First thoughts on my V2

lever · 08-18-2006, 07:48 PM

Hello all, I've been a lurker for a while. I've been dreaming of an eink reader. Recently I was in Tianjin so I went by Jinke to pick one up. It was quite an interesting experience, I got to meet with May and their CTO, they showed me around the place and in the end let me buy a V2

. They very much recommended against it because it isn't ready. Having used it for about a week I have to agree. The screen is amazing, the build quality seems very good, but the battery life is horrible and it crashes often. I am meaning to buy a new battery to see if this is just a bad battery, and May has sent me a software update which seems to make things much more stable. So please ask me any questions you may have. I may be slow to reply since I am travelling around Asia for an indefinite amount of time but I will get back as soon as possible. I also played with the V8 and it seemed much more complete, but I couldn't resist the future possibilities of the V2.

NatCh · 08-18-2006, 11:30 PM

The question I have is did they give any hint as to when they might be planning to release the V2?

THJahar · 08-21-2006, 08:20 AM

Lever, unfortunately I had to return my V2. Hoepfully i'll be getting a replacement sometime this week.
One thing I wanted to ask is that I experienced lock ups withing certain .wol files converted from .txt files, where the V2 wouldn't go beyond a specific page.
now I'm wondering whether this was due to my V2 eventually turning out to be faulty or is it something that you've experienced?

lever · 08-23-2006, 10:43 PM

Natch, nothing new on when it will come out. They did ask if I knew anyone who might be interested in being a partner on the v2 to tell them about it

THJahar, I also have trouble with lock ups. The work around that seems to work for me is to go back to the table of contents, reopen the file, and proceed from right before the point of lock up at a different text size. I have no idea why this works.

At this point I am enjoying Dracula, except for one thing, the horrid horrid battery life. I haven't clocked it but I immidiatly get flashing low battery warnings and after maybe three hours I can no longer use the device. Rather sad since I am going days without power access. I've bought a replacement battery and have the same issues with battery life.

THJahar · 08-24-2006, 08:58 AM

Lever,

I wasn't able to test the battery life as it bricked after about a days worth of use.
I'll test it myself once i receive my replacement.
Luckily though I own a nokia phone and have chargers everywhere from my car, to my home and office so battery life is less than crucial to me, as long as it can eventually reach about 4-6 hours i'd probably be able to live with it (although 8+ hours would be be better)

bingle · 08-24-2006, 01:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lever

At this point I am enjoying Dracula, except for one thing, the horrid horrid battery life. I haven't clocked it but I immidiatly get flashing low battery warnings and after maybe three hours I can no longer use the device. Rather sad since I am going days without power access. I've bought a replacement battery and have the same issues with battery life.

So despite the promises of a bi-stable display, they're still measuring power life in hours? Or was this hours of constant reading?

That really frustrates me. One of the great things about eink was supposed to be the low power requirements and the fact that there's no power draw when not turning pages :-(

Although thinking about it, I guess that only applies to the display... The device as a whole would have to keep at least some processing powered up to detect keypresses and so forth. Still, it's a far cry from the "10,000 pages" we were promised.

yvanleterrible · 08-24-2006, 02:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by bingle

So despite the promises of a bi-stable display, they're still measuring power life in hours? Or was this hours of constant reading?

I'm guessing that this is the difference between a dedicated reader and an input serving device with writing capabilities.

CommanderROR · 08-25-2006, 06:41 AM

Somehow seeing that there are problems with the V2 makes the problems with the Iliad seem a little less worrying.
However, the V8 seems to have very good battery-life (and apparently even lacks an on/off switch because it doesn't need one) and Jinke should be able to use the experiencw they gathered during the creation of the V8 to make the V2 better. Since the V2 is Linux and the V8 ist Wolf-OS it could however turn out to be a bit harder to do.

THJahar · 08-25-2006, 01:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by CommanderROR

Somehow seeing that there are problems with the V2 makes....

Just like to point out that there are no problems with the V2....it's just not finished yet, these are only samples. They are purely for partners or persistant lunatics (i.e. me)

NatCh · 08-25-2006, 01:43 PM

Point is, THJahar, you could apply that description just as well to the iLiad too (for the moment, anyway).

lever · 09-07-2006, 01:10 AM

THJahar, How is the battery life on your new machine? Mine still seems to get only a few hours and has the annoying low battery flash almost immediately. My guess on the reason is the software runs everything at full speed all the time. Hopefully they can come up with some sort of dormant state where most of the machine can go to sleep with only a cache of what you are reading. Mind that I know absolutely nothing about this, it is only my thoughts.

Does anyone here actually have a V8? How is the battery life on that one?

I do realize that its a test machine, but I was really hoping for more respectable battery life. After the absolutely wonderful screen this is for me the main selling point. As I've mentioned when I travel I often go days without a power point, so my beautiful V2 is turning out to be almost useless. When I am not travelling I prefer to read on my laptop in bed.

lever · 09-07-2006, 01:14 AM

It's been fun to play with but I'm really not using my machine enough. So would any of you like to take my V2 off my hands at cost? If so send me a private message.

sjaaks V8 · 09-07-2006, 01:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by lever

Does anyone here actually have a V8? How is the battery life on that one?

No trouble with my V8 battery. Everyday use, since 5 weeks now and only 2 times charged.
With the helpscreen open it will take more current.

THJahar · 09-08-2006, 11:40 AM

Well, after a long week (which i've been working like a dog) I've been able to test the battery life.
It's broken down into usage:
Sun: First boot: read for 40 mins
Mon: full reboot: read for 40 mins
Tues: full reboot: read for 25 mins
Wed: full reboot: read for 45 mins
Thu: full reboot: read for 45 mins
Battery Flat:

So it looks like I got 3 hours and 15 minutes I always did the full power down after I had finished reading which I meant a full reboot each night.
I'm guessing that I could get a full 4+ hours if I don't reboot. And since the reader uses standard Nokia phone batteries I might just purchase a spare (I have one in my phone anyway)
I have got to admit that the matching battery is great. I went to visit my brother last weekend, and took the V2 to show him, I needed to charge the battery so I just swapped it with my phone and charged it in the car on my way down to visit him.
I haven't had chance to investigate the page locks yet, and i'm severly missing the bookmark functionality.
here's hoping that a software update may fix that.

lever · 09-09-2006, 07:01 AM

Sigh, I guess I should have gone with the v8. I look forward to trying the updated software, but I wonder if the v2 will ever match the v8 in battery life.

08-18-2006, 07:48 PM	#1
lever Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2006	First thoughts on my V2 Hello all, I've been a lurker for a while. I've been dreaming of an eink reader. Recently I was in Tianjin so I went by Jinke to pick one up. It was quite an interesting experience, I got to meet with May and their CTO, they showed me around the place and in the end let me buy a V2 . They very much recommended against it because it isn't ready. Having used it for about a week I have to agree. The screen is amazing, the build quality seems very good, but the battery life is horrible and it crashes often. I am meaning to buy a new battery to see if this is just a bad battery, and May has sent me a software update which seems to make things much more stable. So please ask me any questions you may have. I may be slow to reply since I am travelling around Asia for an indefinite amount of time but I will get back as soon as possible. I also played with the V8 and it seemed much more complete, but I couldn't resist the future possibilities of the V2.

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08-18-2006, 11:30 PM	#2
NatCh Gizmologist Posts: 11,615 Karma: 929550 Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Republic of Texas Embassy at Jackson, TN Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3	The question I have is did they give any hint as to when they might be planning to release the V2?

08-21-2006, 08:20 AM	#3
THJahar Zealot Posts: 107 Karma: 58 Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Leicester, UK Device: Jinke V2 Prototype	Lever, unfortunately I had to return my V2. Hoepfully i'll be getting a replacement sometime this week. One thing I wanted to ask is that I experienced lock ups withing certain .wol files converted from .txt files, where the V2 wouldn't go beyond a specific page. now I'm wondering whether this was due to my V2 eventually turning out to be faulty or is it something that you've experienced?

08-23-2006, 10:43 PM	#4
lever Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2006	Natch, nothing new on when it will come out. They did ask if I knew anyone who might be interested in being a partner on the v2 to tell them about it THJahar, I also have trouble with lock ups. The work around that seems to work for me is to go back to the table of contents, reopen the file, and proceed from right before the point of lock up at a different text size. I have no idea why this works. At this point I am enjoying Dracula, except for one thing, the horrid horrid battery life. I haven't clocked it but I immidiatly get flashing low battery warnings and after maybe three hours I can no longer use the device. Rather sad since I am going days without power access. I've bought a replacement battery and have the same issues with battery life.

08-24-2006, 08:58 AM	#5
THJahar Zealot Posts: 107 Karma: 58 Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Leicester, UK Device: Jinke V2 Prototype	Lever, I wasn't able to test the battery life as it bricked after about a days worth of use. I'll test it myself once i receive my replacement. Luckily though I own a nokia phone and have chargers everywhere from my car, to my home and office so battery life is less than crucial to me, as long as it can eventually reach about 4-6 hours i'd probably be able to live with it (although 8+ hours would be be better)

08-25-2006, 06:41 AM	#8
CommanderROR eink fanatic Posts: 2,022 Karma: 4924 Join Date: Mar 2006 Location: Germany Device: STAReBOOK, iRex Iliad, Sony 505, Kindle 2	Somehow seeing that there are problems with the V2 makes the problems with the Iliad seem a little less worrying. However, the V8 seems to have very good battery-life (and apparently even lacks an on/off switch because it doesn't need one) and Jinke should be able to use the experiencw they gathered during the creation of the V8 to make the V2 better. Since the V2 is Linux and the V8 ist Wolf-OS it could however turn out to be a bit harder to do.

08-25-2006, 01:43 PM	#10
NatCh Gizmologist Posts: 11,615 Karma: 929550 Join Date: Jan 2006 Location: Republic of Texas Embassy at Jackson, TN Device: Pocketbook Touch HD3	Point is, THJahar, you could apply that description just as well to the iLiad too (for the moment, anyway).

09-07-2006, 01:10 AM	#11
lever Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2006	THJahar, How is the battery life on your new machine? Mine still seems to get only a few hours and has the annoying low battery flash almost immediately. My guess on the reason is the software runs everything at full speed all the time. Hopefully they can come up with some sort of dormant state where most of the machine can go to sleep with only a cache of what you are reading. Mind that I know absolutely nothing about this, it is only my thoughts. Does anyone here actually have a V8? How is the battery life on that one? I do realize that its a test machine, but I was really hoping for more respectable battery life. After the absolutely wonderful screen this is for me the main selling point. As I've mentioned when I travel I often go days without a power point, so my beautiful V2 is turning out to be almost useless. When I am not travelling I prefer to read on my laptop in bed.

09-07-2006, 01:14 AM	#12
lever Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2006	It's been fun to play with but I'm really not using my machine enough. So would any of you like to take my V2 off my hands at cost? If so send me a private message.

09-08-2006, 11:40 AM	#14
THJahar Zealot Posts: 107 Karma: 58 Join Date: Jun 2006 Location: Leicester, UK Device: Jinke V2 Prototype	Well, after a long week (which i've been working like a dog) I've been able to test the battery life. It's broken down into usage: Sun: First boot: read for 40 mins Mon: full reboot: read for 40 mins Tues: full reboot: read for 25 mins Wed: full reboot: read for 45 mins Thu: full reboot: read for 45 mins Battery Flat: So it looks like I got 3 hours and 15 minutes I always did the full power down after I had finished reading which I meant a full reboot each night. I'm guessing that I could get a full 4+ hours if I don't reboot. And since the reader uses standard Nokia phone batteries I might just purchase a spare (I have one in my phone anyway) I have got to admit that the matching battery is great. I went to visit my brother last weekend, and took the V2 to show him, I needed to charge the battery so I just swapped it with my phone and charged it in the car on my way down to visit him. I haven't had chance to investigate the page locks yet, and i'm severly missing the bookmark functionality. here's hoping that a software update may fix that.

09-09-2006, 07:01 AM	#15
lever Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: Aug 2006	Sigh, I guess I should have gone with the v8. I look forward to trying the updated software, but I wonder if the v2 will ever match the v8 in battery life.

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