RE: [iPAQ] Battery Life, Flash Writing, etc...

Hello Michael;

>
> Hi, chalk up another linuxified ipaq (v0.13, thanks to my
> friend will at
> compaq who borrowed somebody's serial cable, my crimp
> contacts are on the
> way for the cradle modification).

Well Done.

>
> 1. My box said it came with 32mb of ram, when I run top it says I have
> 32mb ram, will said he heard at work that they only actually had 16mb
> ram... is top taking my 16mb flash (???) into account as
> well, or have I
> just been misinformed?

32MB of ram and 16MB of flash.

>
> 2. Also, what exactly is in flash and what exactly is in ram?
> It looks to
> me like the root fs in on the "flash4" partition, and usr is
> on "flash5".
> I was told that I couldn't let the battery die, why is that? It seems
> that everything is in flash right? Is the bootloader in ram or
> something? Why is it that I can still hit the reset button?
>

Flash is basically EPROM good for 100,000 writes per sector. The boot
loader, kernel, init-ramdisk, cramfs and cramfs-user files are all stored in
flash. If you removed the battery (not recommended), (like the unit on my
desk with wires hanging out) when you powered up your unit, all of these
files would still be in flash.

> 3. Hrm, anyways, assuming I really can't let the battery die, I was
> wondering if anybody here had any battery statistics for the minimum
> amount of time a fully-charged battery will last in minimum-brightness
> mode. I'm asking this here because everywhere else I search
> all I see is
> people complaining about "3-4 hours with the backlight on max under
> wince". I just want to know how paranoid I should be, since

We have been so busy doing other Open Source work that we have not done any
power management. It is on the to-do list, but we were sort of hoping
somebody might get impatient and do the job for us. :-) I personally do not
understand the 3-4 hours complaint. I have never used my handheld
continually for 3-4 hours with the front light on its brightest setting.
IMHO, I think the max setting is too bright, though it comes in handy as a
flashlight. In a whole day, I might use my unit for 2 hours, during most of
that time I do not need the front light. I usually use it for 5 minutes here
and there. The most continuous use is about 45 minutes when I read books on
the subway. On the subway or at night I prefer the middle brightness
setting.

> I have been
> told that if the battery dies I have a 500 dollar paperweight.

At this time, I do not know what the Corporate policy is in regard to
replacement batteries. For myself, the battery on my iPAQ should last at
least two (2) years (I am a little bit harder on my unit than most people).
At the current pace of technology, I expect that long before my battery
dies, I will purchase a newer unit. If it really became an issue and my
personal iPAQ was out of warranty, then I would just open my unit, buy
replacement battery and install it myself.

Best Regards,

--George
Received on Tue Sep 5 10:59:23 2000