Glo Glo Battery Problems

[TechniSol]

Mrs O,

My apologies, I thought you were one of the beta testers for some reason. Maybe I read something in your posts regarding side loaded firmware and got that impression once upon a time.

At any rate, with Kobo we're all Paying Gamma-Testers... OTOH, I could think of worse things as long as they're willing to continue upgrading firmware and introducing new features for the rest of the product line, not just the latest models.

I'm 24 full days in since charging, 44.5 hours of reading on lowest lighting level, and at 22%...

The last 4 hours of reading/three days of sleep have dropped the battery meter considerably, but linearity, or lack of, may play a large role there. I'm probably off the plateau and on the far right highly sloped part of the typical discharge curve. I'll be glad to finish, but pretty happy with overall battery life if it gets anywhere near 50 hours with the light on and 21 days of sleeping. I can only imagine that it'll do better if I go back to shutting it down in between, at least for my usage pattern, but perhaps the self discharge is nearer the sleep mode penalty than I'd thought. Frankly, I'd have been happy getting 2 weeks between charges with the lighting on low and maybe 2 to 3 hours a day reading.

Well, it finally quit. Last % I noticed on it was 5%, so not so bad in terms of indicating it was nearly out. At 8% I noticed a message on the top line of the display that said something to the effect that the battery was low and should be charged soon, probably would have been displayed from 10% down as a guess.

My final numbers would be 24 full days and ~4 hours in since charging, ~46.5 hours of reading on lowest lighting level, and shut down shortly after I saw it was at 5%...

That's almost two full 24 hour days of reading time, plus ~22 full days of sleep mode on one charge -with the LED lighting on low the whole time! I'm more than satisfied at that considering that with being able to shut it off in between reading sessions it should go even further. I hope this helped provide a baseline for what others might expect.

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by VelvetElvis

I'm just a bit over 200 km down a major highway from Kobo HQ, so it makes for a quick shipment.

Aaahh well see. Maybe one of the Kobo customer employees dropped it off on their way home :P

Originally Posted by VelvetElvis

Just got an email 5 minutes ago from Danny. They're going to send another prepaid mailer so that the unit gets properly directed. Makes me feel a bit better.

I'm glad that makes you feel a bit better. I would too

I wonder if you suddenly get perfect battery life in your fourth Glo? Which reminds me, what kind of case do you keep it in? Does it touch the screen while the Glo's sleeping inside it?

I can conclude several things from your post: Danny is still around and working. And, your replacement was probably sent by regular customer care, not Danny... Plus, Danny hasn't yet sent out the replacement he said he would. (And so, my replacement isn't on its way yet either?)

Originally Posted by robko

But in fairness (to Sameer at least), the people you are dealing with now are really management rather than customer service and it's great that they're trying to get you sorted out, but they could well be out of the country or in meetings/conference all day/night with limited time to respond to e-mails. I would tend to give them a little more slack.

Very very true!

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by TechniSol

Mrs O,

My apologies, I thought you were one of the beta testers for some reason. Maybe I read something in your posts regarding side loaded firmware and got that impression once upon a time.

No problem at all. I take it as a compliment

Originally Posted by TechniSol

At any rate, with Kobo we're all Paying Gamma-Testers... OTOH, I could think of worse things as long as they're willing to continue upgrading firmware and introducing new features for the rest of the product line, not just the latest models.

Indeed!

Originally Posted by TechniSol

I'm 24 full days in since charging, 44.5 hours of reading on lowest lighting level, and at 22%...

Very nice! I would suspect as well that it's now at the fast dropping end.

Now give it to me.

[Peakcrew]

Originally Posted by TechniSol

At 8% I noticed a message on the top line of the display that said something to the effect that the battery was low and should be charged soon, probably would have been displayed from 10% down as a guess.

Let me read that again:

Originally Posted by TechniSol

At 8% I noticed a message on the top line of the display that said something to the effect that the battery was low and should be charged soon, probably would have been displayed from 10% down as a guess.

Yep, still says the same! I wonder if that is in the Touch firmware now, at last? I'll have to go into battery-running-down mode too in order to find out!

[Peakcrew]

Originally Posted by robko

But in fairness (to Sameer at least), the people you are dealing with now are really management rather than customer service and it's great that they're trying to get you sorted out, but they could well be out of the country or in meetings/conference all day/night with limited time to respond to e-mails. I would tend to give them a little more slack.

To some extent, yes, but at the same time, if something has been elevated to management, it is presumably being taken seriously. If that is the case, then it should be in the top 4-5 priorities for the individual that has taken ownership of it.

Ah well, at least there is some light at the end of the tunnel for VelvetElvis, and with a bit of luck Mrs_Often will not be Mrs_Charging-Up_Often soon!

[I was about to hit send when I realised that a slight change was required - "Mrs_Charging_Often" could have more than one meaning ]

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by TechniSol

Well, it finally quit. [...]

My final numbers would be 24 full days and ~4 hours in since charging, ~46.5 hours of reading on lowest lighting level, [...]

That's almost two full 24 hour days of reading time, plus ~22 full days of sleep mode on one charge -with the LED lighting on low the whole time! I'm more than satisfied at that considering that with being able to shut it off in between reading sessions it should go even further.

Niiiiiice!!! Congrats on the lovely battery life.

Originally Posted by TechniSol

I hope this helped provide a baseline for what others might expect.

Most certainly you did. Thank you big fat heaps for taking the time and effort to do that for us

Originally Posted by Peakcrew

Let me read that again:

[...]

Hahahaha

Originally Posted by Peakcrew

Yep, still says the same! I wonder if that is in the Touch firmware now, at last? I'll have to go into battery-running-down mode too in order to find out!

Actually, it's been there for a loooooong time. Pre-2.x.x even, long long ago. It's on my old Touch as well. And I even have pictures somewhere to prove it (but I'm too lazy to go find them – they're on this forum somewhere as well if you find yourself wanting to go search ). However, that warning is absolutely useless, as it doesn't show up when you're reading a book. It's on the home screen, in the top top top, where it also gives you info of the syncing status. It might also show up in the book menu, but hey, I read with the book menu closed

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by Peakcrew

[I was about to hit send when I realised that a slight change was required - "Mrs_Charging_Often" could have more than one meaning ]

(But actually, I think I'll never be either mrs-charging-often or mrs-charging-up-often... )

[Peakcrew]

Originally Posted by Mrs_Often

Actually, it's been there for a loooooong time. Pre-2.x.x even, long long ago. It's on my old Touch as well. And I even have pictures somewhere to prove it (but I'm too lazy to go find them – they're on this forum somewhere as well if you find yourself wanting to go search ). However, that warning is absolutely useless, as it doesn't show up when you're reading a book. It's on the home screen, in the top top top, where it also gives you info of the syncing status. It might also show up in the book menu, but hey, I read with the book menu closed

Oh ... that's a shame. I did know about the almost useless home-screen warning. I though this was something new ...

[Peakcrew]

Originally Posted by Mrs_Often

(But actually, I think I'll never be either mrs-charging-often or mrs-charging-up-often... )

Never say never - life takes it as a challenge ...

[VelvetElvis]

Originally Posted by Mrs_Often

I wonder if you suddenly get perfect battery life in your fourth Glo? Which reminds me, what kind of case do you keep it in? Does it touch the screen while the Glo's sleeping inside it?

I bought a SkinDigital case for this one. Excellent value, BTW. Non-sleep cover. The cover is closed, but it doesn't contact the screen itself.

Working from home today, but when I get a chance, I'm going to load on the same collection of books that's on the one being returned. To be honest, and I hope I'm proven wrong, I have no expectations of Glo #4 getting normal battery life.

[Peakcrew]

Originally Posted by VelvetElvis

To be honest, and I hope I'm proven wrong, I have no expectations of Glo #4 getting normal battery life.

Fingers crossed!

[Uschiekid]

Originally Posted by Peakcrew

Oh ... that's a shame. I did know about the almost useless home-screen warning. I though this was something new ...

its not quite as useless as that...though it's not totally obvious either...

it does show when you're reading, but iirc only if you open the menu...which i do fairly often to check time or cause i open the menu when turning pages by accident or when using dictionary etc etc.

the trick is to actually notice that its there, which i'm guessing most people don't. i do most of the time but only because my mind is fairly good at "what one of these things doesn't belong" senarios. so any time i bring up the menu, my mind forces me to notice the weirdness written at the top.
However this also means i'm easily distracted when reading

[Peakcrew]

Originally Posted by Uschiekid

its not quite as useless as that...though it's not totally obvious either...

it does show when you're reading, but iirc only if you open the menu...which i do fairly often to check time or cause i open the menu when turning pages by accident or when using dictionary etc etc.

These days I very rarely open the menu at all, hence my comment. My starting point is that there should be a low-battery warning that flashes up on the screen at about 10% (though ideally it would be configurable), just like most other portable devices manage with no difficulty.

To be fair, I rarely let anything I own get to such a low battery state, but it is annoying when my reader does it when I'm not in a position to do anything about it! I know that the way to do it is to flick to the menu every time I switch on, or to put it on charge every morning when I'm not reading and the mobile is not using the cable, but somehow that seems too "un-booklike" ...

[samhy]

Originally Posted by Uschiekid

its not quite as useless as that...though it's not totally obvious either...

And with a Mini, you don't see that many characters. I figured out what it was because people here were talking about a low battery warning

[Uschiekid]

Originally Posted by Peakcrew

These days I very rarely open the menu at all, hence my comment. My starting point is that there should be a low-battery warning that flashes up on the screen at about 10% (though ideally it would be configurable), just like most other portable devices manage with no difficulty.

To be fair, I rarely let anything I own get to such a low battery state, but it is annoying when my reader does it when I'm not in a position to do anything about it! I know that the way to do it is to flick to the menu every time I switch on, or to put it on charge every morning when I'm not reading and the mobile is not using the cable, but somehow that seems too "un-booklike" ...

fair enough!