can I still use the dock when the battery is empty? - Eee Pad Transformer Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

thread. just wondering, can I still use it if the dock battery is empty (when it's attached to the tablet)?

eriol33 said:
thread. just wondering, can I still use it if the dock battery is empty (when it's attached to the tablet)?
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Yes, you can.

Yes but bear in mind, if the battery drops to 0%, you might struggle to get it to charge again

noted. thanks for the hints. I always bring charger with me. I wish I could control the charge when using the dock. for example, let the dock charges when the tablet's battery is near 10% or some sort. oh well.

Yea the tablet always takes priority when charging via the dock, the way it is designed is to make sure the tablet always has the most charge under all circumstances - so when using it docked and on battery, the dock will drain first - when docked and charging from the wall, the tablet charges first / fastest
The way I use mine is I charge them both up full and use it docked until the dock battery is low - then I undock and charge the dock on its own while I use the tablet battery - the dock generally always reaches full charge before the tablet battery runs out, then I can dock again and keep using them both on battery again - that way I get the longest possible use from the tablet before having to charge them both back up from the wall

it's also worth mentioning keeping the tablet docked will run both devices down. It's hardware-related, so best to leave them undocked until you run the tablet to 10% or so. Best results I've discovered.

Related

[Q] Charging with the keyboard dock

New tf700 is in transit right now, but I have a question I haven't been able to find an answer to yet...
If you plug the charger into the keyboard dock, you will obviously charge the dock battery. And the same for the infinity itself. But if you plug the charger into the dock and then attach the infinity to the dock, will it charge both the infinity and the dock?
Yes it'll charge both. Idk if its both at the same time or the dock then the tab but it does charge both.
Sent from my SPH-D710 using Tapatalk 2
If your docked, it will charge both the keyboard dock and the tablet the same time.
Cheers
Malkaridae said:
If your docked, it will charge both the keyboard dock and the tablet the same time.
Cheers
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Yep, but @OP keep in mind that it does not DISCHARGE at the same time. When using the Infinity + Dock, it switches the powere source. Noone has written an app to change this (IDK if its too low level either). Makes more sense to deplete the dock when plugged in, and then rely on the tablet later. I understand what they are getting at (their way helps a lot if you use them both together a lot) but they should give the option to choose.
wolfman87 said:
Yep, but @OP keep in mind that it does not DISCHARGE at the same time. When using the Infinity + Dock, it switches the powere source. Noone has written an app to change this (IDK if its too low level either). Makes more sense to deplete the dock when plugged in, and then rely on the tablet later. I understand what they are getting at (their way helps a lot if you use them both together a lot) but they should give the option to choose.
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So, if it's not plugged in, which power gets used first? The keyboard or the tablet?
doncaruana said:
So, if it's not plugged in, which power gets used first? The keyboard or the tablet?
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Dock discharges first. Don't know why anyone would want to change that method of charging. Even though I take the dock everywhere with me, I sometimes remove it so I can use the tablet only because it's handier that way.
doncaruana said:
So, if it's not plugged in, which power gets used first? The keyboard or the tablet?
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The keyboard actually charges the tablet when it's not plugged in.
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using xda premium
MedleHed said:
The keyboard actually charges the tablet when it's not plugged in.
Sent from my ADR6425LVW using xda premium
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I dont think so. I notice BOTH batteries depleting when I have it on the dock.
BxMxK said:
Dock discharges first. Don't know why anyone would want to change that method of charging. Even though I take the dock everywhere with me, I sometimes remove it so I can use the tablet only because it's handier that way.
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If makes sense if you only use your tablet a lot more than your dock. When plugged in you would want to conserve as much battery in the tablet as possible so the "charging method" is to use the dock only when connected. or charge the table, effectively making the dock's battery a refill, not a supplement. If you use them both together, it makes sense to alternate. It just depends on usage patterns.
Thanks
wolfman87 said:
I dont think so. I notice BOTH batteries depleting when I have it on the dock.
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I don't know what you are seeing, but when I have the tablet docked and not plugged into the charger the tablet charges and the keyboard dock is depleted. I took a screen shot to show you what I'm seeing. It's plain as day that the keyboard is charging the tablet. Of course now the screen shot won't upload.... I'll try an edit after I post.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using xda premium
Got it, but it looks like crap.
Edit: I don't know why it is uploading a thumbnail!
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using xda premium
The tablet will drain first to ~70%, then the keyboard dock will charge the tablet back to ~90% this will continue in a loop until the dock is drained and report back as 0% battery left on dock.
The reason your seeing keyboard being drained is because lithium-ion battery overtime will slowly drain ~1% probably couple hours or so.
Cheers
Malkaridae said:
The tablet will drain first to ~70%, then the keyboard dock will charge the tablet back to ~90% this will continue in a loop until the dock is drained and report back as 0% battery left on dock.
The reason your seeing keyboard being drained is because lithium-ion battery overtime will slowly drain ~1% probably couple hours or so.
Cheers
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not quite that simple. First, I've had my dock show 0% and blinking orange on the LED, indicating I should charge it. I still used it actively for almost a day, including the USB port from time to time. So either the tablet is then powering the dock's keyboard and ports, or the dock battery has a "reserve" battery capacity for internal use (e.g. only the dock).
It's slightly annoying seeing that 0% and blinking ("OMG, CHARGE MEEE") yet I can still use the dock without any issues.
I'd just like to see some settings/configuration parameters for dock usage. First, I don't want it to complain about 0% battery until it's actually getting low. It could just say it's not charging the tablet anymore, and keep the warning lights for when the dock's actually nearing empty.
Also, while Li-Ion batteries discharge over time because of the internal resistance, we're not talking 1% every couple of hours. You have a defective battery in that case, or a very old one.
The self-discharge of the lithium-ion battery is 5% in the first 24 hours after charge, and then reduces to 1% to 2% per month thereafter. The safety circuit adds about 3%. High cycle count and aging have little effect on the self-discharge of lithium-based batteries. A lead-acid battery self-discharges at only 5% per month or 50% per year. Repeated deep cycling increases self-discharge.
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Source: http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/non_correctable_battery_problems
BxMxK said:
Dock discharges first. Don't know why anyone would want to change that method of charging. Even though I take the dock everywhere with me, I sometimes remove it so I can use the tablet only because it's handier that way.
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Tablet discharges to about 70% +/- and then the dock charges the tablet until the dock is completely discharged, then the tablet discahrges again.

[Q] Tf300 Dock

Is it possible to control by what percent the dock will charge the tablet, I know the dock will start charging the moment the tablet reaches 69% and it will charge it to 90%, but is there any way to control it, say make it charge by a less amount or at a different percent?
I use both the dock and tablet but im not always connected to the dock and I might reach 40% by the time I connect it to the dock, and I would continue to use the tablet which will really decrease the dock battery really quickly.
No way to do this I'm afraid. At least not with the standard firmware. I don't know if there's a custom firmware which can do this.
By the way, I'm not sure I understand the problem you describe. As far as I can see, you *want* the dock battery to discharge at this point, to ensure you get as much life as possible out of the tablet.
Do you understand that the keyboard, USB port and SD card reader in the dock are powered from the tablet battery, not the dock battery? It's no problem to let the dock battery discharge completely and keep using it.

[Q] Dock + Tablet charging behaviour

Ok, new TF700T user here, coming from a TF101. I'm trying to figure out how charging works between the dock and the tablet. With my TF101 it was obvious..when the tablet was docked, it was kept at 100% charge by the dock. Simple. Now, with the TF700T and dock, I see that I have two icons on the bottom showing the charge of each. Nice. But, the charge on my tablet keeps dropping. My dock is at 99% and the tablet is at 90%. Why isn't the dock charging the tablet? What's it waiting for?
I HAVE seen the dock charge the tablet before, I just cannot for the life of me figure out what triggers it. Can anyone explain how it works with the TF700T? Does the tablet have to drop below some % before the dock kicks in or what? Or..do I have a defective dock?
Note that when I plug the charger into the dock + tablet, both batteries charge fine.
The dock is a TF700T dock mislabeled as a TF201 dock, but confirmed to be a 700 by Asus themselves.
Starlust said:
Ok, new TF700T user here, coming from a TF101. I'm trying to figure out how charging works between the dock and the tablet. With my TF101 it was obvious..when the tablet was docked, it was kept at 100% charge by the dock. Simple. Now, with the TF700T and dock, I see that I have two icons on the bottom showing the charge of each. Nice. But, the charge on my tablet keeps dropping. My dock is at 99% and the tablet is at 90%. Why isn't the dock charging the tablet? What's it waiting for?
I HAVE seen the dock charge the tablet before, I just cannot for the life of me figure out what triggers it. Can anyone explain how it works with the TF700T? Does the tablet have to drop below some % before the dock kicks in or what? Or..do I have a defective dock?
Note that when I plug the charger into the dock + tablet, both batteries charge fine.
The dock is a TF700T dock mislabeled as a TF201 dock, but confirmed to be a 700 by Asus themselves.
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Sorry not an answer, but a supplementary. I have the same query and I also wonder why if I plug in the dock the total time available on the battery doesn't change, should it?? Overall what battery time should I expect +/- if I have both connected??
Sorry to butt in - I logged in to ask the question....
barrymah said:
Sorry not an answer, but a supplementary. I have the same query and I also wonder why if I plug in the dock the total time available on the battery doesn't change, should it?? Overall what battery time should I expect +/- if I have both connected??
Sorry to butt in - I logged in to ask the question....
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I am strongly suspecting that there is a bug in the software related to the dock charging the tablet. A quick and easy way to trigger the charging process is to simply reboot the dock + tablet combo, not plugged in to the wall...when it comes back up, BING! it starts charging the tablet. My tablet was down to 70% with the dock at 99% and there was absolutely no charging going on until I rebooted the dock + tablet.
My current theory is that something gets fubared when you plug the charging cable back into the dock + tablet combo..when you unplug it, it appears the dock won't ever charge the tablet. I need to test this further when I get home from work.
Ok now I am certain that the dock charging is not working right on the TF700T.
The "reboot" trick does work, causing the dock to charge the tablet...but only to 90%. Once it hits 90%, the charging stops.
Is there some way we can submit "bugs" to Asus? Will they even listen? I'd love to know if other TF700 owners who have the dock are seeing this.
Sent from my ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T using Tapatalk 2
Probably something in here should get you started. http://www.service.asus.com/#!Contact%20Us/cw8z
Starlust said:
I am strongly suspecting that there is a bug in the software related to the dock charging the tablet. A quick and easy way to trigger the charging process is to simply reboot the dock + tablet combo, not plugged in to the wall...when it comes back up, BING! it starts charging the tablet. My tablet was down to 70% with the dock at 99% and there was absolutely no charging going on until I rebooted the dock + tablet.
My current theory is that something gets fubared when you plug the charging cable back into the dock + tablet combo..when you unplug it, it appears the dock won't ever charge the tablet. I need to test this further when I get home from work.
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Click to collapse
The dock does not charge the tablet before the tab battery is down to about 70%, that is the fact for my TF201 and TF700 and according to what I've read that is the way it's supposed to be (apparantly better for the battery than the TF101 setup).
I don't think your reboot did the trick, I think it would have charged anyways. But I'm not telling you for sure, just saying I think that is the way it's supposed to be (and is for me).
Actually, then the reboot did do the trick - b/c the reboot process consumed enough battery to drop it down under the 70% margin so the dock --> tablet charging process would kick in.
I'll test that and see.
The TF 201 manual states that the tablet will go down to 70% before dock charging kicks in and rechgarges it back to about 99% and then it will stop, go back down and keep doing this, in this way it keeps the tablet charged, the dock dorps to zero at the same time that the tablet gets charged to 80, then the tablet has a nearly full charge for you to use.
And I am drunk, sorry for the typos.
Yeah, your reboot only worked because the tablet's battery fell below the threshold anyway. It charges the tablet at 70% back up to the 90s, then stops, charges again from 70-90%, stops, etc. Your battery usage ends up having spikes, looking like:
_____|\______|\_________ <-- Dock discharges to 0% here
\___
\ <-- Tablets main battery hits 0%
Edit: Formatting got messed up, but I think you'll be able to figure it out
Your ASCII art looks like a train in my email lol
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10158027/ScreenCaps/train-woo-woo.png
My wife just made me a long island to go with the 4 rum and Dr Peppers I have had, god I love that woman!
flyingwolf said:
Your ASCII art looks like a train in my email lol
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/10158027/ScreenCaps/train-woo-woo.png
My wife just made me a long island to go with the 4 rum and Dr Peppers I have had, god I love that woman!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha! That's how it's supposed to look! Choo-choo!

[Q] Charging Question

I've purchased a TF300TG for a month and the package came with both the tablet and the keyboard dock. Initially I did not use the dock as I did not require that much of battery life, but recently I've started to use the tablet connected with the keyboard dock.
The thing that I'm uncertain of is which is faster:
1. charging both the tablet and the keyboard dock separately
2. charging keyboard dock with the tablet connected
Xanity said:
I've purchased a TF300TG for a month and the package came with both the tablet and the keyboard dock. Initially I did not use the dock as I did not require that much of battery life, but recently I've started to use the tablet connected with the keyboard dock.
The thing that I'm uncertain of is which is faster:
1. charging both the tablet and the keyboard dock separately
2. charging keyboard dock with the tablet connected
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well charging them together is recommended, if you own two charging bricks like i do you can charge both the dock and tablet separately at the same time.
JoinTheRealms said:
Well charging them together is recommended, if you own two charging bricks like i do you can charge both the dock and tablet separately at the same time.
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Click to collapse
Sadly I only have one charging brick >< but if charging both of them together is recommended, then I would like to ask something related.
By charging both the tablet and the dock together to 100%, the dock will eventually be squeezed dry by the tablet to 0% while the tablet itself still have plenty of juice left. Do I charge when the tablet notify to charge due to low battery (~14%).
As I read through several forums which stated that letting the battery die completely is not a good practice, is the following method of charging a good method:
1. Charge tablet with dock together to 100%.
2. Disconnect the dock when the dock battery reaches below 15%.
3. Repeat until both the tablet and dock reaches below 15%.

[Q] Does the TF700 dock charge the tablet or does it power the tablet directly?

Does the TF700 dock charge the TF700T Tablet or does it power the tablet directly?
A reviewer on Newegg said that the tablet is able be powered directly from the dock. This would be awesome!
But is it true?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834989154
Pros: ah the idea behind this product is lofty. i mean how can you set yourself a standard in industry when you product you push ends up like this? it isn't a bad dock. by no means. it just doesn't quite go from good to great. it stays behind; it could have catapulted the ASUS Transformer Pad lines into Apple killers. coulda should woulda. but let me continue by naming what it did correctly.
it seamlessly integrates itself the ASUS Transformer Pad TF700T. i mean it's just an awesome thing to do. it clicks on and you really can't screw that up. on the pad and the dock there are arrows pointing where the place the thing i mean how straightforward can you get? but you will be glad the arrows are there because for me it was a little daunting. i spent all this money and i was worried i would screw something up or place it wrong. but once you see the arrows you know how and where these two things should meet.
wow. just a definite "cool" factor. welcome to the 21st century type of "cool" factors.
another awesome thing: when connected with you pad, the dock's battery will drain FIRST. supercool. and if you have the dock charged enough it will CHARGE the pad. awesome. supacool.
ports: there is a usb port...which is awesome! with certain tegra developed games you can use a controller for said game! i mean that is super sick. kinda almost defeats the purpose a tablet but it is an option. doesn't have to be a controller i plugged a 2 GB flash drive and it recognized it no prob. more expandable storage? yes please.
and it also has a sd slot...another storage option. maybe you wanna store those snazzy pics you took. snap a sd card and there you go. kudos ASUS.
3 eggs only you say? and with these cool things? well. it does. prepare for coulda shoulda woulda.
Cons: this COULDA been the bombest keyboard dock you hard earned clams you just shelled for. almost but man oh man...
COULDA: the keyboard aspect is kinda disappointing. it isn't bad but considering i paid around 120 bones for this bad boy it isn't without gripes. the keys themselves depress just fine but for me there really is an audible "clack" to reassure i press said keys. minor gripe but a gripe nonetheless. the touchpad is decent but i expected more. sometimes two-finger scrolling doesn't. it doesn't when you expect it should. at least it looks sleek and is a nice idea. too bad it doesn't wow.
SHOULDA: this dock shoulda been included with the tablet. i know i might be unfair with some gripes but one does expect more for spending that kind of dough.
WOULDA: this woulda been awesome to the max if the battery on this baby lasted longer. i know it depletes itself before the tablet will and i know it will even charge the darn thing. but the battery doesn't last on this unit. maybe i got one that wasn't built properly idk. i sure expected the battery on this dock to last longer. maybe for a four hour use total i had to charge the dock twice. not as good as i thought it would be. rather, a big let down.
Other Thoughts: a cool cool cool idea but it just underwhelmed me in terms of battery life. pros really save this product but the performance to price ratio just doesn't quite cut it. maybe if it came bundled with the ASUS Transformer Pad it would have the awesome aspects hold up well. but the disappointed battery life high price beg to differ. maybe if ASUS just tried harder to execute it woulda been worth the money.
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The dock starts charging the tablet when the charge drops below 70%, and stops charging at 90%. It does not bypass the tablet battery to power the tablet directly as far as I am aware. Though I must say I have not paid attention to that. Perhaps someone else knows.
Neo3D said:
Does the TF700 dock charge the TF700T Tablet or does it power the tablet directly?
A reviewer on Newegg said that the tablet is able be powered directly from the dock. This would be awesome!
But is it true?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834989154
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My experience is that the dock charges the tablet once the tablet's battery runs below 70-75%. So if my tablet is fully charged, then the dock isn't supplying any power. But if I use the tablet and the power falls around 70-75%, then the dock's battery starts recharging the tablet. If I'm running a lot of processes on the tablet, then the tablet battery will deplete faster than dock can recharge, so the battery level will continue to go down, albeit at a slower rate.
And the dock recharges on the tablet even if the tablet is off. Let's say the tablet battery is at 60% when I turn off the tablet. If connected to the dock, then you'll see the recharge indicator light is on. When you turn the tablet back on, you'll see that the tablet's charge level has increased and dock's charge level has decreased.
As for tablet being powered directly from the dock, I would think that the dock is charging the tablet and the tablet runs off its own battery, but I'm not sure if this really matters in terms of function. I would think that if the tablet is depleted and the dock is charged, you can still run the tablet by plugging it into the dock and then turning it on but I haven't tested this. (Perhaps the tablet has a minimum charge level it requires before it can be turned on-in which case you can wait for the dock to charge the tablet to the appropriate level.)
Also, in the notification area, you can see the battery level of the tablet and the dock, and you can actually see when the dock is charging the tablet by arrows going from the dock battery level to the tablet battery level.
Drenus said:
My experience is that the dock charges the tablet once the tablet's battery runs below 70-75%. So if my tablet is fully charged, then the dock isn't supplying any power. But if I use the tablet and the power falls around 70-75%, then the dock's battery starts recharging the tablet. If I'm running a lot of processes on the tablet, then the tablet battery will deplete faster than dock can recharge, so the battery level will continue to go down, albeit at a slower rate.
And the dock recharges on the tablet even if the tablet is off. Let's say the tablet battery is at 60% when I turn off the tablet. If connected to the dock, then you'll see the recharge indicator light is on. When you turn the tablet back on, you'll see that the tablet's charge level has increased and dock's charge level has decreased.
As for tablet being powered directly from the dock, I would think that the dock is charging the tablet and the tablet runs off its own battery, but I'm not sure if this really matters in terms of function. I would think that if the tablet is depleted and the dock is charged, you can still run the tablet by plugging it into the dock and then turning it on but I haven't tested this. (Perhaps the tablet has a minimum charge level it requires before it can be turned on-in which case you can wait for the dock to charge the tablet to the appropriate level.)
Also, in the notification area, you can see the battery level of the tablet and the dock, and you can actually see when the dock is charging the tablet by arrows going from the dock battery level to the tablet battery level.
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Click to collapse
Thanks for the detailed info!
Do you know if we could use an extra charger to charge the keyboard dock by itself (undocked from tablet)?
I'm thinking of doing this so I can charge both the tablet and keyboard dock at the same time and reduce the overall charging time.
Neo3D said:
Thanks for the detailed info!
Do you know if we could use an extra charger to charge the keyboard dock by itself (undocked from tablet)?
I'm thinking of doing this so I can charge both the tablet and keyboard dock at the same time and reduce the overall charging time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, you can charge the dock separately. I sometimes do this when I'm watching a movie and the tablet is charged while dock is low on battery.
Did you decide to buy the tablet? I highly recommend Cromi/Cromi-X. I'm still on Cromi 3.4.7 (based on JB 4.1.1) as I really like the mods by lucious.zen (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2232715).
Neo3D said:
Do you know if we could use an extra charger to charge the keyboard dock by itself (undocked from tablet)?
I'm thinking of doing this so I can charge both the tablet and keyboard dock at the same time and reduce the overall charging time.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, that's what I did when I received my TF700 - I used my TF101 charger to charge the dock, while the TF700 was charging with its own charger.
Drenus said:
Yes, you can charge the dock separately. I sometimes do this when I'm watching a movie and the tablet is charged while dock is low on battery.
Did you decide to buy the tablet? I highly recommend Cromi/Cromi-X. I'm still on Cromi 3.4.7 (based on JB 4.1.1) as I really like the mods by lucious.zen (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2232715).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes! I bought a tablet and dock!
Office Depot has it for $380 + I was able to use a $25 off coupon from Staples bringing it down to $365 + tax for brand new!
I have a dock on order as well!
I wanted a TF201 dock for the bigger battery but those are so hard to find.
Neo3D said:
Yes! I bought a tablet and dock!
Office Depot has it for $380 + I was able to use a $25 off coupon from Staples bringing it down to $365 + tax for brand new!
I have a dock on order as well!
I wanted a TF201 dock for the bigger battery but those are so hard to find.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Congratulations on the purchase and the price! As for the dock, I think the tf700 dock's weight distribution is better so the tablet is less likely to tip over. Hope the games work out for you!
And when you get the dock, you may want to check out the white mouse cursor mod posted by RpR. I posted a modified image for the cursor in that thread.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2177956
Thanks! I love this tablet and dock combo! It's the most useful thing I own!

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