Batteries

[nubie]

Totally right, if the OMAP packs as much power as everyone seems to think then lower clocks and 10 hours on 65nm seem totally possible.

I would spring for 10 hours on a smaller battery as well.

The catch22 is that we won't know what the real battery usage is until it is out in the wild with some apps for it.

The beta units might help out with this, but the first app should be a battery burning graphically intensive tester that will let us know if the battery is necessary.

(judging from the real life vs anticipated battery life the bigger one might not be a bad idea.)

 

[Shiny]

As long as I get at least 5 hours of game time between recharges I'm fine. I for one think that 27mm is already at the far reaches of what is acceptable today, and would love for it to be around 23mm, but I doubt that is a possibility. 3mm more just brings it closer to the clunky hugeness of the Gameboy (which I love anyways ).

I'm problably coming off as some sort of techophile with an obsession for the thinnest devices possible, so I'll stop now.

 

[God Ginrai]

My DS Lite is 38mm thick, thanks to the awesome Nerf case that I have for it, and it fits in my front pocket fine, WITH a wallet as well. A 30mm Pandora will actually be lightening the load for me. ;P

-God Ginrai

 

[arconreef]

yes, 16 hours would be awesome. I don't care about the weight

seconded, though I wouldn't want to go past 400 grams

 

[timofonic]

I don't want another GP2X, so please at least more than ten hours of heavy use. Weight is not so important really while it's approximately the size of a DS or a little more bigger.

 

[Kramy]

I'd prefer the larger hi-cap battery, that way if we overclock, we'll have a better battery life, OR if we put in addons (like bluetooth, or something else) we'd have an average battery.

Squidge's idea is nice, but I don't want a machine with a cheap battery, I then have to buy another battery for $xx when it should have been installed in the first place.

Weights not much of an issue, i had the original block gameboy, with the screen magnifier, lightsource, stereo speakers, etc. that thing was massive.

Weight isn't terribly important to me. ~700 grams is pretty light. 1kg is pushing it for one-handed use...

Just don't give it a horrible battery - and please remember, although you may be able to get super cheap Li-Ion batteries in the US, up here in Canada we've got to fork out $15 on shipping/taxes if we can even locate one. <_< I would much prefer that it came with the heavy duty long lasting battery.

And yeah...I had a gameboy...I used one of those massive power bricks. That thing was heavy, and had lopsided weight. Try to avoid lopsided weight; if it's balanced, it'll "appear" that much lighter.

 

[craigix]

We have decided to stick to 27mm and a custom battery size to use every last mm of space, the battery will be ~4000mah.

According to our calculations it should work for up to 100 hours(!) playing mp3s. We won't know about using powerful apps until we do some further tests, but we are aiming for that magic 10 hours. It should easily get 10+ hours running recompiled GP2X apps.

 

[Prophet]

We have decided to stick to 27mm and a custom battery size to use every last mm of space, the battery will be ~4000mah.

According to our calculations it should work for up to 100 hours(!) playing mp3s. We won't know about using powerful apps until we do some further tests, but we are aiming for that magic 10 hours. It should easily get 10+ hours running recompiled GP2X apps.

That would be f-ing awesome IMO.

 

[Shiny]

According to our calculations it should work for up to 100 hours(!) playing mp3s.

is that a typo?

 

[Karel Jansens]

We have decided to stick to 27mm and a custom battery size to use every last mm of space, the battery will be ~4000mah.

According to our calculations it should work for up to 100 hours(!) playing mp3s. We won't know about using powerful apps until we do some further tests, but we are aiming for that magic 10 hours. It should easily get 10+ hours running recompiled GP2X apps.

Frakking awesome! After doing some extrapolations based on unavailable data (i.e.: "guessing"), that'd mean 10+ hours of video off a charge! That's three seasons of "Red Dwarf"! (well, the short seasons, not the very long last two seasons)

Teehee! Me happy puppy! Actually, me happy, soon to need major eye surgery puppy.

 

[fusion_power]

According to our calculations it should work for up to 100 hours(!) playing mp3s.

is that a typo?


:blink: ...would be incredible if not. Cool, 100 hours .mp3 ...now traveling is Fun! Hm Could be possible with screen off and underclocking and whatever. The Chipset is designed for Standard MHz of maybe 600 and many Hardware 3D Features. Power, that no Music-Player needs. If the Power-save-skills of the OMAP are really that good like TI write in their Tech-papers, the Pandora will give us many surprises I think

 

[Tobriand]

We have decided to stick to 27mm and a custom battery size to use every last mm of space, the battery will be ~4000mah.

According to our calculations it should work for up to 100 hours(!) playing mp3s. We won't know about using powerful apps until we do some further tests, but we are aiming for that magic 10 hours. It should easily get 10+ hours running recompiled GP2X apps.

Nice choice - 10 hours should be more than enough, and 100 for MP3s bodes *very* well for low-power PDA functions. Would I be right in assuming that that would be with WiFi turned off, though? I seem to recall that that was at one stage quoted to be *the* big power hog (I recall 0.5A being quoted at one stage, though this was before the OMAP switch, so you may well have gotten a much more efficient ultra-cutting-edge low power WiFi ship since then).

 

[nubie]

No Way!

Considering the OMAP will be in tons of smartphones, and probably the new razr, I would bet it has to have a power saving mode/modes.

I can see a long time for MP3 Playback, even 100 hours is just awesome. (that is like 4 1/2 days standby time on a cellphone, and we will have a bigger battery I think, even if MP3 Playback takes more power than a cellphone.)

I am going to guess it is highly dependent on the speakers/headphones and volume, with a set of "earplug" phones like the The Plug from Koss I would really believe it could do it.

 

[OrR]

I hope power saving modes are tested thoroughly before mass production begins. I don't want the Pandora to eat as much juice as my (awesome) Neo1973...

What voltage does that battery provide? Being custom made, how easy will it be to rip it out and put in your own thing?

 

[Series-8]

Its a single pack Li-ION Polymer cell? 3.6V or 7.2V?

4000mAh = ? mW

4Ah * 3.6V = 14,400 mW [Thats 14 Watts.]

4Ah * 7.2V = 28,800 mW [Thats 28 Watts, Scotty hold the dilithium crystals... we're good here. ]

Also charging from USB (standard power)

USB Spec 5V @ 500mA = ~2.5W.

5.76 Hours to charge. Assuming 100% efficient power conversion.

Real world means about 8 Hours.

In short, this will need a beefy charger.

 

[atomicthumbs]

According to our calculations it should work for up to 100 hours(!) playing mp3s

holy fuck.

 

[LevelPlane]

That's longer than a Cowon D2! Twice as long!

 

[quote]

According to our calculations it should work for up to 100 hours(!) playing mp3s. We won't know about using powerful apps until we do some further tests, but we are aiming for that magic 10 hours. It should easily get 10+ hours running recompiled GP2X apps.

Great! 100 hours mp3's and you've kept it at 27mm :blink: Fucking WOW !

I would have thought a custom - built battery would add a lot to the price

 

[javaJake]

You know.

I'm shocked.

Speechless.

This.

Is unbelievable.

Totally.

Utterly.

Ominously.

'Scuse me while I go get a sweatshirt so I can stop myself from shivering...

 

[squeakypants]

No Way!

Considering the OMAP will be in tons of smartphones, and probably the new razr, I would bet it has to have a power saving mode/modes.

I can see a long time for MP3 Playback, even 100 hours is just awesome. (that is like 4 1/2 days standby time on a cellphone, and we will have a bigger battery I think, even if MP3 Playback takes more power than a cellphone.)

I am going to guess it is highly dependent on the speakers/headphones and volume, with a set of "earplug" phones like the The Plug from Koss I would really believe it could do it.

I read them (either craigix or MWeston) say at one point that the OMAP's clock speed was just a maximum, and it would always downclock as much as possible without losing efficiency.

100 hrs for MP3 playback is pretty kickass. Is that with the screen on? Also, how long could we watch video (let's say DivX or Xvid)?