Quote:
Originally Posted by Shaggy
... the discussion was specifically about the design choice of the buttons. In that context, the cause is definitely relevant.
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I’m not sure what ‘cause’ you mean; the design choice--to use cap sense switches--adds absolutely no benifit or advantage for either the user or the device. To use the cap sense switch to turn the device ‘on’ requires the circuitry to be always powered up--even while the device is ‘off’--with it’s clock running. Add to that accidental page turns and jumps, from just getting too near a switch, and the other distractions they cause. Even if this is not a (or
the) ‘significant’ cause of the DR1000S’ battery/runtime problems, it still seems an
absolutely poor design choice to me, and I suspect that iRex’s marketing dept, rather than engineering, made the choice.
On my ‘experimental’ (broken screen) DR I have noticed that, when connecting the battery, the DR behaves exactly the same as when power is applied thru USB, and after being unplugged for a week, the battery was
still fully charged; a power switch on the battery would have eliminated power drain while off, whether the drain was caused by the cap sense circuitry, a firmware bug or anything else.
I notice that the DR800
does have a power switch; I hope that it is a Hard switch, and doesn’t rely on any ‘always on’ circuitry to function. The 800’s flip switch, also, may operate thru interrupt (using power only when used) or polling (using power whenever the device is turned ‘on’). To have anything running (except the tablet, when used) except during screen updates defeats one of the main advantages of the eInk technology on a portable device.
There’s no reason that iRex couldn’t have done much better on the 1000, and I hope (both for iRex and future buyers) that they made better design choices this time. If they haven’t, this big new deal will kill the company.
Meanwhile, I’m installing a battery door and switch on my good 1000S.
Kent Walters