Release Better battery charging (beta)

[gruso]

I added a note to the OP.

 

[WizardStan]

i wonder if i have to run the hack before plugging panda to mains?

You do have to run it every reboot, but it should only be required once. I'll recheck the kernel, maybe it is setting values back to normal where I wasn't expecting them.


Thanks for taking the time to help

 

[peelie]

hi


seems to be working i attach a pic of Pandora plugged into charger at 100 percent charge - no red light;


will test in low power mode and report, btw am running HF4, will test in HF5 as well


edit


if you unplug charger (at 100 percent charge) and replug charger the red light comes back on

 

[Esn]

Save the file to the root of an SD card. On the Pandora, open Thunar (or XFE ), browse to the root of that SD, right click, and open a terminal. Enter this:

# sudo ./chargeHack1

It will appear to do nothing and just return you to the command line. Going from Stan's posts this means there are no errors and it is running. Beyond that I can't tell you anything - running it for the first time myself now.

Thanks Gruso! Just to be sure, right-click on what precisely, the executable itself, or the root of the SD card?


@WizardStan, so I have to follow Gruso's instructions every time my Pandora is rebooted (or turned back on after a shutdown), in order to enable this again? The wording of "You do have to run it every reboot, but it should only be required once" is confusing me - seems to be a contradiction.

 

[gruso]

Thanks Gruso! Just to be sure, right-click on what precisely, the executable itself, or the root of the SD card?


@WizardStan, so I have to follow Gruso's instructions every time my Pandora is rebooted (or turned back on after a shutdown), in order to enable this again? The wording of "You do have to run it every reboot, but it should only be required once" is confusing me - seems to be a contradiction.

If you're in icon view mode, you would click in the white space between icons. If you're in file list view, you can't always find white space to click in. Another approach is to right-click directly on your SD card, either in the sidebar or in /media.

(As Alerino points out you can also open a terminal straight from the XFCE menu, and run the command using the entire file path without actually navigating there. You could also navigate there manually using the cd command similar to MS DOS. Fifty ways to skin a cat as always


Re: The 'run once' statement, I believe WizStan means it only needs to be run once during that session, but needs to be run again after a reboot.

 

[WizardStan]

if you unplug charger (at 100 percent charge) and replug charger the red light comes back on

That's normal. Once you've unplugged it it loses the "I was charged" state, so plugging it back in automatically starts it charging again. Close the screen, give it another few minutes to top up again, and it should shut off.


And yes, I meant you'll have to run this after every reboot, but only once per session.

 

[peelie]

on HF5 does not seem to switch off red light?


how long after reaching 100 percent does it switch off red light?

 

[WizardStan]

It varies from battery to battery. Might take a couple minutes, might take up to an hour. If it's consistently taking longer, I'll tweak the value up so it stops sooner. The drain on the battery has to drop low enough for it to detect a full charge, though, so the light may not go out until you put it into low power mode, or at least shut the lid so the LCD turns off.

 

[guider443]

Hi WizardStan,


So instead of run once on every boot, maybe we can put it in somewhere like inittab?


Then we can just set it and forget it, or maybe you can package it in PND, so we can just run it and it pop out something like "Battery Hack Started" when first run and "Battery Hack already Started" when second run.


Actually I haven't test the hack yet, just walk by this post, and it seems very interesting to me, so I test it tonight, will post step to automate it at boot if I found.


Or, please stop me if there are any reason shouldn't we make is start automatically when it boot up?


Regards~

 

[Esn]

Well, I've been running this for a few days now. I haven't been able to check the exact % because I've been running a program for that entire time, but I have noticed that the red charging light is often turned off, and the battery feels a lot cooler than it did back when it would keep being trickle-charged at 100%.


This needs to get added to the official OS.

 

[WizardStan]

So instead of run once on every boot, maybe we can put it in somewhere like inittab?

The plan is to get it into the kernel, I just wanted to make sure the values I chose worked for more than just myself, especially for people who found their Pandora didn't normally reach end-of-charge. It'll also include additional features like blinking charge light to tell you it's full, and shut down on charge thanks to Chris_c's similar work.


Just gotta wait for ED to prep hotfix 6. In the meantime, you can put it somewhere to autoload if you'd like.

 

[ZXDunny]

So instead of run once on every boot, maybe we can put it in somewhere like inittab?

The plan is to get it into the kernel, I just wanted to make sure the values I chose worked for more than just myself, especially for people who found their Pandora didn't normally reach end-of-charge. It'll also include additional features like blinking charge light to tell you it's full, and shut down on charge thanks to Chris_c's similar work.


Just gotta wait for ED to prep hotfix 6. In the meantime, you can put it somewhere to autoload if you'd like.

Just decided to try this, by launching it from a terminal. Left the terminal open, put Pandora into standby mode, closed lid. Battery was showing 100% on the taskbar.


When charging via USB, the charge light never goes off, at all. Left overnight, checked regularly. When charging via AC power, charge light goes off immediately the app is run, but then blinks on and off every ~1 second.


D.

 

[Esn]

Just discovered something bad... it looks like this stops working not only after a reboot, but also if I unplug the power cable and plug it back in.

 

[Vitel]

I want to get some further confirmation from others that my numbers are more-or-less correct, and acceptable, then I'll push my kernel patches up to notaz or skeezix to include in the trunk.

I would like to try the patches. Where can I download them?