Glo Battery Depletion?

SaraHannaOrigina · 11-11-2012, 07:43 AM

So, my first Kobo Glo lasted about 10 days on the first charge. It was only at 67% when I exchanged it for another one, as recommended to me by Kobo Support. I'd had issues changing the margins for my epubs (and found out later on that sideloaded epub files are usually locked, so I found out how to adjust the settings while converting them in Calibre). The second device crashed 4 times in half an hour, so I quickly went back to Chapters and exchanged it again.

The third one (that I currently have) was at 100% charge when I took it out of the box and set it up on Thursday night. I didn't charge it, figuring I didn't need to.

I noticed last night that it was at 56% charge, after only using it for 2 days.

Does it sound like the battery is defective and I should return it? Or is this simply because I didn't charge it when I first set it up? Today is the last day that I can exchange it, so I'd like to know if you think it's defective. I'd hate to have to go through all the trouble (and weeks of not being able to read!) of sending it back to Kobo.

HarryT · 11-11-2012, 07:49 AM

It will generally take several discharge/charge cycles to properly calibrate the battery gauge of any device. I'd suggest that you use it until you get a low battery warning, then fully charge it.

SaraHannaOrigina · 11-11-2012, 07:51 AM

Crap, I already put it on the charger last night. Will that ruin it? I thought these new fangled batteries didn't have to worry about being calibrated like the old cell phone batteries did?

HarryT · 11-11-2012, 08:13 AM

It's nothing to do with the battery - it's the calibration process in the device firmware. Charging it won't do the battery any harm, but it's best if you allow it to fully discharge in order to correctly calibrate the battery meter on the device.

Tzar · 11-11-2012, 08:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SaraHannaOrigina

Crap, I already put it on the charger last night. Will that ruin it? I thought these new fangled batteries didn't have to worry about being calibrated like the old cell phone batteries did?

No it won't ruin it, but it's still a good idea to go through a couple of full cycles from 0 to 100% to get the battery indicator settled properly.

I am flabbergasted this is 3rd Glo in just a few weeks... Sounds like your first one was fine, margins problems are usually book-related and not hardware-related.

dakini · 11-11-2012, 08:51 AM

iirc the batteries these days are roughly good for about 1000 charges ... another reason to let them drain as much as possible before charging them again ... of course, even daily charging, that's three years. so i personally don't worry about topping it up before i go on a trip, even if the battery's not all that low ... but i don't tend to charge it til it's depleted quite a ways.

give it a few weeks of running down and charging up again to see how the battery's handling. also, pay attention to the size of books, etc ... that can make a big difference in how fast the battery drains.

speakingtohe · 11-11-2012, 08:58 AM

My Kobo Mini seems a bit sporadic on battery usage. Sometimes less than 1% an hour of reading, sometimes more than 5% an hour.

I am using the Kobo statistics and trying to correlate battery usage with time reading and page turns. Anyone done this.

Helen

kobokobe · 11-11-2012, 11:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dakini

iirc the batteries these days are roughly good for about 1000 charges ... another reason to let them drain as much as possible before charging them again ... of course, even daily charging, that's three years. so i personally don't worry about topping it up before i go on a trip, even if the battery's not all that low ... but i don't tend to charge it til it's depleted quite a ways.

give it a few weeks of running down and charging up again to see how the battery's handling. also, pay attention to the size of books, etc ... that can make a big difference in how fast the battery drains.

Didn't Kobo support, in the past (probably for KT), assert that 2 charges at 50% and 1 charge at 0% has the same impact on the battery's life? And 3 charges at 67%, etc.

HarryT · 11-11-2012, 11:26 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by kobokobe

Didn't Kobo support, in the past (probably for KT), assert that 2 charges at 50% and 1 charge at 0% has the same impact on the battery's life? And 3 charges at 67%, etc.

That's absolutely right. Lithium batteries don't mind partial charges at all.

SaraHannaOrigina · 11-12-2012, 08:57 PM

So, after using my Glo for about 2 hours last night, it told me that I had 93% battery left (after fully charging it Saturday night). Then this morning I went to use it, and it was down to 73%! So I took it back and exchanged it.

After finally setting up my books and reloading them on my new device, I tried to take the page numbers out of the margins, and it froze on me! Like geeeeez, I have had issues with every Glo I've had except the first one! What is with these? I love the idea of the readers and I love the light in mine, but man, I am NOT impressed with the quality. So many issues!

TechniSol · 11-12-2012, 11:04 PM

Are you turning the unit off, not leaving it on standby? Are you turning wireless off when you aren't using it?

SaraHannaOrigina · 11-13-2012, 08:45 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TechniSol

Are you turning the unit off, not leaving it on standby? Are you turning wireless off when you aren't using it?

Yes, I always turn off the WiFi, because I don't use it at all.

Also, I learned with my first reader that turning it off and then back on again tends to suck more battery life than just letting it sit in "Sleep" mode. It actually uses no power at all to leave it in Sleep mode.

kobokobe · 11-13-2012, 11:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by SaraHannaOrigina

Also, I learned with my first reader that turning it off and then back on again tends to suck more battery life than just letting it sit in "Sleep" mode. It actually uses no power at all to leave it in Sleep mode.

I've found this to be true on my KT, at least if you turn it on multiple times during the day. On the Glo the battery seems to deplete even less when sleeping, but that could just be my imagination, or the Glo simply having a longer battery life.

TechniSol · 11-13-2012, 03:15 PM

You do realize that SLEEP mode eventually results in OFF mode?

No offense, but sleep mode consumes more power than "off". In sleep mode the contents of the RAM are preserved, RAM must be powered and refreshed continuously. The off mode is a deeper sleep mode without dynamic refresh of the RAM or the unit could start up exactly where you left off, as an option, instead of booting. In OFF mode it is likely only looking for input from the multimode power switch and maintaining time/date functions and performing whatever minimal "housekeeping" that must be maintained.

However, if you allow the reader to repeatedly sleep then shut off during use and reboot a lot, especially with a lot of ebooks loaded, it may in fact draw more power because it has to scan the titles stored and process them each time you boot. You'd be better off waking it from sleep before it gets to OFF mode as it would only cost a page refresh, rather than costing a reboot over the SLEEP mode cost.

You really have to set the Sleep and Power settings to match your usage patterns to extract the maximum run time. Honestly, if you end up allowing the unit to go to OFF mode a lot your only recourse would be to change your own usage patterns if you want longer battery life as Kobo apparently feels that going longer than 60 minutes in sleep should force the OFF mode as there is no way to completely disable it. It's quite likely that the average reader settles in for a longer continuous period of reading than a series of short periods of reading interrupted by longer periods of OFF time. You also must run the battery down occasionally to calibrate the power gauge if you're getting less than expected runtimes.

TechniSol · 11-13-2012, 03:28 PM

Hey, just a thought, but if you've sideloaded an epub that the Kobo can't process for some reason it's going to continue using power trying to process that file, over and over again.(not sure that is continuous, probably just at each boot?) There are threads in the forum where users have found removing the offending ebook, and sometimes processing it through Calibre prior to reloading it helped, as I recall.

11-11-2012, 07:43 AM	#1
SaraHannaOrigina Junior Member Posts: 6 Karma: 4158 Join Date: Nov 2012 Device: Kobo Glo	Battery Depletion? So, my first Kobo Glo lasted about 10 days on the first charge. It was only at 67% when I exchanged it for another one, as recommended to me by Kobo Support. I'd had issues changing the margins for my epubs (and found out later on that sideloaded epub files are usually locked, so I found out how to adjust the settings while converting them in Calibre). The second device crashed 4 times in half an hour, so I quickly went back to Chapters and exchanged it again. The third one (that I currently have) was at 100% charge when I took it out of the box and set it up on Thursday night. I didn't charge it, figuring I didn't need to. I noticed last night that it was at 56% charge, after only using it for 2 days. Does it sound like the battery is defective and I should return it? Or is this simply because I didn't charge it when I first set it up? Today is the last day that I can exchange it, so I'd like to know if you think it's defective. I'd hate to have to go through all the trouble (and weeks of not being able to read!) of sending it back to Kobo.

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11-11-2012, 07:49 AM	#2
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	It will generally take several discharge/charge cycles to properly calibrate the battery gauge of any device. I'd suggest that you use it until you get a low battery warning, then fully charge it.

11-11-2012, 07:51 AM	#3
SaraHannaOrigina Junior Member Posts: 6 Karma: 4158 Join Date: Nov 2012 Device: Kobo Glo	Crap, I already put it on the charger last night. Will that ruin it? I thought these new fangled batteries didn't have to worry about being calibrated like the old cell phone batteries did?

11-11-2012, 08:13 AM	#4
HarryT eBook Enthusiast Posts: 85,544 Karma: 93383043 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: UK Device: Kindle Oasis 2, iPad Pro 10.5", iPhone 6	It's nothing to do with the battery - it's the calibration process in the device firmware. Charging it won't do the battery any harm, but it's best if you allow it to fully discharge in order to correctly calibrate the battery meter on the device.

11-11-2012, 08:51 AM	#6
dakini not "it" Posts: 236 Karma: 1687996 Join Date: Aug 2012 Device: Kindle 7th gen	iirc the batteries these days are roughly good for about 1000 charges ... another reason to let them drain as much as possible before charging them again ... of course, even daily charging, that's three years. so i personally don't worry about topping it up before i go on a trip, even if the battery's not all that low ... but i don't tend to charge it til it's depleted quite a ways. give it a few weeks of running down and charging up again to see how the battery's handling. also, pay attention to the size of books, etc ... that can make a big difference in how fast the battery drains.

11-11-2012, 08:58 AM	#7
speakingtohe Wizard Posts: 4,812 Karma: 26912940 Join Date: Apr 2010 Device: sony PRS-T1 and T3, Kobo Mini and Aura HD, Tablet	My Kobo Mini seems a bit sporadic on battery usage. Sometimes less than 1% an hour of reading, sometimes more than 5% an hour. I am using the Kobo statistics and trying to correlate battery usage with time reading and page turns. Anyone done this. Helen

11-12-2012, 08:57 PM	#10
SaraHannaOrigina Junior Member Posts: 6 Karma: 4158 Join Date: Nov 2012 Device: Kobo Glo	So, after using my Glo for about 2 hours last night, it told me that I had 93% battery left (after fully charging it Saturday night). Then this morning I went to use it, and it was down to 73%! So I took it back and exchanged it. After finally setting up my books and reloading them on my new device, I tried to take the page numbers out of the margins, and it froze on me! Like geeeeez, I have had issues with every Glo I've had except the first one! What is with these? I love the idea of the readers and I love the light in mine, but man, I am NOT impressed with the quality. So many issues!

11-12-2012, 11:04 PM	#11
TechniSol GranPohbah-Fezzes r cool! Posts: 1,056 Karma: 3151024 Join Date: Jul 2010 Device: Nook STRs, Kobo Touch, Kobo Glo	Are you turning the unit off, not leaving it on standby? Are you turning wireless off when you aren't using it?

11-13-2012, 03:15 PM	#14
TechniSol GranPohbah-Fezzes r cool! Posts: 1,056 Karma: 3151024 Join Date: Jul 2010 Device: Nook STRs, Kobo Touch, Kobo Glo	You do realize that SLEEP mode eventually results in OFF mode? No offense, but sleep mode consumes more power than "off". In sleep mode the contents of the RAM are preserved, RAM must be powered and refreshed continuously. The off mode is a deeper sleep mode without dynamic refresh of the RAM or the unit could start up exactly where you left off, as an option, instead of booting. In OFF mode it is likely only looking for input from the multimode power switch and maintaining time/date functions and performing whatever minimal "housekeeping" that must be maintained. However, if you allow the reader to repeatedly sleep then shut off during use and reboot a lot, especially with a lot of ebooks loaded, it may in fact draw more power because it has to scan the titles stored and process them each time you boot. You'd be better off waking it from sleep before it gets to OFF mode as it would only cost a page refresh, rather than costing a reboot over the SLEEP mode cost. You really have to set the Sleep and Power settings to match your usage patterns to extract the maximum run time. Honestly, if you end up allowing the unit to go to OFF mode a lot your only recourse would be to change your own usage patterns if you want longer battery life as Kobo apparently feels that going longer than 60 minutes in sleep should force the OFF mode as there is no way to completely disable it. It's quite likely that the average reader settles in for a longer continuous period of reading than a series of short periods of reading interrupted by longer periods of OFF time. You also must run the battery down occasionally to calibrate the power gauge if you're getting less than expected runtimes.

11-13-2012, 03:28 PM	#15
TechniSol GranPohbah-Fezzes r cool! Posts: 1,056 Karma: 3151024 Join Date: Jul 2010 Device: Nook STRs, Kobo Touch, Kobo Glo	Hey, just a thought, but if you've sideloaded an epub that the Kobo can't process for some reason it's going to continue using power trying to process that file, over and over again.(not sure that is continuous, probably just at each boot?) There are threads in the forum where users have found removing the offending ebook, and sometimes processing it through Calibre prior to reloading it helped, as I recall.