• Calibrating a battery without Android launched

    From Pamela@pamela.private.mailbox@gmail.com to uk.telecom.mobile,comp.mobile.android on Fri Jul 18 12:58:49 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

    Is it necessary to have launched Android while charging a battery to 100%
    as part of the re-calibration process?

    (Android would be launched for the re-calibration step when running the battery down).
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From VanguardLH@V@nguard.LH to uk.telecom.mobile,comp.mobile.android on Fri Jul 18 19:26:18 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

    Pamela <pamela.private.mailbox@gmail.com> wrote:

    Is it necessary to have launched Android while charging a battery to 100%
    as part of the re-calibration process?

    (Android would be launched for the re-calibration step when running the battery down).

    Without using a 3rd-party app, battery recalibration for Android entails charging to 100%, leave it charging for 2 hours more even though the
    phone says 100%, discharge the phone until it turns itself off (when
    Android or the battery turns off the phone, not some battery management
    app), and recharge while not using the phone to 100% again.

    If the phone has a battery protection mode (e.g., Samsung), disable it
    when cycling the battery.

    The only reliable means on knowing how much maximum capacity a battery
    can hold is not via voltage, but by charging to full, and counting
    Coulombs on discharge (until the protection circuitry within the battery
    halts current output). That is highly impractible for mobile devices as
    the testing equipment is very expensive. So, phones and laptops rely on measuring voltage, but voltage is a measure of potential, or electrical pressure, not on capacity. Battery capacity is very inaccurately
    measured in portable devices. All calibration does is measure voltage difference between fully charged to fully (or near fully) discharged;
    however, capacity is not linerally consumed. Mobile devices detect
    voltage at "full" charge, voltage at full discharge, and plot a linear interpolation between the two. But capacity is not linear. Batteries
    are chemical, not mechanical. For example, you could have a phone that
    says there is 30% capacity left for its battery, and it stays powered up
    for hours thereafter. Another phone will say it has 30% capacity, but
    shuts down in 15 minutes. The battery's voltage does not indicate a
    weak battery that doesn't have the same capacity at the same voltage as
    another battery. The older the battery, the more worn its chemistry,
    the faster a battery will drop in capacity, because an old battery
    cannot hold as many Coulombs of energy as a new battery.

    With a new battery, my phone can stay up even when the phone says
    capacity is down to 5%. With the old battery, when the phone got to 15% capacity, poof, off went the phone. No amount of charge cycling could
    make the old battery perform like a new one. Batteries die.

    You can't pour as much beer back into a can that gets crushed over time,
    so you can't get as much beer out of a smaller can. The beer may taste
    the same, but the can has less capacity. We don't know hold old is your
    beer can to know how much it has been crushed over time. You can try
    the recalibration procedure, but you won't get more capacity.
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From =?UTF-8?Q?J=C3=B6rg_Lorenz?=@hugybear@gmx.net to uk.telecom.mobile,comp.mobile.android on Sat Jul 19 08:33:57 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

    On 19.07.25 02:26, VanguardLH wrote:
    leave it charging for 2 hours more even though the
    phone says 100%, discharge the phone until it turns itself off (when
    Android or the battery turns off the phone, not some battery management
    app), and recharge while not using the phone to 100% again.

    The most efficient way to kill a LiIon-Battery as qucikly as possible.
    Your "wisdom" is a quarter of a century old and applies to NiMH-batteries.

    To calibrate the LiIon-battery it is abolutely sufficient to charge the
    phone to 100% roughly once a month when it is powered. Take it off the
    plug as soon as it has reached 100%. Afterwards charge only to 80% and recharge at 20%. Never store the phone fully charged or discharged.
    --
    "Roma locuta, causa finita." (Augustinus)
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From =?UTF-8?Q?J=C3=B6rg_Lorenz?=@hugybear@gmx.net to uk.telecom.mobile,comp.mobile.android on Sat Jul 19 08:36:43 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

    On 19.07.25 08:33, Jörg Lorenz wrote:
    On 19.07.25 02:26, VanguardLH wrote:
    leave it charging for 2 hours more even though the
    phone says 100%, discharge the phone until it turns itself off (when
    Android or the battery turns off the phone, not some battery management
    app), and recharge while not using the phone to 100% again.

    The most efficient way to kill a LiIon-Battery as qucikly as possible.
    Your "wisdom" is a quarter of a century old and applies to NiMH-batteries.

    To calibrate the LiIon-battery it is abolutely sufficient to charge the
    phone to 100% roughly once a month when it is powered. Take it off the
    plug as soon as it has reached 100%. Afterwards charge only to 80% and recharge at 20%. Never store the phone fully charged or discharged.

    BTW: This procedure avoids excessive Li-plating on the cathode and the
    anode.
    --
    "Roma locuta, causa finita." (Augustinus)
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2
  • From David Woolley@david@ex.djwhome.demon.invalid to uk.telecom.mobile,comp.mobile.android on Sat Jul 19 12:56:04 2025
    From Newsgroup: comp.mobile.android

    On 19/07/2025 01:26, VanguardLH wrote:
    Mobile devices detect
    voltage at "full" charge, voltage at full discharge, and plot a linear interpolation between the two.

    If they did a linear interpolation, about 40% of the charge would be
    shown as lost in the first few minutes. If just using voltage, you have
    to linearise the discharge curve to get anything that would be
    considered acceptable, although I believe they now rely a lot on coulomb counting.
    --- Synchronet 3.21a-Linux NewsLink 1.2