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Posts: 39 | Thanked: 0 times | Joined on Aug 2007
#1
After a few months of living with a dying battery in my N800 i've put in a new one. I gave it a good long first charge (no guarantee it was actually the first charge as it was graded, but it's performing better than what I'm replacing no question).

I want to treat this one better. Can anyone clarify these few points for me?

- Consensus seems to be the lower you let these batteries get the more they'll degrade. People suggest topping up at every opportunity. Is there any down side to plugging it in whenever I can?

- Is a generic car charger doing the same/as good a job as the wall charger. Does it make sense that in the past a long car charge hasn't seemed to give as long to the next charge? Can an inferior charger degrade the battery? Is topping up with this better than letting the battery get low?

Thanks in advance,
Tom.
 
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Posts: 5,478 | Thanked: 5,222 times | Joined on Jan 2006 @ St. Petersburg, FL
#2
Originally Posted by onion_cfe View Post
I want to treat this one better. Can anyone clarify these few points for me?
Probably worthwhile reading, perhaps you could add anything you think is relevant after you've learned more in this thread. https://wiki.maemo.org/Batteries

Originally Posted by onion_cfe View Post
- Consensus seems to be the lower you let these batteries get the more they'll degrade. People suggest topping up at every opportunity. Is there any down side to plugging it in whenever I can?
The charging circuitry wont let it get down low enough to damage itself, but keeping it on the charger whenever it's convenient reduces the impact on the battery. The downside is that you'll be spending more time plugging it in.

Originally Posted by onion_cfe View Post
- Is a generic car charger doing the same/as good a job as the wall charger. Does it make sense that in the past a long car charge hasn't seemed to give as long to the next charge?
No, it's not. A Nokia car charger puts out about 370mA, the wall charger puts out 890mA. Neither of them can completely power the tablet when it's under maximum load.

Originally Posted by onion_cfe View Post
Can an inferior charger degrade the battery?
Well, basically, yes, but usually that "yes" is followed shortly after by a smoking tablet. As long as the charger puts out juice at the right voltage, there's really no issue. Undervoltage isn't really an issue either, the tablet will simply refuse to charge and that'll be that ("Not charging" is the banner you'll see). Overvoltage would be the issue to watch out for, as that's what'll kill your tablet.

But more directly to your question, no, if you've got a bad charger, you'll know fairly quickly. You wont really see any slow, long-term damage.

Originally Posted by onion_cfe View Post
Is topping up with this better than letting the battery get low?
Basically, yes. It's nice to always have a full or almost-full battery anyway.
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Karel Jansens's Avatar
Posts: 3,220 | Thanked: 326 times | Joined on Oct 2005 @ "Almost there!" (Monte Christo, Count of)
#3
Originally Posted by onion_cfe View Post
After a few months of living with a dying battery in my N800 i've put in a new one. I gave it a good long first charge (no guarantee it was actually the first charge as it was graded, but it's performing better than what I'm replacing no question).

I want to treat this one better. Can anyone clarify these few points for me?

- Consensus seems to be the lower you let these batteries get the more they'll degrade. People suggest topping up at every opportunity. Is there any down side to plugging it in whenever I can?

- Is a generic car charger doing the same/as good a job as the wall charger. Does it make sense that in the past a long car charge hasn't seemed to give as long to the next charge? Can an inferior charger degrade the battery? Is topping up with this better than letting the battery get low?

Thanks in advance,
Tom.
This is a rather good site if you want to know everything about batteries.
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Posts: 880 | Thanked: 264 times | Joined on Feb 2007 @ Cambridge, UK
#4
a few other points.

heat degrades Lithium batteries - try and keep them cool - charging it whilst in a sleeve can cause an undesirable temp rise

storage - if you're really not going to use your tablet for quite a while (weeks), don't leave it to run flat - take the battery out and keep it in a cool (not in fridge/freezer!) place
 
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Posts: 3,397 | Thanked: 1,212 times | Joined on Jul 2008 @ Netherlands
#5
Don't know which battery you bought but a Mugen battery comes with a nice manual on how to treat it properly.
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