Razr battery calibration? Should I?

[techgov8]

I don't flash ROMs or anything I'm still on stock just rooted. Would it be beneficial for me to use the battery calibrator in the market? I know it's somewhat personal opinion on the matter but just would like to hear some feedback from both sides of the spectrum.

 

[Trash Can]

There's an excellent discussion about batteries/calibration/charging happening now in this thread:

http://www.droidforums.net/forum/droid-razr-support/203273-battery-dead-all-you-naysayers.html

 

[techgov8]

Thanks. I read the while discussion and all their pokes back and forth to each other.

 

[FoxKat]

Thanks. I read the while discussion and all their pokes back and forth to each other.

Sorry for the apparent posturing on that thread. It's a hot topic and I am one who believes in siding with the experts on advice of that nature so I back up my claims with evidence of expert opinion.

As for your question, I don't believe that an app is necessary to accomplish what you wish. The simple truth is that the OS and the charging circuitry are already well prepared to provide the proper protection and metering of your battery, given the typical usage patterns. The real issues come from two directions.

1) Users who take the brand new phone out of the box and begin using it without ever having charged it initially while powered off. This sets the stage for skewed data on the actual State of Charge (SOC), for the battery and can eventually result in the actual versus reported values being quite a bit apart. At best, it will indicate you are near 0% charge, but will hang in for what seems like an inordinate amount of time compared to how quickly it went from say 20% to where it seems to have settled in at.

At worst, it can report that the battery has more remaining power than it actually does, which can result in any number of potential problems, such as;

• forced power off, followed by no response when plugged into the charger
• boot-looping
• power toggling
• extended periods of what seems like no charging at all
• white light on the phone's face, either flashing or solid
• gray battery with ? in the middle, indicating it can not determine the state of the battery

To resolve is a simple matter of setting the Max Capacity and Low Battery flags, which is done by charging to 100% with the power off, followed by using normally until the phone indicates the Low battery signal (at 15% capacity), followed by a second charging to 100% with the power off.

There is NO benefit to draining the battery to 0%, as some may say, and in fact it only stresses the battery which will reduce its effective useful lifespan (number of charging cycles). The Low battery flag is set when the phone tells you it's low, not at 0% as some would lead you to believe.

The process of "training" the charging and metering circuitry should be done about once every 40 charges, whether partial or complete charges, except if they are 100% charges with power off followed by use to 15% or less. Essentially about once every 1.5 to 3 months depending on the battery (RAZR versus MAXX), and also depending on how frequently you plug in - even if only for 15 minutes as an example.

If you take care of your battery, it will take care of you. :biggrin:

 

[techgov8]

Thanks for the feedback I appreciate it
I'm definitely gonna power off and charge to 100 and repeat just to get ion the habit for each month.

 

[FoxKat]

Thanks for the feedback I appreciate it
I'm definitely gonna power off and charge to 100 and repeat just to get ion the habit for each month.

It's a good move, does no harm and can prevent potential problems as mentioned, so there's virtually no downside and potentially considerable upside. I say when in doubt, go with the experts. You can read mountains of information about batteries and caring for them at www.batteryuniversity.com, a site hosted and maintained by CADEX, which is perhaps the most well respected battery charger and testing equipment manufacturer in the world. No secret here, this is where most of my knowledge comes from (though I have plenty of other resources including first-hand experience), and I am not embarassed to tell anyone.

Good luck!

 

[Sydman]

So charging the phone while OFF at night is okay because once it reaches 100% it cuts off the voltage and does not do harm right?

 

[FoxKat]

So charging the phone while OFF at night is okay because once it reaches 100% it cuts off the voltage and does not do harm right?

Charging while powered off is completely safe. Once the battery has reached what the charging system says is 100% capacity, the charger does shut completely off. It then sits in a ready state and waits for voltages to drop to a point where it represents about 10% loss, then kicks in and tops off again, and goes back to the wait state. This may or may not happen at all over night since voltages drop minimally in just those few hours.