Re: [NTLK] eMate batteries deplete very quickly

On 7/25/2006 10:49 AM, Mr Jonathan Dueck wrote:
> Thanks so much for your reply, Frank.
>
>> What exactly do you mean by "sometimes"? As in "they
>> always discharge quickly, sometimes even as fast
>> as..." or "sometimes they work as expected,
> sometimes they
>> don't"?
>
> "Sometimes they work as expected, sometimes they
> don't."
>
> I use a Lucent Orinoco Wavelan card to get my email
> every morning. I plug the eMate into the (original
> Newton eMate) charger, and pop out the 6mb Intel flash
> memory card I use at other times, pop in the Wavelan
> and get my mail, leaving the machine plugged in during
> that time, maybe half an hour. I unplug the eMate and
> the machine inevitably reads 100%.
>
> Then over the rest of the day the battery life
> dwindles down to close to zero, with flash card
> inserted and frequent backlight use.
>
> The most intensive battery testing I've done with the
> pack I made,was on a long car trip where I charged the
> Newton every time we stopped, about every three hours.
> Use was continuous unless I was charging the machine,
> and the backlight was on constantly and the flash card
> inserted the whole time.
>
> I'd like to do a better test, though, and would
> appreciate being able to try your package (that
> discharges the batteries) if you'd be willing to send
> it to me off-list (ghadiusghadius -at- yahoo dot com).
>

I would suggest getting Nick's Battmon. That will give you more
information as to battery condition. It should be on UNNA.

It shouldn't be discharging that quick defiantly. However one thing to
keep in mind, a FLASH card does not draw power unless being read or
written to. And depending on the card, they often take more power to
write than to write. Wireless cards draw a LOT of juice and will kill
any battery quite quickly. But you only use that when plugged in, so it
can't be that.

>> This is normal, but it won't get that much extension
>> of battery life, because usually the eMate will stop
>> charging
>> pretty soon.
>
> Aha, thanks.
>
>> 9 Watt model.
>
> 'Tis. I haven't got the right multimeter leads to get
> in the end of the AC adapter cable... Have to get
> those. But the Avi's Backdrop battery monitor reads
> the AC current as "6.6x" (where x varies from 0-8).
>

That is a good monitor, but I still prefer Nick's.

>> Do a full backup and then proceed with the reset
> sequence I
>> describe at the top of this page
>
> I've followed it to the letter. (And I perform monthly
> brainwipe+restore cycles in any case).

Monthly? I think that is a over doing it a bit. I haven't done mine in
a year or two. Some even longer than that. I did redo a card recently
because I had problems with restoring just one soup. I reformatted the
card and restored everything and it went fine. So yes sometimes it is
necessary, but I don't think you need to do it monthly. Backups
definitely, and preferably more than that.

-Dan

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