At 9:44 AM -0500 on 5/11/99, Alan Pinstein wrote:
>I can't remembe who told me, but it was either David or Bob, and actually
>he said that on PV the % is rounded up to 100 if it's >= 90. That's why...
Actually, it was I. :-)
> >At 10:34 PM -0700 1999/05/10, Mike Bitz wrote:
>>>Palm OS 3.x's SysBatteryInfo function seems to report an accurate
>>>"percent remaining" value on Palm III and IIIx units. However, I am
>>>experiencing some strangeness on a Palm V. When the unit is fully
>>>charged in the cradle, the percentage is reported as 100%. As soon as
> >>the unit is removed from the charger the percentage is reported as 88%.
I think the issue here is that when the Palm V is charging, it does
not report the battery level - instead it draws a black battery with
a "charging" icon. This is because it's difficult to read the
battery level because it reads higher than actual when the charger is
actively charging it.
If there's a charging icon, then the fact that the battery is black
does NOT mean it's 100%. It means it's charging.
That's why when you remove it from the cradle, it "drops" back to
whatever it really is (88% in the stated example).
BTW, the Palm V DOES actually read the voltage -- it does not
estimate it based on load... However, as Jim stated, the voltage
curve IS very flat (though not exactly flat) between "full" and
"empty".
In any case, the Palm V is a good example why "volts" aren't a very
useful way (for apps) to measure the battery since (for example) 3.2
volts on a Palm IIIx is very different from 3.2 volts on a Palm V.
If you're interested in reading the battery level, use
SysBatteryInfo() to get the battery percentage as calculated by Palm
OS.
--Steve
