Hello, I once asked the question why the BN battery required calibrating. I felt that if it knew its battery level wasn't reading correctly then it must know what correct was so why didn't it simply adjust itself to the correct reading. I was told the following by Humanware.
They say that the battery gages on most devices are simply timers which are set to indicate battery levels based on the normal time it takes for a specific battery to run down. So if the battery usually lasts 8 hours when the timer has run 4 hours the battery indicator level will show 50%. I was informed that the battery gage on the BN products looks at how much energy the battery is actually producing and measures it as time passes. After a while the original time it took for the battery to run down decreases and the calibration process allows the battery circuitry to measure how long it is taking at the point of calibration. So, for example, if the battery actually runs down in 6 hours after calibration the gage will reach 50% after 3 hours have passed rather than 4 hours as was originally the case and is what standard simple battery timers would do. I hope this is clear. I know what I'm saying and it makes sense to me. But I know it is a bit convoluted. Karl ____________________ Karl Smith Access Technology Specialist Axis 4304 South El Camino St. Taylorsville, Utah 84119 Phone: 866-824-7885 Fax: 866-824-7885 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] No one will ever go broke underestimating the intelligence of the human race. - H. L. Menkin -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Richard Ring Sent: Friday, September 30, 2005 3:43 PM To: Braillenote List Subject: RE: [Braillenote] Possible battery solution for M Power users It would be interesting if Humanware would one day give us an explanation as to why batteries have to be calibrated in the first place. The Braille note is the only device that I have ever run across that requires this. I'm wondering if it is because Humanware still uses NiCad batteries. Clearly such batteries have been superseded by Lithium Ion and other more modern systems. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Sarai Sent: Thursday, September 29, 2005 5:43 PM To: 'Braillenote List' Subject: RE: [Braillenote] Possible battery solution for M Power users Good I'm glad its off. I ran in to one person last night who had the opposite problem, his classic drained more battery power then the M Power. Let us know what happens with your M Power. -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Richard Ehrler Sent: Thursday, September 29, 2005 4:59 PM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [Braillenote] Possible battery solution for M Power users I've been reading about battery problems or differences in battery use on the mPower units since they were released. I just received my voiceNote mPower on Monday. I charged it up and had to do the calibrate function because the unit informed me calibration was needed. I haven't installed any external cards or other devices yet but see at least ten percent fall in battery power every day, even if I don't use the unit for more than a few minutes. On my old VoiceNote running KeySoft versions 5.x and 6.11, and with a 1 gig compact flash card always installed, I would only lose about five or six percent of power a day under the same conditions. I would guess the faster processor must account for the higher battery drain. I will be doing more with the unit over the next week or so and will be interested to see just how fast the unit kills the battery under real life use. By the way, I just checked the bluetooth option on my unit after reading a message warning about its drain potential, and my unit's bluetooth is still turned off. Richard Ehrler ___ To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit http://list.humanware.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote ___ To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit http://list.humanware.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote ___ To leave the BrailleNote list, send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To view the list archives or change your preferences, visit http://list.humanware.com/mailman/listinfo/braillenote
