Battery Re-Charging Software Controlled

[emcp]

Basically

to prevent over charging of a battery, as it to regularly, and to prevent ruining the battery
is it possible to prevent the battery recharging until it drops below a certain percentage

ill hopefully be using my pandora for spotify if it ever comes, if not then just for music playing

so id be making my self a docking station and the pandora will be often on a power charger

if its not software controllable, is there any possible mechanism to knock the battery out while its on the holder
last time i heard it was screwed in :s

thanks

 

[Etinin]

There's no way to do it in software.

 

[dflemstr]

Well the battery has a small charge controller as do all Lithium ion batteries, and that controller will probably disrupt the charge current once the battery is fully charged, so I don't think that there's any risk of causing damage to it.

 

[Yoyobuae]

• The controller on board the battery will stop charging when max charge is reached (like mentioned above)
• Lithium batteries do not suffer from battery memory issues. You can charge them anytime and it won't cause damage.
• If you're really worried about battery lifetime, probably the charge controller can be adjusted to limit the max/min charge values.
• Read THIS for more detailed information about extending the lifetime of lithium batteries.

 

[Vimacs]

There's no way to do it in software.

Actually the charging is completely software controlled, not sure if theres currently any way to interact with it as a user - but that shouldnt be to hard to hack in.

 

[Yoyobuae]

It's at least possible to monitor several battery parameters: LINK

Not sure if the charging can be controlled via software even while plugged into the Pandora AC adapter.

 

[emcp]

Thanks for replies
ill read through the given material

however i thought your told to always remove your battery from a laptop if your going to keep it plugged in to the mains

also do batteries not have a certain amount of charging cycles ???

 

[lulzfish]

i thought your told to always remove your battery from a laptop if your going to keep it plugged in to the mains

also do batteries not have a certain amount of charging cycles ???

You're not told that.

Modern battery circuits are idiot-proof, the charger will never overcharge a battery unless something has been tampered with or the battery is severely malfunctioning.

You can remove the battery, to protect it from the heat of laptops, but the Pandora won't get warm enough for that to be an issue, so you should always just leave the battery in your Pandora. There's not really a reason to remove it unless you're replacing it.

Yes, batteries do have a certain amount of charge cycles, I think modern Lithium-ions have a few thousand. So, don't run down the battery unless you need to, and plug in whenever you can.

 

[WhiteBat]

however i thought your told to always remove your battery from a laptop if your going to keep it plugged in to the mains

also do batteries not have a certain amount of charging cycles ???

you have to have the battery in the pandora, it wont work without it, pluged in or not.
Even if the battery no longer holds a charge you still have to have it in there.
no different from most if not all cell phones too.
As for charging, I'm pretty sure it's hardware controlled... never seen anything software controlled before.
the pandora uses a ~4000mah lithium polymer battery, lookup the specs for that type.
usually about >1000 cycles
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium-ion_polymer_battery

 

[Yoyobuae]

A lithium-ion battery provides 300-500 discharge/charge cycles.

So yeah, if you want the battery to last longer than a couple of years (while still providing good capacity) then it might be a good idea to take good care of them.

I'm even considering cooling the extra battery I bought, to preserve it better (semi-hot climate here). I guess a small box, isolated with polystyrene foam, cooled with a thermoelectric cooling chip and with a simply control circuit should work quite well.

 

[Paradox]

if all you want to use the pandora for is music why not just get an mp3 player

 

[WizardStan]

I'm even considering cooling the extra battery I bought, to preserve it better (semi-hot climate here). I guess a small box, isolated with polystyrene foam, cooled with a thermoelectric cooling chip and with a simply control circuit should work quite well.

Or an airtight plastic baggy in the fridge.

 

[chris_r]

ill hopefully be using my pandora for spotify if it ever comes, if not then just for music playing

I'm going to take a wild guess and say spotify will never come. There still isn't a linux client and even if they ever did make a linux client then it's doubtful that they would compile it for ARM as well.
I suppose the closest you're going to get is if android gets ported to the pandora because that has spotidy, but even then it only works on premium accounts.

 

[WhiteBat]

I'm even considering cooling the extra battery I bought, to preserve it better (semi-hot climate here). I guess a small box, isolated with polystyrene foam, cooled with a thermoelectric cooling chip and with a simply control circuit should work quite well.

Or an airtight plastic baggy in the fridge.

oh come on Wizardstan, you gotta give that geek some points for creativity

 

[GizmoTheGreen]

ill hopefully be using my pandora for spotify if it ever comes, if not then just for music playing

I'm going to take a wild guess and say spotify will never come. There still isn't a linux client and even if they ever did make a linux client then it's doubtful that they would compile it for ARM as well.
I suppose the closest you're going to get is if android gets ported to the pandora because that has spotidy, but even then it only works on premium accounts.

theres despotify, but only works on premium accounts

 

[Tor]

The charging of the Pandora battery does _not_ rely on the circuit inside the battery itself. That circuitry is there for protection, not regulation. It cuts off the charging barely below the level where the battery would get damaged, or, worst case, explode.

The regulating circuit is in the Pandora itself, and it cuts charging quite a bit below the protection circuit cut-in. This is how it works in all mobile devices. The battery protection circuit is not for regulation, it's there in case the built-in charging regulator in the device fails.

If the regulation voltage can be software modified I'm not sure about - I don't remember if MWeston mentioned this in some posting. In my Palm a number of levels can be software modified: Max voltage, warning level, shutdown level.

As for laptop batteries: Yes, they're idiot proof (as are our Pandora battery), but that doesn't mean they're smart. If you leave your laptop on the mains at all times, with the battery in, and at 100% charge, you will end up with a battery that takes no charge after a relatively short time. 100% charge plus the heat inside a laptop (compared to a phone or other handheld) degrades the battery quickly.

(In some newer laptops you can set the maximum charging level to 80% or 60%, just for this reason).

 

[Yoyobuae]

I'm even considering cooling the extra battery I bought, to preserve it better (semi-hot climate here). I guess a small box, isolated with polystyrene foam, cooled with a thermoelectric cooling chip and with a simply control circuit should work quite well.

Or an airtight plastic baggy in the fridge.

Then whatever air is still trapped inside the bag forms condensation and the water droplets ruin the battery, no thanks. The humidity here is rather high.

 

[Tor]

The battery is completely sealed. There shouldn't be a problem. I have kept lithium batteries in the fridge for up to several years, in diverse forms of packing (including just the snap-lock plastic box it came with). No problems whatsoever. You can even store it in the freezer, it won't freeze until about -40 (F or C as you wish).

 

[WizardStan]

I'm even considering cooling the extra battery I bought, to preserve it better (semi-hot climate here). I guess a small box, isolated with polystyrene foam, cooled with a thermoelectric cooling chip and with a simply control circuit should work quite well.

Or an airtight plastic baggy in the fridge.

Then whatever air is still trapped inside the bag forms condensation and the water droplets ruin the battery, no thanks. The humidity here is rather high.

I doubt the humidity is really so high that such a small volume of air would contain so much moisture as to cause a problem with the battery, but if you're really so sure you can just vacuum seal it. No air means no water means no condensation.

 

[Polossatik]

It's at least possible to monitor several battery parameters: LINK

Not sure if the charging can be controlled via software even while plugged into the Pandora AC adapter.

Same thread, different post

Greetz