Glo Glo Battery Problems

[Peakcrew]

Originally Posted by John F

Went to bed, it was at 42%, 7 hours later, it was at 14%. Read for 45 minutes this morning, and then it shutdown saying it needed to be charged.

Again, this is a Kobo Glo with 2.1.5 firmware. The plug-in is also installed.

Thanks, John. That's what we have seen in other units. Keep taking care of your Glo the way you were

[Peakcrew]

Originally Posted by Peakcrew

I may have an unfortunate update here - my Touch has just gone into black-screen and demanded recharging. That means it has dropped from 42% to recharge in two days, equating to about six hours/200 pages reading with one word-lookup. However, the book I am reading is image-heavy, something I don't think I've used before. Do images use more battery power?

Further to my earlier comment, and possibly not relevant at all, my Touch has started exhibiting the following behaviour:

- Sleep Touch using switch
- Wake from sleep
- After ~30 seconds, Touch automatically sleeps
- Wake with switch
- If screen not touched within ~30 seconds, drops into sleep (this may be the case in the first unwanted auto-sleep, but I haven't thought to check.

[Shai-Hulud]

Originally Posted by Peakcrew

- Wake from sleep
- After ~30 seconds, Touch automatically sleeps
- Wake with switch
- If screen not touched within ~30 seconds, drops into sleep

This has been reported by others in the forum and I've seen it myself once so you aren't alone.

[Peakcrew]

Originally Posted by Shai-Hulud

This has been reported by others in the forum and I've seen it myself once so you aren't alone.

I think that is good It is odd that it has only just started, though, with no changes to anything at all.

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by Shai-Hulud

Just to throw a spanner in the hypotheses, my old touch had intermittent power issues where it would enter into a race condition (?) trying to slip from sleep into full power off. The net result would be the same as I see happening on the newer models (extreme power consumption) just far less frequently/reliably. This is why I got it swapped out for another model (hence getting the new Touch) and how I became involved in the latest discussions on Glo/Touch power issues.

I'm still thinking you have a completely different issue to most of us. No idea what though. Did you ever test for wonky books?

Originally Posted by Peakcrew

Further to my earlier comment, and possibly not relevant at all, my Touch has started exhibiting the following behaviour:

I don't think it just started doing it without any changes... it came with the new firmware... perhaps before you noticed you were always checking the battery before you started reading?

[VelvetElvis]

For what it's worth, here's my latest results with Glo #4. No reading, only turning on to record battery state.

Device was left in the (no magnet) cover:

• March 20 – 4:00 AM - 100%
• March 24 – 3:00 PM Dead

Removed device from cover:

• March 28 – 11:20 PM 100%
• March 29 – 11:24 AM 100%
• March 29 – 11:45 PM 100%
• March 30 – 12:23 PM 100% (changed books, and flipped +/- 20 pages)
• March 31 – 11:08 AM 93%
• April 1 – 4:00 AM 93%
• April 1 – 7:36 PM 93%
• April 2 – 7:28 PM 93%

For the out-of-cover tests, I put the device to sleep with no movement in front of cover for approx. 5 seconds before putting device down.

Thanks to everyone else in this thread for their tests, comments and conclusions. I hope a fix isn't too far off.

[TechniSol]

Well, looks like I goofed thinking Mrs_Often had a sleepcover -so that probably rules out it being specific to the hall effect sensor or only entering sleep that way, but I guess the rest of the theory seems to be holding up, at least as it applies to the Glo.

I do think the sleep covers with pockets or flaps might exacerbate the problem by almost ensuring the IR above the screen would be interrupted before sleep could be completely entered merely as a mechanical timing issue when closing the cover to begin sleep as the pocket or flap would be, or nearly be, in position to interrupt the IR before the magnet is in position to force sleep mode.

As to the Touch, I did allude to the possibility of there being more than one possible excessive drainage situation. Most times I've read of people experiencing it with the Touch, it was blamed on a "bad" epub... I'm not saying that answer is correct, or in any way well defined, but people have presented it before. Perhaps there is some other issue where despite appearing to enter sleep mode excessive current is drawn by some internal process(es) not shutting down. Fortunately, I've been lucky with both Touch and Glo and experienced the problem with neither unit. I do almost exclusively sideload through Calibre, but can't offer that as any more than anecdotal evidence of perhaps how to avoid it.

Answers would be great, but there is a reason they call it "fishing" and not "catching."

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by VelvetElvis

For what it's worth, here's my latest results with Glo #4. No reading, only turning on to record battery state.

Device was left in the (no magnet) cover:

• March 20 – 4:00 AM - 100%
• March 24 – 3:00 PM Dead

Removed device from cover:

• March 28 – 11:20 PM 100%
• March 29 – 11:24 AM 100%
• March 29 – 11:45 PM 100%
• March 30 – 12:23 PM 100% (changed books, and flipped +/- 20 pages)
• March 31 – 11:08 AM 93%
• April 1 – 4:00 AM 93%
• April 1 – 7:36 PM 93%
• April 2 – 7:28 PM 93%

For the out-of-cover tests, I put the device to sleep with no movement in front of cover for approx. 5 seconds before putting device down.

Thanks to everyone else in this thread for their tests, comments and conclusions. I hope a fix isn't too far off.

Whooopee!

Now for testing IN its cover, but not closing the cover until the Glo is completely asleep. I'm sleeping my Glo in its cover now and it's been around 50% all week. I just wait before I put it in its sleeve

[Peakcrew]

Originally Posted by Mrs_Often

I don't think it just started doing it without any changes... it came with the new firmware... perhaps before you noticed you were always checking the battery before you started reading?

I suspect you are correct - I've usually either finished a page and turned to the next within the critical time, or checked the battery level, hence never seen the problem until now! Circumstances this week have meant that a few times I haven't touched the screen before the re-sleep occurs, so I've seen it for the first time.

If there was any possibility that the silly little switch on the top (my biggest gripe with the Touch) could get accidentally moved to the on position, then I could suggest that behaviour is a feature, not a bug. However ...

[Peakcrew]

Originally Posted by VelvetElvis

For what it's worth, here's my latest results with Glo #4. No reading, only turning on to record battery state.

Device was left in the (no magnet) cover:

• March 20 – 4:00 AM - 100%
• March 24 – 3:00 PM Dead

Removed device from cover:

• March 28 – 11:20 PM 100%
• March 29 – 11:24 AM 100%
• March 29 – 11:45 PM 100%
• March 30 – 12:23 PM 100% (changed books, and flipped +/- 20 pages)
• March 31 – 11:08 AM 93%
• April 1 – 4:00 AM 93%
• April 1 – 7:36 PM 93%
• April 2 – 7:28 PM 93%

For the out-of-cover tests, I put the device to sleep with no movement in front of cover for approx. 5 seconds before putting device down.

Thanks to everyone else in this thread for their tests, comments and conclusions. I hope a fix isn't too far off.

Wow! Pretty conclusive, I'd say!

I think TechniSol has point about pockets, but I've been trying to think if I had changed my behaviour with my Touch for the battery to fall off the cliff the other day, and I think that, for various reasons, I had let it go to sleep automatically with the cover on. Now, my cover doesn't come anywhere near the screen - hold it sideways and you can see daylight between cover and frame. I might be barking up the wrong tree, in the wrong forest, in a different country, though - as you may have guessed, this weekend was a bit chaotic, and it could be down to something entirely different.

I'll start my tests again ...

[samhy]

You know what? Trying to fail, of sorts, on purpose is not an easy thing, I tell you
More seriously, I tried:
- put the Mini in sleeping mode w/ slider, then drop a handkerchief on the screen just after the cover image appeared,
- put the Mini in sleeping mode w/slider, then drop a handkerchief on the screen while the cover image is appearing,
- put the Mini in sleeping mode w/slider, then drop a handkerchief on the screen while the cover image is appearing and let all of them like that for 13 hours, the sleepcover setting being on but the cover remaining fully open during the test.

So far, no battery drain, just dust on the screen.

I'll try tonight to wait for the Mini to go back to sleep by itself (waking it but not touching the screen). Other than that, I don't see what else I can do. Any idea.

[John F]

Originally Posted by samhy

...

Other than that, I don't see what else I can do. Any idea.

Others with more experience then me can give examples (or you could review this thread), but for me...

Verify that the handkerchief trips the sensors. If it does, drop the handkerchief on the screen, then slide the slider to put it to sleep. I saw the problem when I did something similar with my Glo.

[Peakcrew]

Originally Posted by samhy

You know what? Trying to fail, of sorts, on purpose is not an easy thing, I tell you
More seriously, I tried:
- put the Mini in sleeping mode w/ slider, then drop a handkerchief on the screen just after the cover image appeared,
- put the Mini in sleeping mode w/slider, then drop a handkerchief on the screen while the cover image is appearing,
- put the Mini in sleeping mode w/slider, then drop a handkerchief on the screen while the cover image is appearing and let all of them like that for 13 hours, the sleepcover setting being on but the cover remaining fully open during the test.

So far, no battery drain, just dust on the screen.

I'll try tonight to wait for the Mini to go back to sleep by itself (waking it but not touching the screen). Other than that, I don't see what else I can do.
Any idea.

As John says - make sure that whatever you use actually makes a page turn. If it does, leave it on the screen whilst you put it to sleep with the switch or let it automatically go to sleep. If it doesn't, try to find something else that does - a piece of eraser about a centimetre square should do it, or, as I've been using, a piece of stiff paper folded into a Z-shape that looks about a centimetre square to the sensor.

[VelvetElvis]

Originally Posted by Mrs_Often

Whooopee!

Now for testing IN its cover, but not closing the cover until the Glo is completely asleep. I'm sleeping my Glo in its cover now and it's been around 50% all week. I just wait before I put it in its sleeve

Testing that now.

Is the consensus that anything touching the cover, once properly asleep, should not make a difference? I just confirmed that the pocket flap of this SkinDigital does indeed touch the screen when closed.

[TechniSol]

I don't know about a consensus, but if the theory is correct, once it's shut down there should be no IR above the screen to interrupt.

The problem, I think, is when that IR is interrupted just prior to the unit entering sleep mode -like if you had a sleep cover and the flap or pocket hit the screen before the unit could enter sleep mode. I'm guessing the reason it draws excessively in that circumstance is once the beam(s) is/are broken the neonode stays powered up waiting for the touch event to end by the beam being restored, which never happens if the pocket or flap stays in the way -at least until you open the cover again.

"That's my story, and Ah'm a stickin' to it."