Random Turn-off when battery is less than 50%

[Radovan Garabík]

I've had the same random shut-off problem with my Gemini for over a year now.

It happened to me only about twice (in half a year or so). I was not paying much attention to it, considering it a random fluke, but I remember once the Gemini was quite maxed out (connected via HSDPA and running as an access point, while simultaneously I started a browser on it). Perhaps there is no reasonable margin of error in the maximum battery current and random increase in power consumption switches on the protective circuit and cuts the power.

Replying to myself...

It happened 3 times today. The first time was after an hour or so of Gemini working as a SIM->wifi hotspot, some minutes I switched the hotspot off and started to use the Gemini "the usual way". The battery was at about 40%.
I looked at the battery utilization graph, and noticed that after the spontaneous turning off, the 1st derivative was maybe about twice as big (in absolute value) as usual, for about 10 minutes.

The next time was after an hour, when the battery reached 14%. The rate of battery discharge was normal this time.

The third time was again when the Gemini was working as a wifi hotspot, but this time it has been charging (using the official Planet charger), and it might have been already fully charged (or very close).

After the first time, I started to suspect the battery experiences sudden drop in the charge and is perhaps not able to sustain the power/current requirement. But after the third time... I do not know.

[zsalab2]

I had the same issue, reverted to android 7.1.

No problem since (AND battery time doubled).

The only problem is the firmware notification which is impossible to get rid off....

[gidds]

This raises issues about the Cosmo...  While it's possible to keep a Gemini on Android 7.x (or roll back to it), what version with the Cosmo be supplied with?  If 8.x, will it suffer the same problems, and if so, will it be possible to install 7.x on it?

[gymbo]

This raises issues about the Cosmo...  While it's possible to keep a Gemini on Android 7.x (or roll back to it), what version with the Cosmo be supplied with?  If 8.x, will it suffer the same problems, and if so, will it be possible to install 7.x on it?

The Cosmo is supposed to ship with Android 9, if that will be better or worse than 8 (or 7...), is anyone's guess...  

But Planet should be aware of the "problem", so hopefully they will fix it for the Cosmo, and hopefully get that implemented in the Gemini as well???

I sometimes, on Gemini with Android 8, get almost better performance (battery wise), and sometimes it almost doesn't last a full day, so it seems there are just in certain conditions it eats up battery... So to find out what exactly eats up battery seems to be difficult (as someone else have pointed out in this, or another, thread about the battery-perfomance of the Gemini). And the battery usage info in Android is kind of useless as well. I haven't really used my phone much the last two days, but it now shows "Phone not in use" for 1d, 19h, 14m, out of 1d, 19h, 14m time since last full charge. And I have been using it... (and probably at least for a few hours...)    

[David H]

I have had the same issue with the device turning off. After rebooting the battery seems to empty rapidly. Charging the device with it turned off immediately reports that the battery is a around 37%.