Seidio 2600mAh extended battery

[solorca]

So I got this battery yesterday, and I have a few questions.

I charged it overnight and after about an hour of use this morning, it showed half power. When I restarted the full, the battery bar is now full. Is this something I have to continue doing?

Also, now that some of you have had it for a while, has the battery indicator ever improved, or will it constantly get low and you just have to keep hoping it lasts? I don't want to have a 5% power warning on my phone constantly, even though I have hours of power left.

 

[masterxchief]

So I got this battery yesterday, and I have a few questions.

I charged it overnight and after about an hour of use this morning, it showed half power. When I restarted the full, the battery bar is now full. Is this something I have to continue doing?

Also, now that some of you have had it for a while, has the battery indicator ever improved, or will it constantly get low and you just have to keep hoping it lasts? I don't want to have a 5% power warning on my phone constantly, even though I have hours of power left.

The phone isn't going to show you the proper amount of charge left. You could get the batterylife widget and enable the extended info which will show you a mV reading. Restarting the phone when it hits 5% is the only way to get a better reading of the charge left.

 

[solorca]

So I got this battery yesterday, and I have a few questions.

I charged it overnight and after about an hour of use this morning, it showed half power. When I restarted the full, the battery bar is now full. Is this something I have to continue doing?

Also, now that some of you have had it for a while, has the battery indicator ever improved, or will it constantly get low and you just have to keep hoping it lasts? I don't want to have a 5% power warning on my phone constantly, even though I have hours of power left.

The phone isn't going to show you the proper amount of charge left. You could get the batterylife widget and enable the extended info which will show you a mV reading. Restarting the phone when it hits 5% is the only way to get a better reading of the charge left.

Wow, that's kind of annoying. Do you have to do it multiple times, or just the one time? The batterylife widget is a different issue, as I can no longer seem to use it (I uninstalled after getting the new battery, and now I can't seem to reinstall it)

 

[masterxchief]

@solarca I have to restart multiple times. I wait until the battery gets low enough for the red light to flash and restart.

 

[solorca]

@solarca I have to restart multiple times. I wait until the battery gets low enough for the red light to flash and restart.

Do you have any tips on how to tell how much life is actually left? Or do you just keep restarting and hoping you'll get more power?

 

[masterxchief]

@solarca Sadly restarts are the only way of getting a better idea of how much power you have left. I wish there was a gauge on the battery showing charge.

 

[windstrings]

So I got this battery yesterday, and I have a few questions.

I charged it overnight and after about an hour of use this morning, it showed half power. When I restarted the full, the battery bar is now full. Is this something I have to continue doing?

Also, now that some of you have had it for a while, has the battery indicator ever improved, or will it constantly get low and you just have to keep hoping it lasts? I don't want to have a 5% power warning on my phone constantly, even though I have hours of power left.

LOL!...that happens!.....

The only times I feel like there is no disparity between that the battery level shows verses rebooting is when I don't use the display much... basically don't use the phone except for occasional phone calls... no browsing or anything that forces the display to stay on and it seems to be pretty accurate then.

Maybe the firmware issue is tied to the display.

 

[windstrings]

Wow, that's kind of annoying. Do you have to do it multiple times, or just the one time? The batterylife widget is a different issue, as I can no longer seem to use it (I uninstalled after getting the new battery, and now I can't seem to reinstall it)

usually one reboot keep is accurate.. but if you charge it.... all bets are off is what I've found....seems the routine starts over after charging all night....

Not sure a brief charge triggers the disparity or not.

 

[solorca]

Wow, that's kind of annoying. Do you have to do it multiple times, or just the one time? The batterylife widget is a different issue, as I can no longer seem to use it (I uninstalled after getting the new battery, and now I can't seem to reinstall it)

usually one reboot keep is accurate.. but if you charge it.... all bets are off is what I've found....seems the routine starts over after charging all night....

Not sure a brief charge triggers the disparity or not.

It's really too bad that it's so useless when it comes to accuracy. I love the extra power, but I don't know if I can trust a battery that when I can't keep track of how much power it really has left.

I took it off of the the charger at 9 this morning, and it's 9 pm now. In that time, I've reached 5% three times and rebooted each time. Hopefully this will get better after a few days, but rebooting the phone 3 times in 12 hours (and I'm currently showing at about 30% again) is ridiculous.

Please tell me it gets better.

 

[windstrings]

Unless a Dev does it.... there has been discussion suggesting Motorola has no motivation for adjusting their firmware to work with non-oem batteries that they don't make any money one.

And I don't know if its worth the trouble for Seidio to try and get someone to make an app to accurately monitor.
It would be cool if the battery could have a smart chip to give accurate signals for the droid... but I"m not holding my breath.... using an app called batterylife and learning what the mv is may be the best way to determine reserve.... but I haven't tested whether that is reliable either.

Has anyone noticed if the mv reading changes much with a reboot?.. if not, that may be a good gauge.... just a matter of learning what mv reading means 50% etc.

I never pull mine down near that far anyway unless I"m really trying. A reboot now and then is a good thing anyway... but it shouldn't be 3 times a day... Once I can live with.

What funny is I just had it work backwards... I was showing 90% at 4086mv... I rebooted and now I"m at 80% at 4052mv!... go figure! rebooted again "third time" and now its still 80% but now 4043mv

 

[solorca]

I never pull mine down near that far anyway unless I"m really trying. A reboot now and then is a good thing anyway... but it shouldn't be 3 times a day... Once I can live with.

Yeah, that is my concern with the battery. I don't mind a reboot once a day or so...but I do mind having to do it 3-4 times a day just to avoid the phone showing that it's dying on me because it can't read the battery. I am trying to do a full drain of the battery now, and after about 26 hours off the charger with average use, I just had to do ANOTHER reboot and I'm back up to 70% charge. It's nice to have a battery that lasts this long, but the reboots are ridiculous. Even worse, is that it will drop from 100 to 10 percent in about an hour of heavy usage, which is much faster than the battery it came with. Yes, the reboot will "recharge" the signal...but it's still crazy.

Not to mention, I worry if so many reboots in a day is good for the phone.

 

[cuskit]

Okay - this all has me slightly confused. Are we saying that the readings are false, and despite what the indication is there is more battery power left? And a reboot actually rejuvenates the battery and brings up the power? Or it just gives a more accurate reading of the true power left in the battery? I've yet to reach a red flashing light (I'm assuming this is the "low gas" indicator of a battery almost dead)? I've only rebooted a 1/2 dozen times since buying the phone in November - battery lasts all day with moderate to heavy use and I've never seen less than maybe a 1/4 charge indicated. I usually charge for an hour each evening. mike

 

[solorca]

Okay - this all has me slightly confused. Are we saying that the readings are false, and despite what the indication is there is more battery power left? And a reboot actually rejuvenates the battery and brings up the power? Or it just gives a more accurate reading of the true power left in the battery? I've yet to reach a red flashing light (I'm assuming this is the "low gas" indicator of a battery almost dead)? I've only rebooted a 1/2 dozen times since buying the phone in November - battery lasts all day with moderate to heavy use and I've never seen less than maybe a 1/4 charge indicated. I usually charge for an hour each evening. mike

The battery is fully charged, but the Droid's battery indicator cannot accurately read the larger battery. It's fantastic for the extra power, but the annoyance factor of constantly rebooting the phone is enough to most likely cause me to return it.

I didn't find this forum until too late, so unfortunately I purchased the battery before I knew about these issues. No one for Seidio bothered to mention this limitation of their product on their website, which is pretty close to false advertising in my mind.

 

[masterxchief]

@solarca You could still return the battery to Seidio

 

[solorca]

@solarca You could still return the battery to Seidio

I plan to, but they charge a restocking fee. I guess neglecting to give important information about your product still enables you to make a profit. It's just so sad that this is the only option. There has to be a way to make a battery that will read accurately.