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-- Battery Life? (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/showthread.php?threadid=782)

Just curious as to how long your first set of batteries lasted? The 2 that came with the Visor have lasted me all of 1 week. I'm hoping that they only lasted 1 week because they were cheap generic batteries and that some good energizers will last a bit longer.

I just replaced the included batteries a few of days ago, and I got mine right before Thanksgiving, so that would be, what, two, two and half weeks? I was doing some heavy IR transfer and and gaming, too. I didn't use the backlight too much though, and I hear that is what really chews up the amps.

I changed the batteries when my battery hack meter was at 25%, I may have been able to wait it out longer but I was worried about it quitting while being out on the road. I was using the back light fairly heavy typically 4 days a week for about 45 min. These batteries lasted 3 weeks.

You may have just received some old batteries with your unit, I wouldnt worry too much until you try a fresh set. Oh by the way if you are running AfterburnerII, this will chew up battery life if you are not carefull.
Good luck and let us know how you make out.

Nope.... Playing a lot of PocketChess though...

Interesting. I hadn't check PocketChess. The one I noticed being a battery hog is Acid Freecell

Mitchel,

Hot Synching a lot will use up battery power quickly. I play Pocket Chess a bout 1/2 hour to an hour everyday and I get about 2 1/2 weeks on batteries. But I'm only hot synching about once a day or less.

The battery life I've seen so far on this Visor is about the same as I saw on my Palm units.

RSGMOOSE,
At what battery life percentage do you change your batteries?

Keep in mind that battery life is reduced if you have the I/R port enabled in the Preferences.

Is there a hack to see what apps are using the most power? I've been using AfterBurner III to increase speed (and power usage) of certain apps and decrease speed (saving power) on others.

------------------
Thanks,
Jay

My first set lasted me 8 days and the second set about 10.

Winchell - you mean enabling the IR port in preferances will shorten the battery lifespan even if you don't use it?

My first set of batteries (the batteries that were shipped with it) lasted about a month - playing a decent amount of Pocket Chess, Asteroids, and reading books and AvantGo (not to mention entering in addresses, todo items, etc.).

Just putting the Visor into the hotsync cradle uses up batteries, even if the Visor's turned off. That's too bad, since the cradle would make a great display stand for it.

The battery life will be shortened if have the Beam Receive on. When the Beam receive is enabled it is listening for any outside IR activity (beams, etc). This listen mode consumes extra battery power (although I am not sure exactly how much).

Cheers,
Wes

Chris,

Are you sure about the battery life being consumed when it is on the cradel? If so that would probably explain it... I leave mine on the cradel when I'm at work ... plus I hotsynch 2-3 times a day...

Mitchel - I'm 90% positive about that, but I haven't experemented with it - I just heard it somewhere (several places, actually) on this board. Can anyone back me up on this?

Oh - I just remembered why it drains the batteries. When it's in the cradle, it's listening for the cradle to start talking to it, i.e., it's waiting for a hotsync. When you start a hotsync, it wakes up. So, I guess it's kinda like having the IR port turned on all of the time in that it's always listening, and that requires power.

The Palms drain their batteries when left in the cradle...however, this is apparently not because it's "listening" for a hotsynch command...disconnecting the offending line has no effect on the ability to Hotsynch, according to

http://www.conklinsystems.com/pilot/drainfix.shtml

This web page also notes that the drain does not occur when connected to a Mac because the draining line is terminated in the Mac serial port adapter.

Whether the Visor USB or Serial Cradles do the same thing is not clear at all to me. I emailed HS tech support several weeks ago to ask about this, but never got an answer.

Also remember that this cradle-drain has NOT been confirmed (that I know of) on the Visor. The Visor USB cradle may not be wired to drain the handheld at all... as to the Handspring serial cradle, who knows.. it's still a different wiring configuration.

It would be great if an electronic-adept user out there would confirm/deny a drain on the unit while it sits idle in the cradle.