silicon pop culture!

hi all,

well i finally took the plunge and bought the tr2ap3. it’s been fantastic so far and i was hoping to keep it in as nice a condition for as long as possible. i was curious though, i literally got it today, and i wanted to know how to best prolong its battery life. i worry a lot about messing up its battery memory, but i’m not too sure when to charge it, when not to charge it, when to use a plug vs when to run off the battery. any advice would be great.

thanks!

I don’t think you really need to worry about the battery. It is a lithium ion based battery which doesn’t have the bad memory effect that previous types of batteries had.

Some folks recommend letting the battery run down to empty every once in a while.

One bad thing for lithium-ion batteries is to repeatedly deep discharge them by running them from full to completely empty. I did this before I knew any better, and my old VAIO’s battery died within 8 months, and a PowerBook battery went from 4 hours of battery life to about one in a year, far quicker than the normal rate of deterioration.

why is it bad to deep discharge them? i always heard it was a good idea to run them from full to empty. i guess i’ve been doing it all wrong =\ what makes these lithium ion batteries so different than the other rechargables out there that i’ve grown accustomed to?

It’s fine to fully empty the battery occasionally, but if you do it on a regular basis you can shorten the battery’s lifespan, in addition to running other risks.

IBM has some good battery care tips up on their site, along with a warning not to deep-discharge lithium-ion batteries.

Another link

“Manufacturers rate the lithium-ion battery at an 80% depth of discharge. Repeated full (100%) discharges would lower the specified cycle count. It is therefore recommended to charge lithium-ion more often rather than letting it down too low. Periodic full discharges are not needed because lithium-ion is not affected by memory.”

“Some lithium-ion batteries feature an ultra-low voltage cut-off that permanently disconnects the pack if a cell dips below 1.5V. A very deep discharge may cause the formation of copper shunt, which can lead to a partial or total electrical short.”[/url]

thanks for the links

Great links!

One question though, does that mean it’s better to leave the AC plugged in even after the battery is fully charged since the recharge cycle is cut off?  (I have been discharging the battery down to about 10% and recharging it to 100% before unplugging the AC adaptor.)

Oh… I also took the plunge, been playing with my TR2A the last two weeks!  :D

I use my laptop often with the ac plugged in as the settings are much easier for me to use my laptop with, i know i could change them but i don’t. So i am hoping that it is ok to use ac power after the battery is fully charged.

Yes, it’s totally OK to use the AC when the battery is fully charged.  This is normal operation.