Glo Glo Battery Problems

[VelvetElvis]

Thanks for the analysis, David. Those are certainly respectable figures.

[TechniSol]

If the battery gauge is not always accurate, it could be off in terms of the top end of charging as well... Do you guys leave it on the charger beyond the reader indicating a 100% charge? If it was off in that regard would further charging make any difference if the ereader decides to stop charging prematurely?

I have a fair amount of side loaded files, 100+ and some downloaded freebies from Kobo and I'm seeing far better battery life in sleep with my Glo -not bragging. But when I charge it usually gets left on the charger all night or day.

Just an odd thought, think it makes a difference? Have you tried leaving it plugged into the charger for prolonged periods?

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by davidfor

My apologies to VelvetElvis and Mrs_Often, but I keep forgetting to write up my findings with the boks they supplied.

No problem, thanks for taking the time to write it up now!

Originally Posted by davidfor

The short answer is that they had no noticeable effect on the battery life of my Glo.

[...]

About the only thing is the length of time for the sleeping. The longest was about 10 hours. There might be something happening with longer times. Maybe the device wakes and does something after 12 or 24 hours.

Interesting thought! I charged my replacement Glo (Glo II) to 100% and unplugged, and it stayed an 100% all day in sleep mode (acutually: I synced it, and it dropped to 98%. Then I restarted it, and it went back to 100%... and then stayed there all day). I checked in the (early?) evening, still 100%. When I woke up this morning, first thing I did was check: it had dropped to 83% and then to 82% when I was looking at it. So all day 100% was around or probably under 10 hours of sleep time. Then from the last check in the evening to the next morning was definitely more than 10 hours sleep time. Perhaps about 12 hours counting from 19:00 (7 pm ) but 19:00 is a guess, it was probably earlier.

However, what would it be doing after 12 or more hours? In any case something that older devices (my olde Touch for instance) don't do, on the same firmware..........

Originally Posted by davidfor

It doesn't help the people that are having battery life issues, but, I am happy with this. It looks like two weeks without a charge would be easy and maybe even a month. But, I don't think that would happen as the only reason I woudn't connect and charge is if I was reading a lot more than usual. And that is running the battery down.

Certainly nice. I put your data into my analysis sheet
- Total % decrease per hour: 0.23
- It should last you 428.27 hours; or 18 days
- If you're still on your current charge with comparable usage, you'll have to charge on March 1st at 05:36*


Thanks David for going through the trouble of noting down your results, and for sharing! Your results aren't as nice as my olde Touch, but definitely much better than VelvetElvis' & my experiences with our Gloes.



*Oh wait. This isn't true. This is assuming you started with 100% on 11 Feb, which you didn't.

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by VelvetElvis

My settings echo yours except for these:
- Sleepcover listening: NO (was Yes. Thanks for reminding me :-)
- Page refresh: 6 (factory setting)
- Reading Life: OFF
- Reading Life notifications: OFF
- Wifi: OFF and never configured

Use Calibre exclusively for library management.

Maybe turning off the Reading Life settings and sleepcover listening will help. But I'm probably being overly optimistic.

Gaaahhhh I'd hoped your reading life was on as well, and that David's would be off, and that all would be perfect if we'd switch them off But yours is already off

I really don't understand. If it's not the books, and not the settings... well, that means it's hardware, no? But if it's hardware, why are there SO MANY crap devices and why did you (and others) get bad ones 3 in a row?

Did you ever get around to testing/reading the books David sent you? To test good books on bad device...

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by TechniSol

If the battery gauge is not always accurate, it could be off in terms of the top end of charging as well... Do you guys leave it on the charger beyond the reader indicating a 100% charge? If it was off in that regard would further charging make any difference if the ereader decides to stop charging prematurely?

I have a fair amount of side loaded files, 100+ and some downloaded freebies from Kobo and I'm seeing far better battery life in sleep with my Glo -not bragging. But when I charge it usually gets left on the charger all night or day.

Just an odd thought, think it makes a difference? Have you tried leaving it plugged into the charger for prolonged periods?

Unfortunately, yes, I always leave the battery to charge overnight. I'm not using it any differently to how I used my Touch...

Do you have an estimate of how long your battery lasts? And/but, weren't you one of the people that switches their device off between reading?

[Mrs_Often]

David, could you share your settings with us as per my post on the previous page of this thread?

I want your settings in my Glo

[moffattm]

Originally Posted by TechniSol

If the battery gauge is not always accurate, it could be off in terms of the top end of charging as well... Do you guys leave it on the charger beyond the reader indicating a 100% charge? If it was off in that regard would further charging make any difference if the ereader decides to stop charging prematurely?

Most of the guides I've read about calibrating batteries recommend leaving the device plugged in for an hour or two after it hits 100% because that 100% might not really be 100% (remember the whole point of calibrating is to teach the device the limits of the battery, so when it says it's at 100% it might not really be there).

[Lily7]

Gah. I think my US Glo is having this same problem too. It was at 100% 2 days ago, I put it in sleep mode and haven't touched it since because I got really busy. Turned it on today and it was at 60%.

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by Lily7

Gah. I think my US Glo is having this same problem too. It was at 100% 2 days ago, I put it in sleep mode and haven't touched it since because I got really busy. Turned it on today and it was at 60%.

Yep, sounds like it How many battery cycles have you had (from completely 0 to 100%)?

[Lily7]

Originally Posted by Mrs_Often

Yep, sounds like it How many battery cycles have you had (from completely 0 to 100%)?

None yet. I've only had it for less than a month. Should I let it get to 0 this time before charging? At this rate it won't take long.

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by Lily7

None yet. I've only had it for less than a month. Should I let it get to 0 this time before charging? At this rate it won't take long.

Yes, it's always a good idea to calibrate the battery meter before using the battery as you please. You calibrate it by letting it drop to completely empty (your Glo will tell you "Please charge" on a black screen and it won't turn on until you charge it). Once plugged in, do not unplug it until at least 2 hours after it says it's done. Best/easiest to just leave it plugged in over night.

You can't properly judge your battery's life until it's had about 4 or so of these cycles.

[Lily7]

Originally Posted by Mrs_Often

Yes, it's always a good idea to calibrate the battery meter before using the battery as you please. You calibrate it by letting it drop to completely empty (your Glo will tell you "Please charge" on a black screen and it won't turn on until you charge it). Once plugged in, do not unplug it until at least 2 hours after it says it's done. Best/easiest to just leave it plugged in over night.

You can't properly judge your battery's life until it's had about 4 or so of these cycles.

Will do, thanks. I was just taken aback because other ereaders I've had haven't ever dropped by that much in 2 days, even when I read for many hours a day at most the battery life only went down maybe 10% for two days worth of that kind of reading. So to see a 40% drop on two days of sleep mode was a shock.

[Uschiekid]

Originally Posted by Lily7

Will do, thanks. I was just taken aback because other ereaders I've had haven't ever dropped by that much in 2 days, even when I read for many hours a day at most the battery life only went down maybe 10% for two days worth of that kind of reading. So to see a 40% drop on two days of sleep mode was a shock.

even after calibrating the battery, it can be wildly inaccurate. for example, i had it fall fairly quickly for the first 65% (i don't remember exactly)....then it stayed on 35% for about 5 days while I was reading more than an hour a day....then went to 34% for 2 days (reading similar amounts), then jumped to 32% and went down at a fair pace until 3% when it demanded recharging.....I can't remember the details from 100%-35% and 32%-3%, but since it spent a week at those two percentages....fairly low in the battery cycle, just shows that until you get to the lower percentages (I think 15% or 10% and lower) where doing anything "battery draining" can cause it to immediately need recharging.....then you really can't tell how "bad" your battery is.....


so i would definitely calibrate it as Mrs_Often suggests, and even if you experience big drops, wait and see. If you still get results like Mrs_Often and others (100% to 0% in days), then that is a real problem.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Mrs_Often

David, could you share your settings with us as per my post on the previous page of this thread?

I want your settings in my Glo

Here they are:

- Facebook NOT signed in
- Adobe NOT authorised
- Light indicator CLEAR
- Light auto off: 15 min
- Auto sleep: 15 min
- Auto off: never
- Screen saver: on, full screen
- Sleepcover listening: On
- Time zone: UTC 11:00
- Language: English (locale changed to en_AU, but was standard en_US during tests)
- Page turning: First option - equal division
- Page refresh: 6
- Page numbers in margins: NO
- Reading Life: ON (I thought it was a little bit of fun but awards stop to early)
- Reading Life notifications: ON (If you hav the above on, then this being off is silly)
- Wifi: On - Connections defined at both home and work. But didn't use much during the tests.
- Serial # begins with: 613b2b
- µSD: Yes, 1GB no name, but i am not sure if it was in for the tet
- Firmware: 2.4.0 (34b1ceb91d, 14/02/13) (but was 2.3.2 when doing my test)
- About 40 kepubs, but usually read sideloaded books including the epub versions of books purchased from Kobo
- Sideloaded books managed, converted and transferred with Calibre (Did I really need to say this?). A lot end up in Sigil for cleanup.
- Other reading settings: Georgia, size 21 or 22 (about the 8th setting), line spacing zero, margins zero. Justification on.
- No cover
- Mostly don't have light on. When it is, it is at minimum level.

[VelvetElvis]

Originally Posted by TechniSol

If the battery gauge is not always accurate, it could be off in terms of the top end of charging as well... Do you guys leave it on the charger beyond the reader indicating a 100% charge? If it was off in that regard would further charging make any difference if the ereader decides to stop charging prematurely?

I have a fair amount of side loaded files, 100+ and some downloaded freebies from Kobo and I'm seeing far better battery life in sleep with my Glo -not bragging. But when I charge it usually gets left on the charger all night or day.

Just an odd thought, think it makes a difference? Have you tried leaving it plugged into the charger for prolonged periods?

When I've charged all 3 that I've dealt with, it's been anywhere between 5 hours and overnight.