Battery conditioning?

[depscribe]

I'm not at all clear as to the best way to get the Gemini to maximize its charge without damaging the battery. In days past there were issues with memory effect in batteries, though I believe these are largely behind us. Yet some L-ion products advise to run a few cycles of full charge, full discharge, while I've seen it said elsewhere that allowing a full discharge is had for the battery.

Does anyone know how best to deal with the Gemini to achieve best capacity/life from its battery?

[Mr Rimmer]

I'm not at all clear as to the best way to get the Gemini to maximize its charge without damaging the battery. In days past there were issues with memory effect in batteries, though I believe these are largely behind us. Yet some L-ion products advise to run a few cycles of full charge, full discharge, while I've seen it said elsewhere that allowing a full discharge is had for the battery.

Does anyone know how best to deal with the Gemini to achieve best capacity/life from its battery?

There is an app called "Battery Charge Limit" which can be found here.  Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to work on the Gemini as it probably requires customisation.  Haven't looked into that yet.  It will disable charging of the device at a certain percentage, defaulting to 80%.  This is because much of the wear happens near full capacity, but phone manufacturers try to squeeze as much energy into the battery as possible in order to maximise run time.

So there is a balance between runtine on a single charge and number of charge cycles that the battery can handle.

[Ifanafi]

Good question. Glad you asked it.
I, too, wonder about the first-fully charging of the Gemini upon receipt (before doing anything else to it) as others have said PC advises.
So, I am looking forward to timely replies (before I receive my Gemini presently).
Cheers!

I'm not at all clear as to the best way to get the Gemini to maximize its charge without damaging the battery. In days past there were issues with memory effect in batteries, though I believe these are largely behind us. Yet some L-ion products advise to run a few cycles of full charge, full discharge, while I've seen it said elsewhere that allowing a full discharge is had for the battery.

Does anyone know how best to deal with the Gemini to achieve best capacity/life from its battery?

[joepirello]

I'm not at all clear as to the best way to get the Gemini to maximize its charge without damaging the battery. In days past there were issues with memory effect in batteries, though I believe these are largely behind us. Yet some L-ion products advise to run a few cycles of full charge, full discharge, while I've seen it said elsewhere that allowing a full discharge is had for the battery.

Does anyone know how best to deal with the Gemini to achieve best capacity/life from its battery?

LTT just did a video on this topic. Basically, unless you want to be all anal and micro-manage your device, it doesn't matter that much.

https://youtu.be/AF2O4l1JprI

[depscribe]

LTT just did a video on this topic. Basically, unless you want to be all anal and micro-manage your device, it doesn't matter that much.

https://youtu.be/AF2O4l1JprI

In which case we need to know how PC and the Geminian devs are setting it up.

[Mithren Ithil]

Yet some L-ion products advise to run a few cycles of full charge, full discharge, while I've seen it said elsewhere that allowing a full discharge is had for the battery.

When you get a new device you are advised to fully charge the batteries for the first time before turning on because I believe that it allows some of them to know how much battery charge is available (calibrating).  General rule of lithium batteries don't ever do a full charge cycle (as in fully discharge and charge to 100%).  Most devices are designed to not let you do that.

Does anyone know how best to deal with the Gemini to achieve best capacity/life from its battery?

 As mentioned earlier checkout the LTT video, or my personal fave resource http://batteryuniversity.com

Just keep in mind that:

1. Fully discharging/charging a  Li-ion will damage it.
2. Heat will damage it.

So I aim to charge before the battery goes below 40% and I try not to use it when it is charging.  In terms of overcharging I'm relying on the charging protection circuits to not let the battery get damaged.

Now due to the design of the Gemini (battery not being next to the hot components), I'm not so bothered if I am using it plugged in (like a laptop), but since the battery is huge compared to my day to day use I haven't been put in that position.

Basically I charge my Gemini at the end of the night unless it will go below 40%.  I've done the same thing with my Open Pandora since forever and I'm still on the first battery!

Also the battery is replaceable so that is a big thumbs up imho

[Dixit]

I have the Gemini since early June.

The first 2 weeks I needed to recharge the device every day, because I played a lot with it.
Later on I could just use it for 2 consecutive days, because I started to use it as a normal phone (no more permanent playing with it).

The last 4 days I only make 1 to 1,5 days, but still with the normal use. I have the idea that the battery is already wearing out.
Also, the Gemini and the charger are quite hot the first 45 minutes of charge. I can still hold it, but if this were my trusty Nokia Communicator I would worry.

To be followed...

[vader]

I got my Gemini early March. On android, you could get an easy days heavy use from it. I charge it every night. I've upgraded to sailfish now, and it uses more juice, but I still get a good days use from it. It is my only computing device now (except work), and is used significantly throughout the day. Sailfish is harder than android in standby - it is a real system and tasks run in the background. When in use, they are about the same. If I am doing some development at home (yes I develop on the gemini), and run some large makes on multiple processors, I can get the battery to 10% by around 11pm (off the charger at 6am). I haven't noticed any decrease in the battery performance yet. I never "condition" batteries other than give it a good first charge.

Remember that the battery is replaceable, so I would imaging PC will, in the coming months, sell you a replacement battery. How long do you plan on keeping the gemini? My normal phone cycle is 18months - 2 years, although I can see myself keeping the gemini longer. If after 18months-2 years I need a new battery, so be it  Better than a new device....

[Beiriannydd]

LTT just did a video on this topic. Basically, unless you want to be all anal and micro-manage your device, it doesn't matter that much.

https://youtu.be/AF2O4l1JprI

In which case we need to know how PC and the Geminian devs are setting it up.

You need a rooted gemini to see this:

Planet:/data/data/com.termux/files/home # ls /sys/devices/platform/battery
ADC_Channel_0_Offset  ADC_Channel_12_Slope  ADC_Channel_3_Offset ADC_Channel_6_Slope  ADC_Channel_Is_Calibration    Power_Off_Voltage power_supply
ADC_Channel_0_Slope   ADC_Channel_13_Offset ADC_Channel_3_Slope  ADC_Channel_7_Offset ADC_Charger_Voltage           Power_On_Voltage  subsystem
ADC_Channel_10_Offset ADC_Channel_13_Slope  ADC_Channel_4_Offset ADC_Channel_7_Slope  Charger_TopOff_Value          Pump_Express      uevent
ADC_Channel_10_Slope  ADC_Channel_1_Offset  ADC_Channel_4_Slope  ADC_Channel_8_Offset Charger_Type                  driver
ADC_Channel_11_Offset ADC_Channel_1_Slope   ADC_Channel_5_Offset ADC_Channel_8_Slope  Charging_CallState            driver_override
ADC_Channel_11_Slope  ADC_Channel_2_Offset  ADC_Channel_5_Slope  ADC_Channel_9_Offset FG_Battery_CurrentConsumption modalias
ADC_Channel_12_Offset ADC_Channel_2_Slope   ADC_Channel_6_Offset ADC_Channel_9_Slope  FG_SW_CoulombCounter          power
Planet:/data/data/com.termux/files/home # ls /sys/devices/platform/battery/power_supply/battery
BatteryAverageCurrent ChargerVoltage InstatVolt      TemperatureR batt_temp capacity     device power   present_smb status_smb technology uevent
BatterySenseVoltage   ISenseVoltage  TempBattVoltage adjust_power batt_vol  capacity_smb health present status      subsystem  type

BatteryAverageCurrent is sane mA when charging at 5v but when charging at 9v (ChargerVoltage) it goes negative while capacity continues to increase by percentage points so I think some math needs to be patched. This also confirms PE+ which is a shame since the two successors are PD compatible.

PE+ is a handshake to raise or lower voltage.  It seems to me that you could turn the PE+ signals into PD in order to allow usbc charging as 5 and 9v are also used there 12v could be Buck converted from 15v.. Nobody would mass produce one though, PE+ is just not widely enough used.

[Dixit]

Remember that the battery is replaceable, so I would imaging PC will, in the coming months, sell you a replacement battery. How long do you plan on keeping the gemini? My normal phone cycle is 18months - 2 years, although I can see myself keeping the gemini longer. If after 18months-2 years I need a new battery, so be it  Better than a new device....

Yes, that's a very positive point. I kept my Nokia 9300i for 13 years and it is on its fourth battery.
I nearly needed the fifth - the last one I had on stock - but then the Gemini arrived.
I guess "another 13 years" is off limits for the Gemini.