[torifile]

I just got myself a Dell Axim x50. I know, I know... But it's a sweet machine. Anyway, the only decent forum for the dell axim is populated by kids and there's a lot of misinformation going around out there about lithium ion batteries and how to charge it for the first time.

They think that you have to, absolutely, without a doubt, charge the thing for a full 8 hours before even using it, lest you risk killing your battery life. They think that the battery needs to "finish" it's chemical reaction during the initial charge and that's why it needs to charge for that long. They refuse to believe that the battery is charged when the charging light changes to green (it's similar to the light on the ibooks and powerbook - amber when charging, green when done).

Please will someone provide me with some real information to disabuse these kids of their superstitious behavior? I've done some searching but have come up pretty empty WRT initial charges. Any ideas?

[MCQ]

According to Apple:

www.apple.com/batteries

http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=86284

You have to fully charge and then discharge your battery only once to calibrate it. After that, you can connect and disconnect the power adapter when the battery is at any charge level.

So, it sounds like the initial charge should be a complete one, at least for Apple's batteries.

[torifile]

Yeah, I saw that. And a complete charge is indicated by the green light coming on. But since it doesn't explicitly say that part, they'll continue to be stupid about it....

Normally I wouldn't care, but with every other thread asking about the initial charge thing, I get tired. I just don't like disinformation being spread and I would love to put an end to it.

edit: Ah! The kbase article does mention it explicitly. Thanks!

[Quagmire]

I barely use my powerbooks battery and when I do I still get the usual 4 hours with the screen dim and 3 hours and 20 minutes with screen all the way up. Apple advises you to use the battery at least once a month anyway to get the chemicals in the battery sort of a stir. I do that once a month. When I do drain it all the way, I get the times listed above. So you can keep it plugged in for 8 hours, it is just that the kids are stupid about the first use of the battery.


PS: My pbook is almost a year old with the original battery.

[torifile]

Originally Posted by Undertaker I barely use my powerbooks battery and when I do I still get the usual 4 hours with the screen dim and 3 hours and 20 minutes with screen all the way up. Apple advises you to use the battery at least once a month anyway to get the chemicals in the battery sort of a stir. I do that once a month. When I do drain it all the way, I get the times listed above. So you can keep it plugged in for 8 hours, it is just that the kids are stupid about the first use of the battery. PS: My pbook is almost a year old with the original battery.

Well of course you can keep it plugged in for 8 hours without a problem. They're saying you HAVE to keep it plugged in for 8 hours otherwise bad things happen.

[Quagmire]

Originally Posted by torifile Well of course you can keep it plugged in for 8 hours without a problem. They're saying you HAVE to keep it plugged in for 8 hours otherwise bad things happen.

Oops, I took it when you said," Lest you risk your battery life," as you were saying it was bad to keeping it plugged in for 8 hours. But, it is now sound sort of stupid since what do you do with your powerbook/dull when you are not using it and do not want to waste battery. My bad. Bangs head on desk.

[autodata]

I think that you can recalibrate it at any time, so I wouldn't worry about it too much. The battery in my laptop recently wasn't charging past ~80%, so I did the calibration again (drain to nothing then go to green) and it worked fine after that.

[torifile]

Originally Posted by Undertaker Oops, I took it when you said," Lest you risk your battery life," as you were saying it was bad to keeping it plugged in for 8 hours. But, it is now sound sort of stupid since what do you do with your powerbook/dull when you are not using it and do not want to waste battery. My bad. Bangs head on desk.

No worries man. I figured as much.

[Wrao]

both my powerbook and my cell phone have been exhibiting strange battery behavior. My powerbook lost half its charge about a year ago, it literally went from ~2-2:30 hours to ~:50-1:20 hours pretty much overnight.

Well, I've coped, I rarely use it unplugged anyway, so it's not that big of a deal. But recently, the 'book has been giving me guff, saying it has 60% but giving me only 20 minutes estimated time, or less. once I opened it up it had 92% and it gave me the low battery warning. basically, I need to re-calibrate it I think.

Well, My cell phone is also being a prat, in that, it will have 4 bars(full) of battery one second then it will be blinking telling me it's dying the next, then I'll get a call and it will suddenly have 2 or 3 bars, then after the call it will have full again.

oy, lithium-IO batteries are strange.

[Ebby]

I fully charged my battery overnight the first time I used it. Since then, I plug it in every time I am home, and take my computer with me every time I leave. I hardly ever fully discharge the battery and that seems to work best. My first battery lasted 4 years, my (almost) 1 year old battery still has 6 hours per charge.

Long live the Pismo!
*dodges debris*