Develop Bugs

[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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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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not really, you should avoid deep discharges...

Byr0x said:
not really, you should avoid deep discharges...
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+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.
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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

Best advice for sharging battery for first use out of box?

so what is the best thing to do?
is there any way of charging,dis charging ect to get the best battery life?
or should i just charg it to 100% and use it right away?
i did a charging squence with my nexus s. but duno about the Gn.

for me is to turn on the device and start working until the battery drops to 0-1%.
only then im charging it X2 then needed to go to 100%, you can make it Double if you want.

Well, this is going to be one of those threads where everyone has their own little way to care for a battery and others say their way is better, etc, etc the arguments breaking out which will result in people posting www.batteryuniversity.com in an effort to win said arguments.
Here's mine. On a brand new phone, I put the battery in, boot up, connect the charger, run it to 100%, disconnect charge, run battery all the way down, connect the charge, run to 100% and go about my life charging when I need to.
My two cents. Have no idea if it does any good, but my SGSII is going on 1 day 14 hrs on a single charge, so it must work somehow...

ericshmerick said:
Well, this is going to be one of those threads where everyone has their own little way to care for a battery and others say their way is better, etc, etc the arguments breaking out which will result in people posting www.batteryuniversity.com in an effort to win said arguments.
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100% Agree. There will be a lot of different opinions.
ericshmerick said:
Here's mine. On a brand new phone, I put the battery in, boot up, connect the charger, run it to 100%, disconnect charge, run battery all the way down, connect the charge, run to 100% and go about my life charging when I need to.
My two cents. Have no idea if it does any good, but my SGSII is going on 1 day 14 hrs on a single charge, so it must work somehow...
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My way,
Turn on phone, charge it to 100%, leave it plugged for an extra 20 min, and start using it normally.
The only time I discharge a battery is after a couple of months. Because we never charge it to 100% and they start creating memory and charging less and less every time. The purpose of discharging it completely is to erase its memory. That's why when it is new, I see no point on discharging it completely. Batteries suffer every time they are completely discharged and if they are left 100% for a long period of time, thats why new batteries always come charged about 50%, to extend battery life since they may be stored for a long period of time. (ref. aviation school)
Just my 2 cents.

sstang2006 said:
The only time I discharge a battery is after a couple of months. Because we never charge it to 100% and they start creating memory and charging less and less every time. The purpose of discharging it completely is to erase its memory. That's why when it is new, I see no point on discharging it completely. (ref. aviation school)
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That hasn't been true since NiCd's in the 1980s.
Modern Lithium-Ion and Lithium-Polymer batteries have no "memory" and are actively damaged if allowed to discharge fully.

HooloovooUK said:
That hasn't been true since NiCd's in the 1980s.
Modern Lithium-Ion and Lithium-Polymer batteries have no "memory" and are actively damaged if allowed to discharge fully.
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OK, I may be wrong I'm no expert.
Why do people keep discharging them to 0% if they have no memory? (I'm not been sarcastic)

sstang2006 said:
Why do people keep discharging them to 0% if they have no memory? (I'm not been sarcastic)
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Generally because they don't know any better and they don't realise battery technology has moved on.

Because batteries "back in the days" were quite sensitive to memory. That's why we were all raised by the complete-discharge-mantra, which sticks with you forever. The next generation won't have this problem and will feel free to charge their phones when they want to. ;-)

sstang2006 said:
OK, I may be wrong I'm no expert.
Why do people keep discharging them to 0% if they have no memory? (I'm not been sarcastic)
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Becouse android in itself keeps a battery log, it is from this log your device calculates the amount of battery you have left. To keep these values true (calibrated) you should do 2-3 cycles where you on purchase, discharge fully until device auto shut down, start it WITHOUT charge a couple of times and let it die to set the min value, charge up to 100%, use your device again till auto shut down... you dont have to worry about damaging your battery in this case since your device it programmed to shut down with good marginal of battery depletion. What you SHOULD NOT do is leave an empty battery uncharged for a long period of time.
Sent from my X10i using xda premium

Lithium batteries will be damaged if they are stored fully charged or fully discharged for extended periods of time. Thats why the battery is about half charged when its new. They have no memory effect, they just loose capacity.
Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk

Tjotte said:
Becouse android in itself keeps a battery log, it is from this log your device calculates the amount of battery you have left. To keep these values true (calibrated) you should do 2-3 cycles where you on purchase, discharge fully until device auto shut down, start it WITHOUT charge a couple of times and let it die to set the min value, charge up to 100%, use your device again till auto shut down... you dont have to worry about damaging your battery in this case since your device it programmed to shut down with good marginal of battery depletion. What you SHOULD NOT do is leave an empty battery uncharged for a long period of time.
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Good point. While it's important not to fully discharge the battery too often, there is also the issue of calibrating the battery meter.

ericshmerick said:
Well, this is going to be one of those threads where everyone has their own little way to care for a battery and others say their way is better, etc, etc the arguments breaking out which will result in people posting www.batteryuniversity.com in an effort to win said arguments.
Here's mine. On a brand new phone, I put the battery in, boot up, connect the charger, run it to 100%, disconnect charge, run battery all the way down, connect the charge, run to 100% and go about my life charging when I need to.
My two cents. Have no idea if it does any good, but my SGSII is going on 1 day 14 hrs on a single charge, so it must work somehow...
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That's exactly what I do, had 14 hours of moderate use today and still had 45% left. More than happy with that. It seems to be getting better each day at the moment.

Crin said:
That's exactly what I do, had 14 hours of moderate use today and still had 45% left. More than happy with that. It seems to be getting better each day at the moment.
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78% after 14 hours here, but that's light use.

sstang2006 said:
OK, I may be wrong I'm no expert.
Why do people keep discharging them to 0% if they have no memory? (I'm not been sarcastic)
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The whole "discharging the battery fully" thing doesn't really apply here - because nobody will ever fully discharge it. The Nexus uses a Lithium Ion cell - it's a single cell, with a nominal voltage of 3.6V. When fully charged, it peaks at 4.2V (at which point, the charging circuitry cuts off to avoid overcharging). However, when we "fully discharge" our phones, the cell only goes as low as 3.5V - and then the phone shuts off.
In reality, lithium cells can discharge to around 3.0V before any damage occurs. However, this would yield very little extra battery life. Stopping at 3.5V provides a wide safety margin (lithium cells are potentially dangerous if overcharged/discharged), whilst extending cell life.
In a nutshell - don't worry about running your phone down to 0% (unless you're putting it in storage, in which case leave it at about 60%). In fact, it's a good thing with a new phone, as cycling (charging and discharging a cell) helps to "wake" the cell up and reach it's max capacity more quickly.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using XDA App

i see some good ideas about charging and discharging.
but it is indeed a fact that 100% and 0%(real) isnt good for our new race of battery's.
but a few posts here already tell how and what.
and its not gonna be a thread of arguments and stuff,if we all keep it in our heads that we just want to share our tip's of how you think its the best way(and have some experience with it)
just to share some info. and not compete the info against each other.
i well know there are different ways. but its always nice to read what experience people have with it to make a choice for my own and any other wanting to know this.
and i posted here in the GN section,instead of the Android section because each phone handles battery different,and this narrows the options down to a single device :3

Just keep in mind it's not just about the battery itself it's about the software registering how much actual power the battery has at a certain time, so if the battery has in actuality 100% charge in it, and the software reads 80 then your phone will die out sooner. So charging and discharging is good because it calibrates the hardware with the software. Just remember to switch off the device then charge it so the software doesn't auto discharge when it thinks the battery reached 100%.

K i just skipped thru the posts, gonna throw in my input real quick.
Basically just run down the battery. Once it turns off, hold the power button to make sure all the juice is gone. Then charge it up to 100% and leave it there for a good hour. Now (root required) download https://market.android.com/details?...yLDEsImNvbS5uZW1hLmJhdHRlcnljYWxpYnJhdGlvbiJd and follow the instructions .. its not exactly necessary but a nice thing "just in case" .
thats my plan anyways.

Nutsonfire said:
Lithium batteries will be damaged if they are stored fully charged or fully discharged for extended periods of time. Thats why the battery is about half charged when its new. They have no memory effect, they just loose capacity.
Sent from my Nexus S using Tapatalk
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Where does the loosed capacity go? Can it be caught?

And what do you think about charging with the phone being switched on? Is it better to have it switched off?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

juniorbattle said:
And what do you think about charging with the phone being switched on? Is it better to have it switched off?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
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Won't make a difference.. Phones are designed to be left on anyway.

[Q] Phone uses 2% battery every 15 minutes

My phone seems to be using 2% battery every 15 minutes on standby, worse when its on.
When I check what is running, it says Android OS 50%...... what can I do? I usually charge my phone three times a day.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

I use a variety of apps to check what is going on with my phone.
Watchdog - monitors apps for excessive cpu usage
Cpu spy - see how long your phone stays at each frequency, but more importantly in deep sleep.
Battery monitor widget - monitors battery usage
System tuner pro - get detailed analysis of a recorded system usage.
Also, when in battery usage, I click android os to see how long it has kept your phone awake. Have you made any changes to your phone? Installed a custom ROM?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

Also...give it a few days of charge-ups. It really does make a difference.
FWIW, with moderate use, my Droid Charge 4G does about 10-15% every hour. So I don't even think 8%/hr is that bad... :/

no changes to the phone, its all stock. Any benefits moving to a custom ROM on the nexus?
I've had the phone for two weeks, battery has deteriorated. Now charge it three times a day.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

Crazy CS said:
no changes to the phone, its all stock. Any benefits moving to a custom ROM on the nexus?
I've had the phone for two weeks, battery has deteriorated. Now charge it three times a day.
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
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You probably never calibrated it properly to begin with. Charge to 100% > unplug > wipe batterystats.bin > let the battery drain completely until the phone powers off. Then charge it continuously over night and in the morning unplug and let the phone drain completely until it powers off.
I am a pretty heavy user as I text literally every 2 minutes all day (girlfriend ) and I manage to get 20-25 hours easily.
I also drain my battery out completely every day for good measure
Charging in between screws up your calibration, try not to charge unless you are below 15%. And do not disconnect it until it is fully charged (98-100%).
Note: I've also noticed wifi saves you a lot more battery juice than being on 3G/4G, so keep your wifi active if you are in range

KiNG OMaR said:
I also drain my battery out completely every day for good measure
Charging in between screws up your calibration, try not to charge unless you are below 15%. And do not disconnect it until it is fully charged (98-100%).
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This is just not accurate for Lithium Ion batteries, which have no cell memory and gain more from frequent shallow charges than deep charges.

krohnjw said:
This is just not accurate for Lithium Ion batteries, which have no cell memory and gain more from frequent shallow charges than deep charges.
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Not to mention draining a Li-ion past 5% can shorten the life of the battery.
Further Li-ion's have a lifespan measured in cycles. You get about 500 cycles on a typical Li-ion. A cycle is a drain and charge. If you use 50% of the charge and then recharge to 100% you only use half a cycle. By needlessly draining the battery you are using up limited cycles reducing the life span of the battery.
While I'm sure android's calibration needs to know the upper and lower boundaries of a charge I'm certain it would be smart enough to handle charges when the battery isn't completely drained. Most battery calibrations work this way. Every once in a while you need to charge to 100% drain to 5% and recharge without using to 100%

Wheres battery stats.bin located?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium

Crazy CS said:
Wheres battery stats.bin located?
Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using xda premium
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Clockwork Recovery -> Advanced.
.. file is in /data/system i believe

its probably a bad app working with ICS.
Use watchdog and it will tell you.
Check your widgets that they aren't constantly refreshing.

Am I damaging the battery?

so I got Need for speed for my Xperia S (great game by the way, would recommend) the only problem is it is un UTTER battery drain, I'm talking rapid draining even having the screen brightness on low. Do you think the battery is getting damaged by my heavy use in this way? I'm charging it to full, playing it for a good hour and then it needs to be recharged so I plug it in.
cheers

adsada arc said:
so I got Need for speed for my Xperia S (great game by the way, would recommend) the only problem is it is un UTTER battery drain, I'm talking rapid draining even having the screen brightness on low. Do you think the battery is getting damaged by my heavy use in this way? I'm charging it to full, playing it for a good hour and then it needs to be recharged so I plug it in.
cheers
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No you are not damaging the battery. Hd games drain your battery. Dont worry it happens with every phone. Please post questions in question and answer section.
Sent from my LT26i using xda app-developers app

How about if I play while the phone is charging, does this affect it in any way, like how with a laptop you should take out the battery if its plugged into the wall to extend the battery's life?

adsada arc said:
How about if I play while the phone is charging, does this affect it in any way, like how with a laptop you should take out the battery if its plugged into the wall to extend the battery's life?
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No it wont affect your battery...I have been doing that for the past 10 months
Sent from my LT26i using xda app-developers app

It's a difficult question. From one perspective it's better to keep the phone plugged in because a Li-ion battery has a finite amount of recharging cycles. The worst thing you can do is to completely discharge your battery, then completely charge it again and so on several times. Which is what you've been doing and these are wasted recharge cycles.
But constantly charging your phone will also make it hotter and that combined with an intensive game will make your phone too hot, which might result in some components overheating and a reduced life expectancy.
So I'd advice to keep your phone plugged in if possible, but don't play for hours.
When you compare to laptops, it's indeed better to remove the battery when you're plugged into the wall (keep in mind that the battery doesn't lose its charge though, there's nothing worse for a Li-ion than being completely empty). But there's no phone you can run without a battery so you can't do that . It's also a question of luck. I never remove my laptop's battery and it still easily lasts 2 hours after having it for 2.5 years and using it a LOT (when plugged in mostly). It was just a cheap laptop with a 6 cells battery. Most of my friends that have a laptop that old or older (and also more expensive) can barely keep it charged for more than 10 minutes now.

No,
nowadays you can't damage your battery in any way as I know.
But it is recommended to charge your phone to 100% and turn all notifications off then let it on sleep mode till your Phone is going off by itself.
This doesn't improve the Battery lifetime or something like that but it is recommeded

thanks for the advice everyone

Battery Charging Cycles

hello guys. i have this question in my mind, what is the best time to charge our phone? i do have XSL. at what battery percentage should we charge our phone? i want to maintain the battery health of my phone that's why i want to know what is the best time. i read that others say it must be 40%-80%, others say it must be 30%-80%.
i do charge my phone if it reaches 20% and below and charge it fully up to 100%. i also read that it is not nice to charge the phone everyday up to 100%. will someone please tell me the right way on how to charge our phone to achieve its maximum capacity and durability?
thanks!

Sony says that you can charge your battery everyday and this won't destroy your battery.
Sent from my LT26i using xda developers-app

I wrote an email to Sony support after I had problems with battery percentage reading (phone jumping from 15 to 1%) and they added recommended charging cycles.
They told me it's best to charge when the phone hits 50% if it's possible and charge up to 100, and that it's better to charge your phone when ever possible instead of waiting till the battery runs low.
Still, I connect my phone when I get home from work and it is always around 20-30% at that time and only once per day simply because I don't have time to charge my phone during the day.
Sent from my LT26i using Tapatalk 2

Vaith said:
Sony says that you can charge your battery everyday and this won't destroy your battery.
Sent from my LT26i using xda developers-app
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Fully agreed what Vaith said.
Don't worry about charge cycles.

so i must not worry if i charge my phone when it reaches 20%? so i can charge it everyday without following any battery percentage?

sarkissmae said:
so i must not worry if i charge my phone when it reaches 20%? so i can charge it everyday without following any battery percentage?
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Your battery your rules
Sent from my SoftwinerEvb using xda premium