[peter9477]

Two things are missing in BB10 release. Percentage scale on the left and power (W) scale on the right of the graph.

I decided it was obvious enough that it was better to leave the extra clutter off the chart, for the first release. There are ten divisions vertically, so level is split into 0, 10%, 20%, etc., and power is -5W, -4W, -3W and so on up to 5W at the top, with 0W in the middle. Not optimal, I realize.

I'm considering options for how to improve this without just littering the chart with labels and crap. I was thinking the numerical readings down below should become more "active", maybe overlaying an appropriate set of labels on the chart as long as you hold your finger down on one of them.

I think it would be nice to be able to control what gets put on the chart too, but if you have 3-4 lines drawn, you don't want 3-4 sets of axis labels at the same time! Maybe a long-press on a reading gives context menu options to control whether it is charted or not, and whether to display axis labels for it (maybe only one of those at a time).

Suggestions are welcome!

Note also that my plan for the level alarms would be to show any active ones with little indicators on the right side of the chart (squishing the chart to the left slightly to make room). If there's enough room, you'd probably be able to adjust the levels in a coarse fashion by sliding them up and down, but at any rate they'd show the alarm level settings. With those added in, I think having both level and power axis labels on the chart would make the whole thing very "noisy".

Another possibility to consider is showing the vertical axis labels only while you're actively scrolling the chart.

[LuayS]

Does this handle more than one battery? I'd like the ability to keep track of my batteries. Because I bought the battery accessory.

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[xamdam]

There is a issue with it stating when battery is at even say 100% or 80% or whatever have you for time left 4.6hrs or 3.5hrs this is totally incorrect.

If I restart phone it says 13hrs time to empty so the app is not picking up the proper or better estimation of time left unless phone is rebooted like now it's 100% 13hrs time left after reboot, but before reboot 4.6hrs left and that was when battery was at 70%

Now this is an estimation as I get 14-16hrs on medium usage and 16-19hrs on light usage.

[dejanh]

I was charged again last night when I picked up this app and I have already purchased this app on the Playbook. In principle I don't mind it as a lot of good work has clearly gone into this app and I trust that the long term support will be good. I hope that once the PB gets the BB10 OS upgrade that we will not have to re-purchase yet again.

I am not sure that the time-to-empty is accurate as I am getting crazy times here, 90h+. I have even seen it show over 100h.

[peter9477]

I was charged again last night when I picked up this app and I have already purchased this app on the Playbook. In principle I don't mind it as a lot of good work has clearly gone into this app and I trust that the long term support will be good. I hope that once the PB gets the BB10 OS upgrade that we will not have to re-purchase yet again.

I am not sure that the time-to-empty is accurate as I am getting crazy times here, 90h+. I have even seen it show over 100h.

On the eventual PB upgrade to BB10, I'll be clear: my intention is that that will be a free upgrade. I fully expect that most of the work that went into the BB10 version for the phones will be quite portable back to the PlayBook at that time, so my incremental cost would be minor.

As for the time-to-empty/full thing, please make sure you've read the Help info about that (select Help from the menu, then select the appropriate tab on the next page, at the top of the screen). I'll quote part of that here: "the estimate is useful primarily if the power reading stays stable."

If someone can show me a case where your power reading is stable for more than a couple of minutes, yet the time value is grossly wrong, I'd be quite interested. For now the app simply reports the OS-provided value, unchanged. The power readings change only every two minutes and that gives lots of time for inaccurate ("stale") time-left values to show onscreen...

As an example, if you were in standby, power should be around -0.04W. If you turn the screen on, then you'll see things like 90h for up to two minutes, until it updates.

Right now I just turned mine on and it shows 25% charge, power -0.05W and 41h left. Obviously with the screen on there's no chance I'll get 41h out of it... but I need to wait for half a minute until the next update. Now it shows -0.54W and 3.2h, which is probably about right. I keep the screen on until the next power reading update, and now it's -0.56W and 3.1h... stable conditions and therefore a meaningful value.

It's still an open question whether it's possible to show a truly useful value here when the power readings change only once every two minutes. Humans expect results much faster than that (these days, anyway ;-) ).

I suppose I could have it simply switch to show "?" more often, whenever the app detects major changes (like screen turning on), and basically refuse to show the OS-provided value until the app decides that conditions are stable enough to risk it. You'd probably find it rarely shows a value at all in that case, but would that be any better than showing a stale one for a minute?

The only reasonable idea I've had so far with all this is to attempt to calculate a measure of volatility. That would let me show a range of values, which might mean instead of seeing 90h you'd see something like 4-110h, and then after another couple of minutes the range would narrow to maybe "4-6h". Anyone think that's a good idea?

Another option is to try to do what humans can do with something like the chart data. Look at the trend of the white line, and extrapolate mentally to where it crosses the 0% or 100% line. You can guess how many hours that will take... it's crude and inaccurate, but possibly as good as we'll ever get unless the BB devs find a way to improve the current estimates.

[peter9477]

Does this handle more than one battery? I'd like the ability to keep track of my batteries. Because I bought the battery accessory.

I was hoping that different batteries would have an identification code of some sort, and for a while I thought that's what "Battery Id" would be (see the Diagnostics page). I now think that's probably just a number representing the model of battery, so I bet we all have the same value showing.

On my model STL100-3 Z10 with an LS-1 battery, the Battery Id shows as 226? Anyone see a different value and if so what's different about your device?

Without that or something else that would let me track battery changes, I don't think what you ask can be done unless it's something the user has to indicate to the app. I'd have to add a "manage batteries" feature where the user can select one of their batteries from a list that they've set up previously, and basically tell the app "I just put in battery #2". I suspect most people would not use such a feature. Thoughts on this are welcome.

[dejanh]

On the eventual PB upgrade to BB10, I'll be clear: my intention is that that will be a free upgrade. I fully expect that most of the work that went into the BB10 version for the phones will be quite portable back to the PlayBook at that time, so my incremental cost would be minor.

As for the time-to-empty/full thing, please make sure you've read the Help info about that (select Help from the menu, then select the appropriate tab on the next page, at the top of the screen). I'll quote part of that here: "the estimate is useful primarily if the power reading stays stable."

If someone can show me a case where your power reading is stable for more than a couple of minutes, yet the time value is grossly wrong, I'd be quite interested. For now the app simply reports the OS-provided value, unchanged. The power readings change only every two minutes and that gives lots of time for inaccurate ("stale") time-left values to show onscreen...

As an example, if you were in standby, power should be around -0.04W. If you turn the screen on, then you'll see things like 90h for up to two minutes, until it updates.

Right now I just turned mine on and it shows 25% charge, power -0.05W and 41h left. Obviously with the screen on there's no chance I'll get 41h out of it... but I need to wait for half a minute until the next update. Now it shows -0.54W and 3.2h, which is probably about right. I keep the screen on until the next power reading update, and now it's -0.56W and 3.1h... stable conditions and therefore a meaningful value.

It's still an open question whether it's possible to show a truly useful value here when the power readings change only once every two minutes. Humans expect results much faster than that (these days, anyway ;-) ).

I suppose I could have it simply switch to show "?" more often, whenever the app detects major changes (like screen turning on), and basically refuse to show the OS-provided value until the app decides that conditions are stable enough to risk it. You'd probably find it rarely shows a value at all in that case, but would that be any better than showing a stale one for a minute?

The only reasonable idea I've had so far with all this is to attempt to calculate a measure of volatility. That would let me show a range of values, which might mean instead of seeing 90h you'd see something like 4-110h, and then after another couple of minutes the range would narrow to maybe "4-6h". Anyone think that's a good idea?

Another option is to try to do what humans can do with something like the chart data. Look at the trend of the white line, and extrapolate mentally to where it crosses the 0% or 100% line. You can guess how many hours that will take... it's crude and inaccurate, but possibly as good as we'll ever get unless the BB devs find a way to improve the current estimates.

You could also add a value to calculate the average power consumption over a period of time and based on that determine the "percent of drain per hour" and from there finally calculate the approximate time left. I like the current numbers and with your explanation above they make sense (I would not mess with them too much), but adding what I just suggested here would give you another measure that would be useful. There are already several apps that do this in BB World, but it would be ideal if you integrated this into your app (ultimately I want a single battery utility that provides me all of the important information).

[borceg]

Dev Alpha and OMAP Z10 also show battery id 226.

[sushistew]

its too bad we have to pay for it again, i already own it for playbook

[msps]

health 105%
WTF?


temperature in F
WTF

[peter9477]

health 105%
WTF?

temperature in F
WTF

Health could appear as 105%, I suppose, though I've never seen it. Understand that it's just an estimate of the actual battery capacity, based on all sorts of data, and it may think that your battery stores about 7.14Wh of energy. That's 105%... no big deal. Others will say 95%.. mine's at 94%.

Also please remember that the app merely reports data provided by the OS, so if that's what it's showing, that's what your OS said it was.

Temperature in F... I'm guessing you're in the UK? I mistakenly chose to have the temperature units determined by the system settings for Metric/Imperial measurement system, forgetting about the "weird" countries like Canada (where I live) and the UK, where it's official metric but many like Fahrenheit, or it's officially imperial but many like Celsius. Just a simple oversight on my part... if you wish you can adjust that setting right now under Languages and Input.

I'll be submitting a small update very shortly to add an in-app Settings menu that will let you directly specify Fahrenheit or Celsius, as all the weather apps do.

[msps]

105% showed when battery was 50% charged
weired

you can adjust that setting right now under Languages and Input.

thanks

It changed ALL settings for the phone eg BB Maps now calculate distance in km not miles though

[peter9477]

105% showed when battery was 50% charged

Yes, quite correct. The two things are unrelated... health relates to the maximum capacity of the battery, not the remaining charge level.

It changed ALL settings for the phone eg BB Maps now calculate distance in km not miles though

That's quite true as well, which is why as I said we'll be submitting an update to add an in-app settings to decouple the two things. My apologies for the inconvenience... I hope you can cope with the wrong temperature units for a week or two. :-)