First charge for C600

[Guest snowgoon]

I've checked the "get started" booklet and the User Guide. I've searched this forum AND Google and found nothing.

Any advice on how long for the first charge? Have the days of 16hour first charges gone? Is a four hour charging time adequate?

[Guest awarner [MVP]]

Four hours should be ok as the battery should be fairly well charged as it has not been sitting on the shelf for a long time.

It's always a good idea to give a conditioning charge overnight once in a while but initially as long as the battery is 100% charged then you should be ok.

[Guest snowgoon]

Thanks for the prompt response... 2 hours to go!

[Guest Peppermint Hippo]

Mine came charged. Ready to use straight from box.

Edited December 23, 2005 by Peppermint Hippo

[Guest Tech]

usually it wont be the full charge when it appears to be fully charged in the box. they usually do this while testing the device then shoving it in the box or just to give it enough batt power to run for a few minutes/hours.

always charge your phone to 100% the first time, then plug it out and back in the mains... wait till the LED is green. Then use the phone as normal and flatten it completly then charge to 100% again.

That should be good enough ;)

[Guest kam_]

Actually Li-Ion batteries don't like to be completely flat, and neither do they need to be charged for hours on end the first time. These myths are still around from the NiMh battery days.

Li-Ion batteries don't suffer from memory affects, but can get plated with overcharging. Even normal charging plates them eventually because full charge is very hard to determine with Li-Ion cells, consequently they have alot less charge cycle lifetime.

A special controller estimates the battery charge based on current and voltage over time. This is required because determining when a Li-Ion cell is full isnt as simple as it is with NiMh cells, also overcharging could be dangerous.

In fact the worst posible thing you can do with your Li-Ion battery is to keep unpluging it from the charger, then back again when its at or very close to 100%. The controller will get it wrong and overcharge it a bit which will decrease its lifetime. This sometimes gets confused for a 'slower' memory affect.

To get around this problem (phones these days come with dock chargers, and the above situation could happen regularly in an office environment) the battery won't actually be charging untill the controller can get a reliable reading over a specified 'safe' time based on the battery capacity. Anyway i digress..

Incidentally Li-Ion batteries charge to 70 to 80% very quickly and the last 20 to 30% takes alot longer because its trickled in. Also ideal charge for storage of Li-Ion cells is about 70%, which is why they ALWAYS come precharged but not full!

Havn't you ever noticed that batteries these days never come empty, but in the NiMH days they could sometimes?

If you're Li-Ion battery arived dead, then that box has been on the shelf far to long, or someone has been using that phone before you got it.

[Guest awarner [MVP]]

Also as not mentioed above do not flatten the battery as it will lose capacitance and shorten it's life.

Li-ion do have over and under charge protection but you can still cause damage.

Li-ion do have the memory effect as such but it is far less pronounced so it is not normally noticable.

Finally the batteries are designed to last aproximately 500 charges.

This does not mean it will definately last that long etc but only it's estimated life by the manufacturer.

[Guest]

Out of interest (and I know it's only a very rough guide), would that be 500 full charges, or 500 times plugged into the charger?

In a normal situation where it's plugged in via USB while at a desk, then taken away, then plugged in again when you get back, then those 500 charges could quickly be used up if it's counted each time you plug in!

[Guest dalyboy]

Hello

So whats the best way to keep the battery in good condition?

Is it charge battery till the LED is green, unplug and use till Windows says low battery, then charge till full again?

Dalyboy

[Guest kam_]

Also as not mentioed above do not flatten the battery as it will lose capacitance and shorten it's life.

Li-ion do have over and under charge protection but you can still cause damage.

Li-ion do have the memory effect as such but it is far less pronounced so it is not normally noticable.

Finally the batteries are designed to last aproximately 500 charges.

This does not mean it will definately last that long etc but only it's estimated life by the manufacturer.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Lol that's what i was trying to say.. I just re-read my post and i went in such a round abouts way and missed the key points.. I guess thats what happens when you been up all night and post at 7am!

To answer the other questions.. typically its full charge or very low charge which affects the battery the most. The 500 charge cycle is an approximation based on how often the battery will be fully depleted and 'overcharged'. So you can expect a worse affect to your battery if u plug it in and out near 100% and a lesser affect below 70%.

There's 2 conflicting things here...

Charging it to 70 to 80% and then recharging it at about 40% is best for conditioning. Of course this is useless for normal use.

Charging it less often means you use less charge cycles.

Put the two together and you're best bet is to charge till its full. You don't need to sit there and watch it, the phone will stop charging it by itself.

Recharge it from 30% ish, if its convenient. That means if you're going to sleep then charge it, but don't charge it if you expect to pick it up in an hour to use it again - in that case you're just going to wast thate 30%.

Finally DON'T recharge it when its above 80% unless you really are dying to have that extra 20% that day.