Dr. Battery

[somline]

Dr. Battery: analyze and recalibrate your battery

This is the support thread for Dr. Battery
Support (in german) in deutsch gibt es auch hier.
Support on twitter @matsomline

This app is the answer to the thread Find out how good/bad your battery is.
You can get more "technical background" information in the above thread.

Version 0.1.5 now available in "webos internals" feed (webOS 1.4.x, 2.x and 3.x)
Now including the A6 Interface (Veer, Pre3, TouchPad) reading only. No calibrate support.

Features:

• Get the true capacity your battery can hold.
• Recalibrate your battery.
  • Get reliable info about remaining runtime
  • Repair your 20% drop 0% problem
  • Try to squeeze out more of your battery

Availability:

In the "WebOS Internals" feed
It'll never be available in the official palm app catalog since it needs direct access to the battery driver interface using own service.

How it works:

The recalibration is done by the battery itself (programmed into the chip)
The app just enables the calibration mode and monitors the process

How to use:

Please use the infobutton on each scene for help
Please use the wall charger only. There are problems with using USB to charge.
To start the calibration, best to start with a battery at e.g.10-20%. Then disconnect the charger/tuchstone let it go down to 0%. The app (hopefully) will tell you to connect the charger (10-30 seconds) before shutdown. Be patient.
The device needs to not shut down now and you should see "calibrating, don't disconnect charger"
If calibrations fails immediately after connecting the charger please take out the battery for a few seconds and try again.
If the pre shuts down before you could connect the charger please change the Voltage for the calibration start in the app menu.
If calibration fails at > (Your actual Health) please set the health to 100% as if it's a new battery and recalibrate again. The setting can be changed in the app menu of the recalibration scene
If this doesn't help put the phone in airplane mode and don't use it while calibrating.

Change Log:

Version 0.1.5

• Global
  • Cosmetic changes for Pre3 and TouchPad

Version 0.1.4

• Global
  • Added reading support for the A6 interface

Version 0.1.3

• Actual Scene
  • Temperature in Celsius and Fahrenheit
• Calibrate Scene
  • Temperature in Celsius and Fahrenheit
  • Robustify calibration
• Service
  • Fixed webOS 2.x bug

Version 0.1.2

• Health Scene
  • Tap and hold to change the health value
  • Tap and hold to change the Manufacturer Rating (needs secret code to enable)
• Calibrate Scene
  • Changing the calibration start voltage possible in appmenu
  • Fixed bug alert "connect charger now" doesn't disappear
• Service
  • Rewritten in C and bundled with the app
  • All battery values read from the registers instead of driver files
  • Bug in SetManufacturer Rating fixed

License:

GPL v2 Open Source

Credits:

Thanks to jbg7474 and jc-Treo for the Veer diagnose

Thanks to all involved finding and testing the battery secrets
Especially

jp99 for translating german english into us english
NuttyBunny for risking a dead battery (hopefully your battery gets better)
All reviewing the first version
All participating in my thread

Battery images by courtesy of Stylo (l.s.stylo at gmail com)
Thanks to Rod Whitby and the WebOS Internals team for their support

Disclaimer:

App is still in development. Use at your own risk.
This is my first webOS app, so please be gracious about bugs.

ToDo List for next versions (unsorted):

Clean up the ugly code ;-)
Database to monitor the health over time for each battery
Use a preference scene for switching between celsius and fahrenheit
Make it international (multi-language)
Find the one bugs reported in /var/log/messages
Details scene with all the info from dumpreg in readable form
.....

Screenshots:

[mamouton]

This looks very interesting. Will it have some of the functions of battery monitor as well? Will it be able to run in the background? WHere is it located?

[millworkman]

very interested in trying this out.

[Workerb33]

now we need an app that automatically complains to Siedio and demands a replacement! Ha!

seriously, thanks for creating this app. Homebrew Devs in here are awesome!

[pchrist]

Can't wait till this is available!!!

[somline]

Originally Posted by mamouton

This looks very interesting. Will it have some of the functions of battery monitor as well? Will it be able to run in the background? WHere is it located?

Monitoring battery consumption was not the goal of building this app, would be possible but isn't planed.
"BatteryMonitor" from neville is measuring the battery consumption over time. This app is measuring/refreshing the quality of the battery.
Since this is no monitor it doesn't run sceneless (needs an open window).

Sorry I like to be sarcastic and can't stop myself (I probably misunderstood your question):
Assuming you didn't have overlooked the red bold text: At the moment this app is located in Berlin (West) in an area formerly known as "American Sector" near the "Flughafen Tempelhof".

[Spader]

This looks really good, I am looking forward using it.

[RanGT]

Wow! Those screenshots of UI look awesome! Nice work!

[mjkjr]

Wow, I can't wait to try this app out. My battery is suffering greatly from the "20% dropping to 0%" problem. I remember when 20% battery used to actually last. Now when it says 20% remaining it means "get to the charger ASAP or you're phone will shut down very soon."

[Kablin]

WOW!!!!!!
I needed now!

[k91191]

Originally Posted by somline

Sorry I like to be sarcastic and can't stop myself (I probably misunderstood your question):
Assuming you didn't have overlooked the red bold text: At the moment this app is located in Berlin (West) in an area formerly known as "American Sector" near the "Flughafen Tempelhof".

Hilarious! Also, the app looks fantastic.

[jjeffcoat]

Looking forward to this app, looks very useful.

Jim

[swieder]

I will install this when it's available.

[sledge007]

Looks like a cool app. Just to clarify, when you do the battery calibration, (based on the screenshots above), a fresh battery is at 1150mHa and you could bring your battery back from 863mHa back to 1150? If that isn't what it does, what does the calibration do exactly?

[Gaurav]

Seems like a very powerful and interesting utility! Can't wait to try it out!

[Trekker]

Great job somline....I think you should accept donations. You've put a lot of time and effort into this whole battery issue and it's very much appreciated!

On question...I may have overlooked this...is there an explanation of the different battery status registers?

[NuttyBunny]

For those interested, calibration means making the battery learn when it has 0% and when it's fully charged (100%), it will not restore the charging capacity

The app is coming alone really fine, I've tested it, and it's great!

If you want to know more about the calibration process (which is done almost automatically by the battery on certain conditions that the app helps to met), you can check the original post.

Thanks somline for the research and the app!

[mksand28]

cant wait for this i have been having issues where my battery stops at either 67% or 71% while charging and wont go beyond but once i reset my device it reads fully charged

[NuttyBunny]

Originally Posted by Trekker

On question...I may have overlooked this...is there an explanation of the different battery status registers?

There are some explanations here and there on the original thread, or you could look at the manual that explains the battery that's embedded on the batteries (also on the thread).

[NuttyBunny]

Originally Posted by mksand28

cant wait for this i have been having issues where my battery stops at either 67% or 71% while charging and wont go beyond but once i reset my device it reads fully charged

You could do a calibration using the process documented here, or wait for the app. I'd really suggest you just wait, as going to command line can be a bit scary for some people