Related
This is re-posted from the general forum. It probably should be moved here to warn potential dock purchasers about this ongoing problem:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1112835
Basically, the problem is that the dock's (all of them?) batteries deplete at around 5% per hour when attached to the tablet when in standby. The batteries even seem to deplete when docked to the tablet when the tablet is completely turned off. WiFi on or off doesn't seem to effect the drain very much. Just a bit of cautionary advice for potential dock owners.
Another thread on the topic:
http://www.transformerforums.com/fo...eral-discussions/599-tf-dock-battery-log.html
Definitely not a deal breaker though. A lot of people are just disconnecting their docks after each use and the battery in the dock doesn't drain. Personally I just leave it connected all the time because I typically lose about 2-3% an hour which isn't a big deal to me. Hopefully this will be fixed in a future software update.
Some people have reported getting shorter run time with the doc. To me, that's a deal killer. Anyway, hopefully people will hold off buying the dock and Asus will be forced to address the issue.
el_brio said:
Some people have reported getting shorter run time with the doc. To me, that's a deal killer. Anyway, hopefully people will hold off buying the dock and Asus will be forced to address the issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't know about that, my dock has been connected on my Transformer for about 8 hours and it has been sitting there for most of the day 77%. I have use it during the day though. But I don't think 23% after 8 hours is a deal breaker AT ALL. Even less after I know that I have been using it during the day for short periods of time.
Your results are far better than mine. Do you have the battery widget installed that shows the dock and tablet charge separately? The stock battery app behaves strangely sometimes. Sometimes it will show a charge of 77% and then you will close it and open it back up in an hour and find you have lost 15%. Since you are one of the only ones whose dock seems to be working correctly, could you do a test for us?
1. Download the battery widget listed in the thread in the General forum.
2. Charge to 100%
3. Remove from charger the next day and leave the dock connected to the tab. Leave the tab in "sleep" mode
4. check the DOCK battery level after 8 hours
Thanks!
el_brio said:
Your results are far better than mine. Do you have the battery widget installed that shows the dock and tablet charge separately? The stock battery app behaves strangely sometimes. Sometimes it will show a charge of 77% and then you will close it and open it back up in an hour and find you have lost 15%. Since you are one of the only ones whose dock seems to be working correctly, could you do a test for us?
1. Download the battery widget listed in the thread in the General forum.
2. Charge to 100%
3. Remove from charger the next day and leave the dock connected to the tab. Leave the tab in "sleep" mode
4. check the DOCK battery level after 8 hours
Thanks!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have the battery widget that it's available in the development section and so far it has been working great for me. I will do this and post back the results tomorrow.
If yours is losing <3% per hour while in standby, that isn't too bad. Here is another facet of the problem:
If you turn off the tablet (off... not suspend, tablet only). it loses very little charge when left for long periods of time. If you charge and detach the dock, the dock behaves the same way. If, however, you have the tablet connected to the dock and leave it turned off, you will leak about 1-2% per hour.
Check out the other thread if you get a chance.
Overnight the dock dropped to 77% with the tablet in sleep mode and the tablet was at 99%.
I assumed this was the effect of waste from a trickle charge. Either way I definitely cant say the batter life is shorter with the dock. Its longer, how much I dont know but the girlfriend and i used it solid for a few hours flying with games and such and it didnt even make a dent in the batteries.
didn't happen to me though.. it takes more than 24 hours for a fully my charged dock to drop its battery to 98%...
My dock sat in the closet charged for 5 days because my tf didn't get here till after. When I plugged it in to the tf with the battery widget it had about 60%. I charged it from my friends charger, he didn't get a keyboard. I did the firmware update though. I personally like it.
The drain only occurs when the dock is connected to the tablet.
Im curious as to what controls when the dock charges the prime as Ive noticed that it doesnt charge autmatically once the two are docked.
SteveCheeseman said:
Im curious as to what controls when the dock charges the prime as Ive noticed that it doesnt charge autmatically once the two are docked.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Don't have mine yet but people are saying that the dock will let the tablet get down to 70% then it will charge the tablet back up to full, then wait for it to get down to 70% again and so on.
BongoBong said:
Don't have mine yet but people are saying that the dock will let the tablet get down to 70% then it will charge the tablet back up to full, then wait for it to get down to 70% again and so on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
thanks mate
Yep, the dock starts charging the tablet when tablet drops below 70%.
It charges up to 90%.
But note that the dock also needs battery for itself, so if you have a full tablet battery the dock battery will drain as well as the tablets battery. So if you want to use the dock as mobile battery and not as a keyboard it is the best to dock the keyboard when the tablet reached about 30 or 40%.
Otherwise you will wate energy.
Also, once the dock gets down to about 30%, it will not re-charge the tablet until the tablet also gets down to 30% (guessing it's more efficient for the dock to power itself while it can). There's a 2 battery monitor widget on the market which will plot the charge for you.
the built in widget monitors both batteries when they're connected, and the quick settings in the notification panel also shows both.
but the few apps on the market are smaller widgets if that's something you want
tshoulihane said:
Also, once the dock gets down to about 30%, it will not re-charge the tablet until the tablet also gets down to 30% (guessing it's more efficient for the dock to power itself while it can). There's a 2 battery monitor widget on the market which will plot the charge for you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
could you point me in the direction for such an app?
so..i effin love my prime
i effin love ics
this is not another or new complaint...just soething i find odd and i'm sure there is a setting or something somewhere that i am missing...
what it is is that have my dock connected to my tablet...i did the firmware upgrade for the keyboard
i charged my dock for 7.5 hours...then connected it to my tablet, which was at 91%..
now, an hour later, i am at 85% on my tablet, still at 99% on my dock
in my battery settings, it says i haven't charged my tablet in about 8 hours..while usually when you connected your tablet to a dock, it only goes for a few minutes without saying it was connected
basically, my dock is not charging my tablet
is there anything i have to click on or change so that it does charge it?
my girlfriend's tf101 stays at 100 or 99% and the dock goes down instead...so what do i have wrong?
thanks for the help
The dock won't start charging the Prime unless it's at 70% or lower. So if you dock when the Prime is at 91% as in your example, it won't start charging until the Prime hits 70%. If you dock the Prime at 70% or lower, it will start charging immediately.
This is distinctly different than the original Transformer dock, which will maintain the tablet at 100% until the dock runs out. My guess is that this is to avoid creating unnecessary full discharge cycles on the dock.
thanks for the clarification...should have checked deeper in the functionality...thanks!
How about the dock itself? Is it supposed to be charging at all times until fully charged? Mine shows 98% and is not charging.
atgmartin said:
How about the dock itself? Is it supposed to be charging at all times until fully charged? Mine shows 98% and is not charging.
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Click to collapse
My experience is that, like all/most Android devices, if you plug the dock in when it's between 95%-99% full, it won't charge. If you plug it in at 94% or less, it'll charge to 100%.
Mine doesn't charge either. Tablet sitting at 65%, Dock 100%
Looks like I'll just have to bring it back. :/
wifesabitch said:
Mine doesn't charge either. Tablet sitting at 65%, Dock 100%
Looks like I'll just have to bring it back. :/
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Does the dock connected indicator show?
Sent from my Galaxy S2
ravizzle said:
Does the dock connected indicator show?
Sent from my Galaxy S2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yup, sure does.
Hey guys,
My dock has been acting kind of weird lately (see my thread in the Q/A section if you're curious - dock battery showed as 0% even when charging). What I'm wondering now is how others are doing with battery life in terms of the dock recharging the prime.
When I first got the tablet + dock, I used to be able to recharge the prime 2-3 times when the tab dropped to 70%. That would usually drain my dock battery all the way.
Fast forward to today and the past two weeks...My prime just finished recharging my tab up to about 90%, while it was being used to annotate lecture notes with some mild browsing and emailing in the background, the dock dropped to about 60%. This is what's concerning to me...It seems to be taking double the battery from the dock to recharge it to about the same, or less than, what it did before on the dock.
My use today has been pretty constant. I recharged both to 100% last night, and when I opened it up today at 12:30 pm, the tab was at 96% and the dock at 98%. Since then, my dock dropped to 88% while the tab drained in the same time to about 70%. It then started to charge my tablet to about 90% but the dock dropped to 34% where it is now. I have been using this constantly for the past 3.5 hours.
Here are my concerns, which I hope you guys can help me address:
Is this normal battery drain for 3.5 hours of moderate-heavy use?
Is this drain software related? It seems to have been fine way back on .11 (I'm on .15 now)
Is my dock battery shot? (ie should I RMA it)
Does the dock battery drain EVEN MORE if it's recharging the tablet while you're typing notes, etc on it?
Does a USB peripheral (ie wireless mouse) increase battery drain SIGNIFICANTLY?
I would attach a battery screenshot, but my settings battery menu doesn't have it tracked since it's docked.
I'm hoping this is a meaningful and useful thread so please try to avoid stating something obvious lol
Thanks guys
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using XDA Premium HD app
What performance modes, brightnesses are you using? Can you give us more info about what would be draining the battery?
It's quite possible your prime could be using a percent of the dock for every percent it receives, making it seem like your dock isn't working well, when in actuality it could be your tablet.
.15 was a battery killer for me, since I put virtuous on my prime and underclocked the cpu as the battery gets lower, it's fixed my battery life.
ickkii said:
What performance modes, brightnesses are you using? Can you give us more info about what would be draining the battery?
It's quite possible your prime could be using a percent of the dock for every percent it receives, making it seem like your dock isn't working well, when in actuality it could be your tablet.
.15 was a battery killer for me, since I put virtuous on my prime and underclocked the cpu as the battery gets lower, it's fixed my battery life.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry - forgot to include that. I'm on the normal regular mode with auto brightness. With SetCPU, I had it on On Demand up until this afternoon around when I wrote this post. Then I switched it to interactive.
And as for your second point, I agree that it's possible that's what's happening, but because I'm using it for hours on end, I'm not quite sure if that's what's happening, part of why I started this thread.
Have other people seen improvements from .15 to Virtuous?
Sent from my Transformer Prime TF201 using XDA Premium HD app
Another question, along the same line.....If the tablet's battery is low, the dock is fully charged, and unplugged, will the juice in the battery partially charge the tablet, so that I can remove it from the dock and use it separately until I get to a charging station? Or will the tablet ONLY run off of the dock's battery?
Thanks,
Bob......impatiently waiting for my champagne dock to come
robertg9 said:
Another question, along the same line.....If the tablet's battery is low, the dock is fully charged, and unplugged, will the juice in the battery partially charge the tablet, so that I can remove it from the dock and use it separately until I get to a charging station? Or will the tablet ONLY run off of the dock's battery?
Thanks,
Bob......impatiently waiting for my champagne dock to come
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, the dock charges the dock when it's plugged into the tablet.
I really don't like the dock charging the tablet when it has reached <70%. Because of this a full dock can be drained completely in a single night. I would rather be able to change this thresshold or just to be able to disable charging in standby.
Now I often undock my prime just to keep the docks charge: very frustating!
I emailed Asus and they replied pretty quick:
Dear Sir,
I am begining to hear more cases like this and I'm sure android is looking into a solution regarding this issue. Unfortunately I do not know when a next firmware will be released to address the issue at this time.
Regards,
B2B
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Good news because it is software related and therefore can be fixed But we have to wait.... or...... can we fix this ourselves with just root-access? Or is it possible to build something in a custom ROM? Changing the thresshold to eg 5% would be great.
I replied again and asked for more info about the status of this bug/wish/feature. If I know more I'll update this post.
I'm sorry to kill the hopes here, but it is very unlikely.
They said that "I'm sure android is looking into a solution regarding this issue."
Android is looking into a solution? Android is an OS. And Google would not look into this, since they don't deal with this, this docking routine is entirely ASUS-made. Only one who can fix it is Asus, not Google or Android. And they said 'I am sure', which is an opinion, not a statement. The person does not know what they are talking about.
Secondly, why don't you like the way it works? Dock should be depleted before the tablet is. I would rather have an empty dock than an empty tablet with a charged dock.
And the reason dock begins charging is because it saves battery life in the long run while maintaining tablet with optimal amount of battery life as long as possible.
kristovaher said:
Secondly, why don't you like the way it works? Dock should be depleted before the tablet is. I would rather have an empty dock than an empty tablet with a charged dock.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Totally agree. It was actually something I was impressed with that the setup ensures that the tablet always has optimal charge so that at any time you can undock and be fairly confident that the tablet has as much juice as possible.
Really, I would not want it any other way....
Let me explain my main reason.
Status in the evening:
- dock 100%
- tablet 60%
Status in the morning:
- dock 0%
- tablet 92% (the dock never charge to 100%)
The dock is now completely drained while tablet was idle. Now I have only 92% for a working day.
What I would like:
Status in the morning:
- dock 100%
- tablet 56% (only few % off in standby)
Now I still have 56% + a full dock to work with.
And more importantly: I can have my tablet much longer in standby
I just would like to be able to change the thresshold. Standby time should be exacly the same as when I disconnect the dock. At least it should be optional.
pvdwaal said:
Let me explain my main reason.
Status in the evening:
- dock 100%
- tablet 60%
Status in the morning:
- dock 0%
- tablet 92% (the dock never charge to 100%)
The dock is now completely drained while tablet was idle. Now I have only 92% for a working day.
What I would like:
Status in the morning:
- dock 100%
- tablet 56% (only few % off in standby)
Now I still have 56% + a full dock to work with.
And more importantly: I can have my tablet much longer in standby
I just would like to be able to change the thresshold. Standby time should be exacly the same as when I disconnect the dock. At least it should be optional.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just dont dock the tablet at night ... wait till the morning and your dock will replenish the tab through the day.
The best bit is that the dock still works even though its internal battery has depleted.
I NEVER charge just the tablet, instead i either just charge the dock and let the dock then charge the tab through the day, or charge both over night then have 100% on both in the morning.
As the meerkats say ... Simples !
Danny-B- said:
Just dont dock the tablet at night ... wait till the morning and your dock will replenish the tab through the day.
The best bit is that the dock still works even though its internal battery has depleted.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
One question: WHY should you undock?....answer....to keep dock battery like you say.
Come on, you have to admit that it's plain stupid that we have to remember to undock the prime in order to keep dock battery during standby. Undocking is just a workaround.
Can't believe noboby understands this "problem" like I do and finds a simple setting to be able to control the threshold not needed.
Whether the dock charges the tablet whilst in standby or whilst turned on you are still going to get the same battery life so why put off the recharging of the tablet?
I see what you mean but, as I said, seeing as you still get the same battery life what does it matter if the tablet is charged when you pick it up or whilst in use?
I like how that the dock keeps the tablet above 70%. Currently my dock is at 35% and my tablet 77% and the dock is NOT charging the tablet. Depending on use I get a day or two out of a single charge of both but I tend to do alot of browsing which, along with the wifi, tends to eat through the batteries quite quickly. I don't feel that putting off the recharge will extend it's life any further. I always make sure the wifi/bluetooth etc are off when in standby so that as little power as possible is used during standby anyway.
I get your point but I still think the way it is at the moment is the best solution. Everything else they could add would need manual handling to be usefull...
But I guess that would be over the top for most people. Well they could maybe add a menu where u can lock/unlock charging from the dock...
ps. I'm just now really happy how it works, was working with only the tablet today... 50% battery, then I put it back in my backpack and now it's charged up again, ready for my travel home where I usually use the tablet only...
pvdwaal said:
Let me explain my main reason.
Status in the evening:
- dock 100%
- tablet 60%
Status in the morning:
- dock 0%
- tablet 92% (the dock never charge to 100%)
The dock is now completely drained while tablet was idle. Now I have only 92% for a working day.
What I would like:
Status in the morning:
- dock 100%
- tablet 56% (only few % off in standby)
Now I still have 56% + a full dock to work with.
And more importantly: I can have my tablet much longer in standby
I just would like to be able to change the thresshold. Standby time should be exacly the same as when I disconnect the dock. At least it should be optional.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess I'm not following you here, in particular the underlined sentence. It sounds like maybe you are claiming you will get more battery life overall if the dock did not charge the tablet while in stand by? Unless there is some bug or something that I am not aware of, I don't see how you are going to get more battery life from this. You essentially are just delaying when the tablet gets charged by the dock, which has more disadvantages. I would think you would always want the dock to charge the tablet once the tablet gets below the 70%, regardless of whether or not it is in standby. This way the next time you pick up your tablet if you decide you want to leave your keyboard dock at home or something the tablet will still be charged up as much as possible from the dock.
Furthermore, your title claims that there may be a 'fix' for this in a future SW release, but honestly I don't see a problem here that needs fixed. The dock is doing what it is supposed to do, transfer its battery life to the tablet once the tablet goes below a certain threshold. Maybe I am just not understanding the issue and what exactly you are going to gain by being able to prevent the dock from charging the tablet in certain scenarios.
From what I can gather you essentially are wanting one of two things:
1) Allow the user to set the threshold at which the battery transfer will begin (i.e. you could set the threshold really low to effectively prevent the dock from charging the tablet while in standby)
2) Allow the user to disable the battery transfer all together if the tablet is in standby
Both of which I can maybe see as being valid feature requests, but it sounds like what you have described is that this is some type of bug that needs 'fixed', which I would have to disagree with.
My question is how do you drain that much juice in "standby" overnight. I lose maybe 1-2%???
pvdwaal said:
Changing the thresshold to eg 5% would be great.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Really? So then if you randomly decide to undock your tab, you could possibly only have 5% battery. That would be annoying. If what you are saying is that the battery drains faster when it is docked, then that is what needs to be fixed. That way you still have a mostly full dock and a full tablet. Here is the way I see it.
If you have a full tab and empty dock ---> Prime can be used docked or undocked
If you have a full dock and empty tab ---> Prime can only be used docked until dock charges it
Fix the drain not the threshold. That way you have options.
/my2cents
I vote for changing the threshold! Or at the very least be able to control the threshold.
Also I just have to comment on the person who said 'I'd rather have an empty dock and a full tablet' u serious? I would rather have an empty tablet and a fully charged Dock! That way I can charge the tablet.... duh?
But that aside, I have THE solution for all these problems, turn the machine OFF and voila!
But I never turn mine of neither so I understand
But the standby mode should be changed so less juice is drained from the dock.
Cheers!!!
pvdwaal said:
Let me explain my main reason.
Status in the evening:
- dock 100%
- tablet 60%
Status in the morning:
- dock 0%
- tablet 92% (the dock never charge to 100%)
The dock is now completely drained while tablet was idle. Now I have only 92% for a working day.
What I would like:
Status in the morning:
- dock 100%
- tablet 56% (only few % off in standby)
Now I still have 56% + a full dock to work with.
And more importantly: I can have my tablet much longer in standby
I just would like to be able to change the thresshold. Standby time should be exacly the same as when I disconnect the dock. At least it should be optional.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So the problem here is that you think that a 1% drain on the dock should result in a 1% charge in the tablet, which is absolutely incorrect. The battery in the dock is smaller than the battery in the tablet, so it takes 2-3% drain from the dock to get a 1% charge on the tablet.
With that said, my tablet battery drains faster on standby while docked than undocked, but if I understand you correctly that isn't what you are talking about
Check and make sure under developer in settings you dont have keep awake/screen on while charging checked. Toggling that got rid of my drain
NeoMagus said:
Check and make sure under developer in settings you dont have keep awake/screen on while charging checked. Toggling that got rid of my drain
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yeah, I think some people use this setting without realizing that since the dock is constantly charging the tablet when it hits the 70% mark, the screen could be active even when you're not needing it to be.
Anyway, I don't experience any abnormal drain. I don't last as long as I used to back on .11, but I also keep my WiFi and Sync on all the time now and still pull through 3-4 days a charge.
Johnny0906 said:
I vote for changing the threshold! Or at the very least be able to control the threshold.
Also I just have to comment on the person who said 'I'd rather have an empty dock and a full tablet' u serious? I would rather have an empty tablet and a fully charged Dock! That way I can charge the tablet.... duh?
But that aside, I have THE solution for all these problems, turn the machine OFF and voila!
But I never turn mine of neither so I understand
But the standby mode should be changed so less juice is drained from the dock.
Cheers!!!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Ok from the way I read that you are saying you would like more juice on the dock than the tablet. If I read that correctly (being as you only quoted the first part meaning the second part would be your words as I read it) then I would have to ask what you're smoking and where can I get some. Who would rather have juice on the dock and not the tab? Juice on the tab is good for any use, juice on the dock is good only docked. Also the dock's battery as you know is smaller so juice on that won't last as long as the same % on the tablet. If you were actually trying to quote the whole sentence then disregard and I completely agree duh to whomever posted that (I didn't see that line just a paraphrase in previous posts).
Ops issue is definately not normal. the dock provides the ability to charge approximately 60 percent of the tablet. The only way that the op could get such battery loss would be if he had a battery drain issue. The dock should stay at about 50 percent when the tab has 92 so I think the bigger problem is the battery drain.
Sent from my PG86100 using xda premium
That's what I mentioned a couple pages back, how is he draining 50% of anything dock or tab? He should only be draining about 2%-5% max from one or the other.
neo1738 said:
Ok from the way I read that you are saying you would like more juice on the dock than the tablet. If I read that correctly (being as you only quoted the first part meaning the second part would be your words as I read it) then I would have to ask what you're smoking and where can I get some. Who would rather have juice on the dock and not the tab? Juice on the tab is good for any use, juice on the dock is good only docked. Also the dock's battery as you know is smaller so juice on that won't last as long as the same % on the tablet. If you were actually trying to quote the whole sentence then disregard and I completely agree duh to whomever posted that (I didn't see that line just a paraphrase in previous posts).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well im really sorry i just ran out yesterday, and yes I would rather have the dock charged so I can in a sense re-charge when the tablets battery is low.
neo1738 said:
My question is how do you drain that much juice in "standby" overnight. I lose maybe 1-2%???
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I would like to know why so much drain at night? Thats almost 50% of your battery!!!!!