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An update on the Farphone's battery

far.computer

21–30 of 65 posts

Re: An update on the Farphone's battery

#21
post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The fact that they can doesn't mean they will. On older devices the controller might make some assumptions that holds true with a new battery, but very much doesn't with an old and worn one. My Macs have all been sensible about it, but I've seen Windows machines with batteries that just died from being plugged in all the time not even 10 years ago. Even if that specific instance was just a bad battery and not due to…

There’s basically zero risk for these cell phone batteries outside of freak accidents, speaking as someone who who’s been building packs since pouch cell Lipos first started coming out for model airplanes back in 2008/2009.. That’s because in a single cell configuration, there’s no way for the charge controller to run up an imbalance and overcharge one of the cells.

I somewhat agree with you. As my last comment suggests, I have a lot of experience running phones as AP’s including phones with dual cell configurations.

Where things go off the rails is situations where extreme heat can be present (shoving phone in direct sunlight in window with hot climate is a bad move) another thing they don’t tolerate well and people don’t talk enough about this is deep discharging the batteries frequently. This causes a breakdown of the SEI membrane and makes it so future recharging generates more heat and gas. This will cause expansion and might cause a short/failure if poorly designed (galaxy note 7).

Re: An update on the Farphone's battery

#26
post #2

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That's silly. Batteries don't like to be kept at 100% all the time, not unlike your lungs which doesn't want to stay filled all the time (which is uncomfortable for your muscles even if you ignore the carbon dioxide).

e.g.: MacBooks discharge the battery down to 80% by using the battery even if it's plugged in by citing "Rarely used battery", and keep the battery at 80% for at least half a day, then charge it again.

Li-ion is an adversarial chemistry. You need to take care of it or the battery bites back by puffing up or losing capacity very fast, or becoming an indoor firework.

Re: An update on the Farphone's battery

#27
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really, there was a brief excursion in kludging a ZTE MiFi device to use a DIY NiMh pack of AA cells when it refused to stop self-destructing its OEM LiPo batteries every summer. (I use a MiFi hotspot for a cheap security camera network) It worked as a stop-gap but I've since replaced it with a GL.Inet X300b ruggedized hotspot without any batteries. There's no UPS for now... if I went the route of wanting uninter…

Cheers, Thanks for the info.

I'm not sure how generally applicable it is. When you have several acres of undeveloped land full of sand at your disposal it's relatively trivial to dig a pit, mix some concrete from the sand you excavated, and pour a subterranean cellar to house a battery bank and other hazardous infrastructure. Nobody would even notice it happened/exists.

The situation is far more complicated for folks in apartments or high density housing.

Re: An update on the Farphone's battery

#28

I would have hooked the smartphone to a small solar panel. The natural daylight cycle would have made sure that the smartphone kept having charging and discharging cycles. I doubt the traffic hitting it would be sufficient to drain the battery overnight.

an even smaller https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/about/the-solar-website/ ?

Re: An update on the Farphone's battery

#29
post #5
post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For how long?

I have a fire tablet I hucked into my wall to use as a home assistant console. It's been in there for 5 years now, always plugged in.

Right, but, this is just a single data point anecdote, right? Let’s say for same of argument that there is a 5% chance of overheating in five years - and another sub-percentage where this causes a fire, depending on where it is plugged in.

95%+ of people would report “zero problems here, all concern is overblown”.

Safety doesn’t work that way?

Re: An update on the Farphone's battery

#30
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

" When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. 'That is idiotic; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3' can be shortened to '1 + 1 is 2, not 3. " https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

[flagged]

dang doesn't deserve any hate, and I bet the vast majority of us appreciate his incredible work.
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