DR800 Reader quitely died in it's sleep.

[dmikov]

Had my reader quite low on battery, but put it aside waiting for new cover and wanting to discharge it fully (it was still on the first charge) to calibrate battery meter.
Today received the cover, turned reader and nothing. Connected to charge it - still nothing - no lights no activity. Waited an hour - still more nothing.
Granted the usb connector looks kinda flimsy, so I can not be 100% sure what is going on with charging.
Anybody have an idea what else I can do, before calling tech support?

[pthwaite]

If it's anything like the DR1000, try getting a mains wall charger, leave it plugged in for an hour or 2 and try again.
By the way you should not try and fully discharge Lion batteries, unlike Nicads, it doesn't do them any good. Frequent partial charges are fine for Lion in general.

[pauli]

hold the on/off switch in the off position for a long time (10+ seconds), you'll get an orange light... keep it connected to the charger and it will (should) start after a few minutes.

[badbob001]

It doesn't hurt to open the battery door to make sure the battery wire is still connected. Someone reported it to be loose.

[dmikov]

Originally Posted by pauli

hold the on/off switch in the off position for a long time (10+ seconds), you'll get an orange light... keep it connected to the charger and it will (should) start after a few minutes.

Thank you, that did the trick.

[CoolDragon]

I had this problem too two weeks ago, and used the same trick to reset it.

It seems to be a design problem: the LED is completely controlled by the software. But when the battery is completely empty, the device shut down, like in this case, or when it first arrived, then the user cannot see the device is being charged.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by CoolDragon

I had this problem too two weeks ago, and used the same trick to reset it.

It seems to be a design problem: the LED is completely controlled by the software. But when the battery is completely empty, the device shut down, like in this case, or when it first arrived, then the user cannot see the device is being charged.

I'm not sure it's really a design problem, per say. But the manual should be more clear that if the device is fully off, you won't get a charge light and it needs a long press of the power switch to do the initial boot up. Normally, it should never be fully off unless your battery has completely run out.

[CoolDragon]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

I'm not sure it's really a design problem, per say. But the manual should be more clear that if the device is fully off, you won't get a charge light and it needs a long press of the power switch to do the initial boot up. Normally, it should never be fully off unless your battery has completely run out.

Be clear on the manual is one way to improve the user experience.

However, from a professional hardware/firmware/chip designer's point of view, this is simply a design flaw/bug. If you have ever designed even a simple embedded system, you will know it cost almost nothing to have both the hardware and the software control these LEDs.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by CoolDragon

However, from a professional hardware/firmware/chip designer's point of view, this is simply a design flaw/bug. If you have ever designed even a simple embedded system, you will know it cost almost nothing to have both the hardware and the software control these LEDs.

True, but a full power off is not a normal condition of the device.

[CoolDragon]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

True, but a full power off is not a normal condition of the device.

That's why I call this a flaw/bug: corner cases will really show the quality of any hardware/software design.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by CoolDragon

That's why I call this a flaw/bug: corner cases will really show the quality of any hardware/software design.

It depends on how you look at it. Given unlimited resources, yes, designing for all possible cases is great. But in reality, especially with smaller teams, how much time should you really be spending designing/developing for cases that are not normal conditions. Is this really that big of a problem, or would just a note in the manual stating that if the battery completely dies you'll need to hold the power switch after you start charging it before the LED indication comes on, be sufficient. I don't look at it as a design flaw, but rather a priority choice of how to spend your resources.

[dmikov]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

True, but a full power off is not a normal condition of the device.

Oh yes it is. If I am going on vacation, I am taking my 5" reader. So if the IREX battery goes down while I am away it's only to be expected. You don't really expect anybody to charge appliances they are not taking with them do you?
BTW I have empty batteries once every month. I don't put book down in the interesting place unless something will make me.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by dmikov

Oh yes it is. If I am going on vacation, I am taking my 5" reader. So if the IREX battery goes down while I am away it's only to be expected. You don't really expect anybody to charge appliances they are not taking with them do you?

Yes, you definitely have a point there. I just meant that it's not a condition that should be encountered during normal use. If it sits unused long enough that the batteries do drain, it just means that you won't get an LED after connecting the charger until you flip the power switch to boot it back up. IMO, not really a big deal. If that's the biggest problem we have to deal with, I'd be pretty happy.

BTW I have empty batteries once every month. I don't put book down in the interesting place unless something will make me.

It's actually not good for the batteries to let them drain completely before recharging. Your batteries will last a lot longer if you can keep them topped up as much as possible, rather than let them go through a full charge/discharge cycle every time.

[penartur]

I believe that irex shuts itself down from standby if there is less than some percentage of charge left... so the battery will not be completely empty unless one is going on vacation for a couple of years. Self-discharge of Li-Ion batteries is negligible.
Anyway, one will face such problems with any type of Li-Ion based device. If Li-Ion battery is self-discharged to a "completely empty" level and a bit deeper, it will die, because battery controller will have no power to work (and, particularly, charge the cells).

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by penartur

I believe that irex shuts itself down from standby if there is less than some percentage of charge left... so the battery will not be completely empty unless one is going on vacation for a couple of years.

True, but there's more to it than just discharging to completely empty. Li-Ion batteries don't usually like big recharge cycles. Keeping them topped off is a lot better for them than letting them get down to 10% (or whatever the cutoff is) and then recharging from there every time. The farther you have to bring the charge back up, the harder it is on the battery. It won't damage it immediately, but it effects your overall battery life expectancy.