Re: [NTLK] eMate battery problems

A long time ago Christian wrote:

> I've noticed that if you are charging and you set the
> clock the Newt will complain about the battery not being
> able to take a charge. I suspect that it uses the
> current clock time to figure out the charging rate and
> if it is too slow (since you set the clock ahead a few
> years) the battery is NFG.

This can't be confirmed at least for a Newton 2100. I just
soft-resetted one. It started charging with a battery level
of 12%. Then I changed the year from 2006 to 2007, and the
Newton did not complain of a dead battery.

Amazingly, though, it went from "Fast Charge" and 12% to
"Trickle Charge Continuous" and 100% as soon as I changed
the year. Obviously the charge circuitry DOES monitor the
actual date and time.

This, as I may humbly say, is quite
stupid. It should monitor the time that has actually passed
since the charge cycle was started, but NOT by querying the
actual system time. And, of course, since the actual
battery voltage can't possible have changed within the
millisecond it takes to change the date, the battery's
charge state can't possibly have changed from 12 to 100
percent.

As an indication of truly brilliant and thorough operating
system design, the battery gauge is still at 12% although
the text below it says "Charged".

Wow...

This explains a fair amount of weird charging behavior I've
come across that was obviously due to the fact that I quite
often set the clock of a fixed Newton or eMate while it is
charging its battery. Another mystery solved.

I could imagine that the Newton will report the battery to
be dead if the time is changed while it is in "Waiting"
mode, i. e. in the mode in which it tries to establish a
battery condition that it deems safe for charging.

Frank

-- Newton software and hardware at http://www.pda-soft.de

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