On Mon, Jun 23, 2003 at 07:46:10PM +0000, Gerald Timothy Quimpo wrote:
> right.  i had a link somewhere, maybe i'll find it again. it said that
> Li+ has a maximum number of charges (well, the number is probably
> approximate, but it gives one an idea of the upper limit).  as you
> approach that upper limit, the battery's capacity to store energy
> degrades.

When I called Compaq about my father's older laptop (that's now my
mom's), he said something like 1000 charges, but then I could be
mistaken so don't quote me on that. Anyhow it's hard to -count-
something like that, but the general gist of a battery's lifetime being
equated to the number of charges or charge/discharge cycles seems to be
enough to tell us how not to abuse them. ;)

> i wonder what constitutes a "charge".

The previous bit of knowledge and a physics teacher I had, who told us
batteries worked very similar to capacitors and should ideally not be
used and charged at the same time, has led me to play things safe with
laptops and my cellphone: I turn the machine/gadget off, then plug it
in, and don't unplug it until it's done charging. Then I use it until
it's completely drained.

> heat is also supposed to degrade Li+ batteries.  i had a major problem
> with that on a thinkpad i used to use, and a toshiba.  my current
> notebook doesn't seem to have that problem though.  the battery is far
> from any heat producing parts, so when i remove the battery, it
> doesn't feel hot.

Hrmm... this doesn't sound too good, considering I use dnetc[1] on all
our machines here, including the laptops. ;)

[1] http://www.distributed.net

> hehe. that's what i need, is a UPS. for everywhere i go :).

Hahaha. My father only uses the UPS when he's here in the office where
he has a UPS to share with another machine. At home and in our other
office he normally goes on battery power until his battery drains, then
shuts down, has the thing charge, and does something else.

... or says "forget it" and plugs the laptop to the adapter and turns it
back on after it sleeps because of low battery levels.

> or maybe one of those universal external laptop batteries.  those are
> probably cheaper than proprietary batteries.  hmmm, now to do some
> googling when i get somewhere where the net is faster.

Let us know what you find on this one. :)

 --> Jijo "Hoping he's not getting too off-topic"

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