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[Q] leaving the Transformer connected to the charger good or bad?

Hello everyone
I was wondering if its ok to leave the transformer connected to the charger.
Is it like the Evo with trickle down when it reaches 100%
I dont want to over charge it. If it were my laptop i would disconnect the battery at full charge. But its not possible to do that with the transformer.
I want to keep my cycle count low and prevent over charing.
I also wonder what happens in a few years when the battery is shot...

Charging is what damages Li-Ion batteries... I'd recommend not keeping it on the charger all the time. Android will purposely not keep the battery at 100% to help avoid some damage.
Li-ion prefer to be around 20-80% charge.

When battery is 100% and you keep the charger connected, heat will begin to build up and eventually you will kill your battery.
I'd do as with a notebook: charge till 100%, then remove battery or charger (in case of the tablet charger ) . Then use your tablet and recharge when needed / desired. And from time to time a full charge / discharge cycle won't do any harm.
Just my 2 cents.
Regards.

These tablets don't automatically recognize when it's fully charged and turn off the charging?

Ravynmagi said:
These tablets don't automatically recognize when it's fully charged and turn off the charging?
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They do. There are other threads asking why thier TF's don't show 100% when unplgged from the charger. Same as it does on my Evo.

I think pretty much every modern device recognizes a full charge and responds accordingly. In fact, MacBooks will throttle performance if the battery ISN'T kept in while the system is running on A/C.
Heat will damage a battery, but it's not heat from charging but heat from operation. If a notebook is poorly designed and the battery is near a heat source, then removing the battery might be a good idea (except with the aforementioned MacBooks), but that's independent of the charging issue.
I think it's fine to keep it plugged in. These devices are smart enough to manage such things. Of course, the TF's charging cable's so short it's hard to use when plugged in, but that's a different issue entirely.

CalvinH said:
When battery is 100% and you keep the charger connected, heat will begin to build up and eventually you will kill your battery.
I'd do as with a notebook: charge till 100%, then remove battery or charger (in case of the tablet charger ) . Then use your tablet and recharge when needed / desired. And from time to time a full charge / discharge cycle won't do any harm.
Just my 2 cents.
Regards.
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From what I understand this process cannot and will not kill the battery. This did happen in the old type of batteries with the ,emory effect but these new batteries and the OS's management system for charging does not allow the battery to be killed.
it will heat up and that would happen as there is a flow of electricity but not to a level that would kill the battery.
Cheers

IS it normal to go from 4% battery to 99% in under 3 hours ?
I thought this was supposed to take 8 hours to charge.
Cheers,
gpearson1968

gpearson1968 said:
IS it normal to go from 4% battery to 99% in under 3 hours ?
I thought this was supposed to take 8 hours to charge.
Cheers,
gpearson1968
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Yes that's normal. It's meant to take about 3hrs.

Thanks guys...
Still dont know about it. Because I think its like my EVO and technology got so good that my battery is protected.
I really dont want my transformer to become a expensive paper weight or non-mobile because after a few years it has 45 mins battery life.

I've got the first full charge and full depletion done. Is it ok to use while charging now as long as I fully charge and fully deplete it a couple more times?

error12 said:
Thanks guys...
Still dont know about it. Because I think its like my EVO and technology got so good that my battery is protected.
I really dont want my transformer to become a expensive paper weight or non-mobile because after a few years it has 45 mins battery life.
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batteries will degrade over time....would you be keeping this tablet for over 2-3 years? a simple battery change could work if ever needed

I am no expert, but I have spent some time searching around the internet looking for information on the best methods for improving the life of a battery. Most of the information I have found said it is bad to completely discharge a Li-polymer battery. The articarles stated it was best to charge the battery when it reaches 20% to avoid shortening its life.
Sent from my DROIDX using XDA App

Batteries are like muscles - they like to be exercised.
Leaving the unit plugged in WILL NOT HURT YOUR BATTERY. Period. The charging circuitry in modern devices is smart enough to cut current to the battery once it has reached a certain level of resistance.
Batteries do not like being deeply discharged. Most devices will shut off before the battery gets too deeply discharged, but it's never a good idea to tempt fate by running it until the device shuts off.
What really determines a battery's life is the number of cycles it has been put through. A cycle would be a full charge followed by a full (or to a lower end threshold) discharge.
The old original Lithium Ion batteries used in laptops would usually last about 300 full cycles or so - about a year if you used it on the battery every day. Partial discharges of course only count as fractions of a cycle.
Given the life of these types of devices, considering we'll likely upgrade to the next big thing in a year or so, I don't think anyone here will come close to 'wearing out' a battery.

EMINENT1 said:
I've got the first full charge and full depletion done. Is it ok to use while charging now as long as I fully charge and fully deplete it a couple more times?
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As stated, these are Li-Ion batteries, and they do not need to be trained. The only reason you might need to do any training is to calibrate Android's understanding of the battery (although I doubt you need to do a full discharge for that, either).
It's not going to suddenly kill it, but it will over time hurt your battery's life.

I went ahead and did a full discharge/charge cycle, but only because Asus said to do so in the manual. Maybe the copywriter just copied/pasted from a circa 1990's manual for a device with a NiCd battery, but I figured if they're suggesting it, I might as well do it.

Keep TF always in dock?

Hello all,
I am still a bit confused as to how the dock actually works. Since i got my dock this afteroon i charged it up until the light was green with the TF in it and it has been that way ever since; I have no undocked the TF
Is this going to wear out the dock battery quicker? How can i tell? Is there a way to turn the dock off. I find it strange that the owners manual on such a new piece of technology is so limited in scope, it just tells you how to dock/undock it and charge it

It's been stated that the dock battery will charge the tablet battery while the tablet is connected to it.
Of course, when the tablet battery is topped off, the dock battery doesn't charge it. At that point, I'd assume the unit runs off of the dock battery until it's depleted, then runs off of the tablet battery. Once depleted (or discharged a bit, and I'm not sure as I don't have my dock yet) and connected to AC power, I'd suspect the tablet will charge first, then the dock battery.
BTW, did the dock come with a power supply and cable, or do you have to use the one the tablet came with?

FrayAdjacent said:
It's been stated that the dock battery will charge the tablet battery while the tablet is connected to it.
Of course, when the tablet battery is topped off, the dock battery doesn't charge it. At that point, I'd assume the unit runs off of the dock battery until it's depleted, then runs off of the tablet battery. Once depleted (or discharged a bit, and I'm not sure as I don't have my dock yet) and connected to AC power, I'd suspect the tablet will charge first, then the dock battery.
BTW, did the dock come with a power supply and cable, or do you have to use the one the tablet came with?
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no cable with it.
I guess they assume youll be charging them together. the dock bought the tablet from 80% to 100% and it self to 95% in about 40 minutes with the ac plugged in.
Your description of how it works seems to be what i was thinking because the tablet shows the lighting bolt on the tablet even when its at 100% is that good for the battery? Seems to be like the tf loses a TINY bit of charge and it just gains it back from the dock and this just keeps going on.

it's harmless.

seshmaru said:
it's harmless.
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all i needed to know. I assume i can use the notification light on the dock to know when its running low.
I heard before that the dock doesn't actually turn itself off; that is if its not connected to the tablet, so it drains its battery while not doing anything. I assume if this is true there would be some kind of firmware that puts it in a very low power state until the dock recognizes something is attached to it.

biggiephat said:
all i needed to know. I assume i can use the notification light on the dock to know when its running low.
I heard before that the dock doesn't actually turn itself off; that is if its not connected to the tablet, so it drains its battery while not doing anything. I assume if this is true there would be some kind of firmware that puts it in a very low power state until the dock recognizes something is attached to it.
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Actually it is true, and yes it goes into a low power state, although asus has said it's not low enough. They're going to release a firmware update to put the dock into deep sleep when not connected in the future instead of regular sleep which drains about at 50% of the tablet does when the tab is on standby. Of course this update will also bring up the battery power of the dock to about 9 hours since it has the same battery as the tablet.

Sucks that they don't give you another power supply and cable with the dock. I'm gonna have to buy at least one extra. I plugged the cable into my Nook Color charger just to see what it would do. Nope. Won't charge. (at least with the device on... perhaps it will with the device off?)
This means we're going to have to buy proprietary chargers and cables... and I don't think anyone has any yet.
As for the OP, I concur, don't worry about the dock battery. Batteries are like muscles- they like to be used, and don't like to be idle all the time.
As a matter of practice, I try to drain my devices about once a month (run them down to the battery warning, usually 20% or so) and then charge them up again.

http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/news...-is-the-best-way-to-use-an-li-ion-battery.ars has a good description of how Li battries work. Main points are
One of the worst things you can do to a Li-ion battery is to run it out completely all the time. Full discharges put a lot of strain on the battery, and it's much better practice to do shallow discharges to no lower than 20 percent. In a way, this is like people running for exercise— running a few miles a day is fine, but running a marathon every day is generally not sustainable. If your Li-ion powered device is running out of juice on a daily basis, you're decreasing its overall useful lifespan, and should probably work some charging stations into your day or change your devices' settings so that it's not churning through its battery so quickly.
On the other end of the spectrum, keeping a Li-ion battery fully charged is not good for it either. This isn't because Li-ion batteries can get "overcharged" (something that people used to worry about in The Olden Days of portable computers), but a Li-ion battery that doesn't get used will suffer from capacity loss, meaning that it won't be able to hold as much charge and power your gadgets for as long. Extremely shallow discharges of only a couple percent are also not enough to keep a Li-ion battery in practice, so if you're going to pull the plug, let the battery run down for a little bit.
From this you won't harm it through overcharging by leaving it in the dock but you should remove it occasionally and let it run down a bit.

I was thinking about this the other day and I think my planned usage won't be very good for the dock's battery. I was planning to take it to work with me during the day as my second system, and not worry about taking a power cable with me. That is, I figured the dock would power the tablet throughout the day and then when I returned home I'd have plenty of power left for using the tablet by itself in the evening.
However, I think this will basically drain the dock battery pretty completely every day, representing a full discharge cycle. That means the dock battery's lifespan will be severely impacted, even as the battery in the tablet is probably made to last longer (it'll see mostly dips to 70% or so each day, and then recharges).
Maybe I'll have to get a second power cable for work after all, just to avoid killing the dock's battery.

wynand32 said:
I was thinking about this the other day and I think my planned usage won't be very good for the dock's battery. I was planning to take it to work with me during the day as my second system, and not worry about taking a power cable with me. That is, I figured the dock would power the tablet throughout the day and then when I returned home I'd have plenty of power left for using the tablet by itself in the evening.
However, I think this will basically drain the dock battery pretty completely every day, representing a full discharge cycle. That means the dock battery's lifespan will be severely impacted, even as the battery in the tablet is probably made to last longer (it'll see mostly dips to 70% or so each day, and then recharges).
Maybe I'll have to get a second power cable for work after all, just to avoid killing the dock's battery.
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i just checked my tablet on the dock today its been 24 since its been on there and i haven't touched it and now the battery is down to 99% and not charging as it was before did the dock really die that quick?

[Q] Dock battery drain - Anyone not have this problem/sucessfully repaired by Asus?

First, just to clarify the dock battery drain problem is:
With the tablet locked into the dock, and turned off (not standby), the dock battery loses power at a rate of about 2% per hour. This occurs with the tablet off, but locked into the dock. There is a nice long thread about it here.
I went to my local Asus service repair center. I talked to them about the dock battery drain issue. They said they would be willing to look into it, and if my dock has a problem repair/replace.
With that being said, I have not seen a single post of someone saying either 1) they don't have the dock battery drain problem, or 2) they hand the problem successfully repaired by Asus.
If you have do not have the dock battery drain problem, or have had it successfully repaired, Please reply to this post.
I need to know if it is going to be worth the time to let Asus take a look at my dock. I already have a B60 model dock, so I'm not going to get an upgrade to a newer model out of the deal. I don't want to give them my tablet, just to hear back that there was nothing they could do or give me a new keyboard which also has the problem.
So, should I let Asus check to see if I have a dock battery drain problem?
Also, as a heads up, I asked them about replacement USB/charging cables. The service department doesn't have any, and they will call the Shanghai distribution center about ordering some. They said they will call me back Monday and let me know if they can get any. If I can get some extra cables, I will let you know.

Mine seems fine now only about 8% drain during the same amount of hours, Had 0209 update installed but received a minor dock update last Tues, did'nt realise what it was for but after, no drain on dock when connected and closed. All the batch numbers will be the same hardware B3-B6 it will be a software issue, my update popped up as a notification, just installed and bingo.

PS to the above, I leave all radios on GPS WIFI etc, same with my HTC desire HD and Ipad, this will account for the minimal drain. Also I would imagine when docked if the tab loses 1% because of the process of regarging from the dock, it may take more than 1% of dock power to replace it. I mean the collective power of the dock plus the energy need to transfer full power back to the dock might not be equal, if the pad was flat and you had 80% in the dock if you closed it, my guess is you would only get 60% after transfer back to the Tab.

Do you have any information on what that minor dock update is, or where you got it? Also what country do you live in, and which rom do you use?

Strange. Most people with B60 docks are reporting no drain, or at least less drain.
Is your Tf also B60K?

typci said:
With that being said, I have not seen a single post of someone saying either 1) they don't have the dock battery drain problem, or 2) they hand the problem successfully repaired by Asus.
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What do the specifications state the drain SHOULD be? As clearly without knowing that, how can anyone know something is outside specification...

Cool, good point about knowing the specifications so I can tell if I am out of spec. However, it's a lithium ion battery. I really hope specifications do not include a drain over 1% a day. If they do I am really really disappointed in Asus. I have plenty of devices that have lithium ion batteries, most of them have battery drain near zero. I have a 5 year old laptop that will drain out the battery in about a week. But that is a very old piece of equipment, not a new computer.
If most people with the B60 are reporting no drain, then that is the answer I need. I have a drain of 2% per hour. If people are reporting less drain, how much drain is the average person experiencing with the B60? Based on the dock battery drain thread, I think it is 2%.
Also, where do you see the posts of people who have no battery drain? I've only seen one post of someone without battery drain, and 1 post of someone with less that 1% per hour.

typci said:
Cool, good point about knowing the specifications so I can tell if I am out of spec. However, it's a lithium ion battery. I really hope specifications do not include a drain over 1% a day. If they do I am really really disappointed in Asus. I have plenty of devices that have lithium ion batteries, most of them have battery drain near zero. I have a 5 year old laptop that will drain out the battery in about a week. But that is a very old piece of equipment, not a new computer.
If most people with the B60 are reporting no drain, then that is the answer I need. I have a drain of 2% per hour. If people are reporting less drain, how much drain is the average person experiencing with the B60? Based on the dock battery drain thread, I think it is 2%.
Also, where do you see the posts of people who have no battery drain? I've only seen one post of someone without battery drain, and 1 post of someone with less that 1% per hour.
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I'll test my dock tonight.
Just to verify. Im supposed to turn off the tablet completely and keep it docked then record the percentge drop on the tablet after a few hours right?
I got my tF and dock from the first or second batch of shipments I believe. Not sure what version of each I have. how do i go about checking?

starplaya93 said:
I'll test my dock tonight.
Just to verify. Im supposed to turn off the tablet completely and keep it docked then record the percentge drop on the tablet after a few hours right?
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Record the percentage of both the dock and the tablet before shutting down.
I get the drain as well, B50 on both the tab and the dock. The drain is NOT normal Li-ion drain as it doesn't happen when they aren't docked.
Additionally - to the people that say it's normal to have this much drain with the radios turned on, we mean that the tab is turned OFF. Not screen off, but the entire thing off - as in hold the power button until the pop-up and push the soft turn off button on the screen.

'best' way to charge.?

hi friends,
got my tf300 32gb + keyboard dock from best buy, US...rooted it and updated it to .29 f/w......running excellent...no issues
the first charge was done for 8hrs with tab+dock...it is still running great now after 2 days with still 30% juice remaining on tablet and 0% on dock (i store the tab connected to dock, so the tab is slurping off the juice from the dock)
now i want to know ..what is the 'best' way to keep charging this awesome machine...(i know there might not be an 'ideal' way..)
should i wait till the charge in tab goes to less than 10% and then charge it with dock or should i charge them seperately, ensuring the dock doesnot reach 0% ?
how do you guys do it?..just wanna know different thoughts

I just use mine throughout the day, starting around 7:30am when I get up and ending at 10:00 when I plug it in by my bed.
By that time its usually around 45-50% on the tablet and 0% on the dock but keep in mind that I use this as my primary means to access the internet especially at my school cuz the computers suck. It then charges overnight and by the morning its full again.
I don't know if this is the most battery effiecent (ie: long term strength) but it works ok for me and I've never had any problems with other devices that have used the same basic schedule.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T

SilentStormer said:
I just use mine throughout the day, starting around 7:30am when I get up and ending at 10:00 when I plug it in by my bed.
By that time its usually around 45-50% on the tablet and 0% on the dock but keep in mind that I use this as my primary means to access the internet especially at my school cuz the computers suck. It then charges overnight and by the morning its full again.
I don't know if this is the most battery effiecent (ie: long term strength) but it works ok for me and I've never had any problems with other devices that have used the same basic schedule.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF300T
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The worst part about this practice is letting the dock run all the way down to 0%, because that means a full charge cycle every day. Charging the tablet at 50% or so is fine, though. If you could figure out some way to charge the dock at the same 50%, you'd be in good shape.
Might be impossible given your usage patterns, though. I'd just expect the dock battery to wear out much faster than the tablet's.

Don't think there's a practical way of avoiding running the dock to 0%.

I've read thousands of posts on the ideal way to treat modern (Li-ish) batteries, and so far I lean towards keeping them as charged as possible.
That is - they wear out faster if the're discharged alot to for instance 0%.
The old "discharge to train them" or whatever seems to be either an outdated practice or a myth, and - if I've got it right - outright bad for modern batteries. Which means some companies most likely applaud the practice to sell more stuff.
But I'm not an expert (then again - very few people seem to be).

It's an outdated practice related to the old NiMH batteries from the 80s. If you didn't discharge NiMH batteries to 0%, then whatever percentage you charged it at would be the new 0%. For instance, if you were to plug it in at 50% one day, your battery capacity would automatically be cut in half because the battery would think 50% was "empty". NiMH batteries were eventually fixed, but even then, and even today with Li-Ion batteries, some people think they should be discharged completely.
Also, keeping Li-Ion batteries completely charged all the time is equally as bad as constantly letting them drain completely. Personally, I charge my tablet when it warns me that my battery is low, around 14%.

EndlessDissent said:
Also, keeping Li-Ion batteries completely charged all the time is equally as bad as constantly letting them drain completely. Personally, I charge my tablet when it warns me that my battery is low, around 14%.
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"as charged as possible" combined with a very mobile device = charging at 20-50% for me.

When I plug my tablet into the fully charged dock, and the tablet battery is below 60%, it discharges the full dock battery within 2 hours. In order to avoid fully discharging the dock as mentioned above, one would be constrained to only 2 hours of netbook type use (or maybe a few hours more if the tablet is fully charged) which defeats the whole benefit of 10+ hours of battery life when using with the dock.
Given this, I believe the doc battery must be able to withstand regular full battery discharges, otherwise Asus probably would have devised a different algorithm for charging.

Dock Battery Draining

Hi Guys,
I remember reading a post about this before but can't bloody well find it
With my tablet docked, they keyboard battery is draining much faster than my tablet resulting in a useless dock fairly quickly i.e. 0% in dock vs 80% in tablet. This seems quite a gap - I'm running stock, not rooted. Is there anything I can do to improve this? I don't remember the charge gap being so vast in my first TF700.
Any advice/suggestions are most welcome.
Thanks.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using xda app-developers app

Been discussed before. Dock still operates at 0%, no need to keep a charge in there. It acts as the sacrificial battery, making the tablet use that power first, so if you so choose, you can continue using the tablet w/o dock or with dock and get the maximum battery life both ways.

Thanks Nick, I thought I noticed my keyboard wasn't working before when at 0% but will give it another whirl tonight. If it does work then bravo on Asus

i recently bought the dock and i also find the battery drain rather strange. i always turn off wifi over night and the battery of the tablet usually stays exactly the same, e.g. if i fully load the tablet before going to bed, i have like 99% in the morning without any drain.
yesterday i went to bed with dock 80% and tablet 85% and wifi off. today i find the dock left with only 40% and the tablet with 82%? is this normal? i guess i have to take them apart all the time over night otherwise it just drains too much

Definitely is not normal - I leave mine docked overnight with wifi *on* and I only get a percentage or two drain...
To start with, 'd look (with CPU Spy) to make sure you tablet is deep-sleeping properly.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk 2

That's odd. Maybe some process kept running overnight.
Check that the following are set:
- GPS to OFF
- IPS+ OFF (set it to IPS mode. + drains 10% or some overnight, even when off.)
- Mode to Power Saving!
- Shut down all active processes (taskmanager has this convenient one click clean.)
- Check that media players have shut down properly in the Settings/Apps/Running apps menu. Also make sure they're not still cached (VLC tends to do that...)

I think that this is normal behavior. I notice that after using the device for a while, when I shut it off the dock battery actually charges the tablet battery. The charge light on the tablet even indicates that this is the case. I believe that is by design.

Dub Tech said:
Hi Guys,
I remember reading a post about this before but can't bloody well find it
With my tablet docked, they keyboard battery is draining much faster than my tablet resulting in a useless dock fairly quickly i.e. 0% in dock vs 80% in tablet. This seems quite a gap - I'm running stock, not rooted. Is there anything I can do to improve this? I don't remember the charge gap being so vast in my first TF700.
Any advice/suggestions are most welcome.
Thanks.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using xda app-developers app
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The charge light is indicating the tablet is (primarily) running off the dock battery. EDIT: although this is in essence a correct statement, I have paid more attention to it and noticed the dock does indeed charge the tablet (when not in use) -- it's a few percents, but nonetheless, it charges. Mea culpa..
The capacity of the tablet and dock batteries is different, so discharging under load will differ as well. I guess the behavior you are seeing is by design, and, to some extent preferable to the situation I have had since the beginning: my tablet depletes faster than the dock, at least initially, and that was what most of the early adopters were seeing, as well. This of course led to some discussion.
The behavior we noticed seemed somewhat counterintuitive, since it meant we would have less battery capacity on the tablet if we would choose to undock it -- as opposed to your situation, where you have as much battery capacity left on the tablet as possible when you choose to 'travel light'. I'd prefer it that way. ; )
So, the dock depleting significantly faster is nothing unusual nor anything to worry about. I do have to concede, though, that my battery drain is far less than some in here report -- it has been going for three and a half days with moderate use now. (That's OK, I guess, given the fact that I currently am in nightshifts and do not have to time to tinker as much. Even when I *am* tinkering, though, the batteries routinely carry me over two days, easily.)

My dock and tablet have weird battery usage.
So my problem is really weird I think, but maybe you guys can confirm or offer any fixes. I have tried charging the tablet and dock assembled through the dock port and gotten both batteries to 100%, but then while docked, the tablet's battery drains faster and the dock;s remains at 100%. As the tablet's battery gets to around 70%, the dock's will start to deplete but very slowly. The dock will only go to 70%, and the tablet will drain completely to 1% and then shut off even though the dock still has 70%. I then undocked the tablet and just charged the tablet back to 100% without doing any charging to the dock. After docking the tablet, it shows the tablet at 100% and then the dock at 70%. This time the tablet drains to 1% and then shuts off with the dock still at 50%. What's going on here or is it normal or is there a setting that I'm missing? I thought the dock was supposed to extend the tablet's battery life time??