New iPod Classic 7th Generation Rockbox installation problem

[Crumdrop]

I just installed the latest version of Rockbox on my iPod Classic (120 GB, 7th gen).  All seems to have gone well except it now thinks my battery is low all the time.  It will run about 15 minutes and then shutdown.  The battery indicator shows about 10 percent or less all the time.  I know the battery is okay because if I reboot with the Apple firmware the battery indicator shows full.  It also appears that the iPod may not be charging or charging correctly when booted with Rockbox.  I have charged the unit completely in Apple firmware mode.  I then reboot with Rockbox and the battery indicator shows about 10-20 percent.  I start playing a song and after about 15 minutes it shuts down with a low battery warning.  It will always restart.  When I go back to Apple firmware the battery is just fine and it will run for 12-15 hours as usual.  Oh, I disabled Database Auto update as I saw on another post that this solved their battery issue.

[[Saint]]

It seems that the Apple firmware is more tolerant to voltage swings than Rockbox is, or is capable of dynamic reading and estimation. Rockbox makes a number of assumptions in this regard, which while badly calibrated for this specific device in terms of estimated time remaining (which doesn't affect actual runtime or percentile display), generally work out OK.

There's a couple of things you could try, but you might end up having to try both of them. One is delaying the first battery reading to ensure that the battery has settled after initial disk access and CPU boost draw. The other is outright lying.

Both are explained in this short thread, I even give a very specific example there for delaying reading specific to the iPod Classic. The outright lying will need trial and error depending on exactly how bad your battery is.


[Saint]