Pocket Pro battery issue?

[Musicman]

Originally Posted by Toeknee

In my experience, lithium based batteries are rock solid for at least a year, and often two or three years before I start really noticing a significant drop in charge life. In a year or two, I'm going to be wanting a new ereader anyways (lots of new features and abilities just over the horizon), so availability of after market batteries is not a huge issue to me.

While what you say is true, I have a problem with manufacturers building in an automatic obsolence in their products by not having the battery user replacable. I feel that since I paid cash to own (and not lease for 2 years) a product, then I should be the one who decides that it no longer fits my needs and I should throw it out.

My Ipaq 4700 still works, and functions as a GPS, Ereader (handles just about any format), MP3 player, Movie Player - I have changed its battery and given it new life and still use it (though I admit less frequently).

Don't get me wrong, I still look for the newest and latest gadgets, but I still go back to older technology which sometimes is better - For Example I have a record player and only buy Vinyl records - they sound better (though I do convert them to MP3 for convenience).

[UchihaNaru]

Originally Posted by AJ Starr

You might try an experiment and instead of leaving it locked, turn it off when you aren't using it and see if the battery stays good longer.

I always turn mine off when I'm not reading, and my battery has lasted forever. I've had it since the first shipments, early September, and the only time I had the bars go down were, first, when I left it on screen lock overnight, it dropped one bar. (Thinking it only had one bar left, since I had not seen the bars change before, I quickly recharged.) And, second, this week when I had been playing with the opening and closing screens, loading and reloading about 50 times, and having read several books, it dropped two bars. And I recharged. That's two charges in about a month.

BTW, do you charge with the wall charger or through the computer. I know that charging cell phones through the computer will not give you as good of charge as using the wall plug. This might be the same for the PEZ.

AJ

i charge with my apple charger =X (i can't use the US charger that they provide)

[theducks]

Originally Posted by UchihaNaru

i charge with my apple charger =X (i can't use the US charger that they provide)

The Apple charger may be the problem. They may have done something with one of the USB signal lines that the PEZ does not expect.

Obtain a Plug (prong) adapter (about $2 in the US).
The supplied adapters electrical specifications are suitable for World Wide (AC) power sources: 100 through 240Volts 50 through 60 Hz.
So adapting the plug is all that is needed.

[gargoyle67]

My batteries not that great, I only get about 4 chapters or about 400 pages before I start showing a bar less than full, Or is that about right ?

[GA Russell]

Originally Posted by Musicman

While what you say is true, I have a problem with manufacturers building in an automatic obsolence in their products by not having the battery user replacable. I feel that since I paid cash to own (and not lease for 2 years) a product, then I should be the one who decides that it no longer fits my needs and I should throw it out.

I strongly agree, Musicman. Because currently the Pocket Pro battery is available from only one source (who makes no promises regarding how long it will keep it available), I am now thinking about getting the Mentor Lite 2 instead.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by gargoyle67

My batteries not that great, I only get about 4 chapters or about 400 pages before I start showing a bar less than full, Or is that about right ?

No!

I am into the current book by 350 pages,
I browsed a 15 page PDF of electronic (A3) schematics iI am working with for fun (Diagrams totally unreadable at that screen size, but it worked )
Browsed a couple of other titles before settling on the above.

Still 4 bars.

SHUT DOWN, Disconnect the USB cord (if attached)
Open the battery door and re-seat the battery plug (remove and re-insert).
Attach to charger (powered up ). Turn the PEZ back OFF (really annoying feature) and let charge until the Prong plug replaces the lightning bolt.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Musicman

While what you say is true, I have a problem with manufacturers building in an automatic obsolence in their products by not having the battery user replacable. I feel that since I paid cash to own (and not lease for 2 years) a product, then I should be the one who decides that it no longer fits my needs and I should throw it out.

By definition: this battery is User Replaceable. You do not have to send the whole to a Service Center like the Kindle or Sony. (I have seen those battery packs and they are even more proprietary than the PEZ (and other re-brands). Stocking the battery is a function of the Selling company service and support. Given that the "Jinke V5" is sold by a number of companies, it is a good chance that the battery will be available somewhere.

Now if Robert would only sell about a 100K units a month , other battery pack manufacturers would be tripping over themselves to see that Fry's and others stocked them on he shelves at your local store.

[gargoyle67]

Originally Posted by theducks

No!

I am into the current book by 350 pages,
I browsed a 15 page PDF of electronic (A3) schematics iI am working with for fun (Diagrams totally unreadable at that screen size, but it worked )
Browsed a couple of other titles before settling on the above.

Still 4 bars.

SHUT DOWN, Disconnect the USB cord (if attached)
Open the battery door and re-seat the battery plug (remove and re-insert).
Attach to charger (powered up ). Turn the PEZ back OFF (really annoying feature) and let charge until the Prong plug replaces the lightning bolt.

I've tried something similar to this, But I don't think I tried it with the PP turned off I'll try this and report back when I get less than full bars again and this time I'll take a note of the exact page turns

[theducks]

Originally Posted by gargoyle67

I've tried something similar to this, But I don't think I tried it with the PP turned off I'll try this and report back when I get less than full bars again and this time I'll take a note of the exact page turns

You should never remove power (battery) while the file system is open
(Note the message when you power down. Saving your Library...)

You did read the Manual part where they talked about Not removing the batter while plugged in?

[gargoyle67]

Originally Posted by theducks

You should never remove power (battery) while the file system is open
(Note the message when you power down. Saving your Library...)

You did read the Manual part where they talked about Not removing the batter while plugged in?

Nope lol, Manual whats that I had the usb plugged in anyways , Still working though just not getting as good a charge out of my pp as I did on my bebook 6"

[Solicitous]

Originally Posted by gargoyle67

My batteries not that great, I only get about 4 chapters or about 400 pages before I start showing a bar less than full, Or is that about right ?

I don't know what to expect. They're meant to last 8000 pages or so. My first charge lasted a week of playing, beeped at 2 bars remaining (don't know the page count, was a 100 or so but I did start up and load heaps of books and flick pages testing different formats).

I'm on my second charge now and just lost a bar after 200 pages of reading. Hopefully I only need to cycle the battery 2-3 more times and I will come close to a reasonable number of page turns per charge. I certainly hope I don't have a faulty battery.

Anyone else experience low number of page turns the first few charge cycles?

[theducks]

I went down to 1 bar after a week of use and more than 2000 pages of TXT mode reading use.
(I am thinking that the type of file you read may change the battery consumption rate. For those who get LOW page counts: What format were you reading and how many days since last full charge? )

I also did a number of "Demo" showings to co-workers so my page count is low.

I was fully re-charged in less than 6 hours using the wall charger.

[Solicitous]

Originally Posted by theducks

I went down to 1 bar after a week of use and more than 2000 pages of TXT mode reading use.
(I am thinking that the type of file you read may change the battery consumption rate. For those who get LOW page counts: What format were you reading and how many days since last full charge? )

I also did a number of "Demo" showings to co-workers so my page count is low.

I was fully re-charged in less than 6 hours using the wall charger.

Second full charge was 6 days ago. I have only been reading a .mobi (created with Calibre - epub format wasn't successful in my file conversion). I did have the PP turned off for the first 3-4 days since the last charge but have left it turned on since.

I might try turning it off over night, but I keep getting the feeling that the amount of power drain shutting down/starting up and loading a book would be more than the slight power trickle leaving it on. I'm actually (more because I can) unplug the battery for 5 or so minutes, reseat it and see how it goes from there. Battery removal has resolved many a computer problems for me.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Solicitous

Second full charge was 6 days ago. I have only been reading a .mobi (created with Calibre - epub format wasn't successful in my file conversion). I did have the PP turned off for the first 3-4 days since the last charge but have left it turned on since.

I might try turning it off over night, but I keep getting the feeling that the amount of power drain shutting down/starting up and loading a book would be more than the slight power trickle leaving it on. I'm actually (more because I can) unplug the battery for 5 or so minutes, reseat it and see how it goes from there. Battery removal has resolved many a computer problems for me.

Un-plugging the battery might reset the charge meter calibration .
(That is the way I would have designed it , expecting a new/different battery to calibrate upon connection)

[Dave_S]

Originally Posted by theducks

Un-plugging the battery might reset the charge meter calibration .
(That is the way I would have designed it , expecting a new/different battery to calibrate upon connection)

The battery cell used in the PocketPRO is smart battery, so the charge meter is in the battery itself. It communicates with the PocketPRO over the SBD bus (Smart Battery Data), on the center yellow wire on the plug.