Find out how good/bad your battery is

[somline]

Outdated info. You may want to try my script from this post to recalibrate your battery.
Here are my results:
The battery charged until the LearnFlag switched off and the Charge-Termination Flag switched on. One complete learn circle.
Now I have a getage of 50 and getcapacity of 591.
Before I had getage 49.2188 and getcapacity of 582.5.
Almost the same as I had before = my battery is at its end.

What I did:
CAUTION:
This can serious harm your battery and/or the pre.
It may even burn!

Set the age to 100%
(Byte 0x14 value of 0x80)
echo 0x1480 > setreg
cat getage
100.00000

Edit powerd.conf to not charge the battery:
vi /var/preferences/com.palm.power/powerd.conf
change: disable_charging = false to true
reboot
change back: disable_charging = true (will have no effect until powerd restarts)

disconnect power

let battery discharge until LearnFlag gets set (see previous post)
(You don't have much time now until shutdown)

connect wallcharger (it will not charge the battery now)

kill powerd:
kill -9 <pid>
powerd will restart automaticly (respawn) and using disable_charging=false (starting charging).

Now the battery gets charged with still LearnFlag=1

Wait until LearnFlag is cleared and Charge-Termination Flag is set.

Done.

(The reason I did it this way is: When the LearnFlag was set and I connected the WallCharger the Flag was immediately cleared. It's read only)

Next I try to find out what values are needed to set getfull40 to 1350.

[somline]

To set getfull40 to 1350mAh:

cd /sys/devices/w1*/32-*
echo 0x6a10 > setreg
echo 0x6be0 > setreg
reboot

Do it on your own risk. I tried it and it works. But I don't have a battery with 1350 mAh :-(

EDIT: Formula used:
full40 = ((((u32)data->full40 ) * 25000L) >> 2) / 20 ;

[jbg7474]

Wow, awesome stuff here. Now the question is whether the 1150 capacity Seidios are really 1150 or more like 1350. I wonder if such a battery would "learn" an age greater than 100% if the full40 stayed at 1150.

[somline]

Originally Posted by jbg7474

Wow, awesome stuff here. Now the question is whether the 1150 capacity Seidios are really 1150 or more like 1350. I wonder if such a battery would "learn" an age greater than 100% if the full40 stayed at 1150.

I'm afraid we will never know. I accidentally set getage > 100%. So its possible.
If I had a 1350 I would try it to set full40. Its easy to revert. And (I think :-) the chip will take care about overcharge.
(EDIT: I know the chip will take care. Successfully tested)

Revert to 1183,125 (This was my setting with stock palm battery):
cd /sys/devices/w1*/32-*/
echo 0x6a0e > setreg
echo 0x6bca > setreg
reboot

[somline]

Originally Posted by davsalinas

In my two drain and recharge attempts to recalibrate, I was concerned that the Pre would power itself on once it got to some minimal level of battery power. I was hoping it would stay off, so that the battery could get it's full charge as cleanly and quickly as possible, but for both the Touchstone and the USB charge, the Pre powered itself on very early in the charging cycle. I wonder if this behavior has something to do with the learnflag being cleared.

I had the same idea. You can charge with pre powered off by pressing the power button when the pre is charging and shutdown for battery exchange.
Then the pre shuts down still loading. I tried it without success.

[davsalinas]

This is some really excellent work somline! I entered the two echo commands directed to setreg, and immediately rebooted afterwards. You are correct, this did force the getfull40 to now report 1350. Not sure if I just created a fire hazard or not ... I guess we'll see. I'll charge as usual on touchstone tonight and hope I don't burn the house down. Not sure when I'll have a chance to follow your directions to force the learning mode again, but will try to get to that in the next couple of days. Thanks again for the good research and info!

[somline]

Thanks for getting up the nerve to try it and don't worry it will not burn :-)

I did some more testing. If you don't let the battery learn it will stop charging when the max Voltage (VCHG > 4191mV) is reached. If your battery can't hold 1350mAh then you will see entries in the /var/log/messages like:

powerd: {powerd}: w1_battery: Bogus battery level 100% 
powerd: {powerd}: w1_battery: Bogus battery level 100% 
powerd: {powerd}: w1_battery: Bogus battery level 100%

And a jump in battery level:

{powerd}: BATTERY_IPC: (531.200012mAh, 46%, 48%_ui, 31C, 68mA, 4187mV, authentic)
{powerd}: BATTERY_IPC: (544.000000mAh, 47%, 49%_ui, 31C, 53mA, 4191mV, authentic) 
{powerd}: BATTERY_IPC: (550.200012mAh, 100%, 100%_ui, 31C, 53mA, 4191mV, authentic)

The registers of the battery will not change (except getpercent).
getfull40 and getage will stay unaltered. EDIT: and getcapacity will lie.

If you get the battery to learn, then getage will be recalculated when finished. Getfull will stay on 1350 but your age could drop. EDIT: and getcapacity will tell the truth.

EDIT: One more thing. Since getfull40 is not written by the palm but the manufacture of the battery I don't think these batteries can hold 1350mAh :-(
Can't wait to see your results.

[vsuballer]

this was actually pretty helpful. I guess i need a new battery.

[98GSR]

Someone else may have already said this, but I switched from a year-old Palm stock battery to Mugen 1350. All I really did was follow the Mugen instructions of charging fully for 12 hours on the first charge, then discharging it to about 10% for 5 full cycles. After I did that, the Pre reported 100% life and 1400-ish for getfull40. Seems to me that the Sedio battery has problems (at least in communicating with the Pre).

[themirthfulswami]

My Seidio 1350mah battery was showing 1150 with getfull40 as many others have said. I tried the echo commands and rebooted, getfull40 now shows 1350.000, getage shows 90.62500 (same as it showed before I changed the settings), and getcapacity shows 1223.437.

I've had the battery since it was first released by Seidio so I suppose ~91% capacity isn't too horrible.

[Kewl 700p]

Hmm, ok, I popped in my 2nd Seidio 1350 battery...used Internalz and found my getfull40 is 1363.125, getage is 100. This is my newer Seidio battery. I am not sure why both my Seidio battery shows getfull40 at 1363 and some of you have getfull40 with 1150. I do swap batteries and the Seidio sometimes get charged on the Palm OEM battery charger...I wonder if that makes a difference vs charging it on my Pre all the time using the Touchstone.

[agiudici]

can a patch be created to set to correct battery capacity? I have the seido 1350 that registers only 1150. Will next update correctly read battery power capabilities?

[somline]

Originally Posted by themirthfulswami

My Seidio 1350mah battery was showing 1150 with getfull40 as many others have said. I tried the echo commands and rebooted, getfull40 now shows 1350.000, getage shows 90.62500 (same as it showed before I changed the settings), and getcapacity shows 1223.437.

I've had the battery since it was first released by Seidio so I suppose ~91% capacity isn't too horrible.

91% of what? Don't expect you now have 1350mAh. Please read post #127 again.

Originally Posted by agiudici

can a patch be created to set to correct battery capacity? I have the seido 1350 that registers only 1150. Will next update correctly read battery power capabilities?

A patch could be done. But thats not enough. An (webOS) update will not help. This value is stored in the battery. Ask seido to correct this issue.

You need to bring the battery/chip into learning mode to recalibrate.

After my 3'd learning cycle I increased the capacity from 582.5mAh (49.2188%) to 755.255mAh (64.06250%).
Still bad but interesting.

[themirthfulswami]

getage gives you the percentage of the capacity your battery can hold now.

91% of what?

Exactly. My getage shows 90.625 regardless of my getfull40 being 1150 or 1350. So 91% of whatever the mysterious actual capacity of my battery is.

Don't expect you now have 1350mAh. Please read post #127 again.

I read post 127 and I don't have any of those battery error messages in my log. I've checked using Internalz several times over the last couple days. I'm not expecting miracles here, I'm just reporting numbers like other people have.

As for battery performance, the only thing I've noticed is the overall drain pattern seems smoother. Previously it would drop in 1-2% increments (99%->97%->96%->94%, etc) during steady usage, now it's always a 1% change. No abnormal heat, no strange behavior. Battery life doesn't seem any better or worse.

You wanted people to try these settings and report numbers, I'm doing that, no need to get snarky.

[somline]

Originally Posted by themirthfulswami

You wanted people to try these settings and report numbers, I'm doing that, no need to get snarky.

Sorry that was not my intention. Properly my poor english.
Thanks for the info. I just wanted to point out, that without calibrating the chip inside the battery, changing FULL40 will (I think) not do anything.

EDIT: So when you don't get the "Bogus battery level" message shortly before the battery reached 100% is a good sign. Maybe I'm wrong. Don't know now.

I try do find an easier way to calibrate the battery. I also asked Seidio for their explanation.

[somline]

The Answer from Seidio. Unfortunately no technical explanation. So we don't know this batteries has 1350 mAh or not. But you may exchange it for free:

Hello <somline>,

Thank you for contacting Seidioonline Technical Support. I’m sorry to hear about the troubles that you’re having with your Innocell Extended Battery. We sincerely apologize for any inconvenience with our products. All of our products are warranted for 180 days from the date of purchase. We will be happy to replace your item for you. If you’re within that period, there are a couple of options depending on where the item was purchased.

If your product was purchased through our online store, you may fill out an RMA request here, (RMA REQUEST FORM),

If it was purchased through an outside vendor, you may fill out an WSRMA request form for authorized reseller here (seidioonline.com) and they'll get you taken care of.

Please allow the RMA Department will get back to you within 1-2 business days. In the meantime, if there’s anything else you need, you can contact the RMA Department at rma@seidioonline.com.

Your business and continued satisfaction is of great importance to us here at Seidioonline Customer Service, so feel free to contact us at (832) 204-1118 with any questions or concerns.

Thank you,
Seidio Technical Support

[jbg7474]

somline: not sure if you've investigated this, but I think you mentioned something about the battery chip needing to be "authorized" or "signed" or something like that. And the Pre will default back to 1150 if it doesn't get a reading. Is it possible that the problem with some of the Seidio's is authorization?

Just a thought.

[somline]

Thanks again for helping investigate.
Yes there is some secure communication between the pre and the battery(chip) documented in the manual.
Could be a authorization problem.
Since I don't own a Seidio I don't will go deeper into this. Maybe davsalinas is getting some news.

Wish I could find an easier method to recalibrate the battery.

[noco37]

Just gotta say, this has been an excellent thread!

[Xanadu73]

Hey!

There's some issues being brought up int the UberKernel thread (and else where) about Pre's power going from 20% remaining and then going straight to 0% and shutting off. Mine is one of them. I have three batteries. I have my 1350mAh in right now (but all of them do this).

• getage: 99.21875
• getavgcurrent: -199843
• getcapacity: 2.208
• getcoulomb: 173671
• getcurrent: 921.600
• getfull40: 1363.125
• getpercent: 70
• getrawculomb: 959.062
• getrsense: 20
• gettemp: 33
• getvoltage: 3889360

This 1350 is just about perfect from what I'm gathering from all the info from reading this thread. I don't know what my Palm Stock or my big 2800mAh says yet.

Point is, is there somewhere in webOS that would (POORLY!) store/estimate battery life and make the % display meter go from ~20% --> 0% --> shutoff in about 2 seconds?

What about the battery itself? I don't see anything here that would indicate it, but, y'all seem to know much more about his than I!


M.