Battery experience with firmware v4.1.7729

[Stingo]

The impression that I have gotten from Customer service is that the battery issue is hardware related for some units. I don't get it.

[TheHazardsDuke]

That doesn't inspire confidence in Kobo's QC. The KA1 seems like it might be a case of great idea but poor execution.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by TheHazardsDuke

That doesn't inspire confidence in Kobo's QC. The KA1 seems like it might be a case of great idea but poor execution.

Horrible temptation to say that at least the KA1's battery is not exploding.

[Terisa de morgan]

And they don't give you gloves to collect it

[rashkae]

Originally Posted by DNSB

While I haven't seen a Kobo ereader bricked by a firmware update not intended for it, there is no guarantee that this might not happen.

I've done it.. (kind of.).

I forget the model's involved, but I was updating two different Kobos, and ended up writing the firmware for 1 to the other, rendering it unbootable.

fortunately, it was a model with internal sd card, so I was able to recover the device.

[macjohnmcc]

I upgraded my KA1 to the latest firmware. The battery doesn't seem to be discharging quickly but with the light set to auto I saw it fluctuating over and over between 9% and 13% up and down over and over again. I finally disabled auto lighting. It was only at one setting for a little under a second before it would switch to another level.

I made a video (shared with Kobo) showing the light setting increasing rapidly while in a well lit area.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mb9q5a44jn..._1430.MOV?dl=0

[Roro-shi]

Originally Posted by macjohnmcc

I upgraded my KA1 to the latest firmware. The battery doesn't seem to be discharging quickly but with the light set to auto I saw it fluctuating over and over between 9% and 13% up and down over and over again. I finally disabled auto lighting. It was only at one setting for a little under a second before it would switch to another level.

I made a video (shared with Kobo) showing the light setting increasing rapidly while in a well lit area.

https://www.dropbox.com/s/mb9q5a44jn..._1430.MOV?dl=0

I'm having the exact same problem. Not sure what to do with it except for disabling the auto lighting, which is a shame as this seemed like a very useful feature.

[TheHazardsDuke]

I have never ever once seen or had a auto light that actually worked. They always seem to be over or under sensitive.

[Stingo]

Originally Posted by macjohnmcc

I upgraded my KA1 to the latest firmware. The battery doesn't seem to be discharging quickly but with the light set to auto I saw it fluctuating over and over between 9% and 13% up and down over and over again. I finally disabled auto lighting. It was only at one setting for a little under a second before it would switch to another level.

I have had the same issue. It only happens at certain light levels.

[Poppaea]

After upgrading to the new firmware, I've been able to read 7 hrs with 42% of battery power. 6% per hour do definitely work for me and I am a happy camper now. Only thing missing now is getting the pop-up for footnotes back.

[macjohnmcc]

As long as I disable auto light levels I am not experiencing weirdness except that reading some books the text starts right up at the top of the display but for some reason about two lines of blank above the page numbers. I don't think it handles resizing of the font very well in this instance (I have it larger than default).

My Kindle Paperwhite auto light level works okay but the KA1 is more than it being sensitive or not quite right but more like completely broken. I suspect a bug in the firmware (again).

[macjohnmcc]

Originally Posted by Roro-shi

I'm having the exact same problem. Not sure what to do with it except for disabling the auto lighting, which is a shame as this seemed like a very useful feature.

For all seeing this problem Kobo Support would like you to contact them through either Twitter or Facebook.

Thank you very much for your reply and for providing us with this information.

Can you please tell us if the other individual that encountered this on their Aura One also experienced this after the update? Is there any way you can have them contact us through either Twitter or Facebook?

If this is something that is occurring, we want to ensure that it is resolved as soon as possible and in order to do so we would like to develop a case around this particular lighting issue.

We have forwarded this to the head of our development team so that this matter can be reviewed. We are awaiting next steps from them.

We sincerely appreciate your ongoing patience.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by macjohnmcc

As long as I disable auto light levels I am not experiencing weirdness except that reading some books the text starts right up at the top of the display but for some reason about two lines of blank above the page numbers. I don't think it handles resizing of the font very well in this instance (I have it larger than default).

You might want to check out the patches for 4.1.7729. One of the patches disables widows and orphans which can and will cause the blank space at the bottom of the page. What widows and orphans are supposed to do is to keep you from getting paragraphs split across pages leaving few lines on the top or bottom of the page but this is something that should have been left with dead tree books. The patch is for librmsdk and was originally intended to fix a page break bug which no longer exists -- the widows and orphans disable is a handy side effect. See Instructions for patching firmware 4.1.7729 for more details, downloads, etc.

[macjohnmcc]

Originally Posted by DNSB

You might want to check out the patches for 4.1.7729. One of the patches disables widows and orphans which can and will cause the blank space at the bottom of the page. What widows and orphans are supposed to do is to keep you from getting paragraphs split across pages leaving few lines on the top or bottom of the page but this is something that should have been left with dead tree books. The patch is for librmsdk and was originally intended to fix a page break bug which no longer exists -- the widows and orphans disable is a handy side effect. See Instructions for patching firmware 4.1.7729 for more details, downloads, etc.

Thanks. I used the patches and it looks better. They really need to run Kindle and see a few of their behaviors compared to that and see if they are better or the odd one.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by macjohnmcc

Thanks. I used the patches and it looks better. They really need to run Kindle and see a few of their behaviors compared to that and see if they are better or the odd one.

One item to remember is that Amazon controls the .mobi/.AZW3 formats and the renderers used in the ereaders so they can and do make changes at will while Kobo lacks that control over the epub standards -- there are times when I appreciate that Kobo follows the standard and other times where that can be a PITA -- and the renderers used in Kobo's ereaders are Adobe's RMSDK and ACCESS's NetFront BookReader (now known as PubPlus) which again gives Kobo less control over their behaviour.