Rabbit
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Post by Rabbit on Sept 27, 2018 17:16:51 GMT
I have an IPod Touch and Lucy also has one. Mine’s not too bad with its battery life but hers was shocking.
So I charged it, turned everything like WiFi, Bluetooth etc off and let it play music right to the very bottom until the battery gave out. Then I fully charged it for a good eight hours and while plugged in at the end, rebooted it.
Result was that her battery came back to life and the meter was holding up.
I’m wondering whether the meter in iPods has an effect on when it shuts itself down? ie. when the meter reads low, the iPod sees that as the time to switch off, rather than the drop in voltage which causes most things to drop out.
I did the same to mine and the battery life has also improved. Lucy’s was dramatic, mine not so much because it wasn’t quite as bad as hers. I was getting around 6 - 8 hours music playing time and it increased last time to 18 hours!!! Hers was giving just two hours.
Something weird with iPods? The other thing I thought of was perhaps new firmware also requires a resetting up of the battery meter?
Very strange. I’ve always presumed that iPods are just duff as far as battery goes but there is something strange about how it sees remaining power I think.
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solderdude
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Post by solderdude on Sept 27, 2018 17:40:48 GMT
A similar thing happens with our cordless phone (Philips). Every now and then I have to remove the batteries, charge them (AAA) and reinsert. Then it works properly again.
Info-lithium keeps track of power that went in and out. When the battery gets older this throws the 'meter' off. Usually in the owners manual there is something there how to refresh it, maybe on the interwebs as well. Don't own any apple thingies.
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Rabbit
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Post by Rabbit on Sept 27, 2018 20:36:22 GMT
It is weird Frans. It has made me wonder whether the battery indicator controls the ‘off’ point of the iPod and not the voltage. For play time to change so drastically means that the voltage wasn’t dipping below the critical point, but by running it flat as a pancake, charging up fully and rebooting up the IPod, the indicator reads ‘normal’ but the iPod is running for a lot longer as well.
Apple recommend doing this after firmware updates.
It’s almost like having a new iPod.
Now I’m wondering about the Fiios. I’m wondering whether they might go on for longer by doing the same thing. It’s not like a minor change. Pretty large and kind of like waking the battery up.
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Post by Mr Trev on Sept 27, 2018 21:20:17 GMT
One of the reps over on a Shanling HF thread mentioned doing the same thing (full charge, running it until dead, fully charging again) when somebody asked about run times. Supposedly it can help recalibrate the internal meter, esp. if you're having problems after a firmware update. I've never done the process with any of my players other than to find out what the run time was back when I was wondering if the battery was giving out (turns out it was well in spec). Never actually timed the player after the second charge so I have no idea if the run times changed at all. I also have a vague memory of somebody from Fiio mentioning their battery meter wasn't incredibly accurate to begin with, so it may not help with their players.
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Rabbit
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Post by Rabbit on Sept 28, 2018 13:48:58 GMT
I thought that it must just be a meter type thing, but since the iPod is now running for a longer time, it can only be that the meter dictates cut off time for the battery and now it's reading more correctly, I'm using more of the battery power than I was before.
Or, the complete run down followed by a full charge up (and more) has woken the battery up.
The change is quite large so now I think I might do the same with my Fiios as well.
The iPod is way more robust as far as battery life goes now.
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solderdude
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Post by solderdude on Sept 28, 2018 15:58:09 GMT
Most likely the meter tells the charging circuit how long it charges. A timer is set to prevent overcharging which can lead to damage) I assume it switches off when the battery charge/voltage is below a certain point. The 'meter' is fooled over time and cuts charging too soon (or folks stop charging when not full yet) effectively lowering the capacity over time.
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Rabbit
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Post by Rabbit on Sept 30, 2018 17:30:26 GMT
It is a bit strange. The IPod seems to have a life of its own!! I’m guessing perhaps the meter is overriding true voltage available. I assumed that once the voltage hit a certain level, then that was it, everything switched off, but for some reason, mine was going off too early I think.
It played music for near enough 20 hours yesterday, so I might repeat the whole exercise .....
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Post by Mr Trev on Sept 30, 2018 21:42:25 GMT
IIRC my old iclassic had a "debug" mode where you could pull up a battery graph and actually see the power draw/battery capacity. Not sure if the touch models have the same thing.
What's your firmware update situation been like?(just wondering if you guys haven't gotten a recent update) I know a lot of the important improvements in the Android infrastructure has been to improve power consumption and battery life - deep sleep modes, better monitoring of background activity. I'm out of the iLoop now so I have no idea what Apple has been doing beyond what they show on the commercials
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Rabbit
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Post by Rabbit on Oct 1, 2018 18:50:03 GMT
My Touch is the second to last generation and Apple no longer provide ios updates for it.
Lucy had a new one for her birthday and that updates immediately to ios 12.
Typical Apple. They leave products behind quite rapidly and move on, leaving you with an outdated piece of hardware.
I've been looking around the internet and I've seen it mentioned a few times now. Basically to run then to totally flat once a month or so and the reboot when charged while still plugged in.
Anyway, I'm pleased that my old Touch has developed a new lease of life.
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