Buttons issue
 

I have a minor issue with the buttons not working when the DR is plugged in. The stylus continues to work fine, and since I use that about 90% of the time anyway, it isn't much of a hindrance.

But I was wondering, has anyone else come across this glitch?

Are you charging via a PC USB connection or with a stand alone USB charger? I've seen a couple cases where certain brands of stand alone chargers have caused some weird things to happen with the DR.

I have a similar problem. When charging from a USB cable (not the one that came with my DR1000S), the buttons become unresponsive, but if I press them for a long time they work. Curiously, the same thing happens if my DR1000S is just sitting on top of my laptop and not charging. Must be something to do with the capacitive buttons which, all in all, probably don't add anything to the device.

More likely an EMC/EMI phenomenon. Immunity issue between reader and non-approved charger.

I've made a career fixing and preventing these types of problems.

I guess that's related to EMI (eletro magnetic interference) generated from USB cable or laptop. I've once had my DR under fluorescent light, and the high EMI from the light made the capacitive sensor unusable.

I use this gizmo http://www.ereaderoutfitters.com/ima...charger150.png
from the ereader outfitter site.

I bought the same charger from eReaders also. It made the DR do strange things. I took an old usb cord and cut it to expose the wire, and I measured only 2 volts out of the charger. The DR needs 5 V. Jeff at eReaders is supposedly looking into the problem. The car charger I bought produced not response from the DR. I guessing the voltage was too low to be detected by the DR.

td

That's weird because it does charge the DR reasonably well.

I have the same problem. Thank you for the message, so I know that my reader is not damaged.

I think that idea using cap sense buttons is not the best. I have to take care all the time to avoid pressing the buttons by coincidentally.

I am asking all developers to think about this idea and may be develop short program:

Cap sense buttons should only act at double quick touching the button, otherwise its functionality will be ignored. So user will be able to carry the reader at the cap sense place and they will not be activated. They will be activated just in case of double click

Even the currently hold press can be replaced by triple click.

Thank you.

A lot of the stand alone USB devices/chargers do not follow the USB power spec very well. That can cause all sorts of weird problems if you use them with a device that is expecting the correct power levels.

Somebody should start keeping a list of the brands/models of stand alone chargers that work well with the DR and which don't. Maybe a wiki page on here?

Same porblem with my new one. First charge with the irex-usb-cable = no problem. Second charge with the usb-cable of my htc-touch = unavailable sensor buttons during the charging. Next test: charging with the original cable again.

BTW - second charge only to 89%...

I've seen similar reports (only 80+ % total charge) on the iRex forums from other people trying to use "non-standard" chargers.

IMO, the best results seem to come from using a PC USB cable to charge the device. When you start using the stand alone chargers that came with other devices (which weren't designed for the DR), you start seeing lots of problems.

Personally I think the whole 80% charge is really because of how a LiOn battery works, it needs special circuitry to keep track of how much charge it is holding and sometimes that mechanism can get out of whack. Although in theory it is not good to discharge a LiOn battery fully it is the only sure way to recalibrate the charge-circuitry and with the new 1.5FW there was also an upgrade of that battery circuitry firmware from what I understand.

Yeah, iRex did say that after the latest update it will take a couple charge cycles before the battery calibration gets reset again. I think some people are experiencing problems beyond that initial period though. In most cases, it seems to be solved by switching chargers.

I'm practically convinced that the maximum charge of 89 % is a bug in the firmware. In other words, the code for the math is 10 units off. I have arrived at that suspicion based on the amount of charge left and the number of bars in the battery indicator.

td