Just bought a DR1000S - awaiting delivery

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by SplogSplog

So, having used my DR1000S for about three days now, it seems that I get about 11 to 12 hours of reading on a full recharge. This is more than enough for me for a single day - and I leave it to recharge overnight. Now I just have to pray that there really is no nasty "battery memory effect" reducing the life of the battery over time. Overall, then, I am delighted with the product.

There is no "memory" effect. With lithuim ion batteries though, the main thing to be worried about is that doing a full discharge/recharge cycle is not good for it and can eventually start hurting your battery life. The best thing to do with this type of battery is to keep it topped off, rather than let it run completely down and recharge. In other words, recharge whenever it is convenient, don't purposely let it fully discharge before you recharge it again.

[SplogSplog]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

In other words, recharge whenever it is convenient, don't purposely let it fully discharge before you recharge it again.

That is interesting. I bought mine from Libresco, and it comes with instructions saying that I should let it completely recharge and discharge 5 times in order for it to reach full capacity. So, does that mean that after these 5 cycles I should abandon that cycle and switch to continual top-ups instead?

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by SplogSplog

That is interesting. I bought mine from Libresco, and it comes with instructions saying that I should let it completely recharge and discharge 5 times in order for it to reach full capacity. So, does that mean that after these 5 cycles I should abandon that cycle and switch to continual top-ups instead?

Yes. The initial 5 cycles is just so that the driver that reports the charge level back to the firmware can get calibrated correctly. After that initial calibration, switch to a pattern of more frequent "smaller" recharges in order to maximize the battery life.

Note: By "battery life", I mean the number of years you get out of the battery before it needs to be replaced. Not the amount of charge you get in a single usage.