Help When do you charge your battery?

[Ageless Stranger]

At what point do you charge the battery on your G1?

When it looks like its getting quite empty like most people do, or when the red light flashes and your phone is screaming for more juice?

Ever since I was told to run the battery dry a few times and not be tempted to charge beforehand, I have been getting some serious performance out of the little battery in my G1.

From what I have heard, you need to do this a few times to "train" the G1 into understanding when the battery really is nearly empty (5%), and not 10% remaining. The battery sensor needs to be calibrated, so running it dry will show the G1 what empty really is.

After doing this a few times, I tend to charge when the battery has about 5% remaining.

After doing this, I get 2 days with moderate use which includes a few phone calls every day, texting, a generous plethora of emails, some random browsing, the odd download or two from the market, a lot of mp3s and a game or two of bonsai blast.

broken down here are the steps I took

1. Let the battery get down as low as 5% ( you will see a red battery icon with a cross through it)
2. Charge the battery until it is full
3. Leave it plugged in for a further 2 hours
4. After doing this once, it has been advised to repeat the above steps once more when the battery gets to 5%

After that you will notice an improvement in battery life, it is recommended you repeat steps 1-3 after every 30 or so normal charges.

I want to give full credit and thanks to ardchoille42 from the t-mobile forums for suggesting this.

To give extra performance, suggested by ChilledMatt (thanks Matt)

It also helps to run Power Manager on low batt setting, to force 2g when moving between cells and to switch off wi-fi when leaving a hotspot.

 

[ChilledMatt]

I think the relevant thing here is the time spent on the phone calls combined with the time spent downloading web pages files and apps via the cell network. These are the things that really hammer the battery. I've noticed when the phone is getting warm at the chin the battery is draining fast. I personally charge my phone overnight and it generally sees me through the day, providing I don't do more than a few hours browsing.

Out of interest, are you doing your browsing mainly via wi-fi or using 2g or 3g?

 

[skeptic82]

I must say, after reading this thread I'm much more disappointed with my battery life. I usually charge my phone overnight, and by 5 or 6pm it's at around 20%. I figured that was just the way it goes, but now I hear other users are getting a whole day of usage!

Perhaps I am partially guilty here. When I see my battery drop that low, my reaction is to charge it, in case I have to leave the house or I want to go out. I certainly don't want it to die. Honestly, I've never fully discharged my battery. Would it be possible that if I did run it all the way down a few times my battery life would improve? Also, is it harmful to the battery to use the phone while its plugged in? Maybe its time to call T-mo for that replacement battery...

 

[slave1]

....., I get 2 days with moderate use which includes a few phone calls every day, texting, a generous plethora of emails, some random browsing, the odd download or two from the market, a lot of mp3s and a game or two of bonsai blast.

I charged mine overnight, unplugged it at 6:30am and left it on my computer desk. I didn't touch it all day, picked it up at 5-6pm. It had the red battery warning and after I tried to go on the market it died.

Are you forcing it to use 2G?

 

[smint]

i get a day with couple of phone calls, plenty texting, some e-mails and 2-3 hours brousing and games combined.

i use wi-fi at home, often accidently leave it on all day, have only 2g turned on most of time as it's not that slow round where i work and 3g i turn of and on depending what i'm doing, would like more battery time so i could hammer it all the time,

i do have a spae 2200mah battery as well which i use if i really want a hard day of using or i'll be away for 2 days with no charger. makes phone chunkyer tho.

 

[ChilledMatt]

I charged mine overnight, unplugged it at 6:30am and left it on my computer desk. I didn't touch it all day, picked it up at 5-6pm. It had the red battery warning and after I tried to go on the market it died.

Are you forcing it to use 2G?

I have Power Manager installed and run my phone on the Battery Low setting all the time. I force 2g when I am out and about and only switch on 3g if I need to browse. if I use wi-fi I am always mindful to disable it when I leave the hotspot. (when the phone is searching for a 3g signal or a wi-fi hotspot it seems to use a lot of battery).

 

[Ageless Stranger]

Ok

I don't have 3g at home so I use wireless (which uses less juice than 2/3g), but when I am work I will use 3g. I think the trick here is to calibrate the battery / G1 a few times, I have read about this on other forums in the past and I am not the only one who gets a bit more performance out of the G1 than when it first came out of the box.

 

[ChilledMatt]

Ok

I don't have 3g at home so I use wireless (which uses less juice than 2/3g), but when I am work I will use 3g. I think the trick here is to calibrate the battery / G1 a few times, I have read about this on other forums in the past and I am not the only one who gets a bit more performance out of the G1 than when it first came out of the box.

I also did this for the first few charges and have seen an improvement from day1. However, I am not entirely sure wether it is this that has helped or the power management strategies I use. It's probably a bit of both.

 

[justjimjpc]

i get a day with couple of phone calls, plenty texting, some e-mails and 2-3 hours brousing and games combined.

i use wi-fi at home, often accidently leave it on all day, have only 2g turned on most of time as it's not that slow round where i work and 3g i turn of and on depending what i'm doing, would like more battery time so i could hammer it all the time,

i do have a spae 2200mah battery as well which i use if i really want a hard day of using or i'll be away for 2 days with no charger. makes phone chunkyer tho.

Do you have a source link for the battery ? Thanks

EDIT : FOUND A SOURCE http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=370142638925&category=20336&refid=store

 

[Dustin]

I just got my dev phone a few days back, and am still in the conditioning phase. Though, I charged mine up to 100% last night, unplugged it from the charger at around 9pm. It's now 1:13 pm and I'm at 69%on the battery.I've done very little on it so far though, few texts, turn it on now and then to checkup on things.

The power manager app is very dang handy. I like it. I did notice though, that I charged it from USB yesterday. It claimed to be at 100% btu then dropped to like 70% in about 30 minutes. So i'm not sure it's getting a great charge through USB. Oh, and yes, I loaded the USB driver on my system.

 

[muzicman0]

I charge mine nightly. I put it on the charger between 10 and 11 pm, take it off at 6:45am...usually have ~30% left...less if heavy usage.
mm0

P.S. I did calibrate my battery (2 times in a row), and it did help, or at least it appears that it helped, as originally, I was pushing 5-10% when I put it on the charger.

 

[cNo7]

I charge mine overnight. I unplug it at 7:30am...run a day with maybe 15 phone calls, plenty of texting and maybe 30-45 mins of games and browsing. I keep 3G on at all times (unless I'm out of range) and have wifi automatically turn on when I get home. Typically, at the end of the day, I'm at about 40%. Really depends on how much I do in terms of games....that seems to be the primary drainer.

 

[Shoo]

ok call me crazy.
Do we have the same G1 phones??

I have done the calibrating thing.
I charge mine to 6:30 am and by 1:30 I am on 10%

This is with wifi off, gps off.
I just have mine on a charger now every time I can PC car you name it.

You guys get a whole day of G1 with the stolen batteries from TMO?

amazing.

 

[Ageless Stranger]

Yep, a whole day with some serious use out of it and if I don't do much with the phone apart from answer a couple of calls, do some texts, check the odd email and a quick browse of the news a few times (oh and checking the market twice a day) then I can get two days tops out of it.

I last took my G1 off charge this morning (8:30am), it is now 7:12pm and my battery is showing 68%. I have browsed the web 4-5 times, checked the market twice, played about 30 minutes worth of games. Not what I would say is heavy usage, but I know I can leave it unplugged overnight and still be able to use it in the morning.

 

[dkaufman1]

Yep, a whole day with some serious use out of it and if I don't do much with the phone apart from answer a couple of calls, do some texts, check the odd email and a quick browse of the news a few times (oh and checking the market twice a day) then I can get two days tops out of it.

I last took my G1 off charge this morning (8:30am), it is now 7:12pm and my battery is showing 68%. I have browsed the web 4-5 times, checked the market twice, played about 30 minutes worth of games. Not what I would say is heavy usage, but I know I can leave it unplugged overnight and still be able to use it in the morning.

Ageless - can you try either Dojo Cubed or Imeem with a full charge and using 2g, with wifi and gps off. Let us know how long you last.

 

[Ageless Stranger]

Ageless - can you try either Dojo Cubed or Imeem with a full charge and using 2g, with wifi and gps off. Let us know how long you last.

I will give it a shot after I have next done a full charge

Oh and I forgot, I have had bluetooth on and connected since the last charge, so add that into the equation. I only just realised when I tried to make a call and someone was speaking to me from across the room, most confusing at first.

 

[Ageless Stranger]

I was expecting to charge my phone some time today, it has been over 29 hours since I last charged it. This morning I have done about an hours worth of random surfing, checked the market a few times and my battery is showing 33% left.

I am truely impressed

 

[ChilledMatt]

I was expecting to charge my phone some time today, it has been over 29 hours since I last charged it. This morning I have done about an hours worth of random surfing, checked the market a few times and my battery is showing 33% left.

I am truely impressed

That is truly impressive. Mine or my friends will not come close to that. I take it your phone has remained in your wireless hotspot this whole time. Any technically minded folk able to offer any kind of explanation as to why Ageless's battery out-performs everyone elses?

 

[Ageless Stranger]

That is truly impressive. Mine or my friends will not come close to that. I take it your phone has remained in your wireless hotspot this whole time. Any technically minded folk able to offer any kind of explanation as to why Ageless's battery out-performs everyone elses?

I have moved in and out of the wireless hotspot on a number of occasions into the meagre world of 2G. This level of charge seems the norm for my G1 now (unless I use GPS)

 

[furrbrain]

That is truly impressive. Mine or my friends will not come close to that. I take it your phone has remained in your wireless hotspot this whole time. Any technically minded folk able to offer any kind of explanation as to why Ageless's battery out-performs everyone elses?

How many "conditioning cycles" have been done? I get similar performance from mine and did mine 3 times initially and one a week since. I take mine off the charge at 7am and at 9pm it's at 30%. During the workday I keep power manager on "low battery" and use it to surf, read newsfeeds (greed) and texting. At home (from 7pm on) I'm on wifi and I usually leave GPS on. And do more of the same but more constantly.

 

[skeptic82]

After my initial post I've run my battery down to 4% three times, and started using battery manager. I have seen a serious improvement, but its still not as good as other people's seem to be. For me, the key seems to be the low battery setting that furrbrain spoke about.

Yesterday, after charging my phone overnight, I had it on the regular battery power setting all day, and by 9:30pm my battery was at around 20% (it is sad that that is an improvement!) But after switching to the low battery setting automatically, I noticed a big difference. From 9:30 to 11:30, my battery only dropped around 6 or 7%. I think (and this is a guess) that having locations (both network and gps) off did it for me. At least that was the only real difference between my normal settings and the settings that were applied during low battery mode.

 

[dkaufman1]

I know this might seem silly since this thread talks about it in depth, and is likely better edited in the initial post, but what are the steps to take to extend the battery.

1.
2.
3.
4.
etc.

 

[Ageless Stranger]

1. Let the battery die completely
2. Boot up again and use it again until you can not use her any more
3. Charge the battery
4. Leave it plugged in for a further 2 hours
5. Use the phone and dont be tempted with a quick charge
6. Repeat steps 1-5 again at least 3-4 times

After that you will notice an improvement in battery life, it is recommended you repeat steps 1-5 at least once a week.

(added to initial post)

 

[ChilledMatt]

It also helps to run Power Manager on low batt setting, to force 2g when moving between cells and to switch off wi-fi when leaving a hotspot.

 

[dkaufman1]

1. Let the battery die completely
2. Boot up again and use it again until you can not use her any more
3. Charge the battery
4. Leave it plugged in for a further 2 hours
5. Use the phone and dont be tempted with a quick charge
6. Repeat steps 1-5 again at least 3-4 times

After that you will notice an improvement in battery life, it is recommended you repeat steps 1-5 at least once a week.

(added to initial post)

Thank you....Imeem is running, in my normal 2g, wifi off. Should I hurry it up by turning on 3g, gps and wifi? Does that matter when cycling to help just speed it up?