Charging JBR | Rockbox doesn't agree with itself

[boxmonkey]

I'm having a possibly minor, possibly not minor problem with my JBR.
Version: r12762-070314 (p.s. having the version screen automatically flip to the credits after a few seconds makes getting this information very obnoxious!)

I have this version flashed, so this is what it's running no matter how it is started up.

Here's the problem: When I plug in my JBR 20 to the charger, it "boots up" into the special charging screen, which says my batteries are almost completely discharged, currently it says 9% and it slowly ramps up to about 30% and then wavers at that point going up and down but never really making it much ofer 30%. Now, from there, if I press "ON" and start up JBR the rest of the way, it shows that it's charging, and the number initially seems to agree, saying the batteries are at 9%. Then it quickly ramps up all the way to 100% and says it's trickle charging.

What's going on? Are my batteries in need of replacing? Why doesn't Rockbox agree with itself?

Any help would be appreciated!

[gnu]

As far as I know, the battery capacity detection in rockbox is working quite poorly on all targets.
-> try charging with the original firmware
-> or charge with rockbox and simply don't give a *** about what it displays.

[boxmonkey]

hmm, interesting. Good to know! I foolishly did not back up the original firmware, so I guess I'll just have to put up with it.

[TAC109]

Is your JBR v1 or v2?

Charging in the v1 is done by software (Rockbox), but in the v2 is done by the hardware (Rockbox just reports the state of charge).

[boxmonkey]

It's a v1.

[TAC109]

You could experiment by reverting to a known working version of Rockbox. I would suggest my version 2.5.1 http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php?topic=3075.0 which (among other things) fixes a charging problem in the last general release version 2.5. (This fix has been incorporated into the main Rockbox code).

If you still have the same problem, then your batteries may need replacing.

Unfortunately, I have not used any of the later versions of Rockbox on my v1 so I don't know how they perform in this regard.

[boxmonkey]

Ack! I am having a really hard time understanding how version support works around here. I WAS using 2.5 once upon a time, and when I asked for help with another issue they told me that 2.5 was ancient (even though it was the most current release) and suggested I download the most recent build. Which I did.

This is my one real complaint about RockBox: I don't know which version to use, or which version(s) the documentation applies to!
Is there a place to go to find more recent "known working versions"? I'll check out the one you linked to as well, I would just really like a way to keep on top of this...

[TAC109]

Well, you are free to use any version you want. Version 2.5 is the latest official release, and was a good release, apart from the charging bug which was fixed in the unofficial 2.5.1 release. If you want to use some of the later changes and enhancements you can use one of the daily builds, but these may contain bugs.

The documentation at http://www.rockbox.org/manual.shtml should refer to the latest daily build of Rockbox. There wasn't a manual released for version 2.5, but the 2.4 manual (http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/pub/Main/RockboxManual/rockbox-manual-2.4.pdf) along with the 2.5 release notes (http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/ReleaseNotes25) covers most things.

As far as support is concerned, you get what you pay for.  All development and support is provided by volunteers who do this in their own free time.

Regarding your original problem, if you suspect the batteries and don't want to change to a different version of Rockbox, you could remove them and charge them in an external charger. Some of the newer chargers will tell you if there is a problem with the batteries. Alternatively you could just try new batteries.