Almost all notebooks today utilize rechargeable Lithium-ion (Li-Ion) batteries. Lithium Ion provides many benefits over earlier Nickel-Metal Hydride (NiMH) or Nickel Cadmium (NiCd) Batteries, including less mass, better performance, and insusceptibility to the so-called "memory effect".
New batteries must be fully charged before useTo put your battery in optimum condition for long-term usage, please fully charge the battery before its first use. Very importantly as well, for the first 3 charge cycles, always fully charge before use and fully discharge before recharging. Short your laptop battery's lifespan if you fully discharger your battery. When the remaining power is 10%, close all running application and allow the notebook to charger your battery.
Calibrate the battery every few months. Almost all notebook batteries are created with an internal microprocessor, which provides an estimate of battery conditions such as number of charges, discharges, full charge capacity and cycle charge count. The full charge capacity will become a little inaccurate after a few months and calibrating it can help restore the battery’s performance.Some notebooks provide calibration tools in the BIOS or a Windows application.If your notebook provides either of them, you can follow these three steps prior to calibration:1. Plug in your notebook’s power adapter and fully charge your battery.2. When your battery is fully charged, disconnect the power adapter and use your notebook in battery mode. Disable all battery warning operations in Power Options Properties such as Shut down, Stand-by or Hibernation. When the remaining power is 3%, close all running application and allow the notebook to shut itself down.3. Plug your power adapter in and fully charge your battery. Your battery has been sufficiently drained for calibration.
Use your battery in the proper conditions. Generally speaking, batteries work best at around 68°F (20°C), but temperatures between 32° to 95°F (0° to 35°C) will allow a battery to works in good condition too. Allowing your battery to work in conditions that are too hot or cold can lower its performance. It may also have a negative influence on the battery’s lifespan as well.
All laptop computer batteries have electrical specifications that include its volt and milliAmp hour rating. These terms are abbreviated as we see in the following example: 10.8V, 4000mAh What do these terms mean, and why should you care about the specifications of laptop computer batteries? Volts - or V - are an electrical measure of energy potential. You can think of it as the pressure being exerted by all the electrons at a laptop computer batteries negative terminal as they try to move to the positive terminal.Amps - or A - is an abbreviation of Ampere, a 19th century French scientist who was a pioneer in electricity research. Amps measure the volume of electrons passing through a wire in a one second. One Amp equals 6.25 x 1018 electrons per second. Amp hours - or Ah - measures capacity. That is what we want to know about laptop computer batteries - how long can it deliver a certain amount of charge before it runs out. As with all metric measurements, Amps can be divided into smaller (or larger) units by adding a prefix. In the case of laptop computer batteries, a milliAmp hour (mAh) is most commonly used.Note that 1000 mAh is the same a 1 Ah. (Just as 1000mm equals 1 meter.) Note that Amp hours do not dictate the flow of electrons at any given moment. Laptop batteries with a 1 Amp hour rating could deliver ½ Amp of current for 2 hours, or they could provide 2 Amps of current for ½ hour. To understand how much current your computer pulls from its battery, see our article on "Laptop Power Consumption and Battery Life".
2007年8月1日星期三
2007年6月7日星期四
The Battery World - Types and Applications(part 1)
The Battery World - Types and Applications
As the electronic technologies advances, our lives are filled with more and more battery operated products including toys, household appliances, computer, communications, consumer electronics, and transportation equipment. Batteries play an important role in supplying energy to these electronic products. With the use of batteries, human life becomes more convenient and efficient. But with all the kinds of batteries being used in the market, do you know what kind of battery you are using? Let's explore the world of batteries. Types of BatteriesTo simply put, batteries are "electricity" storage devices that in general, are divided into 2 categories: chemical battery and physical battery. When most people talk about batteries, they are referring to the chemical batteries that utilize chemical compounds as the source of energy which convert the reactions between chemical and conductive materials into electricity. On the other hand, physical battery utilizes light or heat and converts them into electricity. Since there aren't too many physics battery applications in the computer, communication, and consumer electronics products in the market, we will focus only on the chemical batteries in this article. Chemical battery can be further broken down into two sub-categories: Disposable and Rechargeable Batteries. Disposable Batteries - An example of disposable batteries are the common alkaline batteries found in a regular store. Disposable batteries are thrown away after the electricity had been used up. Disposable batteries are convenient but they are more costly in the long run and could create more hazards to our environment. Rechargeable Batteries - Examples of rechargeable batteries are Nickel-Metal Hydrate (Ni-MH) and Lithium-Ion (Li-Ion) batteries. Although they are rechargeable, they do have limited number of charging and discharging life cycles. Depending on the chemical used in the batteries and the individual's usage patterns, the number of charging and discharging life cycles range approximate 300 ~ 1000 times, making rechargeable batteries more economical in the long run and a lot more environmentally friendly than disposable batteries.
As the electronic technologies advances, our lives are filled with more and more battery operated products including toys, household appliances, computer, communications, consumer electronics, and transportation equipment. Batteries play an important role in supplying energy to these electronic products. With the use of batteries, human life becomes more convenient and efficient. But with all the kinds of batteries being used in the market, do you know what kind of battery you are using? Let's explore the world of batteries. Types of BatteriesTo simply put, batteries are "electricity" storage devices that in general, are divided into 2 categories: chemical battery and physical battery. When most people talk about batteries, they are referring to the chemical batteries that utilize chemical compounds as the source of energy which convert the reactions between chemical and conductive materials into electricity. On the other hand, physical battery utilizes light or heat and converts them into electricity. Since there aren't too many physics battery applications in the computer, communication, and consumer electronics products in the market, we will focus only on the chemical batteries in this article. Chemical battery can be further broken down into two sub-categories: Disposable and Rechargeable Batteries. Disposable Batteries - An example of disposable batteries are the common alkaline batteries found in a regular store. Disposable batteries are thrown away after the electricity had been used up. Disposable batteries are convenient but they are more costly in the long run and could create more hazards to our environment. Rechargeable Batteries - Examples of rechargeable batteries are Nickel-Metal Hydrate (Ni-MH) and Lithium-Ion (Li-Ion) batteries. Although they are rechargeable, they do have limited number of charging and discharging life cycles. Depending on the chemical used in the batteries and the individual's usage patterns, the number of charging and discharging life cycles range approximate 300 ~ 1000 times, making rechargeable batteries more economical in the long run and a lot more environmentally friendly than disposable batteries.
2007年6月5日星期二
4 tips to extend the life of your laptop battery
3.
Let your laptop do the saving. Not every computing device handles a power source in the same way. Some of the more sophisticated laptops, which are designed with business travelers in mind, are misers when it comes to using power. And that's a good thing — if you can remember to take advantage of it. "Most users make the mistake of simply not choosing to use a product's built-in ability to conserve battery life," says Dan Coffman, a senior product manager for PC manufacturer ViewSonic. How do you harness your PC's built-in ability to save? Consult your user manual. Often, calibrating your laptop is as easy as double-clicking on the battery icon in the toolbar.
4.
Always, always carry a spare device that uses batteries. How obvious is that? Well, if you're trying to keep under the onerous new airline weight-limits, it isn't. But as Rick Thompson, director of engineering at Valence Technology in Austin, Texas, observes, "the availability of 'free' power outside of your hotel room is not predictable." That's a nice way of saying it. In fact, I sometimes think airport terminals, car-rental facilities and hotels try to hide the power outlets from us to keep us from accessing their free power. Thompson recommends a system that can simultaneously charge a second portable device such as a cell phone or PDA, allowing you to multitask your battery operations.
If you've stuck with me long enough to hear my pitiful excuse for running my laptop battery down, here it is: My 2-year-old-son, Aren, uses my laptop to watch "The Wiggles" while I'm on the road (if you don't know who "The Wiggles" are, consider yourself fortunate). Aren decided to pull the power chord while he was watching an episode and used up all the power to run the DVD player. By the time I got to the PC, all the juice was gone.
I should probably thank Aren. He taught me how fast a DVD can run down a lithium-ion battery (in almost no time). Incidentally, he's also demonstrated how impact-resistant a battery can be (surprisingly) and that at least some of those warnings about the battery coming into contact with liquids are exaggerated. You'd be amazed at how well a battery holds up to liquids, especially whole milk.
Reality (battery) check
If you rely on a battery to get work done while you're away, you should, however, give yourself a reality check. Because while batteries can extend your productivity while you're on the road — in a plane, at a remote site or sitting in hotel lobby — they won't last you long enough. And if Buchmann is correct, they never will last you long enough.
I mean, even if you've taken all of these precautions, you can probably still think of several instances where you had a brilliant argument on the tip of your fingers, only to have the laptop power down under a faltering battery. I took the steps, and even without my toddler's interference, it was probably only a matter of time before my battery ran dry at an inopportune time.
The point is, while these tips will help extend the life of your battery, they won't make them last indefinitely. PC manufacturers may make it seem as if their laptops will run forever, but most of us know otherwise
Let your laptop do the saving. Not every computing device handles a power source in the same way. Some of the more sophisticated laptops, which are designed with business travelers in mind, are misers when it comes to using power. And that's a good thing — if you can remember to take advantage of it. "Most users make the mistake of simply not choosing to use a product's built-in ability to conserve battery life," says Dan Coffman, a senior product manager for PC manufacturer ViewSonic. How do you harness your PC's built-in ability to save? Consult your user manual. Often, calibrating your laptop is as easy as double-clicking on the battery icon in the toolbar.
4.
Always, always carry a spare device that uses batteries. How obvious is that? Well, if you're trying to keep under the onerous new airline weight-limits, it isn't. But as Rick Thompson, director of engineering at Valence Technology in Austin, Texas, observes, "the availability of 'free' power outside of your hotel room is not predictable." That's a nice way of saying it. In fact, I sometimes think airport terminals, car-rental facilities and hotels try to hide the power outlets from us to keep us from accessing their free power. Thompson recommends a system that can simultaneously charge a second portable device such as a cell phone or PDA, allowing you to multitask your battery operations.
If you've stuck with me long enough to hear my pitiful excuse for running my laptop battery down, here it is: My 2-year-old-son, Aren, uses my laptop to watch "The Wiggles" while I'm on the road (if you don't know who "The Wiggles" are, consider yourself fortunate). Aren decided to pull the power chord while he was watching an episode and used up all the power to run the DVD player. By the time I got to the PC, all the juice was gone.
I should probably thank Aren. He taught me how fast a DVD can run down a lithium-ion battery (in almost no time). Incidentally, he's also demonstrated how impact-resistant a battery can be (surprisingly) and that at least some of those warnings about the battery coming into contact with liquids are exaggerated. You'd be amazed at how well a battery holds up to liquids, especially whole milk.
Reality (battery) check
If you rely on a battery to get work done while you're away, you should, however, give yourself a reality check. Because while batteries can extend your productivity while you're on the road — in a plane, at a remote site or sitting in hotel lobby — they won't last you long enough. And if Buchmann is correct, they never will last you long enough.
I mean, even if you've taken all of these precautions, you can probably still think of several instances where you had a brilliant argument on the tip of your fingers, only to have the laptop power down under a faltering battery. I took the steps, and even without my toddler's interference, it was probably only a matter of time before my battery ran dry at an inopportune time.
The point is, while these tips will help extend the life of your battery, they won't make them last indefinitely. PC manufacturers may make it seem as if their laptops will run forever, but most of us know otherwise
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