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-- Visor Battery life.... (poll) (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/showthread.php?threadid=824)

Just curious how long people have had their Visor last with the supplied batteries. I got my Deluxe on Mon. and already I only have 40% battery life remaining (I eventually set SOUNDS off and BEAMING off). Seems like I will be spending quite a bit on batteries...

What alternatives do you guys find work best?

Thanks,
Peter

My batteries have been lasting 4-weeks. I got my Visor in October and the "4-week" battery life has been pretty consistent.

I've been getting about 9-12 days out of a pair of Duracell batteries.
I've been using Voltage control hack and ocasionally clocking my visor down when I'm low on batteries.
I've been using my Visor more often than I think I should have been, reading books with the backlight on etc...
So I'm pretty happy, I've had it for about 2 months or so. (probably less)

Happy Christmas to all of you on Visor Central.

agoldfish

Peter, a good alternative to changing and throwing away alkalines every 2-4 weeks is to use NiMH rechargeables. Swapping between 2 sets every 2 weeks or so with Afterburner overclocking at 22MHz, I get about 12 hours of on-time as tracked by Runtime. They will pay for themselves after a few recharges...

A very Merry Christmas to all...
He is the reason for the season...

Peter, are you leaving the Visor on 24 hours a day???

I use mine a lot...I've had it since Dec 16th and it's currently at 80%. This with the batteries that came with it.

Harry

How do you know what percent your batteries are?

Handspring Kid: Check out Battery Meter Hack... (www.palmgear.com)

Harry: I use my Visor daily, but not for 24 hours. I do play some games (might be one reason - Dragon's Bane for one) and do use the backlight (Invert Hack) quite a bit. I have had my Visor since 12/20/99... Battery Meter Hack seems to fluxuate quite a bit, because now it tells me I am at 60% strength.

visordoc: I plan on checking NiMH rechargeables ASAP. Any good brand/charger you can recommend?

Thanks,
Peter

I use a combination of BatteryInfo 1.2 and RunTime (both programs are freeware) to keep track of my power usage. I really don't like the idea of installing "hacks" unless I need to. With these two programs working in tandem, I can keep track of the RunTime of each set of batteries and see a graph of the voltage; also, I can use BatteryInfo to change warning thresholds, battery types, and see the CURRENT voltage/percentage.

I've been running off the OEM batteries for 12 days, 2 hours, and 41 minutes (at the time of this writing) and the Visor has been powered-on and actually RUNNING for an accumulated 1 day, 8 hours. Right now, my battery is at 2.23v and fluctuates between 15-20%.

I've been using the backlight lightly, I turned the beam-receive OFF as soon as I received it, and I've been doing quite a bit of e-book reading.

I just bought a 4-pack of Rayovac Renewal Alkaline batteries so I can recharge one pair while I use the other... we'll see how these do performance wise, but the results will take another month or two.

_________
William

I've had this dream machine for 2 days now. I've been Hotsyncing alot, installing programs and such then noticed that my battery life came down to 85%

I know about the leaving it in the cradle, and receive beam battery drain. I've been careful about this, yet the batteries came down pretty quick. I have a hunch that frequent hotsyncing can drain your battery, has anyone else seen evidence of this?

Peter,
The following website for Nexcell batts has been mentioned in other threads in VC. http://thomas-distributing.com/index.htm

Radio Shack also sells NiMH batts for a bit more. You can get a recharger there too, but you can just as easily use a NiCd slow charger with a charging current of approx 100mA or less. The fancy (and expensive) NiMH chargers have a special circuitry to detect overcharging (something that is not good for NiMH because it shortens the lifespan), but if you are careful to remove the batts after a certain number of hours charging then you can just use a regular NiCD charger instead. Hope this helps.


Chow2: I haven't really noticed any difference with the Beam Receive on or off, but yes, HotSynching does use up more juice from the batteries.


[This message has been edited by visordoc (edited 12-26-1999).]

Ok, I MUST be doing something wrong here. Please help! I got my Visor, used the "industrial" brand alkaline batteries it came with, and they lasted 3 weeks. I used it very frequently, played lots of games, I would say approx 2hrs a day total time.

Then i went to Radio Shack. Big mistake appparently. The guy talked me into buying a very cheap NiCd charger("charges them in 7hrs"), it was around 5$. I bought 2 NiCd packs of 2 rechargeables. These are horrible!!! I just installed LauncherIII, which has a little battery meter, and from simply playing one game for 5min, my % went down 15%!! ack! this is the second pair, theyve been charged already etc. the 1st pair i had in only lasted a few days.

is there really such a huge difference between alkaline and NiCd? Could it be launcherIII eating up battery somehow?
should I try charging/buying the NiMH in this charger? the NiMH recharger at radio shack was 25$!!

i hate feeling like i have to worry about them running out. the last pair went from 30% to 0% in a manner of minutes.

any insight anyone could provide would be greatly appreciated.

andy

Thanks for the info...

Visordoc: I found these batteries on the site you supplied... are these the best for a Visor? (link below)
http://thomas-distributing.com/nexcell-aaa-t.htm

Also, what charger do you recommend on the same site. I would like one that if I forget how long my batteries are in will not damage them. I know I will easily forget about them.

I was looking at the following charger (link below). Any comments? This is NOT a fast charger right? ...as I heard FAST charging is bad for these batteries.
http://thomas-distributing.com/maha-mh-c124s.htm

Thanks,
Peter

Peter,
The NexCells AAA rated at 650mAH have been highly reviewed in various threads at VC. They are probably the best deal out there.

The charger you were looking at is a slow charger and is a good deal at $12, but I still wouldn't leave batts in there charging indefinitely at 55-70mA (as spec'd). Just leave the NiMH batts in there overnight for 10-12 hours as recommended on their website, and you can change to a fully charged set in the morning when you wake up. If you *really* don't want to have to remember to remove the batts at the end of the charging cycle, then you may have to pay a little bit extra for the next model up, which has negative delta-V detection and a lower 25mA trickle charge. http://thomas-distributing.com/maha-mh-c204f.htm

You can also read some more about NiMH batt and charging characteristics from their FAQ list. http://thomas-distributing.com/nimhbattery-faq.htm

Hope this helps a bit more...