[Q] How to preserve battery life after initial calibration? - HTC One X

Hi,
I'd like to have your opinion about how to preserve the health of our One X Battery in the long run... I've done some full charge/full discharge cycles to properly initialize the battery but now I'd like to understand what is the better way of charging this Li-Poly battery... I've read on the web that Li-Poly batteries are "happier" to be charged when not at 0% (i.e. around 10%) and also it is better not to fully charge them (this seems quite strange to me) to preserve their capacity (but you do not use the full capacity if you disconnect them at 95%, for example...).. Is there any "official" or at least scientific "How To Preserve Your Battery" guide that addresses Li-Poly batteries?
Second question: do you think it is better to charge via USB rather than via Power-line, since it is a slower charge (~5 hours VS ~3.5 hours)?

I believe that because, like most modern phones, the battery has a charge timer and a circuit to prevent overcharge, it doesn't matter too much much about the speed of charging. Everything i've looked at about Li-Poly cell batteries instist on an even charge across cells, which i'm sure HTC have ensured.
Apart from that the usual would apply, avoid leaving it plugged in for long length of time (i.e. over night) as trickle charging can damage most types of batteries ensure you discharge it fully now and again, i'd avoid going to 0% from what you've heard but no mobile phone actually fully discharges the battery (hence you can still switch it on after it has died).
I know the HTC one has an internal battery, but like any other battery if you look after it it should last at least 2 years loosing only a small portion of battery life.
If i find any decent guides i'll post them here.

Related

[Q] Battery drain application

Hi!
I'm looking for an application, that quickly kills my battery if it's low, so I can do a full charge to improve battery life.
Something, that I launch, I put my phone on the desk, have a tea meanwhile, and it's drained! Something, that turns on wifi, do some downloading, browsing, video playing, or whatever, and does it automatically without supervision. Does such app exists?
I'll second this, it'd be nice to have an app do this for me and maybe even give us some interesting stats from it?
Sent from my mind using telepathy
why would you want an application to destroy your battery?
Adevem said:
why would you want an application to destroy your battery?
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Click to collapse
Apparently if you do a full discharge the battery life will be longer.
Soniboy84 said:
Apparently if you do a full discharge the battery life will be longer.
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Click to collapse
not really, you should avoid deep discharges...
Byr0x said:
not really, you should avoid deep discharges...
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Click to collapse
+1 If you had been reading around...you would know Lithium Ion batteries are designed to 'maximize' their efficiency within about two weeks of 'top up' charging. Cycle-charging is generally considered a less efficient method of charging. You will need to 'TopUp charge' this means charging as much and as often as possible. If your battery is at 89% for instance and you find yourself near a socket, plug your adapter in and charge it up to 100%. After a few days of doing this you will notice an improvement in the life of your battery when you are not able to charge.
Actually,,,
It is not matter of running your battery down to 0%.
It is ok to run it down till phone does to power on itself.
As you know battery is a single cell Li-Ion @ 3.7v
when it is fully charged it's peak voltage is 4.2v
By the time battery mah is drained down (galaxy s has 1500mah)
battery voltage should be around 3.2~3.4v range. this will depend on condition of the battery.
Battery should never go below 3.2v personally, 3.4v is my cut off.
If your battery voltage goes below 3.2v... it's time for a new battery as this kind of voltage will damage your battery, either it will leak or puff (battery will actually get bloated.
Phone has a voltage cut off so it will not over charge over 4.2v but if it does, it will likely start to smoke and catch fire.
I am sure anyone who is into electric Radio control knows all about these batteries.
Oh btw,,, long time storage voltage should be 3.8v
You'll be asking how do I know what voltage my battery is... I personallly don't know of any apps but GPS Status actually shows the temperature & voltage of your battery.
Soniboy84 said:
I'm looking for an application, that quickly kills my battery if it's low, so I can do a full charge to improve battery life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
First, take into consideration the comments above regarding deep discharge of your battery...but, to answer your question, there's an app in the market place called 'Battery Refresh' which attempts to drain your battery quicker.
Well if it's all true above than its a good sign, and thanks for the info! I'm not an expert but in the old times I remember batteries had to discharged completely, maybe even if it's just a few times. Now somebody can also tell me why my battery is discharging when it's plugged in the socket with original charger? All I do is using the internet, and has. nimbuzz and a live wallpaper on. :S
You could probably enable the GPS/BT/WIFI ( connected to a router ) and run the interactive mode on Neocore benchmark.. that should enable most of the hardware components on the phone and stress the GPU/CPU.. probably would see a 25% battery drain for every 35-40mins.
I don't know what has changed with the batteries but as far as I know...
it is good to discharge new batteries 3~4 times down until phone does not power on.
Like I have said... it's about the voltage of the battery, not whether battery has any juice left in it or not.
These batteries have a protective circuitry so that it will not charge over 4.2v,
also as for discharge it is usually down to 3v but usually with a charger/discharger units that can control mah/volts/amps. With typical usage from the phone, it'll likely be discharged down to about 3.2`3.4v. Which is very safe.
You can do whatever you feel but I personally do this to every batteries I have for phone and every batteries I use with my radio controled cars.
For my RC cars, I have about 6 batteries ranging from 1cell to 3cell LiPo packs.
Each cell is 3.7volts.
But you don't have to force discharge and hurry the process.
Just use the phone normally and let it run down to nothing... than recharge to full peak.
Than again, choice is yours.
I'm looking for the same kind of applications. It's very useful for recalibrating your battery. Wipe the battery history then do a full cycle.
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
The old saying in RC Helicopters was that the difference between discharging 50% and 100% was the difference between getting 500 uses and 5 uses.
You should certainly avoid ever fully dischaging any lithium based battery.
Older nickel batteries (Ni-cd, Ni-MH) required full dischage cycles to get rid of memory the the metals pertained, lithium-ion and lithium-ion-polymer not only do not require this; but doing so will damage them.
And yes, the older ipods came with Nimh cells and they did reccomended full discharge cycles.
Im pretty sure the idea was to try not to let the voltage get below 3.5v/cell and never below 3.3. Dead flat is 3 or 2.85 which is when the battery simply cant produce any real current. The phone should have circuitry though to not let the voltage get above 4.25 or below ~3.5.. If the low battery warning comes on, set the brightness to dim, and stop any activities (unless its a phone call, its not THAT important but if youre playing games or watching a movie...) until yo can get to a charger.
By the way this being my first post (i meant to ages ago) Ill just mention that my galaxy S came with recovery mode and download mode Enabled, i got it just last month, Virgin network, Australia.
draining the battery fully was for the older battery types, new age batteries are not recommended to be drained fully
Thanks!
One more question:
I'm using my phone as a desktop replacement, because I don't have Internet at the moment. I'm using xda, dolphin browser and listening music. It's plugged into the mains and it's not charging. It says 49%, and stuck there. Is it possible I'm using too much battery?
Sent from my GT-I9000 using XDA App
Ok, this will be my last reply.
Fully draining or not is not the issue.
In RC, most modern electronic speed controllers have a built-in battery cut-off which will cut off power once it reaches certain voltage. Because OVER-draining battery without cut off can damage/kill/ or make it unable to hold voltage.
Also, once the battery voltage reach certain point (still within safe range) you will notice the motor being powered slow down. This would also be a recommended time to stop.
Cellular phones have built in safe cut off aswell. As I have said I have measured my battery after being full drained, voltage was around 3.55v or so. Which is very normal considering voltage of the battery is 3.7v only with peak charged voltage of 4.2.
Now, Someone mentioned that fully draining your battery repeatedly will dramatically reduce battery life.
Reducing life of the battery has more to do with the amount of AMP used to charge the battery. Faster charging is usually reduce battery life dramatically.
And without hobby grade chargers, you won't be able to control this charge rate.
Slow charge is better but charging at 1C rating is the normal. But charging at 1C means regardless of batteries mah rating, battery can be charged in about 60 minutes. As we all know, our phone batteries doesn't charge from zero to full in 60minutes, right? just like most of the portable devices it takes nearly 3~4hours to fully recharge. Last 20% usually takes longer because Amp provided to charge slowly lowers. That is why.
For example, if Galaxy S battery is 1500mah, than 1C charge rate is @ 1.5amp.
If battery is 3000Mah, 1C is 3.0Amps and so on.
So like I have said over and over before, drain your battery away if you have to by choice or not. Just use it up, I will bet you your battery will last longer than you keep your phone.
U should avoid draining ur battery to 0% (witch is not possible with ur phone. When it shows 0% the charge of the battery is at 10-15%). Li-ion batteries dont have a memory effect, so it would be usless discharching it completely anyhow. Best for sgs battery is charging it before it goes under 50% that will improve the lifetime of ur battery (not how long it lasts before u have to charge but how long it lasts before u have to go and buy a new one)
How do i know? Simply cause i had to learn that a few weeks ago for the job im learning.
@xxgg: yes ur right, it wont really damage the battery if u runn it till thr phone shows its empty. But using an app to drain battery as quick as possible will, since the app forces the battery to give out more Ampere than its built to give out
Sent from my GT-I9000 using Tapatalk

the truth about HTC extended batteries which claim same size , higher capacity

Under mango or one of the firmware updates which had been updated recently , u will see yr battery saver is fluctuating , at one time saying u have a 1 day, while another time it says u only 2 hours on a reasonably fuller charge.
there is a problem with HTC original batteries, rather i will say a safety regulation after recent incidents with battery safety
yr htc only charges up to 85% level even though the phone indicator shows 100%
when u unplug it from the charger, it immediately drains and stays at 80%.
THis is likely why the HTC phones have a shorter battery life, whether its android or windowsphone 7
this is not a defective battery, its made intentionally by HTC for 2 reasons 1) safety , 2)battery longevity ,the safety mechanism built in stops charging it to 100%, thus overcharging, overcharging means the battery is out thru stress which may pose a hazard. if a battery is fully charged to true 100 % , it poses a hazard if one of the pins in the phone connectors break. apparently this pin tells the charger or the phone not to charge anymore once reaching 100%. there is a possibility that if this pin breaks, the phone will overcharge and pose a safety hazard. So this is why HTC batteries dont charge to true 100% and this particular pin is tweaked to full charge to only 80%
wheareas, mugen batteries ect do not have this safety regulation or charging limit although they are safe to use, so they seem to last 20% more than stock HTC battery because they fully charge to 100%.
Mugen or other reputed aftermarket batteries are more likely to wear out sooner than stock batteries unless depending on the quality of the battery..
in order to get yr HTC battery to full charge it u need to bump charge it.bump charging is a technique to fully charged the battery closer to its real capacity
to bump charge
1) fully charge the battery from 20% to 100% , as indicated by the phone OS
2) turn off the charger, turn on again, u will notice the phone charges again even though its 100% full for 1/2 a minute. wait for it to fully charge
3) repeat the above step 2) for 10 times
4)use a timer plug to simplify the process. Set the timer plug to on/off every minute for 10 times. u need to get a digital timer for this purpose with mutiple timer settings
Magpir said:
yr htc only charges up to 85% level even though the phone indicator shows 100%
when u unplug it from the charger, it immediately drains and stays at 80%.
THis is likely why the HTC phones have a shorter battery life, whether its android or windowsphone 7
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Click to collapse
Interesting. I noticed this with my HTC Mozart; battery indiactor drops one bar (to 80-85%) as soon as I take it off charge. Always assumed it was a WP7 thing - like it was drawing a lot of current.
Where did you get this info from? Looks like I'll be ordering a new (non-HTC) battery asap!
If it's true i won't buy a plug timer but a new battery, not from HTC...at least i hope it's true caus my battery capacity sucks and that gives me hopes, enjoying my hd7 more than a half day without plugging it (when it's possible)...so nuff thanks for the tip.
Sent from my HD7 T9292 using XDA Windows Phone 7 App
Funny, I have always done this with every device (maybe not the x 10 repeat!). never knoew that was the reason though thanks!!
not only HTC, there are couple of other devices like samsung galaxy ect
now u know why they claim mugen and other aftermarket batteries last longer...
mugen 1500 mah battery with the same size as the stock 1230 mah batt>
thats bull..because a 1500 mah battery looks much bigger ... the samsung omnia 7 has a 1500 mah battery and its 30% larger than than the HD7 battery....
Aphasaic2002 said:
Interesting. I noticed this with my HTC Mozart; battery indiactor drops one bar (to 80-85%) as soon as I take it off charge. Always assumed it was a WP7 thing - like it was drawing a lot of current.
Where did you get this info from? Looks like I'll be ordering a new (non-HTC) battery asap!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thats because the battery stops charging once it reaches 85%
u may have heard of the HTC bump charging technique. thats what this si all about , but u need to do it everyday, so get a timer plug and leave it to do its job overnight everyday
the best is to use a digital programmable timer plug .
Ok, had a google and looks like your post is only partially true:
http://phandroid.com/2010/12/25/you...is-lying-to-you-and-its-not-such-a-bad-thing/
Appears it's an issue with all smartphones, not just HTC! Also bump-charging will dramatically reduce battery life.
As someone in the comments says; why can't the phone just stop charging and switch to running wall power once battery gets to 100%, same as laptops? I assume this is what Apple do, as the iPhone doesn't suffer from the same issue.
Interesting because I have no problems with my battery doing that running Mango beta 7712 on my HTC 7 Pro.
The moment I take my battery off once it turns green, it stays at 100% for hours if there's absolutely no activity on it.
I think it's how far you guys are draining your batteries. Ever since I've gotten my phone, only twice did I push the battery lower than 15% charge; once on accident and another to recalibrate it. After that, I never pushed it lower than 15% and made sure to only recharge it after at least a good 20% of usage (days i feared i wouldn't be near a charger and needed full charge).
Granted, I'll add that it maybe be because I swap the battery out every other night with a spare, and if I do so I make sure there's between 50-58% charge left.
No bump charging either.
ScottSUmmers said:
Interesting because I have no problems with my battery doing that running Mango beta 7712 on my HTC 7 Pro.
The moment I take my battery off once it turns green, it stays at 100% for hours if there's absolutely no activity on it.
I think it's how far you guys are draining your batteries. Ever since I've gotten my phone, only twice did I push the battery lower than 15% charge; once on accident and another to recalibrate it. After that, I never pushed it lower than 15% and made sure to only recharge it after at least a good 20% of usage (days i feared i wouldn't be near a charger and needed full charge).
Granted, I'll add that it maybe be because I swap the battery out every other night with a spare, and if I do so I make sure there's between 50-58% charge left.
No bump charging either.
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yes its better to maintain 20% charge .
If u noticed the iPhone batteries wear out faster.
About year or so.
Just to confirm I have used the timer plug technique twice the last 2 days .
This is what I have
30% charge
8 hours since last charge
Moderate usage.
Somehow those who claim to use momax or mugen batteries claim to have the same results above .
the charge-controller is in the phone not the battery.
schranz01 said:
the charge-controller is in the phone not the battery.
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Click to collapse
apparently it still the battery...
up for awareness.....
My HD7 doesn't do this. Tried several times even over a 5 minute span keeping the battery indicator in view. It never dropped to 80%.
---------- Post added at 08:57 AM ---------- Previous post was at 08:54 AM ----------
Magpir said:
yes its better to maintain 20% charge .
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You should not let Li-ION batteries fully discharge, ever. It's good to keep it on a charger whenever you can, than keep it off a charger and let it fully discharge. That wears the battery out.
Also, there's no risk in overcharging the battery because almost all decent phones will stop charging when the battery is full. They know when to stop charging, just like they know when to alert you that the battery is fully-charged (via a notification and/or changing the LED Notification light color).
You actually can overcharge it by exposing a fully charged battery to higher temperatures - putting the phone in direct sunlight or setting it in a car holder in the way of hot air from the heater deflector while using Satnav, for example. In order to avoid these conditions, controllers do prevent batteries from 100% charge. That being said, I don't think there's a standard for marking battery capacity, and an honest manufacturer should put real effective battery assembly capacity accounting for those limitations, not the sum of capacities of included cells. Don't think they do it really.
vangrieg said:
You actually can overcharge it by exposing a fully charged battery to higher temperatures - putting the phone in direct sunlight or setting it in a car holder in the way of hot air from the heater deflector while using Satnav, for example. In order to avoid these conditions, controllers do prevent batteries from 100% charge. That being said, I don't think there's a standard for marking battery capacity, and an honest manufacturer should put real effective battery assembly capacity accounting for those limitations, not the sum of capacities of included cells. Don't think they do it really.
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Yea, its like computer hard drives and flash cards....Formated they never will be the size your quoted or paid for.
I wish there was standards for this and it's only sold on the actuall usable space or time.
N8ter said:
Also, there's no risk in overcharging the battery because almost all decent phones will stop charging when the battery is full. They know when to stop charging, just like they know when to alert you that the battery is fully-charged (via a notification and/or changing the LED Notification light color).
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It's actually still not good to leave li-ion batteries plugged in when they are fully charged and stopped charging. They will suffer from capacity loss that way as well. Not to mention any heat coming off the device.
Update: i did not bump charge today..
and the old symptom returned again.. draining fast

Battery bump

I give my phone a bump charge while at lunch it probably would last all night without this but I usually watch netflix so I have it plugged in..... Question is.... is this going to hurt my battery should I go 100 down to 0 or is bump charging OK
G-Nex baby
Letting your battery regularly drain to 0 is the worst thing you can do. Nothing wrong with a little charge mid-day at lunch.
Thank you
G-Nex baby
Letting your battery fully drain is GOOD and BAD. It's good because it keeps the battery fully calibrated (voltages and such), but a full charge is bad because of the longevity of high voltage which causes cell degradation, but to be honest, I have never actually used a phone long enough where the battery actually started to lose life from bump charging (having done it almost everyday win my Droid Incredible). It just really depends on whether or not you're willing to buy a new battery after 2 years of abuse. Assuming you're still using that phone.
To answer a multitude of questions on this subject
remember 10% is not 10% displayed charge. 0% is about 25% as manufacturers take into consideration battery technologies when designing them. it is also quite dangerous to charge from 0-20% on a Lion battery as the chemical reaction has to be reactivated. and over charging beyond the Cells 100% not the phones display, can cause a fire.
All calibrating does is make the battery indicator more accurate, it doesn't increase the charge, the supplied chargers and phone tech will not allow overcharging, and the phone will not discharge a battery to below 25% as battery discharge below 25% will damage the cells.
if you are interested look into Lion charging in the RC world. we need balancing boards with controllers when charging multiple cells, and we have to put them in fire bag just in case. it will give you a greater understanding of how lion and charging works.

[Q] \\ Charging the first time

i just got the phone yesterday (att) i charged the first time in 4hours , is that okay cause people told me that i needed to charge in +8 hours ,and now do i have to use the phone to die completely and charge it again or just need to low battery ? sr for my bad English
kevintran.98 said:
i just got the phone yesterday (att) i charged the first time in 4hours , is that okay cause people told me that i needed to charge in +8 hours ,and now do i have to use the phone to die completely and charge it again or just need to low battery ? sr for my bad English
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
here is the answer for your question:
Lithium-Ion - Li-ion batteries are the newer type of battery that are found it most newer cell phones (most definitely most, if not all, smartphones use Li-ion and many "dumbphones" use them too now). Li-ion can be thought of as "smarter" than NiCad batteries; Li-ion batteries don't suffer from the "memory effect" and thus don't need to be conditioned like NiCad batteries.
Rather, to condition a new Li-ion battery, fully charge it; it should be allowed to charge for 7-8 hours on the first, initial charge. In other words, when you get your new cell phone - and it has a Li-ion battery - allow it to charge for 7-8 hours even if the cell phone claims to be fully charged. (It is preferable to use outlet charger vs car charger or USB charging via computer because of the voltage difference.) After that, there is no reconditioning necessary for Li-ion batteries since they don't suffer from the "memory effect". However, be sure to avoid fully draining/discharging the Li-ion battery as much as possible; every time a Li-ion battery is fully discharged, it loses battery power and life. (That doesn't mean your battery will die if it is ever fully discharged; it means it is best to avoid fully discharging when possible.) Try to recharge Li-ion batteries when they are at 15-25%. Similarly, avoid heat as much as possible and when (if) storing Li-ion batteries, store them not at full charge.
Update: The only time you should ever intentionally fully discharge a Li-ion battery is if your phone is not properly reading the battery. In other words, if you go from 100% -> 90% in ten minutes but go from 90% -> 80% in one hour with the same amount of usage, that means your phone is not reading the battery output evenly. If this is the case, then fully discharging your battery once and then recharging it can fix the issue of your phone not reading the battery properly. Take note, however, this full discharge/recharge won't increase your battery life -- it will only ensure your phone reads the battery properly.
People often confuse Li-ion and NiCad batteries and try to condition Li-ion batteries by charging/discharging them 4-6 times. Trying to condition a Li-ion battery like it is a NiCad battery (i.e. charging/discharging the Li-ion battery 4-6 times) hurts the Li-ion battery more than helps it. So, be sure to condition your new cell phone's battery, but be sure to condition it properly. Otherwise, you may be doing more harm than good. If you are not sure what type of battery you have, read the labels on the battery - they will always say whether the battery is Lithium-ion or Nickel-cadmium. Good luck and may we all have long lasting batteries.
p.s. i got my one x yesterday too and is most beatiful phone in the world

Leaving phone connected after it finishes charging

I tether with my phone all day and I have to keep it connected because it drains the battery quick. Will it have any negative effects on the battery if I leave it connected even if its at 100%?
whytechapel_x said:
I tether with my phone all day and I have to keep it connected because it drains the battery quick. Will it have any negative effects on the battery if I leave it connected even if its at 100%?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I do the same and haven't had any ill effects, phone stays on charge at work all day
I believe the charger (and most, if not all, smartphone chargers) intentionally cuts out when the battery is saturated to prevent overcharging. Then top off again once the battery level drops a bit. In fact, on some devices (when attached to charger and fully charged) you will actually see the battery level occasionally drop to 99 or 98% then back up to 100% again. Although I haven't noticed this on the M8 yet.
You can get into a discussion of mini-cycles and other ill effects from keeping the device plugged in all the time. But just anecdotally I do this all the time (just leave the phone on charger overnight most nights) and haven't noticed much (if any) ill effect on battery life after owning 5 HTC devices, plus 2 Samsung tablets; most of which were used 1- 2 years each with very little if any decline in battery life over the time they were used.
Actually leaving the battery at full capacity all the time (if I understood your post) is bad for the long term health of the battery.
You need to find an app that cuts your charger off at 70-80%. Most modern laptops have this functionality built in for people that leave it plugged in all the time.
Heisenberg420 said:
Actually leaving the battery at full capacity all the time (if I understood your post) is bad for the long term health of the battery.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Technically, I would agree. And "best practice" is to cycle often and avoid leaving the phone on the charger when fully charged. But often folks (myself included) will not always follow what is best, and its not always feasible. As I've mentioned, after owning a decent number of smartphone and tablet devices and using then for 1-2 years, I haven't noticed much or any decline in battery life for the time I was using them (despite often charging them overnight). I have no doubt there might be some slight decrease, and especially of one intends to use the device for more than 2 years. But I personally never do (too much of a gear junkie) and also don't sell/trade my old phones.
Your point is a fair one, as it best the OP to know all the facts, risks, etc. and make his own conclusion. The following link has some interesting technical discussion on charging Li ion: http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/charging_lithium_ion_batteries
I bought an ampere-meter that measures current from the charge to the device and I have awesome news.
Li poly batteries have a very strict charging procedure (voltage and current should change during the charge). The original HTC charge charges flawlessly.
Once the battery tops up to 100% current drops dramatically.
If I do some power demanding task, the current goes up again. This means that all power consumption is taken from the charger, leaving the battery in 100% all the time, without jittering between 99-100%
NOTE:
Yet. The designers of the Li Poly define it as an electrical spring. This means there is no deterioration in the battery life AS LONG AS YOU DON'T CHARGE THE BATTERY OVER 4 volts.
100% is 4.2 volts, meaning you'd stop charging at 85% to prolong battery life.

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