Exp. Sled Batt Drain And 2nd Cf Usability.

[neuroshock]

This is a response that I left in a thread in the "General" 6k forum.  I felt it deserved it's own thread but more appropriately in the "Hardware" forum, and since it was a slight departure from the original thread I've copied my response to this thread here.  
If you care to follow the original thread you may view it here:
Does the Expansion Sled come with a Battery?


freshroastedpeanut,
     I have heard about the issue with the cf slot in the sled becoming unusable when the 2nd battery dies, so I tested for myself.  I waited until the 2nd battery was completely drained and the primary was down to one half just to make REALLY sure the 2ndary was completely dead.  I then transferred a 206mb file from my primary cf slot to the cf card in my secondary slot and back again. I repeated this process 8 times successfully. (For the record the CF card was a Lexar 1gb 80x with Write Accelleration card in the secondary and my Hitachi 1GB microdrive was in the primary.) I then unmounted and removed the Lexar and mounted a SimpleTech 256mb that was full of MP3's and listened to all of them.  Once done with that I made sure my internal wifi was cut off and unmounted and removed the 256mb CF card.  I then inserted my Ethernet CF card (TrendNet if it makes a difference) and surfed the net through it until my primary died about an hour later.
     I dunno if I'm just lucky and mine works that way or if they are all like that.  I know someone had a problem like you describe a while back and posted, (it might have been you), and I don't know the circumstances surrounding that particular incident.  I'd be curious to know more...maybe it is a problem unique to a particular CF card or device and that would be VERY useful information for 6k ZUG owners as a community to know.
     I'd be glad to help and do my part if anyone would like to help research this issue a bit more. As a matter of fact if any users reading this are willing and own the expansion sled, simply perform a similar test to those I used above and email me the details of your procedure, the brand, type, and any other pertinent info of the CF device you use and I will post the results here on the 6k forum (probably the hardware forum) and also put them on my website, (nobody go rush there It's nothing special and it's only used for little things like these to help keep records of things for me and my friends), and post a link so ppl can follow the progress etc.
     While I'm on the topic I notice you posted that sometimes your primary battery dies before the secondary....I have never seen this behavior on mine.  For me the Secondary battery drains completely and goes critical and then to zero before my Primary battery ever begins to drain.  I'm curious about this also.
Gotta go do some real work... *sigh*

Thanks All,

-NeuroShock

[Omicron]

I can help....what would you like me to try first?

[xjqian]

I had the same lucky experience. I thought that was the feature of gulhem's fast kernel. Seems may not.  I didn't have experience on the stock kernel though. and don't really want to flash back, AGAIN! I'll report back if I've got something new. btw, the CF card in my sled is a Lexar 1G 4x, but I doubt it matters.

edit, i even removed the second batt, debian still running strong on cf2. can't be happier
edit2, neuroshock, havn't seen you for long, don't desert the 6k forum Any new chunky post  Enjor reading your informative one stop post.

[xjqian]

i can confirm now it's not related to the fast kernel. on the stock kernel. the second CF is completely usable after the second battery's drained.

[xjqian]

I suggest folks that own the sled exchange your main batt and sled batt as a monthly drill to get both batt properly conditioned. The advantage is that there's a minimum batt margin on which the unit will auto shut-down. So there's always some juice left on your main batt when you try to drive it empty. However, the sled batt could be completely drained during my daily usage conveniently.