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Seidio 3500mah (my own tips)

B

BrianJB

Android Enthusiast
Over christmas I got the Seidio 3500mah battery. I have an unrooted evo, And I have to admit the new battery has been so much better than my stock battery. But I was still a bit disapointed with the 3500mah, I would still have issues with the battery being on the charger all night (phone being on or off) and taking it off the charger and the battery dropping from 100% to 90% within 20 minutes.

I had read and tried all of the battery tips (letting your phone charge till green,then shutting off phone and letting charge for 8 hours...pulling the battery..etc,etc)

The best result I have found to keep my battery at the highest charge has been to have an app that runs all through the night on while charging the phone. I (by accident) fell asleep with tuneinradio running while my phone was plugged in. And when I took the phone off the charger in the morning I noticed my battery didnt drop at all.


So last night I did it as an actual test with the following steps;

1.Plug phone into charger
2.Launch "Tuneinradio"
3.Left on charger for 8 hours (while I was sleeping)
4.After waking up shut off tuneinradio
5.Shutting off phone allowing to charge while off for 10mins


I am now unplugged for 1 hour, I have been on email,facebook and other various internet sites and my phone is still at 100%.


I know it sounds crazy, but it has worked for me. I have no idea if this works with the stock battery, but it does work with the 3500.
 
Interesting. I've never concerned myself with the immediate drop because it's never changed the fact that my Seidio lasts for two full days of my average and heavy use. Charging every other day is more than fine to me. I used to have to charge about every 10-12 hours.

I really feel like the power control written into the code on the Evo is simply not the best code. It's the reason all these methods for trying to get the best, most complete charge have been suggested.

The real fix/answer is for HTC to simply rewrite the code to allow charging until the phone senses no charge can be taken (like the trip sensor on a gas pump). I could care less about the warning/safety for low charge as long as the battery meter is accurate. I want my Evo work like my laptop - warn me when charge is low and let me take the risk of running it to empty or recharging.
 
I completely agree with what you say about the charging every other day. Because that is much better than worrying about carrying around your charger all day and hoping there is an open outlet.

But as far as the htc/evo charging thing, I have read a few things this past month that the batteries have an "over charging" chip inside of them which stops the phone from over charging the battery. And I've seen that someone made a rom (for rooted phones) that basically over-rides the chip and forces a charge. But many people have said that it has destroyed their batteries.
 
BrianJB said:
I completely agree with what you say about the charging every other day. Because that is much better than worrying about carrying around your charger all day and hoping there is an open outlet.

But as far as the htc/evo charging thing, I have read a few things this past month that the batteries have an "over charging" chip inside of them which stops the phone from over charging the battery. And I've seen that someone made a rom (for rooted phones) that basically over-rides the chip and forces a charge. But many people have said that it has destroyed their batteries.
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Batteries don't have chips in them. They simply have cells that hold and release charge. If the cell's empty, it will accept charge. If it's full, it won't. Multiple cells equal the battery. It's impossible to overcharge a battery.

What's not impossible is to have a battery overheat. When charging limits are completely removed, the excess energy/charge must have somewhere to go. Normally, excess is turned into heat. Removing all charging control (done on devices, not in batteries) simply means a lot of energy must be converted to heat. The conversion location is the battery.

As far as overriding the charging code on rooted phones, the override is on the phone telling it not to stop accepting charging current. Normally this would not be too much of a problem if people simply unplugged before too much excess heat buildup. Calculating when that is could be tricky, but I hardly think there'd be much risk if the calculation basically accounted for how fast the charge flows in to charge and at what amp/mah it's being drawn, how much the phone generally is using while charging, and how long it should take to charge given the rate of charge. Basically, (CA -UA) x T or charging amperage minus phone use amperage multiplied by the amount of time needed to charge given the known per hour charge rate.

I just wish the battery meter on the phone wasn't "calibrated" to the stock battery capacity (1500 mah). That's not really necessary so much as calibrating when a battery is no longer accepting enough charge that heat buildup can be expected.
 
"Batteries don't have chips in them. They simply have cells that hold and release charge. If the cell's empty, it will accept charge. If it's full, it won't. Multiple cells equal the battery. It's impossible to overcharge a battery."

What do you mean batteries dont have chips in them? You mean all these ads are lying about those batteries having some kind of protective chips in them?
 
I stand corrected. I was referring to them not having memory, but chip is incorrect. LI batteries have the chip to prevent full discharges not overcharges. Full discharge kills LI batteries completely.
 
Rigmaster said:
I stand corrected. I was referring to them not having memory, but chip is incorrect. LI batteries have the chip to prevent full discharges not overcharges. Full discharge kills LI batteries completely.
Click to expand...


I dont know, according the the article & xda the chip is called "overcharge protection chip"

But I dont understand what you are saying, you said you "stand corrected" but then you say you were referring to them not having memory.

Either way I guess that the evo *stock* battery does have the overcharge protection chip. I dont know if the seidio battery has the same chip or not.
 
i use the trickle charge kernel with my 3500 and it has never over charged or gotten hot, and it charges overnight.
 
BrianJB said:
I dont know, according the the article & xda the chip is called "overcharge protection chip"

But I dont understand what you are saying, you said you "stand corrected" but then you say you were referring to them not having memory.

Either way I guess that the evo *stock* battery does have the overcharge protection chip. I dont know if the seidio battery has the same chip or not.
Click to expand...

I'm saying that what's in the batteries isn't "memory" but how I said it wasn't clear. Over/underprotection it is, but memory it is not. It's a circuit that stops current flow if the battery is discharged near to the point of full discharge (at which point the battery becomes useless) and overcharge (at which point the battery overheats).

Memory effect in batteries is the repeated charging of batteries at a specific that when done multiple times then reduces the charging capacity of the battery. It's like if there was a learning-capable automatic soda fountain dispensed 20 ounces to fill a large empty cup had circuitry that allowed it to fill based on the last 10 fills. If those fills were only partial as in 12 ounces, then the fountain would reset itself to 12 as a full fill, thus rendering the 20 ounce cups useless. In the case of older technology batteries, it was a one-way process. That would mean the automatic soda fountain would never be able to fill past 12 ounces.

This started with me suggesting that when normally used in conjunction with the battery management code written into the Evo, it's not likely that any other special precautions need to be made for charging as it's unlikely that regular charging and use will ever bring overcharging and full discharge into play.

I never agree with suggestions of full discharge of batteries (even though they have circuitry built in to prevent full discharge) because charging down to the point of not being able to view/use the phone isn't necessary.

I don't constantly top off either like HTC recommends. Battery makers don't make them thinking people are going to be topping off at every available opportunity.
 
I've always charged my batteries overnight every night even if they didn't need it because lion batteries don't have the memory issues that batteries did 15 years ago. I've also only had one phone battery need replacing. Of course it was after 10 years of 5 day a week constant useage but I suppose that's beside the point.
By the way I always heard the "overcharge" protection was actually thermal protection but I guess they do the same thing anyway. There's definitely something in there but it isn't like a mini-computer or anything, it's just like a temp sensor or fuse or something.
 
I have the 3500mah battery as well, and always had the problem where after a full over night charge, the battery would drain to 70% within 20 minutes or so. Using the method described by the OP, but using DI Radio app, my battery won't drain to 70% until at least after 2-3 hours. This is a really good method and seems to be a good work around with whatever faulty system that tells the EVO to stop taking in more charges.
 
rsamurai said:
I have the 3500mah battery as well, and always had the problem where after a full over night charge, the battery would drain to 70% within 20 minutes or so. Using the method described by the OP, but using DI Radio app, my battery won't drain to 70% until at least after 2-3 hours. This is a really good method and seems to be a good work around with whatever faulty system that tells the EVO to stop taking in more charges.
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Thanks, this is the method I used until I bought an additional 3500mah battery with an external charger. It seems that the external charger works a little better than my OP.

But if you dont wanna spend the extra money on the external charger,running a streaming app while charging does seems to work. I think it has something to do with when the phone is idle and charging once it gets to 100% it drops down to a certain point and then starts charging again at that point.

I think with an app that is constantly running its more likely to keep the battery at a higher charging refresh rate. Therefore topping off the battery better.
 
calvinrw said:
Would the radio app that comes with the Evo work just as well?
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Yeah, im sure its all the same. As long as its something thats constantly streaming. Heck even if you had a video playing on loop all night im sure it would work the same.
 
The Seidio 3500 mAh battery fixed the biggest problem I had with the EVO.

I wouldn't recommend defeating the chip designed to protect the battery, though.
 
My guesses on possibly why this solution might work: 1) It's not, but wishful thinking is tricking us into believing it does. Anyone done real testing on this and come to a conclusion with results to share? 2) The power management code assumes discharge and charge rates that are probably closer to max rates than they are in real-world performance leaving a gap that allows better "topping off" or charging past the point of normal phone-induced charge cut off.

Either way with or without this technique, I get the same amount of use. I still think simply charging overnight (phone on or off, but I turn off) is plenty to get a full, heavy days use or two days of normal use. How much I stream pretty much has the most impact on battery level. Love TuneIn Radio, but I wouldn't without my extended battery.
 
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