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Everything with a battery should have an off switch

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Re: Everything with a battery should have an off switch

#521

Post by ClumsyPilot »

Nanite wrote: post #4

Examples lying around in my house: Bathroom scale: lovely it powers up when you tap it, but eats up 2 button cells a year for a few dozen uses a year Kitchen scales, bit more use, at least once a day but again 2 button cells a year electronic caliper: Same, eats up 1 button cell a year, just sitting in my toolbox Strangely enough none of our kids toys with batteries seem to suffer from this problem How much extra cos…

I try to avoid coil cells in all my devices - all batteries in my house are rechargeable.

That being said, there are rechargeable button cells and there is a button cell charger!

https://thepihut.com/products/lithium-ion-coin-cell-charger

Re: Everything with a battery should have an off switch

#522

Post by ClumsyPilot »

rightbyte wrote: post #135
CogitoCogito wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Kitchen scales, bit more use, at least once a day but again 2 button cells a year I had a kitchen scale that would eat through its battery pretty quickly (within a month) even when not being used. I figured it could be an interesting project to open it up and try to figure out where the stray power draw was happening, but the obviously correct solution was just to leave the battery cover off and pop it in and out f…

I have Sony WH-1000X M3 noise cancelling fancy pancy wireless headphones and they can't charge and be used at the same time either! It is lunacy. Is there some cracy cheap charging chip that has this drawback? The headphones were very expansive still ...

The electronics industry is sleeping on the job, because they have not defined standard sizes for consumer grade lithium batteries (that means with an inbuilt protection circuit). All headphones, etc. should be using standard batteries.

I have just replaced a battery on my laptop, it completely failed after 2.5 years of use - they are a consumable, not a durable good. All headphones, gaming mice, etc. are headed straight for the landfill when their battery fails, it is impractical to replace that inbuilt lipo cell as it has custom size and shape, etc.

I buy devices with replaceable batteries whereever possible.

Re: Everything with a battery should have an off switch

#523

Post by seizethecheese »

linsomniac wrote: post #373

Or, just make devices not so power hungry. I got this fancy tire gauge+filler. It uses a couple coin batteries. They live around 6 months with it "off". I use it a couple times a year, so basically every time I go to use it it is dead. Removing the batteries requires disassembly. A year or so ago I soldered in a couple AA batteries in place of the coin batteries, it's been good so far, but I'm waiting to see. On the…

It’s totally possibly to engineer devices that last a lot longer.

I’m currently working on a new device that will monitor my weight for 3 years without recharging. (It reads continuously, it’s a scale for Bottomless.)

Re: Everything with a battery should have an off switch

#524

Post by ClumsyPilot »

Robotbeat wrote: post #497
Nanite wrote: post #4

Examples lying around in my house: Bathroom scale: lovely it powers up when you tap it, but eats up 2 button cells a year for a few dozen uses a year Kitchen scales, bit more use, at least once a day but again 2 button cells a year electronic caliper: Same, eats up 1 button cell a year, just sitting in my toolbox Strangely enough none of our kids toys with batteries seem to suffer from this problem How much extra cos…

Someone at my work has a really nice electronic calipers that is solar powered (think like a calculator… low enough power requirement that ambient light is more than enough) and thus will effectively never need battery change.

That is really clever, should really be used more often.

When it comes to kitchen scales, most Kenwood food processors double as very accurate and premium kitchen scales with backlight, as as they are plug-in they don;t need battery - great option if you have the counter space - you just place a platform where the chopping bowl goes.

After someone nicked my electronic calipers, I got mechanical ones - they are perfectly adequate for all home use so far.

I used to use electric ones for 3D prints and designs, and haven't tries that since - might not be able to get the same perfect results with mechanical ones.

Re: Everything with a battery should have an off switch

#525

Post by wtetzner »

kemayo wrote: post #227
kyaghmour wrote: post #210

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's such a godawful book. In my view it epitomizes everything that is wrong with design today. And the worst part is that comments like these make it come off as the go-to reference to actually solving these problems. The reasons it's the worst design guidance out there is that it teaches: 1) that engineers should NOT be entrusted/involved with user design. 2) to conceptualize users as blissful idiots. 3) that obs…

> So this is what we actually get, devices that SILENTLY fail, designed for people who are assumed not to know what they're doing and who likely do NOT have any technically-literate person around them that could assist them if they could in fact identify the problem. It sounds like your complaint isn't with the advice from the book, but rather that Apple didn't follow it. They did hide away the error messages, but th…

Why not just include an error code and help and insight?

That way, when the help and insight inevitably fails to solve the problem at some point, the user can still dump the error code into Google to see if other people have run into/solved the problem.

Re: Everything with a battery should have an off switch

#526

Post by sedatk »

lizardactivist wrote: post #391

I'm thinking a lot about security aspects of this. If I turn off my iPhone, MacBook, or Google Pixel phone, are they really off? What are the security implications of "modern standby" on laptops where the CPU and WiFi are always on even after I fold the lid down?

> are they really off?

When my iPhone's battery is depleted the screen goes blank. If I try to turn it on, an empty battery logo appears and it says "Find My enabled" underneath. So, I assume not.

Re: Everything with a battery should have an off switch

#527

Post by Beltalowda »

karussell wrote: post #503
Beltalowda wrote: post #166

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know about the X13, but a lot of ThinkPads you can control the LEDs with some settings; /sys/class/leds/tpacpi::power/brightness on Linux (also some other knobs/LEDs in there). Thus far this has worked on every ThinkPad I've had; but again, I don't know if it will work on your X13 (or how to do it from Windows or other systems), but something to look at if you haven't already.

It would be great to disable it as it is really annoying but it does not seem to work. The file is readonly and it isn't recommended to change this: https://www.reddit.com/r/archlinux/comments/rnvgyc/how_to_di...

Looking at the Linux source "tpacpi::power" is in the "TPACPI_SAFE_LEDS" list; the setting mentioned in that thread only protects things like "tpacpi::dock_active", "tpacpi::dock_status1", etc.

I checked, and my kernel doesn't have that option, and I can change it just fine ("echo 0 >/sys/class/leds/tpacpi::power/brightness", as root of course).

Re: Everything with a battery should have an off switch

#528

Post by majewsky »

thfuran wrote: post #516
bombcar wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Many of these “auto zero” which is why you have to do the scale dance - tap it with your foot to turn it on, wait for it to say zero, then step on.

Went not just stand on it while it tares and ignore the negative when you step off?

All the digital bathroom scales that I've encountered refuse to display negative measurements.

Re: Everything with a battery should have an off switch

#529

Post by ClumsyPilot »

pards wrote: post #167
mod wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did the same! And now every time I go to use the thing I have to look up how to read it again. I don't do highly accurate work very often, obviously. I don't like buying non-rechargeable batteries, though, so cell batteries are out.

I bought an RF pet tracker last year that comes with rechargeable CR 2032 batteries and a charger [0]. The rechargeable batteries factored highly in my decision-making process. [0]: https://www.girafus.com/en/products/charger-batteries/

Also one sold by the Pi-hut: https://thepihut.com/products/lithium-ion-coin-cell-charger

After someone nicked my electronic calipers, I also got mechanical ones - they are perfectly adequate for all home use so far.

I used to use electric ones for 3D prints and designs, and haven't tries that since - might not be able to get the same perfect results with mechanical ones.

Re: Everything with a battery should have an off switch

#530

Post by ClumsyPilot »

Aardwolf wrote: post #9
Nanite wrote: post #4

Examples lying around in my house: Bathroom scale: lovely it powers up when you tap it, but eats up 2 button cells a year for a few dozen uses a year Kitchen scales, bit more use, at least once a day but again 2 button cells a year electronic caliper: Same, eats up 1 button cell a year, just sitting in my toolbox Strangely enough none of our kids toys with batteries seem to suffer from this problem How much extra cos…

Bathroom scales, kitchen scales and calipers all have versions that work without electricity and aren't much less convenient (if not more convenient since no waiting for electronics to boot up slower than they should or clunky menus)

Bathroom scales are one of the few devices where it's worthwhile to invest into a smart device with Bluetooth or Wifi

Regular tracking of your weight over years does provide valuable information about your health and no normal person regularly enter it into Excell

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