When to Recharge

[NatCh]

Is being "beheld" any better?

[yvanleterrible]

I doubt that to be true but it's funnyer than the other.

[KDawg]

Originally Posted by dhbailey

Thanks for setting me straight -- there is still a finite number of recharge cycles but it's good to know that doing a partial charge isn't use a complete one of those cycles, so recharging one bar a week or once a month for all 4 bars makes no difference.

Now, has anybody read anywhere how many recharge cycles the Sony Reader battery can handle?

That's not perfectly accurate either. The number of charge cycles quoted by a manufacturer is really more about them trying to describe the complexities of how a battery ages to consumers without a deep technical background.

Lithium Ion batteries definitely age better with more frequent, shallow discharge/charge cycles vs. fewer complete discharge/charge cycles. For example, your Lithium Ion battery will be in better shape, with more capacity after 600 charges at two bars vs. 300 charges at 0 bars.

Nickel Cadmium batteries were just the opposite. Shallow discharges resulted in the memory effect, which could be reversed to some degree, but definitely left you with less capacity than full discharges did.

I miss NiCads. They would last forever when treated right and had great shelf life. LIons have great capacity/weight, but they literally start aging immediately after manufacture. You leave one on the shelf and it will die there. Independent of deep discharge into cell reversal.

[GatorDeb]

Does anyone know if the extended Sony warranty covers replacing the battery?

P.S. Ooohhh I'm a Connoisseur

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by GatorDeb

Does anyone know if the extended Sony warranty covers replacing the battery?

P.S. Ooohhh I'm a Connoisseur

Yes, I'm pretty sure it does, although they'll presumably have some guideline as to what level of reduction of capacity constitutes a "fault". A genuine battery fault, though - a complete inability to hold a charge - would certainly be fixed.

[GatorDeb]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Yes, I'm pretty sure it does, although they'll presumably have some guideline as to what level of reduction of capacity constitutes a "fault". A genuine battery fault, though - a complete inability to hold a charge - would certainly be fixed.

Well I'm sure it'll be unacceptably low in 4 years of heavy use

[Penforhire]

You can be sure some of our more adventurous members will crack open our readers when the battery fades and attempt a replacement.

[HarryT]

I well remember that there was a lot of silly fuss about iPod batteries a while ago. I remember wondering at the time why, if these people were so worried about battery replacements, they'd bought an iPod in the first place, knowing that it doesn't have a user-replaceable battery? Personally I've never owned a gadget like an iPod or an eBook reader long enough to worry about the LiIon battery dying .

[yvanleterrible]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I well remember that there was a lot of silly fuss about iPod batteries a while ago. I remember wondering at the time why, if these people were so worried about battery replacements, they'd bought an iPod in the first place, knowing that it doesn't have a user-replaceable battery? Personally I've never owned a gadget like an iPod or an eBook reader long enough to worry about the LiIon battery dying .

There is a good point against user replaceable batteries. The companies doing the service will be required to dispose of the dead batteries in a responsible fashion. That alone gets my thumbs up.

[sirmaru]

There are 2 different Capacity Cycles for the Sony PRS 505. One is with the Shut Down Enabled and the other with the Shut Down Disabled. One gets to Shut Down via the Settings in the Main Menu.

If Shut Down is Enabled less charge is used but it takes a little longer to boot up when the On/Off Switch is used.

So far with Shut Down Disabled I've had one 16 day cycle. I'm in my second cycle with the same setting now. The third cycle will be with Shut Down Enabled.

I do most of my reading on my PC using my 24" LCD Monitor. I just open the Reader to synchronize my bookmark in my current book. I only read via the Reader when baby sitting for my daughter and waiting in offices. I also read books on my PC using MS Reader. I alternate between MS Reader and Sony eBook Reader each day.

[dhbailey]

Originally Posted by yvanleterrible

There is a good point against user replaceable batteries. The companies doing the service will be required to dispose of the dead batteries in a responsible fashion. That alone gets my thumbs up.

One would HOPE they would dispose of the dead batteries in a responsible fashion, but then one would have hoped that the chemical companies responsible for the Love Canal horror would have disposed of their chemicals responsibly.

There is nothing inherent in a battery replacement company which de facto guarantees that they will be environmentally safe in the handling of the dead batteries.

Most probably will, but some will just place them in their dumpsters along with their soda cans and lunch leftovers.

[yvanleterrible]

Originally Posted by dhbailey

One would HOPE they would dispose of the dead batteries in a responsible fashion, but then one would have hoped that the chemical companies responsible for the Love Canal horror would have disposed of their chemicals responsibly.

There is nothing inherent in a battery replacement company which de facto guarantees that they will be environmentally safe in the handling of the dead batteries.

Most probably will, but some will just place them in their dumpsters along with their soda cans and lunch leftovers.

Apple already has a used laptop battery pickup program. Such a service is an OSHA controlled task. If I remember correctly, a good part of the batteries is recycled. As you say a concentration of the toxic substances in one spot is dangerous if left unprocessed for long periods. But compared to personnal ways of disposal, gathering up material for processing will be easyer, that is if not done immediately.

Love Canal was a heavy lesson. Most of the chemicals stored there still have no commercial use; they were byproducts. They could be destroyed but who'll fork the costs? Nuclear wastes face the same problems, most of them could be recycled up to 90% but no one wants to pay for it.

As you imply we rely on money obsessed entities to do the right thing. I still trust governmental agencies to force decency on companies more than the careless people around us.

[Xenophon]

Originally Posted by yvanleterrible

SNIP
Love Canal was a heavy lesson. Most of the chemicals stored there still have no commercial use; they were byproducts. They could be destroyed but who'll fork the costs? Nuclear wastes face the same problems, most of them could be recycled up to 90% but no one wants to pay for it.

As you imply we rely on money obsessed entities to do the right thing. I still trust governmental agencies to force decency on companies more than the careless people around us.

I wrote a great big post responding to this, but the server seems to have chewed it up and spit it out. So, here goes for a 2nd try.

Going and ranting away!

Love Canal was indeed a heavy lesson. Big bad Hooker Chemical pollutes a neighborhood, causing all sorts of bad things to happen. And there was a grade-school there, and everything!

WRONG

Go read this article and have your views of what happened turned upside down.

The short version is this: Hooker Chemical built a dump in the '40s that met the RCRA standards of the '80s. They transferred it to the Niagara Falls School Board under protest (due to threat of eminent domain), making absolutely certain that the school board was aware that the land was a chemical dump and was not suitable for any construction of any kind.

When the school board decided to put their school on top of the dump instead of next to it, Hooker Chemical went back and argued with them. Hooker took out ads in the local paper about what a bad idea it was! When the school board wanted to sell parts of the land to be developed into a subdivision, Hooker went back again reminding them that they really didn't want to breach the clay containment of the chemicals.

But the school board broke the clay containment building a school. And scraped off 1000s of cubic yards from the top of the dump to use elsewhere as fill. And the city put a storm drain and a sewer line through the dump. And the NY State DoT put a bleeping road foundation right through it, breaching the clay containment yet again!

Go read the article. Just about everything you thought you knew about Love Canal turns out to be wrong.

End of rant. We now return to your usual ebook related discussion...

Xenophon

[yvanleterrible]

Originally Posted by Xenophon

I wrote a great big post responding to this, but the server seems to have chewed it up and spit it out. So, here goes for a 2nd try.


Xenophon

Thanks for the link. Quite a heavy read there.

I've had a few chewed up letters before I found out to chek the little "save password box" when logging on . Was that it for you?

[mlbspike]

Nice post, Xenophon ... funny how the old lies live on. You have to debunk them on a regular basis. Reason has had some great rebuttals to commonly accepted myths, over the years. Sort of sad how certain lies self perpetuate, and in the Youtube world, it's not getting better ... any paranoid drivel can get a 4 star rating, while the well-reasoned answer disappears in obscurity, either because it isn't as polished, or because the truth often isn't all that entertaining.
Mike