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-- The Average Battery Life for a VDX (http://discussion.visorcentral.com/vcforum/showthread.php?threadid=2125)

I received my IVDX on the 6th of January. I have changed the batteries (that can with the IVDX)once (6 days). It was my understanding that the batteries would last at least a month. I am curious to know how long have the batteries been lasting other Visorites and what type has been the best. Anxious to hear from you ;-)



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The batteries that came with my Visor lasted about 2 weeks...I was using it a lot but not as much as you must've. I replaced them with Duracells and those lasted about a month give or take a day. I've replaced them with another set of Duracells (4 come in a pack!) and i've moved down 2 'notches' on the battery indicator in about a week and a half....i haven't been using my Visor nearly as much lately though...running out of good programs to goof around with!

I am still using the batteries that came with my Visor (19 days) and the battery indicator says I have 52% life left.. I have about 5MB of stuff on the unit (games, addresses, a few ebooks, avantgo, etc..) and use the unit about 20-40 minutes a day..

Joe

I am told that turning off the "beam" (infrared beam) significantly extends battery life. I have my BVD for two weeks and the battery indicator shows over 50%. I turned the "beam" off the day I received my Visor and so far battery life seems very good. If you don't use the infrared capability it seems like a good idea.

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Life is to short for boring food

Well I have had my Visor DX for about 3 weeks and I still have over 2/3's of the original battery. I think alot has to do with the amount of space that you are using within the 8mb. I noticed a quicker decline after I loaded up avantgo, but having problems with my hot sync so once I got rid of avantgo...my battery drain seemed a bit less than usual. My friend has installed afterburnerII on his and that eats up alot of batteries (so he says).

Afterburner II can be set so that only certain apps are run overclocked. One of the biggest benefits of Afterburner II is that some apps which do not require speed can be run underclocked.


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Eugene Hsieh
Editor, VisorCentral FAQ

My batteries lasted one week for the first two weeks, then dropped to 3-4 days the next week. I hardly turn it on, partially because I'm afraid the batteries will die any second. I'm assuming that there is some problem, but I haven't gotten through to tech support yet.

How can you find out the exact percentage of battery life left. All I can see is that little icon that shows a battery with a fill type meter.
Also, at what point should I change the batteries. I don't want to loose any info due to complete drain but would like to get the full life out of the battery? If my system won't turn on due to a dead battery, does that mean I have lost all the info.
Thanks
Jeremy

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Visit at www.southern.edu/~jearnall

quote:

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Originally posted by arnall:
If my system won't turn on due to a dead battery, does that mean I have lost all the info

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The original AAA's held out for ~19h for me, but my replacements (Panasonic Industrial) are doing much better. The voltage slope from Runtime is quite a bit more shallow now. And yes I use it a lot, as a paramedic with the usual down-time.

[QUOTE]Originally posted by arnall:
[B]How can you find out the exact percentage of battery life left. All I can see is that little icon that shows a battery with a fill type meter.

If you haven't already, you can use LauncherIII. One feature shows percentage of battery life left.

I've replaced my batteries twice, once after 3 wks and the other after 4. If you HotSync alot or copy data to/from the 8MB often it will use your batteries faster.

I remember when I first got my Palm III I went through the first few sets of batteries pretty quick because I was trying all sorts of apps on it. See if your second set lasts longer. Download the free ATool from palmgear.com to keep track of your battery usage.

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James Hromadka
VisorCentral.com
Personal Website: http://www.Hromadka.com

So far my Duracell Ultra batteries have last me 19, 17, and 16 days of what i consider heavy use since i received my VD before Thanksgiving. I Use AllTime to track my work time and expenses, so the clock runs all day during the work day.(my guess it is on maybe 15 minutes per hour for 8 to 10 hours, plus hotsync once or twice per day). I also am running a rather large database to list multiple project info which i track, and a couple games whick i have enjoyed playing. I usually change when the low batter warning comes on, the Launcher III battery meter reads 10%, 2.09v.

Thanks JH. I just download Atool, looks pretty interesting. am looking forward to testing it out.

I also have been downloading and testing out lots of applications for my VDx, so i am sure that has been using up the battery.

[This message has been edited by yim (edited 01-15-2000).]

[This message has been edited by yim (edited 01-15-2000).]

I'm on my second set of batteries and I've had my VDx for less than a month. But lots of hard usage too (I keep a phone log and trip records, plus a great freeware solitaire game! So it's constantly on and off throughout the day.) The FAQ here indicates that 3-4 weeks are normal. My first set lasted about a 2 and half weeks, my second set is going dowm slower though.

On a side note, check the web for cheap AAA batteries. I found prices as cheap as $16 for a carton of 48, plus another $8-9 for shipping. Considering how much a regular blister pack of 4-6 cost at the store, this might be the way to go. It should give you well over a year, plus, how many of your remotes use AAA at home?

I'm at three weeks on my second set of batteries. There's another tool that I really like called Runtime. I think I found it on the PalmGear site. It'll graph your power cyles for up to 120 days and show you actual run time since the last battery change.

Launcer III and GoBar will both give you a percentage of battery like left, although I think they're both a bit optimistic.

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