Calibrating the battery on an Android phone. Do it for a new battery?

[fuzzybabybunny]

I got a new extended battery for the Epic 4G and I'm running through the calibration process.

1. Charge the battery to it's max. Bump charging included.

2. Use Battery Calibrator app or delete battery stats in CWM.

3. Completely discharge the battery.

4. Repeat for a few rounds.

If I were to then switch back to a regular battery, would I have to do this all over again? And then when I switch BACK to the extended, do it all over again for that as well.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

Deleting battery stats does nothing to help your battery life. It doesn't effect anything at all.

But yeah, every time you switch batteries, you're going to see wonky reporting.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Deleting battery stats does nothing to help your battery life. It doesn't effect anything at all.

But yeah, every time you switch batteries, you're going to see wonky reporting.

A lot of people see improved battery life with the calibration. Seems the Android system shuts off based off of the reporting system, at least in my experience. I've had my phone die completely when it shows 20% left. I've had it go from 100% t0 10% in 3 hours and then refuse to run further.

 

[podspi]

A lot of people see improved battery life with the calibration. Seems the Android system shuts off based off of the reporting system, at least in my experience. I've had my phone die completely when it shows 20% left. I've had it go from 100% t0 10% in 3 hours and then refuse to run further.

Yea, I think there is some misunderstanding about what causes what. Battery calibration does not increase battery life in the sense that the battery has some actual capacity, and calibrating will not change that. It WILL improve the runtime of the system if the system thinks 20% is left when there is actually 50% (or more) left.


On my OG Droid, a situation like that would happen when switching from my normal battery to my extended one. It would shut down because it thought the battery was very low. I would reboot it, and it would show 70%. A recalibration fixed things right up.

Edit: And also yes, you might have trouble switching between batteries. I always did.

 

[fuzzybabybunny]

Yea, I think there is some misunderstanding about what causes what. Battery calibration does not increase battery life in the sense that the battery has some actual capacity, and calibrating will not change that. It WILL improve the runtime of the system if the system thinks 20% is left when there is actually 50% (or more) left.


On my OG Droid, a situation like that would happen when switching from my normal battery to my extended one. It would shut down because it thought the battery was very low. I would reboot it, and it would show 70%. A recalibration fixed things right up.

Edit: And also yes, you might have trouble switching between batteries. I always did.

Correct. And that's what I mean. At the end of the day it's all about runtime and to say that calibration does not improve battery life is simply arguing semantic. Everyone means runtime when they talk about battery life. We don't expect a software calibration to magically make a 1500mAh battery into a 2500mAh...

So back to my original question. I've properly calibrated my extended battery to hopefully provide maximum runtime. Say that I get sick of the added thickness and want to switch back to my regular battery. Does that throw everything out of whack?

And say that I've got the Samsung stock battery (calibrated) and then buy a second generic battery. When I swap in the generic, I'll have to calibrated *that* and lose the calibration on my stock battery, right? So at any one time, only one battery, the one that has been calibrated, will provide you with maximum runtime?

 

[blackangst1]

Battery conditioning is a hoax.

 

[dguy6789]

Battery conditioning is a hoax.

Calibrating and conditioning are completely different things. This thread is not about conditioning or burning in the battery itself or trying to get better battery life per say. This thread is about getting the Android OS to properly show you your battery percentage. Android will not show your battery percentage accurately right away if you switch between batteries of vastly different capacities. I can switch between my 2100MAH battery and my 3800 and take my 3800 down to 10%~. I can then reboot the phone and android will then say it has 50% left. I've done this a few times. Calibration is real.

 

[TerryMathews]

And calibration is especially effective on third party batteries, because % remaining is based on a.chart from the calibration data and the current voltage level. A third party battery, different mAh or not, is likely to drop voltage in a different manner than a stock battery.

 

[podspi]

Correct. And that's what I mean. At the end of the day it's all about runtime and to say that calibration does not improve battery life is simply arguing semantic. Everyone means runtime when they talk about battery life. We don't expect a software calibration to magically make a 1500mAh battery into a 2500mAh...

So back to my original question. I've properly calibrated my extended battery to hopefully provide maximum runtime. Say that I get sick of the added thickness and want to switch back to my regular battery. Does that throw everything out of whack?

And say that I've got the Samsung stock battery (calibrated) and then buy a second generic battery. When I swap in the generic, I'll have to calibrated *that* and lose the calibration on my stock battery, right? So at any one time, only one battery, the one that has been calibrated, will provide you with maximum runtime?

Sadly, yes, at least on my OG Droid. Just got a D4, but since that has a non-removable battery, battery calibration is not an issue. 😎

I use Battery Monitor Widget to estimate how much runtime there is left, and it can track multiple batteries (you have to tell it when you switch of course), but that does not affect the OS, just the widget.

Chances are you will have to recalibrate every time you want to switch. My advice is figure out what you want to do, and then just use the other battery as a backup. In my case, the stock battery for the OG Droid was good enough 90% of the time, and I only brought out the extended battery when I knew I would need it.

 

[Dulanic]

It can help and mostly in a way that if there aren't accurate battery stats then the % left can be wrong which can negativelly impact other aspects of the device. For ex samsung has battery saver mode which starts turning shit off etc... This is what my battery life looked like prior to recalibrating... the phone goes nuts trying to figure out the true amount left in the battery when I changed to a new battery.

So basic idea IMO is yes... it can help in the short term. But after a few days the phone will still figure it out on it's own anyways. Wiping stats just speeds it up. And the next day I pulled 24 hours without a problem... so I am a firm believer it does help and many devs agree.

 

[blackangst1]

Calibrating and conditioning are completely different things. This thread is not about conditioning or burning in the battery itself or trying to get better battery life per say. This thread is about getting the Android OS to properly show you your battery percentage. Android will not show your battery percentage accurately right away if you switch between batteries of vastly different capacities. I can switch between my 2100MAH battery and my 3800 and take my 3800 down to 10%~. I can then reboot the phone and android will then say it has 50% left. I've done this a few times. Calibration is real.

My bad. Youre right 🙂