question re battery meter

[mgazer]

I just purchased a 1700 mAh battery for my X30 and although it has only been on the cradle charging for about 15 minutes, it already shows that it is 90% charged. It was not charged at all when I installed it so there is no way that it could charge that quickly. Per the owners manual, it says that it takes 8 hrs to initially charge the battery and that it for the 950 mAh stock battery!

Is there an app that I can install that will tell me accurately how long this battery will last for and/or its true capacity?
Thanks

[aximbigfan]

you need to cycle it. charge it for 12 hours than put it in your ax and run it dry. hen charge it again and repeat about 4 times.


chris

[mgazer]

will this same procedure help with my OEM 950 mAh battery that only holds a charge for 1:30 hrs when fully charged or is it screwed?

you need to cycle it. charge it for 12 hours than put it in your ax and run it dry. hen charge it again and repeat about 4 times.


chris

[pchobbyist]

Hmm...My 950mAh hold a charge for about 3 hrs. It all depends on how you have your setting configured. Such as; how bright the display backlight is, how fast you have the CPU running and backlight dims and how many programs you have running at a time. I have mine configured like this:

Power for CPU: AUTO
Battery power: TURN OFF DEVICE IF NOT USED FOR 3 MINS
Brightness: TWO CLICKS DOWN FROM THE BRIGHTEST
Battery Power: DIM IF DEVICE IS IDLE FOR MORE THAN 1 MIN

And my Axim x30 will go for about 3 hrs 20 mins before it completely dies.

I don't think you should cycle a Lion battery. They are not ni-cads and don't have a memory, so the cycle is not necessary. I believe it will shorten the battery life to continually run down the battery near zero. Do a search on this site for more info - there's a pretty good thread about this.

[red_five]

Actually, it is usually necessary to do this initial charge and drain cycle on Li-Ion batteries. I believe it helps calibrate the internal charge controller that each Li-Ion has built in, as well as to "format" the material for maximum capacity. Most cell phone stores perform this before the battery is placed in a new phone, which is why you never have to do it yourself.

[Pebu]

It may say 90, but it may actually be at 50... That's prettymuch the purpose of charging it for so long on the initial charge. When it gets to 100 and realizes the battery is still taking a charge it changes the numbers on the battery. I wouldn't worry about doing it 4 or 5 times right off the bat, but I just power cycled mine cause I haven't done it for a while. A couple times a year should do it.