disconnected.
I turned it back on this time with the intent to stress it as much as I could. I opened with a dozen messages and emails to reply. I then browsed the internet for about thirty minutes. Made ten calls to and from myself, a couple minutes each. Turned on Pandora with media volume at 20%. Tried out a new app, Call Confirm (highly useful to avoid dialing numbers from accidental selections). Added a handful of events to synced Google calendar. Checked the calendar on Google to see if it was syncing. All the while Pandora is still streaming, I then browsed and read through the forums here for over an hour.
In total I had about six hours twelve minutes up and four hours twenty-one minutes awake, before the battery went critical at 14%. At that point I repeated my first steps to charge. The next day I tried out a similar process with a little bit less of Pandora streaming. This second time resulted in seven hours two minutes up and four hours fifty-eight minutes awake.
Overall, I have noticed I can get pretty close to the 313 minutes Talk time quoted in the specs, but in my case this is mixed usage. I have absolutely no idea how "Standby time: Up to 146 hours" is even possible. I am guessing that would have to be done in Airport mode, with Wi-Fi and Bluetooth off.
Four to Five hours of constant use seems pretty good to me. Considering this device is like a ULV laptop with the smallest OEM battery being provided (i.e., 4-Cell).
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TBolt
Well-known member
- Oct 19, 2009
- 1,851
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Are you going to upgrade to an extended battery? Or, do you think you'll squeeze enough performance out of the OEM?
I may at some point upgrade to an extended. I purchased the Shell/Holster Combo, from a Verizon booth at my local mall. So, I am not sure yet if that ~1mm extension will interfere with the shell back cover. I got a good deal on it too, only cost $20 vs the $30 directly from Verizon.
Though on the other hand I will likely try to test out every normal usage scenario for the next few weeks and see if this Incredible thing reveals any flaws that I could not look past. Until then the basic 1300mAh should suffice during the return period.
If I end up keeping it, I would definitely consider the Seidio 3500mAh extended battery as an option too.
I've had mine for a week and a half. I thought the battery sucked the first few days, but all my phone batteries seemed to do that (pearl, 8900 blackberries). I think the battery calibration is not accurate, nor is the signal meter bars. My wife's Moto Droid gets more bars than me in the same place and we have the exact same db's. My battery only got critical once, and I was using GPS a lot that day. Otherwise it's about 30% at the end of the day, sometimes better. I'll hold off on the expensive Seidio. I had one for my Pearl and it was great, just a little thicker.
RogerThat99
Member
- May 11, 2010
- 24
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After a little over a week my Battery life is great. I quit using FB for HTC Sense, I use the power management widget, I have Advanced Task Killer by ReChild from the market place, I have Call Confirm from the marketplace, I have my gmail and weather auto sync, but nothing else. My phone has been off the charger 14.5 hours with moderate use (moderate for me. I use about 2,000 minutes per month) and I still have half my battery life. When I first got the phone my battery was dead after 5-7 hours of very low use.
Are you guys who have been on the same battery for a few weeks still seeing an initial drop in battery life when the phone is first removed from the charger?
I'm contemplating calling VZW regarding this if I'm one of the few who are still experiencing it.
I'm contemplating calling VZW regarding this if I'm one of the few who are still experiencing it.
If this initial drop is occurring after disconnecting it while it was on and charging, it may be an anomaly where the loss of power from disconnecting the adapter is causing an errant calculation in the overall charge remaining.
I can not provide any direct feedback in this instance as I am in the habit of charging my phone while it is off.
I can not provide any direct feedback in this instance as I am in the habit of charging my phone while it is off.
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