Release Hotfix 6 Final released!


Mine's been a bit erratic as well, since HF6
All this makes no sense as the software is not manipulating that charge % value in any way, it comes directly from bq chip.


Maybe the new charge settings that cut charging (which wasn't the case before, in most cases it was charging forever slowly killing the battery) confuse the bq chip or something.


WizardStan: maybe stopping charge when current drops to 80mA is a bit too early after all?


Note: it can be tuned in /etc/pandora/conf/eventmap if anyone wants to experiment, needs pndevmapperd restart though.
 
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I hope the new charge tweaks don't damage the charger chips. I thought this was all tested before. ^^" My Pandora charges up to around 93%-97%, I guess it is intended. Yesterday I emptied the battery down to 13%, all was fine so it seems my Pandora works like it should.
 
FWIW, I'm still on HF6a4 - Mine charges to 100% every time.
 
i have no problem charging to 100% i just have a problem discharging to below 15%
 
KazakhStan, could you charge up your Pandora, then put it into low power mode, and leave it for maybe 24 hours? Mine depleted completely while in low power mode during that time, which is now really starting to worry me.
 
WizardStan: maybe stopping charge when current drops to 80mA is a bit too early after all?


Note: it can be tuned in /etc/pandora/conf/eventmap if anyone wants to experiment, needs pndevmapperd restart though.


Code:
[battery_charge]

enable         	1        	# enable charger control?

stop_capacity  	99       	# battery capacity threshold as stop condition 1

stop_current   	80000    	# charge current threshold as stop condition 2, in uA

start_capacity 	95       	# battery capacity threshold to resume charging

device         	twl4030_bci_battery

What should we change in order to test ?
 
KazakhStan, could you charge up your Pandora, then put it into low power mode, and leave it for maybe 24 hours? Mine depleted completely while in low power mode during that time, which is now really starting to worry me.
Doesn't closing the lid in Hotfix 6 put it into low-power-mode?


That's when mine was able to completely deplete, too. :p
 
I think I've got it figured out. On advice from TI, I did a complete cycle to recalibrate. A complete cycle apparently requires a full charge, sit at 100% for 2 hours, then a full discharge below 3.0 volts and left for 5 hours. It was the "leave it empty for 5 hours" part I didn't know about. It's taken me the better part of the weekend to get to this point, but preliminary results are very favourable. I'm going to try one more full cycle to 100% and back down and see if it approaches zero this time. The TI tech suggested it may take a few complete cycles for it to really learn where zero is, but if it even comes close this time I'll be happy.


If you have purchased a second battery I highly suggest you do this with that battery as well. The bq chip is capable of holding data on two batteries and distinguishes between the two based on some chemical signature or something. This way, if you ever need to swap between the two, the second battery will give an accurate reading, as opposed to some defaults that may only be close at best, or off by up to 20% (or more!) at worst.


To fully charge and leave it at 100% for the expected hour, in the /etc/pandora/conf/eventmap file change [battery_charge] enable from 1 to 0.


My current theory is that the smart charging, with it cycling up and down around 95% to keep the battery from overheating, is slowly causing the bq chip to think there's less and less capacity even though it isn't true. It needs a good deep cycle every once in a while to remind it what an empty battery looks like. I'm going to ping this idea off the TI tech as soon as I confirm my battery is cycling properly again.
 
keep us posted, and a full guide on the procedure if you get good results.


and i see that my touchpad autocorrect called you a KazahkStan instead of WizardStand.... :|
 
I think I've got it figured out. (...lotsa interesting techy stuff...)


My current theory is that the smart charging, with it cycling up and down around 95% to keep the battery from overheating, is slowly causing the bq chip to think there's less and less capacity even though it isn't true. It needs a good deep cycle every once in a while to remind it what an empty battery looks like. I'm going to ping this idea off the TI tech as soon as I confirm my battery is cycling properly again.

Heroic! This, me friends, is the power of open systems! Not to mention excellent experimenters. Colour me impressed.
 
Wouldn't it make sense to put the Hotfix into the pnd-store system? I got note of the final HF6 version just now, I guess I got lazy scanning through the forums for news. Pandora press only mentioned the RC but not the final vesion.
 
Ideally, with the next big OS, updates happen directly on the Pandora using a package manager... but okay, I can also try to upload any update PNDs to the PND-Store.


However, these updates can cause issues, which is a bit of a problem.


A full flash usually is better, but doesn't work with the repo :)
 
So does this mean the current HF6 charging algoritm is bugy and hurts the Battery? Damn. :(

Nope, it's not hurting the battery, it will just temporarily decrease your battery life until the new charging algorithm is implemented.


Only pre-HF6 charging hurts the battery when you constantly keep charging it.
 
To fully charge and leave it at 100% for the expected hour, in the /etc/pandora/conf/eventmap file change [battery_charge] enable from 1 to 0.
Does not work for me, modified, rebooted : still stopping charge around 95%.
 
A full cycle from full back to empty and it shut down at just below 20%. Don't know exactly what since I wasn't paying attention. I'm going to leave it off for another 5 hours and try again.
 
Don't know what to tell you, I'm pretty sure that should have worked. Try setting "stop_current" to 0 perhaps?
 
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