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Posted:6/28/2008 4:41:00 PM |
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Hello,
I have written my own Battery Status program for the Eeepc 900.
The Battery information supplied by the ACPI in the Eeepc is total crap. No wonder Asus can't get a decent battery meter. The main problem is the Battery is NOT a Smart Battery. That is why its so difficult to get an accurate battery meter.
I have done mine the same way as ASUS. It must be calculated from the Battery Voltage as that is all the ACPI supplies. Since its a Dumb Battery their is no other correct information available.
The way I have done it to get quite an accurate status was to Profile each battery I had using the same conditions. I profiled them using %100 CPU usage and normal screen brightness with WiFi on.
The program has built in Profiles for these batteries.
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ASUS 7.4v 4400 mAH
ASUS 7.4v 5200 mAH
ASUS 7.2v 5800 mAH
Mugen 7.4v 7800 mAH
Mono Mobile 7.4v 10400 mAH
Their is also an option to create a CUSTOM Profile. The Program has instructions on creating a custom battery profile.
When you run the program the first time you need to Select the Profile for the Battery you are using.
Their is no Auto Install program. Just Unzip the file into a folder called BatStats. Create a Desktop Shortcut and also Create a Shortcut in the STARTUP group if you want it to run when Windows Boots.
You also need to DISSABLE the Windows Battery Power Alarms. This program has its own alarms you can set. You can set Alarm between 20-60 Minutes Remaining and Shutdown windows between 5-15 Minutes remaining.
The program sits in the Status area, if you mouse over it the Percent and Time remaining will be displayed. Double Click to open or Right click for menu.
The Percent left is accurate to 1 Percent. Minutes left is accurate to 1 Min.
The Battery Voltage is sampled every 6 seconds and the Percent and Time Remaining is updated every 30 Seconds.
Download from here
http://www.geocities.com/mosc_007/index.html
You will notice the Mono Mobile does not meet it's specifications. All otrher batteries tested met their Specs. The Mono Mobile only manages about 8900 mAh
Please give my program a try and see what you think. It is about as accurate as is possable when using a Dumb Battery.
Charles
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Posted:6/28/2008 10:56:00 PM |
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| Charles...Thank you so much for such a great utility! I had pretty much resigned myself to the quirks of the eee battery monitor. It works absolutely wonderfully. Thanks for sharing!!!
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Posted:6/30/2008 7:26:00 AM |
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On the face of it this looks like a good replacement. I'll have to create a custom profile as in the UK we have only been supplied with 4400mAH batteries.
On the main window is that really how 'minutes' is spelt in Australia?
The only question I have is 'Why have Asus been unable to do this?'
Again, thanks for the links!
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Posted:6/30/2008 10:58:00 AM |
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My Spelling is usualy poor. It's not something I reguard as a high importance.
ASUS could do this. But not in their BIOS. They dont have enough room for the accurate battery tables. They only have a small table and try and make it work with differant batteries. Which as you know doesnt work very well.
In my program the Battery tables have the data saved for every minet of discharge, And for the 4 Batteries I have done it adds up.
You will find as long as you select a battery with the same voltage the remaining time will be similar. It will just drop quicker than expected. IE, 60 Seconds might become 45 seconds.
A differant voltage battery however has a completly differant discharge curve.
Charles
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Posted:6/30/2008 2:42:00 PM |
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Hi Charles, thanks for letting us try what looks like a great utility.
Couple of questions, I created a profile for my battery (4400) and let pc run down, but on starting up agian I could not see the profile. Also, which might be related, I have two copies shown on the quickstart menu bar. On looking in the startup groups folder I have two files the .exe and .cfg, should I have both? I only placed the .exe file there?
Regards Phil...
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Posted:6/30/2008 9:57:00 PM |
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The Startup group only needs the Shortcut to the exe file.
The Folder were you unzipped BatStats should have the exe file, The cfg File and also the Custom.dat file you created.
When you add it to the Startup group dont copy the exe file their. Create a Shortcut to it.
PS, If you can find the Custom.dat file Email it to me and I will include the 4400 as a hard coded battery. I dont have one so I couldnt make the Profile.
Charles
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Posted:6/30/2008 10:06:00 PM |
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Adding the 4400 profile in would be great!
Is there any chance you could also fix the spelling typo of 'minutes' as well?
There is one thing that seems slightly lacking in your utility, I was wondering if you might be able to resolve it. The standard Asus utility shows the percentage of battery charged whilst it is charging - so you know whether to bother taking the laptop off of ac or leave it at home as you go out!
Unfortunately your utility just shows the tooltip of 'charging' and not the percentage of charge achieved thus far. Could you add this in? Then I really could switch off the standard utility altogether :)
Thanks -
Steve
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Posted:6/30/2008 10:57:00 PM |
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Ok. I will fix the spelling of minutes.
If I get sent the 4400 Profile I will add it.
As for the Charging State, If you just want the Asus Charging Capacity I can easily add that. If you want an accurate one then I would have to Profile the batteries during Charging. But I suspect that the Asus one would be good enough for Charging.
Charles
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Posted:6/30/2008 11:06:00 PM |
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That would be good enough for me - it's not as important to be as accurate on that one as far as I'm concerned.
I've already run the test on my 4400 battery. Let me know your email address and I'll send over custom.dat for you.
Thanks!
Steve
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