Yet Another 3000mAh Chinese Battery Thread

[will_a]

I hate to start off negative, but please don't reply "Just leave it on the charger for a couple of hours after the green light comes on".

So after about a week with the new 3000mAh chinese battery (from the ebay link posted in another thread), I just don't see any improvements. I've gone through ALL of the battery tips and I won't list them all -- just know that I've done them ALL. The only battery tip that I haven't done is using the setcpu (or whatever) app cause I haven't rooted my evo yet.

Is there any app or widget that lists the actual percentage for these batteries? I'm never done any android development, but ran across this link: Mihai Fonoage's Blog: Getting the Battery Level in Android using the SDK

It seems that all you do is get the EXTRA_LEVEL constant and multiply it by 100, then divide it by the EXTRA_SCALE constant. I tried copying/pasting that all into eclipse - but multiplying the EXTRA_SCALE by 2 so I could get the correct battery level. Of course since I'm a noob it fc'd on me.

Please also don't move this into the developer's forum as this isn't about that. I was just rambling about what I've tried to get the correct battery level to display.

I mean even if I did just leave my phone on the charger for a couple of hours after it shows fully charged (which I've done overnight a couple of times already)... That doesn't seem like it would work. Another guy in another thread posted that he used a killowatt to monitor battery draw and after 90%, the evo very slowly trickle charges for the last 10%. So with another 110% battery charge remaining, wouldn't that trickle charge process take a day or more??

So sorry for the rambling, but I guess my question is... Is there any app/widget that will display the proper battery level? Barring that, what's the best app for tracking my battery usage so I can try to figure out what the problem is?


thanks,
Will

[xtravbx]

How about just seeing what sort of usage you get out of the battery, instead of being so concerned about the % left?

Also, root your phone, and you will see better battery life, and a better phone. I rooted, installed a new kernel, and run SetCPU.

It's a night and day difference.

My 3000mah lasts me forever, and my stock battery easily goes all day.

[Jethro10]

Originally Posted by xtravbx

Also, root your phone, and you will see better battery life

It's a night and day difference.

I havn't rooted yet. But can you tell me why battery life improves?
thanks
Jeff

[thomsonga]

Rooting wont, on it's own, increase your batter life. But the possibilites that come with rooting (Custom ROM, different Kernel, SetCPU etc) can greatly improve battery life.

I am using a custom no-sense ROM and I reckon it alone has increased my battery life by about 30% (guesstimate).

[will_a]

I'm not 'worried' about the battery level per se -- just that it's the only gauge that I know of to let me know it's fully charged. I'm having some seriously horrible battery performance out of this 3000mAh battery.

2h 5m 1s since unplugged and I'm at 80%. I've read 3 emails, visited a couple of links from one of the emails, and used the calendar app for a few minutes. I did just go through the battery tips and found that google talk for whatever reason was signed in again. WTF is that about?

The only reasons that I can see for rooting until now are: being able to use the rooted backup apps to completely back up everything, being able to use the hotspot for free, and being able to remove all of the Sprint/HTC/Google crap that I'll never use - like nascar, amazon mp3, facebook, twitter, football, sprint zone, google talk, etc.

Now I see one more reason to root -- being able to run setcpu, and removing all of those bs apps will probably be a good thing for battery performance as well.


thanks for the help,
will

[A.Nonymous]

It sounds like either the battery itself is crap (which is very common w/ebay batteries) or you've got a rogue app on the phone.

[Bankswood]

download advanced app killer. It will help you control those rogue apps

[A.Nonymous]

Originally Posted by Bankswood

download advanced app killer. It will help you control those rogue apps

And putting bandaids on a bleeding wound will stop the bleeding, but aren't you better off dealing with the wound?

[rjoudrey]

Is this thread about the battery or battery saving apps. Maybe he just got a bum battery or a counterfeit piece of crap. Is it bigger than the standard battery? If not it is false advertising.

[will_a]

It's twice the capacity of the stock battery and big enough that a new back piece is needed. There's a ebay link to it in the Evo forum -- 2 3000mAh batteries + 2 back covers for about $20.

So I've gone back through all of the battery tips (again) and found google talk on and signed in, and quite a few other settings toggled or changed that I swear I've been through before. I think maybe each reboot of the phone requires some of the settings to be re-fixed. Also, I've removed some widgets that required internet access. Finally, and I'm not sure how much this actually helped if at all, I followed the advice in one of the threads by a school kid who charges overnight, then in the am he unplugs and powers off and replugs and continues to charge until the green light turns back on. He advised to do it repeatedly 3-4 times but I did just the once and 1d 0h 5m later, I'm at 38% remaining with pretty regular email, app, sms, voicemail, etc usage.

I'm pretty satisfied at this point.

As for this question:

Is this thread about the battery or battery saving apps.

I was originally asking for info on any app/widget that would display the correct battery level for the 3rd party larger batteries so I would know when it's fully charged, and any app that would show me what apps use the most battery so I could tweak settings to improve battery performance.

Consider this solved though. Thanks to all who answered.


will