Finally. Make your palm to work _HOURS_ more.

[I <3 to travel!]

I've been reading russian palm forum today, and found out, that some guy wrote program, called "Full Power" that can alternate low and critical tresholds of the battery.
And it means you can get many more hours of work time without even opening your palm!!.

I didn't do a complete test yet, (will do shortly), But It seems to work on my T3. I've tested it and got 2 hours after low battery warning, I could get more, but I decided to recharge, and make a complete test.

For those who don't know what is this all about, I will explain shortly:

When you think that battery in your palm is empty - you think wrong .
There is still convinient amount of energy is still remaining (from 30 to 60%) that you cannot use. The situation is extremely bad with T3 - which has very high critical voltage threshold (3.76v). Which means that when your T3 dies - thre is still close to 50% left.

So this programs enables you to change this value , and make your palm work many hours longer. But you need to consider that this may be dangerous. This is first beta. And if you set too low voltage - you loose your data (similair to hard reset).
Before this program, there were 2 programs (Tcpmp and ZdoomZ) which can it locally - which means you can play Tcpmp after critical battery, but you can't do anything else.
Now you can!.
Anyway, here is the link.
Make sure you backup befor try it.
http://www.mobile-stream.com/demos/FullPower.zip

[lil_lady]

junglemike:

There have been a couple of apps that allow you to change the critical voltage levels and as I recall one of them was SuperUtility from Handmark. There is at least one other than allows you to do it also, but I can't remember which (might be TealMembrain?) -

I've often wondered if the "low end" was indeed the low end, but it's one of the few things I decided (at least at the time) not to "mess with."

If you come up with an improved value that DOES NOT RESULT IN DATA LOSS (and I guess with most stuff in flash and a CardBackup you'd be fine anyway) - I'd be interested in experimenting with it. While I've never had power drop so low the T3 shut off, I would like to know if the "battery gauge" is affected by your adjustments -- in other words, if it's showing "half" without a tweak, would it then show "3/4 full" after the tweak because the linear depletion is improved? If so, that would add more "general accuracy" to exactly what you've REALLY got left, and might eliminate an hour on the cigarette charger unnecessarily. Cool!

If so, and in your view the "critical voltage" is set TOO HIGH ON THE T3, then by all means we could "eek" it a little and see if it improves performance. This would be especially helpful to those who (not recommended, I know) overclock their unit or those using it for longer periods (like your class lectures!!).

I'll visit this link and in the meantime people can check out SuperUtility6 (which was replaced for me long ago by other apps that do more) in terms of adjusting voltage level.

Anyone knowing any other apps that do this please post here, and thanks JM!

[thegreengecko]

http://www.mikemccollister.com/palm/

Here's a page with a battery tweaker; followed by ANOTHER freeware app I love called CCrypt - I can certainly recommend the 2nd one.

[post 09]

No, there was netheing for palm os5, i checked each and every one i could find (including what you mentioned)



yes, it does it , or at least "tries to". It adjusts percentage accordingly.




Hold on. I'll do some tests, and post the results.

[Agata]

Wow. Think you're right - "Battery" only SHOWS readings, and apparently SuperUtility doesn't allow an actual "tweak" either.

I'M SURE I REMEMBER an app that allows you to change the voltage - with warnings all over the place about "HEY! Be careful!" - I've got the palm app inventory from hell here, and can't find it . . . . you may be spot on about "Palm OS5" -- perhaps I'm thinking of an OS4 hack?

God I hate getting older . . . . . in the meantime, discussing "Full Power," what are "steps?":

[kanebigredmachine]

No idea. I guess this is measurement resoltution.

As for the Palm low voltage threshold.
If you ask me - i think that it was stupid for P1 to set such high thresholds for T3.

as I understand, general purpose of leaving (in a mandatory way) some charge in battery would be useful to sustain your data in RAM while the unit is off. of course nobody wants his data lost after day left on table w/o charge. But P1 tried to make it "too good", which resulted in "too bad". I don's see a reason of leaving _half_ of the energy only for some emergency case, where you dishcarge your palm, than lieve it in closet for 3 weeks, and expect it to sustain it's memory.

And even if there is sence in it (i guess P1 engineers had their reasons) - than what i totally don't understnad , - is why there is difference between, for example T3 and T2. T2 has 3.71v lowest threshold, while T3 has 3.76???
These 0.05v may seem small to you, but look at this graph, that i made while testing TE discharging it till total zero, and measuring voltage:
http://img14.imgspot.com/u/05/147/12...chargetest.jpg
And you will see that 0.05v - could be easily 40 min video play, or 2 hours book reading.

[Sfddfdaf]

Rockin'! That's a keeper, thanks JM.

OK - so I'm assuming you're going to drop it .5 volt? Aren't you the genius (and I mean that honestly!) with 53 Sears Die-Hard Batteries crammed in your Palm??!! I recall reading your brilliant thread about modding a battery, but as noted above my "memory" has a lower threshold than 3.76v. . . . anyway, you're dealing with a STOCK T3 battery here, right? Not your "amped one?"

I'm wondering if I split the difference and get on with my day, if that would be detrimental - 3.73 for a week and see if it smokes? Whaddaya think, Captain? I'll be sure and load at least one other "battery measurement app" to check the results -

IMPORTANT: Would you recommend a CRADLE SOFT RESET to reset charging parameters? Also, "Warning voltage" is 3.78 - so if you drop the voltage to 3.7x, does the "warning" appear at a lower level too, or do you forego that? If I'm set at 3.73, do I get a warning at 3.71? Hmmm . . . . .

[Ilikeit]

OK . . .

You have choice of 3.74 or 3.71, or 3.69 or lower. I chose 3.71.

I then checked with another app and it hadn't changed - still 3.78 warning, 3.76 critical. Confirmed with Filez.

I performed a soft reset, and "Full Power" had it back at original value of 3.76. I changed again, repeated check, and nothing - no change.

I've uninstalled both apps and will stick with the "norm."

[Derealisation]

0.5v - is not enough for me :-) I'll go for the extreme. I set minimum voltage allowed (3.20v) and testing both T3 and TE. This way i know When, and if T3 and TE looses any data.
My test is very close the the end. Will post the result in arund 6-10 hours.




Yes, i have 4.5 times larger battery (practically it's only 2-3 times). But it doesn't matter. Because what is important - is how much percentage one get from this hack.




That's right. Other apps do not see any changes. Don't know why since i'm not really into programming. But this is working - that's for sure. Results will come very soon.



That's right, soft reset brings all to default. I assume that if this app turns out to be useful - author will add enable/disalbe feature, as well as restor after reset feature.

[lost03]

This is a most interesting thread. I have long thought the battery management by the OS is a complete joke. The battery indicator is useless. I mean it only ever goes down in 3's or 7's or something. This is something PalmOne would do well to sort.
However PPC manufacturers do it, it works great. I can see my Ipaq battery steadily dropping , one percent by one percent, until the pda turns of at 0%. I can do anything i want up to that point. The % never increases, like it does so often on my T3, and it never drops suddenly.

Anyway, most interested in this program and will be happy to try it out. I figure it can't do much harm, except for loss of data.... You can't fry components by using too low a voltage can you?