Kindle Battery Surgery [Success!]

[geekmaster]

And while we are being divergent, here is what "rules" look like to aspies (extra dimensions of possibility):



And perception of time (it ain't what you think):



And for hardware hacker types:



And one more thing that sets a geek's heart aflutter:



I have hundreds of favorites like this. Perhaps these are the geek version of TV, eh?

[dhdurgee]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

Yes. The battery identification and/or protection circuit (and frame) should be kept and used for a LiPo replacement (which can be salvaged from a different phone or camera, or toy). If the replacement LiPo has no PCB of its own, you need to wrap it all so the heat can migrate to the saved circuit board, for thermal protection.

This method should work for any device with a LiPo-based proprietary battery.

Though be sure it is not a software problem. The NSA spy software that simulates a power down is known to eat batteries. But really, get rid of apps running in the background, with your app manager.

Some smartphones come pre-loaded with bundles of crapware. If you cannot uninstall what you do not use, at least disable it. Such things that always run in the background (even when asleep, and only to check if new versions, or perhaps record and upload your contacts and GPU coords and whatever your TOS agreed to), well, they eat batteries too. Kill them. Kill them all. Then see if you still need a new battery.

EDIT: Also, I would not salvage parts from a useful (but low remaining capacity) battery, just a dead one. Sticking a small battery inside a big one that was still working will not give you much of an improvement. But you could slap a really big battery on the back and run the wires inside to the old battery circuit board.

In this case I had to pay someone to customize the phone to work with the 3G network plan I was already on with an older phone, so he de-bloated it as part of the service. I will check further to see if there are other settings I need to change. Checking right now on my battery users the screen is 28%, followed by mediaserver at 18%, google services at 9% and android OS at 9% respectively. I was streaming internet radio, so the mediaserver is not a surprise. Perhaps there is a way to "tune" its usage? I have already adjusted the screen brightness down and it is still a power hog.

As I don't have a dead battery for the phone I will certainly need to have it replaced at this point if it is indeed the problem. At present I am working around it with a 4000 mAh powerbank, which is a bit easier than hacking the phone and battery.

It was the size of the powerbank that lead me to think it ought to be possible to fit more capacity into the phone battery.

Dave

[dhdurgee]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Sounds like app problems.
Also make sure your location services are off.

Kind of hard to use the turn-by-turn driving instructions with that and the GPS functions off, but I guess I can keep them off unless I am actually using it. The turn-by-turn saved me a lot of time and frustration dodging around horrible traffic yesterday. It is certainly a battery eater, but one of the few apps that I find truly useful. The other apps I use most are VPN when using open WiFi and streaming audio for intenet radio via my bluetooth headset.

Dave

[knc1]

Screen at 28% ?
Let me guess, that model has an IPS screen.
Pretty, but at a price in power usage.

Turn the screen off and use a Kindle as a remote screen.

Does your traffic congestion application mark those congestion spots that where caused by people who where looking at their cell phone screen rather than where they where going for you?

Avoid becoming one of the congestion spots yourself, turn the screen off.

= = =

Yes, any sort of 'stream' handling means the cpu / electronics never has time to power-down, even on their own time scale of doing things people can't notice.

Record your music (or whatever) onto the phone, play recorded music rather than streamed.

Power your 'phone from the vehicle - I.E: Use a 'car charger' for it.

= = = =

Having decreasing storage capacity over the age of the battery, usually noticed as shorter times between re-charges, is a fact of life with the battery design.

Sometimes made even worse by the usage patterns of the user.
As the battery ages, it is even more important not to let it "deep discharge" -
Keep in mind the Capone quote:
"Vote Charge early, vote charge often."

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by dhdurgee

Kind of hard to use the turn-by-turn driving instructions with that and the GPS functions off, but I guess I can keep them off unless I am actually using it. The turn-by-turn saved me a lot of time and frustration dodging around horrible traffic yesterday. It is certainly a battery eater, but one of the few apps that I find truly useful. The other apps I use most are VPN when using open WiFi and streaming audio for intenet radio via my bluetooth headset.

Dave

Bluetooth also eats power, but counterintuitively, it eats more power when it is NOT paired with a device (while searching for devices to pair with).

[dhdurgee]

Originally Posted by knc1

Screen at 28% ?
Let me guess, that model has an IPS screen.
Pretty, but at a price in power usage.

Turn the screen off and use a Kindle as a remote screen.

Does your traffic congestion application mark those congestion spots that where caused by people who where looking at their cell phone screen rather than where they where going for you?

Avoid becoming one of the congestion spots yourself, turn the screen off.

= = =

Yes, any sort of 'stream' handling means the cpu / electronics never has time to power-down, even on their own time scale of doing things people can't notice.

Record your music (or whatever) onto the phone, play recorded music rather than streamed.

Power your 'phone from the vehicle - I.E: Use a 'car charger' for it.

= = = =

Having decreasing storage capacity over the age of the battery, usually noticed as shorter times between re-charges, is a fact of life with the battery design.

Sometimes made even worse by the usage patterns of the user.
As the battery ages, it is even more important not to let it "deep discharge" -
Keep in mind the Capone quote:
"Vote Charge early, vote charge often."

Traffic app I was using is Google Maps turn-by-turn routing. Google appears to get real time speed, probably from android devices on the highways, so it should be assessing all causes for congestion. I usually blank the screen and simply listen to the turn-by-turn in my bluetooth.

I normally do blank the screen when possible, but some interaction is necessary. This morning I was at a place where the WiFi was a bit flaky, requiring more interaction than normal. Annoying.

I was listening to live programming, so no pre-recording available. Not high speed stream, AAC radio stream at 48K or so. I would think this puts less load on the phone than a voice call.

I did wind up plugging the phone into my powerbank, but that turn-by-turn appears to draw enough power that the powerbank only kept the phone from further discharge. At what level do you suggest starting to recharge the phone? I normally wait until it hits 20%, but sometimes I miss and it gets lower. For some reason the low battery notification on it is easy to miss.

I got this particular phone, which is a "phablet", to replace a flip-phone and a palm PDA and had some specific requirements. It had to work with my current 3G prepaid plan, had to fit my pocket like my palm did and had to not cost an arm and a leg. This lead me to this particular LG model which is working as desired, with the exception of battery life.

Dave

[dhdurgee]

Originally Posted by geekmaster

Bluetooth also eats power, but counterintuitively, it eats more power when it is NOT paired with a device (while searching for devices to pair with).

Thank you for pointing that out. I had been leaving it on for convenience when I have turned off the headset while at home or office. I will start turning bluetooth off on the phone when not using the headset. It only showed 5% of battery usage, but that should help some.

Dave

[knc1]

Not high speed stream, AAC radio stream at 48K or so. I would think this puts less load on the phone than a voice call.

The audio is a continuous stream of information that must be processed, no 'taking a nap' while its running.

Digital cell 'phones use a "burst" transmission protocol.
(You probably will not find any analog cell 'phones still in use. Those where the ones too big to lose.)

Although the transmitter only outputs 4 watts (max), it usually uses around 12 watts to generate that output.

But the "burst" is very short and uses a very low repetition rate (high 'off' percentage).
So on an average, very low power consumption.

True, there is audio processing going on to match the burst rate of a person's speech to the burst rate of the radio channel.
But this is almost always done in very low power hardware these days.
Plus, on the processing timescale used, there is plenty of opportunity to 'take a break' (or 'go idle').
(Some people you know of may not seem to take a breath while talking, but they do )

Not so with streaming music.
Even though it is uni-directional (I assume), not bi-directional - there is still no 'going to sleep' while processing it.

[Cinisajoy]

If you are going to use it as a GPS, plug it into the car charger. If you are going to use it as a radio, plug it into a car charger.
Do not worry about the battery says at that point. Plug it in anyway.
Make that for any heavy battery drainer.
They have some really cool chargers for the car now.
Now if I am out and about and need to charge in a hurry I like my 5200mAh charger.

[knc1]

Or get a car with a radio.
They have cars equip'd with those now without needing a special order.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by knc1

Or get a car with a radio.
They have cars equip'd with those now without needing a special order.

I noticed the Ford Focus has everything he wants.

[geekmaster]

Originally Posted by knc1

Or get a car with a radio.
They have cars equip'd with those now without needing a special order.

[knc1]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

I noticed the Ford Focus has everything he wants.

My Suburban has all of that stuff (plus cell phone, DVD player, voice activated stuff, streaming radio, turn-by-turn gps and I don't know what all else).

True, its a truck.
But it is a very nice, 8 year old, used truck.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by knc1

My Suburban has all of that stuff (plus cell phone, DVD player, voice activated stuff, streaming radio, turn-by-turn gps and I don't know what all else).

True, its a truck.
But it is a very nice, 8 year old, used truck.

I'm jealous. My newer than your truck doesn't have all that.
Now you can connect a phone that can be voice activated.

In the truck's defense: others on the lot had all those features except the dvd.
We just didn't want to pay that much for all the bells and whistles.
My Garmin works just fine. If I need road conditions, I have that number programmed in my phone. The website is bookmarked on my phone.
Oh and I think in a box somewhere I have a portable dvd player.

[knc1]

This was a special deal -
I knew one of the owners of the used car lot -
They wanted to move it, it had been taking up space for too long -
It has every possible option except the power running boards (that come out and bite you in the ankle when you open the door).

They gave me a very nice deal on it (the bank's loan value figure was more than the purchase price).

Still more than I ever paid for even a new car, but I expect it will outlast myself.

I have had it for over a year and am only about 1/2 way through the first of two owner's manual booklets.
So I really don't know what all tricks it has up its sleeve.

Just last week I got a chance to try one of the "unknown" buttons -
I had to tow a friend's broken down pickup -
And there was a button with a "trailer" icon on it -
So I pushed it -
Could not tell I was pulling another vehicle nearly my own vehicle's weight.

Even the suspension on this thing is computerized. (Electronic shock absorbers)