07-29-2010, 08:26 PM | #1 |
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Constantly adding books - battery effects?
Hi all.
I realise this is really a generic lithium battery question but ce'st la vie. I'm still at the stage where every day or so I get hold of a few more epubs, play with them in sigil and calibre, and load them onto the kobo to see how they look. Often I get an ebook not looking like I want it to, so I plug the kobo back in for another 2 minutes to reload the file. So the outcome is that my kobo is getting plugged in multiple times a day for 2-5 minutes at a time, and getting a little bit of recharge each time. Does anyone know if this has an impact on battery life? Li batteries are supposedly good for several hundred recharges, but does each 5 minute recharge count towards this total? I hope not, as I don't have the patience to wait until the kobo is flat before loading new content |
07-29-2010, 08:44 PM | #2 |
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Will it matter in the long run? Gadgets become extinct long before their batteries die in this tech age.
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07-29-2010, 09:01 PM | #3 | |
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Quote:
Anyway, call me old fashioned but the whole "disposable electronics" concept tends to annoy me. |
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07-29-2010, 09:11 PM | #4 |
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After your day's sessions of short-time charging, just use the heck out of your Kobo. And let it run all the way down about every 30-45 days - to the point where it tells you, "Dude, please charge your Kobo." You are not really demonstrably damaging your Li-Ion pack with what you are doing.
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07-29-2010, 10:13 PM | #5 |
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can you overcharge it? Or shorten the battery's life by charging when it's already full.
For ex. mine is half charged right now. I'll be gone for the weekend and was going to plug it in tonight till morning so it's fully charged for the weekend. Does doing this on a semi-regular basis shorten the battery's life? And I agree, it'll be a long time before I get used to disposable electronics where you can't replace the battery for something that is otherwise perfectly functional even if there is a superior successor. Right now there is room for growth, but say you have a reader that does everything you can image and there's little inceptive for the next model. At that point, you should only buy a new one when your hardware breaks, not when it simply has a dead battery. |
07-29-2010, 10:22 PM | #6 |
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I believe (someone tell me if I am right or wrong) a top-up charge counts essentially as a partial charge. My understanding is the batteries are rated to withstand approximately (figure not correct just an example) 300 charge/discharge cycles. So if your battery is at 50% and you transfer some books and the battery charges to 75% that equates to 25% of a charge cycle.
There are pics of the Kobo break down, shouldn't be too hard to find a replacement battery for (most of those batteries have a model number on them). |
07-29-2010, 10:32 PM | #7 |
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Lithium batteries like frequent partial recharges. Recharging fully when only 10 to 15% discharged will actually extended the overall lifetime of the battery. The deeper you discharge the battery before recharging it the shorter the lifetime of the battery. If you fully discharge the battery before recharging the battery will die after 300 to 400 recharges - and run time on a full charge will get shorter and shorter ! Frequent recharging extends the lifetime of the battery and reduces the rate at which the battery looses capacity.
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07-29-2010, 10:33 PM | #8 |
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300 charge cycles doesn't sound like much.
But what I mean is reader is at 50%, while charging hits 100% two hours in, but stays plugged into the usb for another 6 hrs. Any negative effect on the battery life? |
07-29-2010, 10:41 PM | #9 | |
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07-29-2010, 10:43 PM | #10 |
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I'd very VERY surprised if the unit kept charging after reaching full. All the Li chargers I've ever heard of cut off charging once the battery was full, to prevent it from exploding.
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07-30-2010, 12:17 AM | #11 |
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"There are pics of the Kobo break down, shouldn't be too hard to find a replacement battery for (most of those batteries have a model number on them)"
I recall reading somewhere that the batteries for the Kobo could not be replaced and that they were supposed to last about 5 years. |
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