Terrible Battery Life

[solace]

Thanks for the responses guys. I'll try something other than Frodo tomorrow and see if I can get a little more life out of it. If not, then it'll have to go back to Craig. It would be a shame though. I like the little sucker already (even if it has a joystick which feels somewhat similar to controlling a greased, coffee-drinking weasel by placing your thumb on the top of it's head).

Heaven help us if I ever plug this thing into the A/C power adapter though. The way this chews juice I don't think the national grid will cope.

 

[EvilDragon]

Why should some units need special photo batteries while others don't? Doesn't make sense.

​

Simple: Some brands are very well built with similar specs to those photo batteries.
Most cheap ones aren't.

I just suggest using photo batteries, as you can be SURE they will work, whereas with other brands, you can be lucky or not.

 

[Epsilon]

Aye i got into a photo shop and asked for the best AA batteries and charger he had, next day i returned and bought the package was a GP Ultra Powerbank with 4x 2500Mah AA's and they work great in my Canon camera takes 50-60 pictures easily

 

[Eolair]

Why should some units need special photo batteries while others don't? Doesn't make sense.

​

Simple: Some brands are very well built with similar specs to those photo batteries.
Most cheap ones aren't.

I just suggest using photo batteries, as you can be SURE they will work, whereas with other brands, you can be lucky or not.

​

Thanks for the explanation ED. I finally found a swedish shop that has ansmann digital nimhs so if my energizers aren't up to the task when I get my unit I'll try them out. I just hope I'm not going to end up with 4 energizers and 4 ansmanns for €45 and still only 30 mins of play time. That'd be pretty upsetting

 

[EvilDragon]

AFAIK GP is an OEM of Ansmann (they even look similar )

BTW:
More information about the cameras and batteries here

 

[icurafu]

Why should some units need special photo batteries while others don't? Doesn't make sense.

​

Simple: Some brands are very well built with similar specs to those photo batteries.
Most cheap ones aren't.

I just suggest using photo batteries, as you can be SURE they will work, whereas with other brands, you can be lucky or not.

​

That's awesome news. I got the PowerBank C-401 rapid charger. Which comes with 4x2500 batteries (54 aussie dollars). I'll post my results when I get my GP2X.

 

[EvilDragon]

Oh, I almost forgot:

NiMH batteries (forget NiCD batteries, they will probably last 5 minutes or so) don't like overcharging.

So don't buy a cheap charger, as those will charge and charge and charge the battery to death.

There are often packs with chargers and photo batteries included, try to get one of those

 

[Eolair]

AFAIK GP is an OEM of Ansmann (they even look similar )

BTW:
More information about the cameras and batteries here

​

GP is a common brand here (Sweden). Not sure if I've seen any photo GP batteries though.

I looked at that site you posted and this is why I bought Energizers: "After testing a number of the newer 2300 mAh-labeled cells, the Energizer 2300s are the current leaders for total power". They aren't photo batteries though. Which is worrying. But I've never heard of photo nimh aa batteries until now. Is there any other brand than Ansmann that have photo aa nimhs?

 

[Eolair]

Oh, I almost forgot:

NiMH batteries (forget NiCD batteries, they will probably last 5 minutes or so) don't like overcharging.

So don't buy a cheap charger, as those will charge and charge and charge the battery to death.

There are often packs with chargers and photo batteries included, try to get one of those

​

Yeah, I agree with that. Don't buy a cheap charger. Time controlled charger sucks. Get a microprocessor controlled one. It's worth the extra money.

 

[DaveC]

BTW, while I'm started - This is the worst joystick I've ever seen in my life. It's like it's been specially hand-crafted to be ultra slippery.

btw, I think the diagonal thing depends on the software and how the program reads the 12 directions. There was some talk about this before release.

​

Yeah there was talk of how to make the joystick control better. I made that chart and made a suggestion as to the configuration that gives the best emulation of a regular stick. Of course no one ever listens to my suggestions so there you have it, crappy control. I kind of knew this would happen which is why I wish they would have just used a normal configuration The more I think of it it is too bad that we didn't stick with the GP32 BLU. It has better controls, better screen, MUCH better battery life, oh well.

 

[PSyMastR]

Ok, Im looking at these batteries:
Ansmann 5030711 (2600 mAh)

Some websites told me I have to charge them twice with a charger to get full charge. Any good chargers out there that will charge once and they will be full?
Also, does anyone know of any sites that ship to the US?

 

[igboo]

For those having short battery life problems, here's what I would suggest.

After your GP2x has depleted your batteries, take the dead batteries and pop them into something else and see how much further life you get from them.

Being involved in some electronics manufacturing, the first thing I would suspect is a cold solder joint or two on the battary contacts to the PCB. This would cause some extra resistance and an additional voltage drop on the batteries, making it look like the batteries are being drained prematurely. This is a fairly common occurance on a new device being manufactured on a new line (or by hand).

A few messages back someone asked about a two hour charger and hot batteries (sorry I don't recall who it was). NiMh batteries will get just slightly warm under ideal charging conditions. If you think the batteries are actually hot to touch, then your charger is destroying your batteries and I would look for a different charger. Batteries should never get hot during charging. Any good charger should automatically shut down if the batteries get to hot.

igboo

 

[triton]

i have some digital innovations 2200mah nimh AAs that are for "high draw" applications, igot em at walmart for about 7$ for 4, the charger is kinda suck but they have decent life, will probably have to get better ones, think IC-3s would work good? i think they are 2500mah

 

[Eolair]

For those having short battery life problems, here's what I would suggest.

After your GP2x has depleted your batteries, take the dead batteries and pop them into something else and see how much further life you get from them.

Being involved in some electronics manufacturing, the first thing I would suspect is a cold solder joint or two on the battary contacts to the PCB. This would cause some extra resistance and an additional voltage drop on the batteries, making it look like the batteries are being drained prematurely. This is a fairly common occurance on a new device being manufactured on a new line (or by hand).

A few messages back someone asked about a two hour charger and hot batteries (sorry I don't recall who it was). NiMh batteries will get just slightly warm under ideal charging conditions. If you think the batteries are actually hot to touch, then your charger is destroying your batteries and I would look for a different charger. Batteries should never get hot during charging. Any good charger should automatically shut down if the batteries get to hot.

igboo

​

This explanation makes a lot of sense. Thanks.

 

[icurafu]

I had a similar problem with another device.

Turning the screen brightness down (And not playing Hexen) a bit doubled the battery life.

Usually these kind of devices have lithium batteries, which generally output the same until they die.

 

[Epsilon]

also i read in another test somewhere that uniross is the worst 'pos' batteries you can get.
http://www.batteryreview.co.uk/battery_rev...oss_2300_aa.htm
Best measured of the 2300 uniross "1795.15mAh" quality eh? :rolleyes:

 

[reallynotnick]

i have some digital innovations 2200mah nimh AAs that are for "high draw" applications, igot em at walmart for about 7$ for 4, the charger is kinda suck but they have decent life, will probably have to get better ones, think IC-3s would work good? i think they are 2500mah

​

I will be sure to tell you how my IC-3 2000mah hold up when my gp2x comes.

 

[triton]

cool thanks, course more than likely we will get them around the same time lol. i expect mine to arrive late this week if shippin goes ok, i will tell you how the digital innovations batts hold up

 

[iignotus]

i have some digital innovations 2200mah nimh AAs that are for "high draw" applications, igot em at walmart for about 7$ for 4, the charger is kinda suck but they have decent life, will probably have to get better ones, think IC-3s would work good? i think they are 2500mah

​

I will be sure to tell you how my IC-3 2000mah hold up when my gp2x comes.

​

Those are exactly what I have, made by RadioShack. They last about 2:15.

 

[billybrown]

yep, the battery life is pretty duff. about an hour on shadowrun on the snes emu drained mine flat. deleting files/games on the fly and having to put stuff on the sd card without a cardreader is taking its toll too.