Calibrating Battery; Is It Necessary ?

[NewdestinyX]

One possibility I can think of might be that the battery meter has no connection to the charging circuit, reads an A/D that is repeatable but not calibrated and needs the charging circuit (which IS calibrated) to define the full charge point, thus defining the digital value that represents full charge. But I'm guessing.

Exactly! Pretty what all my engineer guru friends have said and what Apple essentially claimed in their article on batteries for years. Post LiOn..

Not saying anyone is wrong here..... just looking for hard information. This is one of those street knowledge "I read it on the internet" things that has bugged me for years, as people quote each other over and over without adding specific actual knowledge.

Paul

As I said from the start. My data came straight from Apple. Additionally my own n+1 experiments prove it accurate with any Apple phone over 10 years.

 

[NewdestinyX]

Calibrating your battery ......it will not make the battery last longer, or do it any good.

Who has said otherwise??? No one here.. Pipe down. “Conditioning” your rechargeable went away with NiCad batteries. 1st Gen stuff. Modern LiOn has never needed conditioning. But for calibration of its metering reports to the system.. you bet it does.

No need for a straw man argument.. No one has said conditioning for longer life is needed.

 

[NewdestinyX]

But its also a fact that modern LiOn batteries, like their NiCad predecessors have a max full charge cycle life. That IS true.

So you should put your phone on charger most days above 20%.

 

[Yun0]

My calibration freq is in accordance to Apple's advice on their battery page, it is healthy for these types of batteries. Laptop too.

 

[Starship67]

My calibration freq is in accordance to Apple's advice on their battery page, it is healthy for these types of batteries. Laptop too.

Apple no longer gives that advice on their battery page.

 

[justiny]

I calibrate my battery once a month, usually after an update. I find it can *help* make the battery gauge a little more accurate, but I never see any improved battery life performance.

Necessary? Probably not.

 

[dotnet]

Calibration of the battery power meter only helps with the accuracy of the battery power meter. If that's important to you then calibrating once or twice a year will help. It will help especially in situations where the meter has drifted way off, like showing 2% battery life left and then going for another hour, or going from 10% to dead in a minute.

The two things that need calibrating are the actual charge measurement (usable energy stored in the battery) and the maximum charge corresponding to 100% (which decreases over the lifetime of the battery).

Since the power meter cannot measure the actual charge directly, it starts from a known charge and keeps track of discharge and charge flows over time, by measuring voltage over the battery terminals and current going in or out. This method is prone to systematic errors adding up and will eventually result in the power meter to be off significantly.

The maximum charge can only be estimated by the power meter from the service life of the battery (number of discharge cycles). The current assumed maximum charge can be queried.

Calibration allows the power meter to determine the real maximum charge, by discharging the battery to auto-shutoff point, establishing the 0% mark, and then fully charging it while counting the watt hours as they go in. On most devices full charge is reached a while after 100% battery charge is displayed, so let it sit on the charger for another hour or two. At this point the actual and maximum charge values will be the same, defining 100% charge. The charge indicator should now be reasonably accurate all the way from 100% down to 0%. Until it drifts again.

None of this will improve the actual battery life, if anything, it'll stress the battery by discharging it to shut-off point. So don't calibrate obsessively every month.

 

[NewdestinyX]

Calibration of the battery power meter only helps with the accuracy of the battery power meter. If that's important to you then calibrating once or twice a year will help. It will help especially in situations where the meter has drifted way off, like showing 2% battery life left and then going for another hour, or going from 10% to dead in a minute.

Is there an echo in here? .. I just said that almost verbatim.

But thanks for all the rest of the detail you added in your post as to the engineering behind it.

This is one of the most debated topics on this forum. Scores of threads over time.

Along with whether or not screen protectors are necessary. Lol