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X5L Battery Meter with Rockbox

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paeuk:
Hi,

Hope this is the right forum for posting. Having read about RockBox in the Personal Computer World Mag (UK) I loaded it up yesterday on my X5L. Was really impressed. Thanks for all the work.

I just have a question about the battery meter and battery life on the X5L. I searched the forums and read some threads about it but didn't answer my question.

I understand the X5L port is only 10% complete on the power management.

What I discovered on my X5L when loading Rockbox (daily build 11th Nov) was that the original firmware battery meter had been showing about 25% remaining but when I loaded Rockbox is was showing about 80% full which was a bit concerning. I had set the battery capacity to 2250mAh - although changing the battery capacity seemed to make no difference on what the meter showed.

Hence my questions

1. Is the incorrect battery meter reading due to the current 10% implementation (i.e. something I can look forward to improving as the % implementation goes up)
2. With some people saying that battery life on the X5L using Rockbox is significantly shorter than with the original firmware is there any way to know what the battery % is in reality? I want to avoid "missing a charge requirement" and ending up with a heavily discharged battery which I read about in another forum. Is this really only possible by keeping an eye on the battery voltage (the boot up screen) and re-charging when it gets to about 3.17v? (correct voltage?)
3. Is it expected that when the power management is 100% that the battery life on the X5L is likely to be as good as with the original firmware? - or is it difficult to say?

Thanks again. Apologies about the long post. I've temporarily removed Rockbox from my X5L at the moment because of the above questions but look forward to using it again.

(I'm not a software developer so can't help - sorry).

Paul

LinusN:
The battery meter is incorrect because we haven't performed the needed measurements for the battery discharge curve.

The battery life with Rockbox on the X5L should be on par, if not better than the original firmware.

paeuk:
Ok. Thanks LinusN

Paul

CapnBry:
Actually after the 30 Oct 11:33   Mike Sevakis commit, my X5 battery meter reads 100% for a long time (from 4.19v all the way down to around 3.90v).  

My current Debug -> View IO Ports shows:
ADC_BATTERY = 29C
Batt: 3.91v 95%

EDIT:  Ah now I get it.  I thought you were saying "we" as in the rockbox software hadn't performed the needed discharge curve measurements, but you meant "we" as in the rockbox developers.  Code says:
    /* iAudio x5 series  - still experimenting with best curve */
// Lithium ion discharge curve
    { 355, 356, 357, 359, 362, 365, 369, 374, 380, 387, 395 }

Is there information we (users) can provide to help?

ehud42:
When I upgraded to the 2006-11-12 from the 2006-11-05 daily build I noticed that the machine would give me a low battery warning when in my opinion I still had a couple of hours or more of play back left on it.  My unscientific method of noting the displayed voltage on the boot up screen seemed to be that 3.5 v or so was the cut off.  

One of the reasons that I switched to rockbox was to see if I could improve the battery life and I think it did help.  At least that daily build has degrade the battery performance for me.  

I will be updating to the latest build to see if that helps and if there is any data that I can provide I would be happy to.  I am using the iaudio x5.

Thanks for the great work on this firm ware.

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