ICS Battery life

[bellringa]

Much better today. Thanks to this forum! I put in a brand new memory card. Now i just got to figure out what fille was causing the drain

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[CerroTorre]

Ok this looks like the final update; problem solved. You guys are gonna love this one...

My root problem was that my phone battery went down overnight despite being plugged in (and powered on) at the bedside. I noticed that when I plugged it in at the office using the wall charger that came with the RazrMaxx, it charged up fast. When I plugged it in at home, the charging symbol appeared but it seemed to take forever to increase in battery %. So I took a look at the bedside charger.

Turns out it was an OEM LG travel charger that I used with my old LG phone back before I even got the Droid 2. It has a Micro USB tip, and always worked with both the Droid 2 and the RazrMaxx (BEFORE ICS!). The day I updated the RazrMaxx to ICS is the day this charger quit working.

So I posit that ICS has modified the phone's charging subsystem software to be a little more picky about something: charging voltage range, current flow, something. 'Cuz now that I'm using the current Moto OEM charging cube & cord, my phone charges super fast and I get a couple days or more out of it.

 

[FoxKat]

Ok this looks like the final update; problem solved. You guys are gonna love this one...

My root problem was that my phone battery went down overnight despite being plugged in (and powered on) at the bedside. I noticed that when I plugged it in at the office using the wall charger that came with the RazrMaxx, it charged up fast. When I plugged it in at home, the charging symbol appeared but it seemed to take forever to increase in battery %. So I took a look at the bedside charger.

Turns out it was an OEM LG travel charger that I used with my old LG phone back before I even got the Droid 2. It has a Micro USB tip, and always worked with both the Droid 2 and the RazrMaxx (BEFORE ICS!). The day I updated the RazrMaxx to ICS is the day this charger quit working.

So I posit that ICS has modified the phone's charging subsystem software to be a little more picky about something: charging voltage range, current flow, something. 'Cuz now that I'm using the current Moto OEM charging cube & cord, my phone charges super fast and I get a couple days or more out of it.

Hmmm, and more evidence that using the STOCK charger is ALWAYS best!

 

[FoxKat]

FoxKat, if you wouldn't mind, could you explain what the battery training is actually doing? How does it work?

Just curious.

It's rather complicated and I've explained it in great detail in other threads. I will find them and link them here later today, but for now...

The meter is not accurate like the tank level gauge on your car or the oil tank that heats your home, mainly because those tanks will hold the same amount of fuel the day they are installed as they will even years (or decades) later. The battery in your phone is another story. It will never hold as much charge as it did the day it rolled off the assembly line, and in fact will hold less and less as time and number of charges go on.

Also,

• how you fast charge and discharge (faster is worse),
• how high you charge (higher is worse),
• and how low you discharge (lower is worse),
• as well as the temperature of the battery (hotter is worse),
• and length of charge and discharge in percentage (more is worse),

...all can speed up this "aging" of the battery.

So "Meter Training" works since the battery is more like a shrinking tank, and the gauge or "Meter" needs to be re-calibrated to the "100% Charged" and "Discharged" levels, so it can then give accurate approximations of the charge level between the two high and low thresholds.

By charging to 100% with power off (so the phone doesn't use power and confuse the charger and meter), you set a 100% Charged, or "FULL" flag. Then by discharging to the "Low battery" indicator on the phone to 10% (ICS), or 15% (Gingerbread), you set the "LOW" or "EMPTY" flag.

I said before, imagine a glass that is filled to the rim with water, that glass is 100% full, right? Well, imagine that glass started out as a 16oz glass, but later it shrunk to hold only 12oz. Now, if you fill the same glass but at its new, smaller size, isn't it still 100% full? But how can that be, since it was 16oz and is now 12oz? Well, 100% of anything is 100%, so no matter how large or small the glass is, if it's full to the rim, it's 100% full. It may not hold as much liquid (charge capacity - i.e. 16oz versus 12oz), but when it's full, that's all it will hold (100% of capacity).

SO percentage is a measurement that is related to the minimum and maximum, whatever it is you are measuring. 100% of a tanker truck can be 5,000 gallons, 100% of your car's gas tank is perhaps 25 gallons, and 100% of the gas can in my driveway is 1 gallon. In all cases, if they are full, they are 100% full, yet the tanker is 200 times larger than your car's tank and 5,000 times larger than the gas can in my driveway, so the tanker will last you 200 tankfulls in your car, and run my riding mower for several decades...if it lasted that long.

Another way is to imagine it's like a line on a yardstick as a measurement of full. Let's say for this argument a 36" yardstick is 100% of your battery's capacity, so when it's fully charged, your battery's "liquid" level of charge capacity is equal to the top of the yardstick, so you strike a line at the 36" mark. Then when you discharge, let's say 3.6" for ICS is "empty" or 10%, so when your battery's "liquid" level reaches 10%, you set another line at the low point on the same yardstick of 3.6". Now the METER treats the "RANGE" of from 36" to 3.6" as 100% to 10%. So now it would "figure" that every 3.6" = 10%, so at 7.2" = 20%, 10.8" = 30%, and so on, all the way up to 32.4" = 90%, and 36" = 100%.

What is different with batteries versus your gas tank for instance is that when you come back in a year, you'll find the battery is shorter, and "FULL" (100%) may only measure 30" on that same yardstick, so in that example, "empty" (10%) would be 3", and each 3" would represent another 10%, so 6" = 20%, 9" =30%, etc. SO the CAPACITY has been reduced, but you can still charge to 100% of CAPACITY. Since the capacity can change, the only way the meter can accurately know how much remaining charge is available is for it to know how much it can hold and what it looks like when nearly empty.

This is the short explanation (he says, tongue in cheek)! :biggrin:

 

[CaptainSS]

Hi my Name is CaptainSS and I am a CellDeviceBatteryChargeraHolic...... ("Hi CaptainSS")


Since I started reading FoxKats teachings I have started to train ALL meters, I have trained all my cars and Flashlights Too....

I finally LOVE my phone (Her name is Maxx) I know, wierd name for a girl but I'm a guy so.....

Great Device and Battery performance, Thanks FoxMan!!

 

[FoxKat]

11 hours, 30% used (70% remaining)...not too shabby. 1 hour, 8 minutes on phone calls, screen on only 37 minutes. By the way, NO battery saver tools, Bluetooth on 24/7, WIFI on most of the time but switches on and off with Verizon WIFI Auto-on, screen brightness set to AUTO, 4G LTE on 24/7, Facebook and Picasa sync apps with Gallery widget on screen, Battery Monitor Widget by FSINIB running 24/7 (that's the graphs and data below), 3D Flip Clock and World Weather Widget on home screen, one Corporate email account syncing every hour, Gmail on push, and my newest addition...EVA Intern - Virtual Assistant. She is keeping me informed and entertained.

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[DROIDX2TN]

Since the Maxx's battery cannot be replaced it's the real downside of the phone then?

 

[CaptainSS]

Since the Maxx's battery cannot be replaced it's the real downside of the phone then?

Battery removal is not an issue on a phone that can easily go 40-44 hours on a charge.

I certainly think the battery will last and deliver an acceptable Lifespan relative to the phone and the pace of technology as well.

 

[FoxKat]

Battery removal is not an issue on a phone that can easily go 40-44 hours on a charge.

I certainly think the battery will last and deliver an acceptable Lifespan relative to the phone and the pace of technology as well.

An excellent post. Details good point regarding technology and how fast it's moving. I had D2 just a bit more than a half year ago, and I could easily see myself replacing the MAXX I have now with the next generation phone inside the coming year or sooner. This is what I said in another thread that got rather heated because I was being accused of not practicing what I preach.

Fact is I pitch proper battery care and methods to prolong their life, the later by limiting charge cycles to multiple shorter charges throughout the day rather than one long charge each day. But I don't do the short charges, instead opting for long cycles which are known to shorten battery life. I justify this because I know the battery will last as long as I need it to. I will surely replace the phone before the battery no longer supplies a days with of power.


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[Caesars]

If you really wanted to keep the phone long enough to where the battery goes bad, I'd watch the videos on replacing the batteries hehe.

When Apple goes to bed at night, it checks under the bed for the Samsung monster.

 

[Squeak87]

When I first updated to ICS I thought my battery life was a bit worse than it had been on GB. After a FDR and about a week of letting it settle into the new OS, I believe my battery life has increased a bit. Not a huge difference but still lasts longer than it did on GB.

<--{Droid Razr Maxx °Celcius}-->

 

[CaptainSS]

An excellent post. Details good point regarding technology and how fast it's moving. I had D2 just a bit more than a half year ago, and I could easily see myself replacing the MAXX I have now with the next generation phone inside the coming year or sooner. This is what I said in another thread that got rather heated because I was being accused of not practicing what I preach.

Fact is I pitch proper battery care and methods to prolong their life, the later by limiting charge cycles to multiple shorter charges throughout the day rather than one long charge each day. But I don't do the short charges, instead opting for long cycles which are known to shorten battery life. I justify this because I know the battery will last as long as I need it to. I will surely replace the phone before the battery no longer supplies a days with of power.


Sent from my DROID RAZR using Tapatalk 2

No doubt, I did not read the thread BUT as the old saw goes, "No good deed goes unpunished" being a prolific contributor to the forum it's ashame how some will seize on your words and attempt to discredit offerings in an attempt to twist meanings and somehow "prove" inconsistency.
I say, "Whatever" Hatas gonna hate.
Thank you for ALL you do Fox, you certainly give more than you get.

 

[btf_firefighter]

Well I got home 2 hours ago and had 80% battery life with very little use. Only 30 minutes of screen time. These screen shots are from being home for two hours. I just 20% already

 

[Rento]

I did a Meter training on my Maxx, was getting horrible battery life after the ICS update.

Ran the Meter training and got worse battery life, massive lag too. Started to scream bloody murder.

When it got to 5% after only 8 hours, I plugged it back in and charged it with the phone on.

I unplugged it and went to bed.

Woke up, checked the time. Noticed my battery was still at 100% after 6 hours.

After a 30 minute phone call and 12 hours later, it's now at 90%.

Do a meter check. Do it. Now.

 

[CaptainSS]

I would contend that the guidance provided by FoxKat is MORE critical Now than ever. Why?

Because with data plans changing Many are going to try and make their Razrs/Maxxs last longer than ever.

I know I am. I like this phone. I like my plan w/Verizon. Will try and keep the battery going long as possible.