Mentor Lite / EB600: Stinky battery 'meter'.

[smallhagrid]

This is an ongoing curiosity - not a complaint as such:
Today I completed the 6th FULL charging of my 'new' reader.
I am pretty happy with it's battery life as compared with the AWFUL, short battery life the JB had.

BUT:
The battery meter NEVER fills to 100% - even after 12 hours of charging it remains 1 bar short of full, and I would like to know WHY that is ???!

This inquiring mind would like to know !

mark

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by smallhagrid

This is an ongoing curiosity - not a complaint as such:
Today I completed the 6th FULL charging of my 'new' reader.
I am pretty happy with it's battery life as compared with the AWFUL, short battery life the JB had.

BUT:
The battery meter NEVER fills to 100% - even after 12 hours of charging it remains 1 bar short of full, and I would like to know WHY that is ???!

This inquiring mind would like to know !

mark

Are you charging it with a PC or an AC charger? An AC charger generally does a better job.

Dale

[smallhagrid]

AC charger ONLY - ALWAYS !!!

Originally Posted by DaleDe

Are you charging it with a PC or an AC charger? An AC charger generally does a better job.

Thanks.

mark

[theducks]

Originally Posted by smallhagrid

This is an ongoing curiosity - not a complaint as such:
Today I completed the 6th FULL charging of my 'new' reader.
I am pretty happy with it's battery life as compared with the AWFUL, short battery life the JB had.

BUT:
The battery meter NEVER fills to 100% - even after 12 hours of charging it remains 1 bar short of full, and I would like to know WHY that is ???!

This inquiring mind would like to know !

mark

To expand on DaleDe

PC's can also go to sleep and power down the port.
12 hours is a rule of thumb. NOT a hard limit.
Proper Initial conditioning of the battery AND reader charge circuit is important. If you short cycled the charge cycle with a PC that powered down/pull the plug early, you may have confused the charge meter

My first charge on my PEz took well over 12 hours before the "plug" appeared. It still takes hours to show the plug, even though the reader has all 4 bars showing, it still takes many hours to show the "plug" when connected to a actively used PC

[smallhagrid]

Originally Posted by theducks

To expand on DaleDe PC's can also go to sleep and power down the port. 12 hours is a rule of thumb. NOT a hard limit.

Thanks.
My 2 PCs do NOT go to sleep, EVER; they are ON or OFF - not between !!!
USB is a weak power source and I do not use it for power at all.
My Mentor has been treated right from the get-go because of info given me about charging HERE at this wonderful forum.

I did think that after 6 good, long charges that the meter should show 'full' by now though...am I mistaken ?

Best Wishes.

mark

[jenifer.ezread]

I just talked to a tech, and this might be an odd question, but he wants to know what version of FW you have on your Mentor?

[smallhagrid]

Hello Jennifer and thanks for jumping in here !

Originally Posted by jenifer.ezread

I just talked to a tech, and this might be an odd question, but he wants to know what version of FW you have on your Mentor?

This happened originally the same with whatever native F/W it had right out of the box - I wrote it down at the office, but not here, sorry...then I 'upgraded' it to the Cooler Reader F/W because the native one was awful - and the meter is EXACTLY the same.

Best Wishes.

mark

[jenifer.ezread]

Originally Posted by smallhagrid

Hello Jennifer and thanks for jumping in here !


This happened originally the same with whatever native F/W it had right out of the box - I wrote it down at the office, but not here, sorry...then I 'upgraded' it to the Cooler Reader F/W because the native one was awful - and the meter is EXACTLY the same.

Best Wishes.

mark

Alright, I spoke with tech again, so hopefully I can explain what he said clearly to help out!

Your Mentor's meter might be affected by some internal factory settings that measure the battery's capacity at literally 100%. Technically, no battery can be "100%" completely charged, "full" is measured at the fullest charge the battery can sustain. So all batteries, let's say, are really running at an 80% charge, but that's the fullest it can go. (Being plugged in would be an example of a 100% charge)

So where the device is manufactured, the settings were switched to measure a true 100%. My advice would be to use the device normally and keep track of how long the life is as compared to a Mentor that shows a full charge. If our tech is correct, it should have the same length of battery life.

If not, then we can move on to Stage 2, which is send it in! I hope this makes sense and helps, let me know if it's confusing. (Still a little confusing to me too!)

[smallhagrid]

Thanks Jennifer:

Originally Posted by jenifer.ezread

If not, then we can move on to Stage 2, which is send it in!

That description makes sense well enough - but that is clearly not the same as what I've been seeing in this reader.
(I've had & used this long enough for it to be conditioned, calibrated and to hold a decent charge; I am very, very good & careful with my reader...)

Here's the score:
Charged as full as it will go (12-14 hours !) and used for a total of around 230 page turns because this was a slow week for reading, for me - and down to one bar.
Nasty !

Now....am I ready to do without a reader and send it away for repair ?
No way.

Unless you folks send out 'loaners' - I cannot afford a second reader right now, and could 'float' a CC charge for a cross-ship, but I am a religiously daily reader (with no TV) and the dead-tree books are all packed away nice and tight and safe for the apocalypse if/when it comes.

I will say that I am very, very disappointed that this does not yield even CLOSE to the claimed 8000 (or whatever ?) page turns per charge for this device and wonder if it is a lousy charge circuit/board - or a crummy (though brand new ?) battery...

I had very high hopes that this would FAR exceed the quality of the JB, but now it looks to me as if ALL sellers WAY exaggerate their battery claims.

Best Wishes.

mark

[smallhagrid]

OK - so it was down to one bar on the battery meter - and I used it 'till I was afraid it would just turn off on me, then plugged in the charger.

Went away and did other stuff for an hour - maybe 2 max...

Sat down and saw it had 2 bars now; no surprise, and started to read...

Here's where I think things get very, very strange indeed :
Page turn-> gains a bar-> another page turn-> gains another bar-> and so on, until it was at that wonderful 80% or whatever is the most it holds.
I watched this happen; with full attention and fascination.

Now bear in mind - that's 4-5 page turns with maximum of a minute in between each turn-> total time on the charger LESS than 3 hours, from next to nuttin...to all full...with me using it ?!!!

Too strange.

Left it unplugged and the charge stayed (it's the next day now).

How does that figger into all these calculations - because it don't make beans worth of sense to me...?

Best Wishes.

mark

[jenifer.ezread]

Wow. This does sound like a bit of a battery nightmare. I really do hate to deprive you of your device, but this seems like something our tech can take care of so you won't have to be in battery limbo while you read.

Please send an email to support@astak.com today, and highlight the main problems you are currently having with your battery/device. I will be here all day, so I can prod them into responding right away.

If you do choose to send it in and our tech doesn't have a 'magic restore' trick I'm unaware of, then I suggest maybe head to the library for a week or so. I know, I know. It's not the same. I have a knack for finding boogers and cigarette butts between library book pages, it's true.

[smallhagrid]

Hello Jennifer and thanks for your helpful reply.

Originally Posted by jenifer.ezread

Wow. This does sound like a bit of a battery nightmare. I really do hate to deprive you of your device, but this seems like something our tech can take care of so you won't have to be in battery limbo while you read.

I have been in contact with Elliot - a very Asian-sounding man there who seems to work very hard at making understandable English (but only partially succeeds !).

He has suggested yet another f/w update as possibly being helpful, and failing that he has affirmed that TRI is capable and willing to do a 'cross ship' where I would cover the cost of the replacement temporarily and ship in my unit AFTER it's replacement arrives. (Hopefully there was no linguistic misunderstanding in any of that...)

Sadly:

If you do choose to send it in and our tech doesn't have a 'magic restore' trick I'm unaware of, then I suggest maybe head to the library for a week or so.

The above is simply NOT an option; I am a night-worker, sleep days - and to make matters more interesting the nearest town with a library here in rural Vermont takes a 25 minute drive to reach and that tiny library is only open for very limited days and hours with it's exceedingly tiny selection; the next larger option is a 1 1/2 hour drive just to reach at all - so is not really an option.

Companies which sell these devices NEED to make provisions for the FACT that in accepting non-paper reading into their lives, people will need to be able to DEPEND upon these devices completely.

UNTIL such time as they become soooo cheap that ANY person can easily afford to have 2 (or more) of these devices on hand all the time, the customer service NEEDS which go along with people having JUST one device will continue to be intense.
(I look forward to the day when these things are ubiquitous and low in cost.... like paper books have become !!!)

Best Wishes.

mark