Finally. Make your palm to work _HOURS_ more.

I

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I've been reading russian palm forum today, and found out, that some guy wrote program, called "Full Power" that can alternate low and critical tresholds of the battery.
And it means you can get many more hours of work time without even opening your palm!!.

I didn't do a complete test yet, (will do shortly), But It seems to work on my T3. I've tested it and got 2 hours after low battery warning, I could get more, but I decided to recharge, and make a complete test.

For those who don't know what is this all about, I will explain shortly:

When you think that battery in your palm is empty - you think wrong :D.
There is still convinient amount of energy is still remaining (from 30 to 60%) that you cannot use. The situation is extremely bad with T3 - which has very high critical voltage threshold (3.76v). Which means that when your T3 dies - thre is still close to 50% left.

So this programs enables you to change this value , and make your palm work many hours longer. But you need to consider that this may be dangerous. This is first beta. And if you set too low voltage - you loose your data (similair to hard reset).
Before this program, there were 2 programs (Tcpmp and ZdoomZ) which can it locally - which means you can play Tcpmp after critical battery, but you can't do anything else.
Now you can!.
Anyway, here is the link.
Make sure you backup befor try it.
http://www.mobile-stream.com/demos/FullPower.zip
 
junglemike:

There have been a couple of apps that allow you to change the critical voltage levels and as I recall one of them was SuperUtility from Handmark. There is at least one other than allows you to do it also, but I can't remember which (might be TealMembrain?) -

I've often wondered if the "low end" was indeed the low end, but it's one of the few things I decided (at least at the time) not to "mess with."

If you come up with an improved value that DOES NOT RESULT IN DATA LOSS (and I guess with most stuff in flash and a CardBackup you'd be fine anyway) - I'd be interested in experimenting with it. While I've never had power drop so low the T3 shut off, I would like to know if the "battery gauge" is affected by your adjustments -- in other words, if it's showing "half" without a tweak, would it then show "3/4 full" after the tweak because the linear depletion is improved? If so, that would add more "general accuracy" to exactly what you've REALLY got left, and might eliminate an hour on the cigarette charger unnecessarily. Cool!

If so, and in your view the "critical voltage" is set TOO HIGH ON THE T3, then by all means we could "eek" it a little and see if it improves performance. This would be especially helpful to those who (not recommended, I know) overclock their unit or those using it for longer periods (like your class lectures!!).

I'll visit this link and in the meantime people can check out SuperUtility6 (which was replaced for me long ago by other apps that do more) in terms of adjusting voltage level.

Anyone knowing any other apps that do this please post here, and thanks JM!
 

No, there was netheing for palm os5, i checked each and every one i could find (including what you mentioned)



yes, it does it , or at least "tries to". It adjusts percentage accordingly.




Hold on. I'll do some tests, and post the results.
 
Wow. Think you're right - "Battery" only SHOWS readings, and apparently SuperUtility doesn't allow an actual "tweak" either.

I'M SURE I REMEMBER an app that allows you to change the voltage - with warnings all over the place about "HEY! Be careful!" - I've got the palm app inventory from hell here, and can't find it . . . . you may be spot on about "Palm OS5" -- perhaps I'm thinking of an OS4 hack?

God I hate getting older . . . . . in the meantime, discussing "Full Power," what are "steps?":

 

No idea. I guess this is measurement resoltution.

As for the Palm low voltage threshold.
If you ask me - i think that it was stupid for P1 to set such high thresholds for T3.

as I understand, general purpose of leaving (in a mandatory way) some charge in battery would be useful to sustain your data in RAM while the unit is off. of course nobody wants his data lost after day left on table w/o charge. But P1 tried to make it "too good", which resulted in "too bad". I don's see a reason of leaving _half_ of the energy only for some emergency case, where you dishcarge your palm, than lieve it in closet for 3 weeks, and expect it to sustain it's memory.

And even if there is sence in it (i guess P1 engineers had their reasons) - than what i totally don't understnad , - is why there is difference between, for example T3 and T2. T2 has 3.71v lowest threshold, while T3 has 3.76???
These 0.05v may seem small to you, but look at this graph, that i made while testing TE discharging it till total zero, and measuring voltage:
http://img14.imgspot.com/u/05/147/12/TEdischargetest.jpg
And you will see that 0.05v - could be easily 40 min video play, or 2 hours book reading.

 
Rockin'! That's a keeper, thanks JM.

OK - so I'm assuming you're going to drop it .5 volt? Aren't you the genius (and I mean that honestly!) with 53 Sears Die-Hard Batteries crammed in your Palm??!! I recall reading your brilliant thread about modding a battery, but as noted above my "memory" has a lower threshold than 3.76v. . . . anyway, you're dealing with a STOCK T3 battery here, right? Not your "amped one?"

I'm wondering if I split the difference and get on with my day, if that would be detrimental - 3.73 for a week and see if it smokes? Whaddaya think, Captain? I'll be sure and load at least one other "battery measurement app" to check the results -

IMPORTANT: Would you recommend a CRADLE SOFT RESET to reset charging parameters? Also, "Warning voltage" is 3.78 - so if you drop the voltage to 3.7x, does the "warning" appear at a lower level too, or do you forego that? If I'm set at 3.73, do I get a warning at 3.71? Hmmm . . . . .
 
OK . . .

You have choice of 3.74 or 3.71, or 3.69 or lower. I chose 3.71.

I then checked with another app and it hadn't changed - still 3.78 warning, 3.76 critical. Confirmed with Filez.

I performed a soft reset, and "Full Power" had it back at original value of 3.76. I changed again, repeated check, and nothing - no change.

I've uninstalled both apps and will stick with the "norm."
 

0.5v - is not enough for me :-) I'll go for the extreme. I set minimum voltage allowed (3.20v) and testing both T3 and TE. This way i know When, and if T3 and TE looses any data.
My test is very close the the end. Will post the result in arund 6-10 hours.




Yes, i have 4.5 times larger battery (practically it's only 2-3 times). But it doesn't matter. Because what is important - is how much percentage one get from this hack.




That's right. Other apps do not see any changes. Don't know why since i'm not really into programming. But this is working - that's for sure. Results will come very soon.



That's right, soft reset brings all to default. I assume that if this app turns out to be useful - author will add enable/disalbe feature, as well as restor after reset feature.

 
This is a most interesting thread. I have long thought the battery management by the OS is a complete joke. The battery indicator is useless. I mean it only ever goes down in 3's or 7's or something. This is something PalmOne would do well to sort.
However PPC manufacturers do it, it works great. I can see my Ipaq battery steadily dropping , one percent by one percent, until the pda turns of at 0%. I can do anything i want up to that point. The % never increases, like it does so often on my T3, and it never drops suddenly.

Anyway, most interested in this program and will be happy to try it out. I figure it can't do much harm, except for loss of data.... You can't fry components by using too low a voltage can you?
 


OK guys, I have some partial results, but one thing i can tell you for sure
THIS IS BIG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Exact details of test i made.
I took Tungsten E (with default battery), and Tungsten T3 (with my custom battery). Charged them both overnight, than
set screen to _MAXIMUM BRIGHTNESS_ , launched PocketTunes, set repeat funtion, unchecked "turn off screen after...", and unchecked "stop playing after battery low". This means that it would play untill critical level is reached and palm is shut off. Cpu speed was default (400mhz on T3, adn 126 on TE). First, i performed the test without this FullPower. (it way yesterday night). Than i recharged both again, set shutdown voltage to minimum (3.20v) to test the limits, and started same test over again.

-=Tungsten E=-

Total time without FullPower:....... 3 hours 13 minutes.
Total time with Full power (3.2v)... 5 hours 1 minute.
Total gain: 56%
But percentage didn't work right on TE. Percentage was not updated, so when approaching 3 hours on second test, i got several low warnings, and finally number of critical warnings. (3.70v) But when TE passed 3.70v - it suddenly jumped to 100%, and stayed 100% all the time till 5 hours 1 minute. When voltage reached 3.21 v (lowest i could see) - TE just swithed off (no warnings at all) I switched it ON, it played for some more 3 mins, and switched off again (probably reached 3.2v again). Than i let it rest for couple of hours. Switched it on, showed 3.27v, and was working normally.
CONCLUSION: NO DATA LOSS, EVEN WHEN TESTED TO LOWEST VOLTAGE ALLOWED.

-=Tungsten T3=-

I didnt finish testing yet.
Total time without FullPower:...... 5 hours 18 minutes.
As i speak now, my T3 is already playing for 9 hours 19 minutes, and It's still showing 3.68v (51%)!!!!
When i said 6-7 hours before that by now my results will be ready, i underestimated FullPower. I'm going to sleep now, but meanwhile it's already 76% gain. I don't except to see such numbers on stock T3's battery, but it's not the point here. The point is gain compared to regular use.
Will report back tomorrow the final result for T3 (test is being recorded automatically). By tomorrow i will also have time-voltage discharge graph. And will know whether it lost data. So stay tuned :-)

 

My T3 test if finished.
If i say that I'm happy with the results - it woudln't express my feeling for even a quarter.

Here's the data:
Total time without FullPower:...... 5 hours 18 minutes.
Total time with FullPower:..... 10 hours 6 minutes!!!!!!
Total gain: 90.5%
But there was a data loss at the end, just like Sjweise. AT the end (7 min before shudown) it game me a warning, and lowest voltage T3 operated was 3.30v. In the morning, after recharge, it was just like after hard reset.
But this is not a problem at all. See why.

I also recorderd voltage drop over time (no percentage though, coz i could record only one value).
Take a look:
T3dischargefullpower.gif


As you see - discharge graph is not linear, In fact it is very close to TE discharge graph here After ~3.6v - voltage starts to drop very fast, and between 3.6 and 3.3 - there is almost no gain whatever.
This means that if you set up lowest voltage to 3.6v - you will make sure that you use close to 98% of battery power from one side, and that you are still very far from data loss from another side.
From this moment - Full power is permanent app on my palm, just like Tcpmp.
Thank you Mobile_Stream for this piece of art
 
At the risk of sounding unspeakably smug, you sould just buy a T5 with flash memory and avoid all these tedious problems.

Oh yes...

...that'd be the T5 everyone keeps saying is a load of *&$%?!!!
 
So you have narrowed the options down to spending $399 for an additional device that you don't need, or you can download a free utility. It really makes a lot of CENTS! Ha! Ha!:D

Seriously, I don't think the T5 is a bad device. I just prefer using the T3 because it meets my needs and does a great job of running the applications I need. I'll admit the T5 does not have as many application problems as it had when it was first released. If you read the posts that curse the T5, I think you will find they were posted before software developers started releasing patches to fix the T5's glitches. The number of people cursing the T5 is declining.
 
Follow junglemike's link at top of thread - NOW the zipped file is NEWER; app size has gone from 45k to 76k and obviously "newer," dated 6/14/05 (believe previous was 6/5/05).

Junglemike . . . is there any documentation for this thing other than the short "read me" included? If other programs will pick up the voltage changes, I'll take another stab at somewhat lowering/testing.

Thanks.

ADDENDUM:
http://mobile-stream.com/
Info on FullPower is at very bottom of page, center.

Zip file's Read Me states:

1. other battery proggies won't indicate changes
2. Perform UNINSTALL & soft reset on previous versions
3. This is version 1.05
4. Use the Uninstall drop-down menu to uninstall the proggie and SOFT RESET.
5. Default values are regained by soft reset.

I'm not sure how this proggie affects RECHARGING, if at all (does it take longer to show "full?" I have not elected to "disable all battery warnings," and perhaps JM can weigh in on whether that's appropriate.

Now we're getting somewhere! - I'm trying it at 3.55 right now. Will ignore other batt indicators/gauges, and Filez etc, and test this today. Should know by tonight.
 

Hi, how are you doing? :-)
Yes, you need slightly longer time to recharge ( up to 30% longer) if you enable FullPower.

Disabling warnings - is a good thing to do IMO. If you set lowest voltage to ~ 3.5-3.6v - you will have number of low and critical resets, which are always very annoying (also before FullPower existed). But be prepared to that your T3 can shutdown unexpectedly, without any notifications. Most chances you willnot be able to swith it back ON to get couple of minutes more. Only plugging the charger you will be able to continue work. If you ready for this - than go ahead and disable the wornings. Bu don't set voltage below 3.30v (even 3.40v) - or you will loose your data.
This program is real heaven for T3. All T3 users on rabroad, and on russian forum (where Mobile Stream posts) are reporting 50% increase or more.

 
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