Maximize my Battery's Total Lifespan

[CornyAxim]

I guess it's old news that the best way to treat your batteries is to charge them often and not drain them to 0% too often.

Focus on what I am asking. If a Lithium Ion battery provides 300-500 discharge/charge cycles " http://www.batteryuniversity.com/parttwo-34.htm ", then if I were to put my Axim on a charger in the morning, use it for the day, and then put it on the charger at night. I have just done 2 charges... Have I not?

2 charges at this rate would mean that after 8 months, I will have done this 500 times. And should after that see a noticeable drop in battery time. Right?

Should I try to avoid charging twice a day? I actually only charge once every 2 days, but am thinking about all the other axim users that say they pop their Axim into the cradle every single time they stop using it.

I know with age " http://www.batteryuniversity.com/parttwo-31.htm " batteries start their journey downward, but I am wondering if by charging your Axim's battery 4 times a day... are you speeding up that journey?

[Howard2k]

From what I've read, if you let the battery drop to 50%, charge, drop to 50% and charge, that is one charge, not two.

[darkdestroyer]

So if you let the battery drop to 90, charge drop to 90 charge, repeat 8 more times, Its counted as a Full "Charge"

[darkdestroyer]

So if you let the battery drop to 90, charge drop to 90 charge, repeat 8 more times, Its counted as a Full "Charge"?

I believe, from other thiongs I have read on this subject, that the 300-500 discharge cycle figure comes from full discharge/charge cycles. So, if you discharge to less than a full discharge and recharge, it "counts" but not as a full discharge/charge. Sadly, it seems to be even more complicated than that as it is not proportional to the discharge amount and, in fact, it "counts" less the less you discharge before recharging. So the best thing to do is to recharge often. As for how much better this is for long term battery life is not clear to me, but the consensus seems to be that it is better. Hope this is of some help.

[Howard2k]

Thanks 200lx, that explains it better than I did.

[CornyAxim]

Most interesting. Okay I get it. 500 Charge cycles means a total 0-100% charge. But it is still better to charge before falling below 50% since it is better from the terms of how the Lithium Ion battery itself works. So I guess charging my battery once every 2 days is going to make it last as long as it possibly can. Sometimes instead of charging my main battery, when it hits 50% or lower I switch to my backup battery and do that same thing. By doing this, I sometimes don't end up charging my battery for 4 days. Well I hope I can make these 2 batteries last as long as possible until Dell makes an x60v Smartphone / Blackberry thingy.