How Is The Battery Life Indicator Going To Be?

[housemonkey]

I know it seems like a small thing, but I have just had my GP2X F-200 brick my second 8GB SD and am seriously considering throwing up on eBay at this point, and both times its been because the battery indicator doesn’t work worth a damn and it cut power writing to a save. The conundrum is that because the thing doesn’t work worth a damn, I am constantly saving playing certain games because I don’t want to loose the progress I have made.
Also, a side question for anyone with an f-200, does anyone’s work?

So, pretty much, if the Pandora has at least decent indicator, I am replacing it as soon as I can. But I was just wondering if any details were available on how it’s going to be. A simple light that goes red at 30% power like the DS would be fine, but it would be very cool if some how a more accurate percentage was integrated like the PSP. Probably my favorite aspect of many of the homebrew emulators on that system is the way they have been able to add the estimated time and charge percentage from a simple pull up menu.

I don’t know how hard it would be to add something like that at this stage, or if it’s a matter that requires hardware as well as, but damn it would be nice to have that feature.

Sorry if it’s already been covered, a quick search didn’t show me anything.

 

[Squidge]

MWeston has stated before that the LED's on the Pandora and fully programmable, so they can flash to indicate low battery, and even go into STR/STD low/no power mode to ensure you don't lose any work

 

[housemonkey]

AWESOME!

Thanks Squidge. Love the emus you have put out for the GP2X by the way.

 

[MWeston]

Actually, I have given this some testing.

The battery starts at about 4.2V fully charged and crapped out at some point just below 3.5V I think. I took a voltmeter to it about once an hour and with the 8.5 hour battery life I got, it dropped close to 0.1V per hour. Assuming it stays that way until the battery has been charged/discharged many, many times, it is a fairly linear scale. I was actually surprised to see this result, but it works out so well for what we want to do here if it is consistent for every cell [I'm stupid spammer].

Unlike the PSP which seems to have some electronics in the battery pack that might monitor the level and report battery life, Pandora will manage this in software only. There is quite the collection of parts in a PSP battery. Does it do it this way or am I wrong? My PSP coding experience was a "Hello World!" app a few years ago. I've never examined code that determines the percentage.

Anyway, Pandora has two LEDs on the right side in the power indicator light pipe: red and green. Green means power is on for sure. You can see that in any Youtube video. There can be options for how to indicate a low battery. The green LED could flash. The red LED could come on. Red and green could both come on making an orange light (but I was saving that for charge indication probably). They are also both PWM controlled so you could do some neat fade in and out effects if you wanted too. The fade cycle could change with the level of the battery if you really wanted to go nuts.

 

[Kyo]

awesome indeed. Me want

 

[rasczak]

Anyway, Pandora has two LEDs on the right side in the power indicator light pipe: red and green. Green means power is on for sure. You can see that in any Youtube video. There can be options for how to indicate a low battery. The green LED could flash. The red LED could come on. Red and green could both come on making an orange light (but I was saving that for charge indication probably). They are also both PWM controlled so you could do some neat fade in and out effects if you wanted too. The fade cycle could change with the level of the battery if you really wanted to go nuts.

What about...

Green led flashing: charging.
Green led static: High battery. (100-40%)
Orange light: medium battery, but not fear. (40%-15%)
Red led static: really low battery, search for a charger, please. (15%-5%)
Red led flashing: SOS, my battery is gonna die!!! (5%)

It could be combined with fading cicles MWeston said... OMG I love little leds working... Hahahaha.

 

[Kyo]

or, we could just let the users decide and make it customizable in the OS

 

[rasczak]

or, we could just let the users decide and make it customizable in the OS

Of course. But there will be a default preset, or not?

 

[Kyo]

fair enough. I actually like your idea, though.

 

[rokdcasbah]

If you didn't charge the battery on the first warning, why do you deserve a second? Or third, even?

You can always put a battery meter with lots of steps into the gui, all you really need on the outside is a low-batt indicator that comes on early enough to let you get out of whatever you're in. Also, flashing things are the devil's work.

 

[Kyo]

because charging the battery at 40% is ridiculous?

 

[Dimacus]

@rokdcasbah
I guess it's more of an level indicator than an warning (with the exception of the flashing red).
It's not in the GUI that you are going to need the warning of a low battery the most (but it is nice to have one there as well), it's when you are playing games you might want a warning that you should save soon.

And please no flashing while charging, or flash while charging, but not when it's done but still connected.

 

[Pleng]

@rokdcasbah
I guess it's more of an level indicator than an warning (with the exception of the flashing red).
It's not in the GUI that you are going to need the warning of a low battery the most (but it is nice to have one there as well), it's when you are playing games you might want a warning that you should save soon.

And please no flashing while charging, or flash while charging, but not when it's done but still connected.

+1 for no flashing whist chargig. Maybe when battery is low, but last thing I want is a flashing led in the room when I'm trying to sleep. That's why I never turn my computer into stand-by, because the designers decided it would be a great idea to have the power light flash repetedly when in stand-by. Insanity. And no I cant be bothered to mess about with the cables to stop it happeneing!

 

[Tinnus]

How about that:

100% - green
"0%" - red
between: fade between red and green with oranges in the middle

 

[MagicPants]

Unlike the PSP which seems to have some electronics in the battery pack that might monitor the level and report battery life, Pandora will manage this in software only.

So is the Pandora going to do this solely based on time?

 

[parag0n]

Once you know the discharge curve (voltage) of a battery, you can estimate it VERY accurately. Especially if the PMC allows you to monitor the current being drawn from the battery too.

The PSP's battery just has the circuitry to do this IN the battery.

 

[fusion_power]

Red led static: really low battery, search for a charger, please. (15%-5%)
Red led flashing: SOS, my battery is gonna die!!! (5%)

Yes, this is the way I also want to see the LED's working. Red LED starts glowing when the Battery becomes empty and the blinking starts when it gets really serious, so the last 5-Minutes-reserve or so. Blinking is always a good indicator for Danger.

 

[whiskthecat]

And no I cant be bothered to mess about with the cables to stop it happeneing!

Uhhh, tape it.

 

[Nova]

Lithium batteries die much faster if they go from full charge to empty over and over.

Citation

 

[mechanizeddeath]

Uhhh, tape it.

indeed.

black electrical tape has become my friend due to the proliferation of obnoxious blue LEDs on just about everything. :angry: i've had to tape up three hard drive enclosures so far. and if you still want an indicator LED, they're cheap enough and can always be scavenged.

back to the topic, i've always preferred the status of green=on, orange=charging, and red=dead. i think the GBA SP does that but i haven't touched it since i got my GP2X. :lol: i've had a few devices over the years that would do something strange such as turn the LED on when the charge was finished.