Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

The connection of the charge cable is loose and doesn't charge unless there
is downward pressure on it. It's probably my own fault. Too much playing
"Bike or Die" with it plugged in and my finger on the plug for leverage.
It's really loose now and I can move the plug around quite a bit so I'm not
sure if it's the connection between the plug and the socket or if it's a
problem with a connection between the socket and the circuit board.

Anybody else with this problem and/or a fix?

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

In article <iT3bd.16748$_g6.9558@okepread03>, joeengineer
<joeengineer@cox.net> wrote:

> The connection of the charge cable is loose and doesn't charge unless there
> is downward pressure on it. It's probably my own fault.
> Anybody else with this problem and/or a fix?



Not really a fix, but you should know that it WILL take power from the
USB port. Not a super-fast charge by any means, but it may be enough
for you to keep the thing usable. I almost never use my AC adaptor,
honestly.

--
Garner R. Miller
Clifton Park, NY =USA=

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

On Wed, 13 Oct 2004 19:43:37 GMT, Garner Miller <garner@netstreet.net>
wrote:

>In article <iT3bd.16748$_g6.9558@okepread03>, joeengineer
><joeengineer@cox.net> wrote:
>
>> The connection of the charge cable is loose and doesn't charge unless there
>> is downward pressure on it. It's probably my own fault.
>> Anybody else with this problem and/or a fix?
>
>Not really a fix, but you should know that it WILL take power from the
>USB port. Not a super-fast charge by any means, but it may be enough
>for you to keep the thing usable. I almost never use my AC adaptor,
>honestly.

Is it just my perception, or does the TE charge faster via the USB
cable when it's turned on, and even faster while it's hotsyncing?

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

In article <7rsvu01idtosqt76eu9b6em4p41b2j6rn8@4ax.com>, John A.
<no.john@spammers.virgini.aqui.lter.allowed.com> wrote:

> Is it just my perception, or does the TE charge faster via the USB
> cable when it's turned on, and even faster while it's hotsyncing?

Faster than what? It charges much faster from the power cable than from
any USB connection.

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

On Thu, 20 Jan 2005 18:48:39 GMT, guy@ether.net (Guy Bannis) wrote:

>In article <7rsvu01idtosqt76eu9b6em4p41b2j6rn8@4ax.com>, John A.
><no.john@spammers.virgini.aqui.lter.allowed.com> wrote:
>
>> Is it just my perception, or does the TE charge faster via the USB
>> cable when it's turned on, and even faster while it's hotsyncing?
>
>Faster than what? It charges much faster from the power cable than from
>any USB connection.

I mean when charging on the USB the speed of the charge seems to vary
with what I'm doing. It seems to charge faster if I do more, which is
rather counterintuitive, so I asked.

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

In article <pu20v0tp7rl4jvh8gp90pc4oao457annmu@4ax.com>, John A.
<no.john@spammers.virgini.aqui.lter.allowed.com> wrote:

> On Thu, 20 Jan 2005 18:48:39 GMT, guy@ether.net (Guy Bannis) wrote:
>
> >In article <7rsvu01idtosqt76eu9b6em4p41b2j6rn8@4ax.com>, John A.
> ><no.john@spammers.virgini.aqui.lter.allowed.com> wrote:
> >
> >> Is it just my perception, or does the TE charge faster via the USB
> >> cable when it's turned on, and even faster while it's hotsyncing?
> >
> >Faster than what? It charges much faster from the power cable than from
> >any USB connection.
>
> I mean when charging on the USB the speed of the charge seems to vary
> with what I'm doing. It seems to charge faster if I do more, which is
> rather counterintuitive, so I asked.

Ah. Well, it shouldn't charge faster when you're also operating the
handheld. That's because operations require energy so the battery is being
drained at the same time that it's being charged. It should charge more
slowly than when the battery is only being charged.

Are you sure it's charging faster when you do other things with the device
at the same time that it is charging? What were your indications that it
was charging more quickly?

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

On Thu, 20 Jan 2005 19:54:28 GMT, John A. wrote:

> I mean when charging on the USB the speed of the charge seems to vary
> with what I'm doing. It seems to charge faster if I do more, which is
> rather counterintuitive, so I asked.

Just a guess, but it may be that when you're doing more, the
greater load results in a slightly lower voltage being delivered
through the USB, and this may result in the charging being
terminated a little sooner than normal. Most chargers never charge
the battery fully, but indicate that they've finished when the
batteries have been charged to within about 90% of capacity. (At
this point some revert to a trickle charge). If the USB charge
times you see vary by a wide margin then don't charge them that if
you'll be using the TE at the same time. If the difference is
slight, say less than 10% or so, it probably won't make much of a
difference.

If you want to really be sure, charge the TE three ways - 1. with
the AC adapter; 2. with USB with TE dormant; 3. with USB with TE
very active. After each charge, time how long the battery lasts,
running the same task each time, of course. Preferably one that
requires no interaction, unless you can't figure out how to keep the
TE from turning off due to inactivity.

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

On Thu, 20 Jan 2005 22:03:35 GMT, guy@ether.net (Guy Bannis) wrote:

>In article <pu20v0tp7rl4jvh8gp90pc4oao457annmu@4ax.com>, John A.
><no.john@spammers.virgini.aqui.lter.allowed.com> wrote:
>
>> On Thu, 20 Jan 2005 18:48:39 GMT, guy@ether.net (Guy Bannis) wrote:
>>
>> >In article <7rsvu01idtosqt76eu9b6em4p41b2j6rn8@4ax.com>, John A.
>> ><no.john@spammers.virgini.aqui.lter.allowed.com> wrote:
>> >
>> >> Is it just my perception, or does the TE charge faster via the USB
>> >> cable when it's turned on, and even faster while it's hotsyncing?
>> >
>> >Faster than what? It charges much faster from the power cable than from
>> >any USB connection.
>>
>> I mean when charging on the USB the speed of the charge seems to vary
>> with what I'm doing. It seems to charge faster if I do more, which is
>> rather counterintuitive, so I asked.
>
>Ah. Well, it shouldn't charge faster when you're also operating the
>handheld. That's because operations require energy so the battery is being
>drained at the same time that it's being charged. It should charge more
>slowly than when the battery is only being charged.
>
>Are you sure it's charging faster when you do other things with the device
>at the same time that it is charging? What were your indications that it
>was charging more quickly?

Well, for one thing the battery meter read the same after a couple
hours sitting there plugged in but turned off. After hotsyncing it
moved up a bit, then after going through some tasks immediately after
it moved up some more.

Maybe it's a bug in the battery meter.

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

John A. <no.john@spammers.virgini.aqui.lter.allowed.com> wrote in
news:u8e0v0tcfpsoc3p1kublk33u9m86s7trbb@4ax.com:

> Maybe it's a bug in the battery meter.

When it's turned off, the battery meter doesn't update. I see that on
other model Palms. After you turn it on, you need to wait for a few
seconds for the battery meter to catch up, sometimes longer. Displaying
the battery charge state doesn't seem to be a priority task in the OS,
unsurprisingly.

--
Regards,

Stan

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

>Well, for one thing the battery meter read the same after a couple
>hours sitting there plugged in but turned off. After hotsyncing it
>moved up a bit, then after going through some tasks immediately after
>it moved up some more.
>
>Maybe it's a bug in the battery meter.


My Tungsten E has a flaky power cable connector on it. It used to work
just fine, but now it will only charge if I lift the cord up a little.
This might be what is happening on yours.

It charges fine when charging thru the USB cable only, but when you
plug in the AC adaptor, it's not actually making ANY contact, and thus
not charging (until you move or wiggle the cable).

Plug in the power cable, and watch the battery for the lightning bolt.
Yours might be flaky too.

BTW: My Tungsten E is only 2 months old. :-/


Remove the BALONEY from my email address.
-----------------------------------------------------
Matthew Fries Minneapolis, MN USA
freeze@baloneyvisi.com

"Quit eating all my *STUFF*!" - The Tick

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

BillB <rainbose@earthlink.newt> wrote:

>Most chargers never charge
>the battery fully, but indicate that they've finished when the
>batteries have been charged to within about 90% of capacity.

If you're talking about the screen battery icon indicating when the TE (the Z72
and others) are finished charging that's not the case.The battery icon on these
units is will let you know your battery discharge state, but will not let you
determine your charging progress. When I am reading an ebook and the icon gets
down to around 20% or so, I just plug in the charger and keep on reading. My
reader has a battery icon so I can watch it as I read. Within 5 minutes of
plugging in the charger the battery icon shows a 100% charge. Of course that's
not correct, and the only true way to know for sure that it's fully charged is
to let it charge for at least few hours.

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

On Fri, 21 Jan 2005 05:57:27 GMT, AaronJ wrote:

> If you're talking about the screen battery icon indicating when the TE (the Z72
> and others) are finished charging that's not the case.The battery icon on these
> units is will let you know your battery discharge state, but will not let you
> determine your charging progress.

Not having a TE, I was just going by what was stated, which
implied some kind of charging indicator. FWIW, some Sony LCDs have
the word "charging" on one side of the display, and an animated
battery icon while the battery is being charged, and the display
blanks when charging is finished. I don't know if any Clies have
similar displays, but assume that if they did, it would only be used
on older mono LCD displays, not the newer power hungry color
displays. They could easily use a low power LED to indicate whether
charging is still in progress.

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

BillB <rainbose@earthlink.newt> wrote:

> Not having a TE, I was just going by what was stated, which
>implied some kind of charging indicator. FWIW, some Sony LCDs have
>the word "charging" on one side of the display, and an animated
>battery icon while the battery is being charged,

The TE (and most rechargeable Palms I think) just have a lightning bolt across
an inactivated battery icon to indicate charging on the launcher screen. It
either shows charging (bolt) or not charging (no bolt), but not the percentage
of charge. However some 3rd party apps (like launchers and my reader) do show
the percentage while charging but as I said, they're not accurate. I'm not aware
of any Palm that does show the percentage of charge, but a charging finished
light (like on my cell phone) would have been nice. That way there would be no
guessing on pressed for time charges.

>They could easily use a low power LED to indicate whether
>charging is still in progress.

When I first saw the little green light on my Zire72 I thought (hoped?) maybe it
was a full charge indicator (like my cell phone has) but alas it just shows that
the charger is plugged in. Big whoop...

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

On Fri, 21 Jan 2005 16:47:24 GMT, AaronJ <noemail@noemail.com> wrote:

>BillB <rainbose@earthlink.newt> wrote:
>
>> Not having a TE, I was just going by what was stated, which
>>implied some kind of charging indicator. FWIW, some Sony LCDs have
>>the word "charging" on one side of the display, and an animated
>>battery icon while the battery is being charged,
>
>The TE (and most rechargeable Palms I think) just have a lightning bolt across
>an inactivated battery icon to indicate charging on the launcher screen. It
>either shows charging (bolt) or not charging (no bolt), but not the percentage
>of charge. However some 3rd party apps (like launchers and my reader) do show
>the percentage while charging but as I said, they're not accurate. I'm not aware
>of any Palm that does show the percentage of charge, but a charging finished
>light (like on my cell phone) would have been nice. That way there would be no
>guessing on pressed for time charges.

My TE shows the amount of charge graphically with a battery graphic
that fills left to right to whatever percentage it believes the
battery to be charged. It doesn't make any indication of whether it's
charging or not (no special lightning bolt graphic, etc.) when it's
charging off the USB cable. I haven't used it yet while charging off
the AC adapter. FWIW, the OS is v 5.2.1.

Archived from groups: comp.sys.palmtops.pilot (More info?)

In article <1d13v050i7aoh4a2ck8aotnsn8l3mq3ovp@4ax.com>, John A.
<no.john@spammers.virgini.aqui.lter.allowed.com> wrote:

> On Fri, 21 Jan 2005 16:47:24 GMT, AaronJ <noemail@noemail.com> wrote:
>
> >BillB <rainbose@earthlink.newt> wrote:
> >
> >> Not having a TE, I was just going by what was stated, which
> >>implied some kind of charging indicator. FWIW, some Sony LCDs have
> >>the word "charging" on one side of the display, and an animated
> >>battery icon while the battery is being charged,
> >
> >The TE (and most rechargeable Palms I think) just have a lightning bolt
across
> >an inactivated battery icon to indicate charging on the launcher screen. It
> >either shows charging (bolt) or not charging (no bolt), but not the
percentage
> >of charge. However some 3rd party apps (like launchers and my reader) do show
> >the percentage while charging but as I said, they're not accurate. I'm
not aware
> >of any Palm that does show the percentage of charge, but a charging finished
> >light (like on my cell phone) would have been nice. That way there
would be no
> >guessing on pressed for time charges.
>
> My TE shows the amount of charge graphically with a battery graphic
> that fills left to right to whatever percentage it believes the
> battery to be charged. It doesn't make any indication of whether it's
> charging or not (no special lightning bolt graphic, etc.) when it's
> charging off the USB cable. I haven't used it yet while charging off
> the AC adapter. FWIW, the OS is v 5.2.1.

Have been told by various commercial Palm app developers that the battery
indicator is not precise.