Battery "settings" in H320+rockbox

[gloco]

I've noticed that my battery life on my newly acquired H320 stinks...I get about 8 hrs with a full charge.  So I was scouting around in the menu system and came across the battery mah selection.  I bumped it up to 3200mah and now I have 20 hrs of playback...how the hell is this possible?  Should I knock it back to its standard 1300mah?  Just wondering...

Plus, I notice I can never get 100% charge on this bastage, it's always dropping to 97% quickly.  

[Yotto]

Do you actually *get* 20 hours of playback, or is it just *reporting* 20 hours of playback?  I believe that setting only affects the prediction of how much playback you have.

[bluebrother]

The battery setting is _only_ used for the runtime estimate, based on measurements. If Rockbox tells you to get 20h this is an estimate, and if you set your battery capacity to something that doesn't match your battery this will be completely wrong. Also, if your battery is olr (or, like in my case, a cheap replacement) it's possible that this value is also wrong.

You won't ever get longer playback by simply increasing the battery capacity setting.

[gloco]

The battery setting is _only_ used for the runtime estimate, based on measurements. If Rockbox tells you to get 20h this is an estimate, and if you set your battery capacity to something that doesn't match your battery this will be completely wrong. Also, if your battery is olr (or, like in my case, a cheap replacement) it's possible that this value is also wrong.

You won't ever get longer playback by simply increasing the battery capacity setting.

Ok, I figured it wasn't something that easy.  Is there a guide to replacing the battery in the H3XX's like with the H1XX's?  

[Llorean]

Have you actually *tried* to see how long the battery life lasts, or are you just trusting the estimates? I mean, you've already admitted you thought the estimate was realistic, but have you timed a full cycle of the battery to see if the low one is valid?

[Febs]

If you want a guide, there is a very good one in the H300 FAQ section at misticriver.net.

[gloco]

Have you actually *tried* to see how long the battery life lasts, or are you just trusting the estimates? I mean, you've already admitted you thought the estimate was realistic, but have you timed a full cycle of the battery to see if the low one is valid?

The battery drops a good 25% a day when playing back a mix of mp3's and flac's.  Is it possible for the battery to lose some of its charge if the H320 sat in a warehouse for an extended period of time?  

Hmm...is rockbox to the point where it doesn't eat up battery life on the H320?  Not sure where it stands in terms of battery life.  Maybe I should run a test this weekend with mp3's on repeat and see how many hrs I squeeze out of a full charge on rockbox vs. iriver's firmware.

edit:   thanks for the tip Febs!

[Febs]

1.  Rockbox gets better battery life than the original firmware on the H300.

2.  Yes, the battery can lose capacity by sitting unused.  You can get additional information from http://www.batteryuniversity.com.

3.  You can use the Battery Bench plug-in to test your battery life.