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Alternative to bump charging.

garment69

Android Enthusiast
Jan 8, 2010
271
31
As most of you know, the Inc will drop 8-10% of its charge within 10 minutes of being taken of the charger with no use. I stumbled accross a different method for "bump charging" that does not require the phone being turned off. After I take my phone off the charger I let it do its dropping for no reason dance. At about 92% I plug the phone back in, turned on. Once it hits 100% I unplug it. After that second charge the phone will stay at 100% for an hour or so with no usage. I drive to work, about an hour, so I dont use the phone since its too early to talk to anyone. I left with 100% and when I got to work it was still at 100%. This is with my phone connected to HFL through bluetooth.
 
The same thing wouldhappen if you took it off the charger immediately when it goes green the first time. The Incredible's problem is that as soon as the lightgoes green it goes back to battery power, whether it's still plugged in or not. The drop you see that first ten minutes is the battery indicator catching up to how much power has been used since it turned green.

So, you're doing the same thing as a bump charge. Forcing it to restart the charging process to reclaim those few percentage points it has used since reaching full charge.
 
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The same thing wouldhappen if you took it off the charger immediately when it goes green the first time. The Incredible's problem is that as soon as the lightgoes green it goes back to battery power, whether it's still plugged in or not. The drop you see that first ten minutes is the battery indicator catching up to how much power has been used since it turned green.

So, you're doing the same thing as a bump charge. Forcing it to restart the charging process to reclaim those few percentage points it has used since reaching full charge.

Not necessarily. When I tried the bump charge method, the first charge, with the phone off, takes 30-45 minutes. With just plugging the phone back in from a 92-95% charge takes about 10 minutes. Further, you dont have to do the bump chage a second or third time to realize the same results.

I have done both methods after plugging the phone in when I go to bed. So in either case, the Inc has been on the charger for 6-8 hours.
 
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Myself and others have tested this with ammeters. The phone stops pulling power from the charger when it goes green. Simple as that. There are varied methods based off battery and phone status to determine how much current to apply to a Li-ion/polymer battery to charge it. Especially the last few percentage points. That is why you see inconsistencies in how long it can take. Nothing but battery chemistry.

The Inc's problem is ti doesn't stay on wall power. I agree with Dustin's theory that it has something to do with newer regulations from overheated batteries. See some discussion here:

http://androidforums.com/accessorie...ssue-2150-no-not-i-found-soultion-thread.html
 
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Myself and others have tested this with ammeters. The phone stops pulling power from the charger when it goes green. Simple as that. There are varied methods based off battery and phone status to determine how much current to apply to a Li-ion/polymer battery to charge it. Especially the last few percentage points. That is why you see inconsistencies in how long it can take. Nothing but battery chemistry.

The Inc's problem is ti doesn't stay on wall power. I agree with Dustin's theory that it has something to do with newer regulations from overheated batteries. See some discussion here:

http://androidforums.com/accessorie...ssue-2150-no-not-i-found-soultion-thread.html

I am sure you correct as to the cause. My only point here is that I do not believe it is necessary to go throught the shutting off the phone, turning it on, shutting it off steps.

I also do not agree that this is the result of some regulation as this behavior did not exist with the Droid X I just tested, the Iphone 4 or the Moto Droid.
 
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Just because HTC erred on the very safe side while other companies didn't doesn't mean that it isn't the cause.

Perhaps. But there has been enough discussion about it, on HTC's web forums specifically, for them to state that is the case. I myself had a lenghty exchange with one of HTC's CSR's and she said they were "aware of the issue". Now, I agree most CSR's dont know anything more than what they are reading on thier screen at the time, but I would think HTC would let people know why they are seing this rapid drop of % behavior. Also, if that was done on purpose, you would think the software would recognize what is going on. So if the phone see's the battery reach 100% and then, as you contend, stops charging it would be resonable to expect the phone to then see it dropping and again begin the charging process.

Either way its a highly annoying behavior and needs to be fixed.
 
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When a company like HTC develops a phone like this, there are tons of different teams working on different aspects. Put simply, the engineering team wasn't talking to the GUI team and neither talks to the support team very well.

Like you said, it is annoying. And there's a lot of misinformation floating around here "OMG my phone doesn't charge all the way!". People don't understand the issue enough to work with it until HTC updates it.
 
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also noticed if you reboot while on the charger it will start charging again, is there an app that I can schedule to re-boot my phone at say 5am? then it could top off the battery just in time for me to walk out the door? I'm rooted, and Ive looked only thing i can find I'd have to set every day, looking for a way to not do anything ;) Heck even turn it off @ 5 and I'll turn back on when I wake up.
 
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By your logic if you left an inc plugged in for a week it would run out of battery and the light would stay green the whole time...

No. I'm sure there is a cutoff point. I used to think it was around 80%, but based off what another user said in another thread, it's probably closer to 50%. It will cycle itself in and out of charge. It's probably to preserve the life of the battery, since it's better to keep charging and discharging than to sit at the full 4.2v for extended periods of time.
 
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The bump charge technique works for my wife's 3 year old LG phone too, so it's not just HTC. It's probably prudent since some people had their laps and groins burned by notebooks some years ago while charging.

Buy a cheepo charger and another 1500 battery for like $20 shipping included. Swap it in the morning and forget about it. I do that every morning and the charge lasts all day.
 
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No. I'm sure there is a cutoff point. I used to think it was around 80%, but based off what another user said in another thread, it's probably closer to 50%. It will cycle itself in and out of charge. It's probably to preserve the life of the battery, since it's better to keep charging and discharging than to sit at the full 4.2v for extended periods of time.

Sounds like they need to bump the threshold up to 90%-95% or so with a software update if this is the case. Many Lithium Ion experts say that it is better to leave your phone plugged in whenever you can even if it is full so I'm not sure why the phone would do that in the first place, maybe it's the new battery/charger regulations.
 
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Sounds like they need to bump the threshold up to 90%-95% or so with a software update if this is the case. Many Lithium Ion experts say that it is better to leave your phone plugged in whenever you can even if it is full so I'm not sure why the phone would do that in the first place, maybe it's the new battery/charger regulations.

Show me where those experts say that it is "better". Lithium ion/poly batteries are healthiest when kept at 50%.
 
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As most of you know, the Inc will drop 8-10% of its charge within 10 minutes of being taken of the charger with no use. I stumbled accross a different method for "bump charging" that does not require the phone being turned off. After I take my phone off the charger I let it do its dropping for no reason dance. At about 92% I plug the phone back in, turned on. Once it hits 100% I unplug it. After that second charge the phone will stay at 100% for an hour or so with no usage. I drive to work, about an hour, so I dont use the phone since its too early to talk to anyone. I left with 100% and when I got to work it was still at 100%. This is with my phone connected to HFL through bluetooth.

Myself and others have tested this with ammeters. The phone stops pulling power from the charger when it goes green. Simple as that. There are varied methods based off battery and phone status to determine how much current to apply to a Li-ion/polymer battery to charge it. Especially the last few percentage points. That is why you see inconsistencies in how long it can take. Nothing but battery chemistry.

The Inc's problem is ti doesn't stay on wall power. I agree with Dustin's theory that it has something to do with newer regulations from overheated batteries.

No. I'm sure there is a cutoff point. I used to think it was around 80%, but based off what another user said in another thread, it's probably closer to 50%. It will cycle itself in and out of charge. It's probably to preserve the life of the battery, since it's better to keep charging and discharging than to sit at the full 4.2v for extended periods of time.

Do you think plugging it into an outlet timer over night would help? It takes about 2 hours for my 1500 ma battery to reach full charge. Now my phone sits on the charger for almost 5 hours after it reaches 100% before I unplug.
So say you charge for 2 hours then have it stop charging and then starts charging again about an hour before you need to unplug.
 
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Do you think plugging it into an outlet timer over night would help? It takes about 2 hours for my 1500 ma battery to reach full charge. Now my phone sits on the charger for almost 5 hours after it reaches 100% before I unplug.
So say you charge for 2 hours then have it stop charging and then starts charging again about an hour before you need to unplug.

That would work.
 
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That would work.

Exactly what I have been doing and it works like a charm... I used a timer from my Christmas lights and have had a solid charge every day...

I set it so it turns on at 4:30am each day by 7ish when I hit the door im good to go... I am using the sedio extended battery so sometimes I catch it too early but definitely resolves the issue...
 
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That would work.
I tried it and it worked like a charm. Using a $6.00 outlet timer, I pluged it in when I go to bed and it is set to charge for 2 hours to get to full charge. Then it is set to charge for 1/2 hour just before I wake up. System Panel confirms it is fully charged after the first 2 hour charge and then it drops to about 90% by the time the next charge starts. When I unplug its full and doesn't have the sudden drop it use to have. 1500 ma battery was still at 80% after 7 hours and 64% after 14 hours. :)
 
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The outlet timer is a good idea. Can't believe I didn't think of that, lol. That being said, I've tried the bump method at night while sleeping (I'm a light sleeper, I wake up at least 4-5 times a night) and it seems to help quite a bit. But the timer could keep me from having to actually interact with my phone over and over when I wake up.

My phone is rooted now (thanks to unrevoked3) and I have SETCPU and have it underclocked to about 250mhz when the phone is idle and this has made the most improvement to battery life. My phone can easily last all day now whereas before after about 7 hours, I was under 35%. I know rooting isn't for everyone, but it does have its advantages.

Either way, HTC needs to come up with a fix for the battery not fully charging from the get go. Rooting is not for everyone and neither is waking up 2 or 3 times a night to re-plug in the charger (while phone is off at that)
 
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As most of you know, the Inc will drop 8-10% of its charge within 10 minutes of being taken of the charger with no use. I stumbled accross a different method for "bump charging" that does not require the phone being turned off. After I take my phone off the charger I let it do its dropping for no reason dance. At about 92% I plug the phone back in, turned on. Once it hits 100% I unplug it. After that second charge the phone will stay at 100% for an hour or so with no usage. I drive to work, about an hour, so I dont use the phone since its too early to talk to anyone. I left with 100% and when I got to work it was still at 100%. This is with my phone connected to HFL through bluetooth.
thanks, I will give this a try.
 
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