[NTLK] Battery meter accuracy, etc.

From: Frank Gruendel (fg2_at_pda-soft.de)
Date: Sat Jan 24 2004 - 19:05:02 PST


>Among the few weirdnesses I've encountered with my 2100 are an errant
>battery meter.
>It will claim that my battery is at 100% for hours, only changing its
>opinion when the Newt is plugged in or restarted. Is this a normal
>aspect of its behavior, or is it an indication of a problem?

This is normal. The Newton will start charging a battery no matter
how its current charge state is when you plug in the AC adapter
(never tried this with a restart yet). But the capacity shown will
reach 100% within minutes and the charge cycle will be finished.

>Oh, on closer inspection of the battery, I find that it has a hairline
>crack near the removal end, presumably from the time I dropped it (also

>mentioned before). Could this be a contributing factor?

Unlikely. But why not remove the battery altogether and power it from
the AC adapter only. If the problem goes away, it must be the
battery.

> One more thing - it doesn't hold a charge very long. Reading a small
> portion of an ebook can drain it well below 50%. Any connection?

Again, unlikely.

>Also, I read somewhere about a reconditioning procedure involving
>running the Newton until the battery runs out of juice, hooking up a
>small light bulb to drain it the rest of the way, then sticking it in
>the freezer for a bit, the result being a substantially increased
>storage time. Has anyone had success with this method?

Some claim to have. But if I were you I'd leave out the light bulb
part and the freezer. It's not a good idea to deep-discharge cells
unless you monitor them seperately and stop exactly when it it healty
to stop.
You can have amazing success by discharging the pack until the
Newton turns off and charging it again 5...10 times in succession.

>And would the crack in the battery affect the battery's potential
>for damage in the freezer/after (moisture, that kind of thing)?

Again, unlikely.

Cheers

Frank

-- Newton Software and Hardware at http://www.pda-soft.de

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