Oooopppss! You’re right, Sas- just totalled up my time (I listen to the Clip when I take walks, and I know the exact time of the walks)- it only came out to 3 hours and 20 minutes that I listened. Still pretty good though!
I am affiliated with SanDisk.
Cllipman, thanx for confirming that. At least I know I’m not going crazy! I had my Clip on for more than 4 hrs since the battery meter dropped to 75%, & it hasn’t dropped to 50% yet. Maybe I miscounted myself, previously? Anywho, I’d say it’ll drop to 50% after another 15 minutes, give or take. We’ll see… That would be a total of approx 4 1/2 hrs per 25% of battery power, giving me 17 hrs per charge. Not bad, eh?
Hehe…yeah, Sas, -I’m figuring that my Clip should be dropping to the 75% mark sometime within the next 1/2 hour or 40 minutes of play. Sounds like my Clip and yours are about equal. Thank goodness we didn’t get one of the units that discharges itself when it’s not even in use!
I really wasn’t expecting to get the full 15 hours out of a charge like the manufacturer says it’s supposed to get (Naturally, we all expect them to exaggerate)…but I have a feeling that you and I will both be seeing that 15 hours…if not more!
I bought mine at BB 1/3/2008 and it already had 18A loaded on it so I think it is fairly new. I tested my with the headphones plugged in, volumn on high setting and level at the middle. I go every bit of 15+ hours. I stopped it at that but it still had charge. I just left it on loop and didn’t activate the screen every hour. It also has sat idle for 3 days with no degraded battery.
Well, this is interesting… After more than 5 3/4 hrs, the battery meter STILL says 75%. However, it dropped down but immediately went back up… twice. Is that a bad sign? I hope it’s not defective! Any words of wisdom on this?
Words of wisdom? Maybe…
The algorithm used in the current version (.18) is being improved, hopefully such erratic indications are only an interpolation / rounding / truncation issue in software
So, it’s nothing to really worry about? I don’t have the current firmware, but I’m waiting for the next version which resolves the volume issue. If it’s not defective, that’s a huge relief!
Sas,
I am by no means an eggspurt on these things (Up until last week, I never even owned an MP3 player)- but I’d imagine too, that when the charge is in the vicinity of the 75% range…that at some point the meter is probably right on the cusp- so there probably is a short period where it has a hard time deciding if it should be in the 100% or 75% position. I’m sure that with the various things (temperature, monitoring circuits, etc.) that could just ever so slightly effect the batteries’ charge, that it would be natural for there to be a little indecisiveness at the demarcation points.
I mean, lets say the battery is at 75.02% and the meter is showing full charge…then the temp changes, and maybe that causes the battery to drop a hair…to say 74.9%…or ya turn the Clip on, causing it to use a little juice and it drops it to 74.5%…but then after the initial start-up surge, the battery recovers a bit and goes back up to 75.1%…and since these numbers are right at the demarcation point, I could see the meter naturally going a bit either way.
Batteries are funny things- it’s not like they are a jar full of marbles…and as you take each marble out, it’s gone…done deal, complete. No, quite the contrary- batteries fluctuate somewhat…and their charge is not something that is perfectly constant. (As batteries go, these lithiums are my favorites…if we were talking about Ni
Cads, heh…forget about it! They’d really be all over the place as far as ammount of charge!)
Thanx for the responses. Good to know it’s not really a problem!
Cllipman, it was actually wavering between 75 & 50%, but that’s a moot point… The battery meter finally stayed at 50% after a while. I’m going to turn it on again & see how it goes.
Well, it still appears to be at 50%. I think it should’ve dropped to 25% by now. Any thoughts?
Still at 50%… And this is “normal”? How am I supposed to know when the battery is actually low?
When she reads 25% it will be getting to be near charging time. See if you can measure how much time from 25% until she shuts down. It might be around 2 hours or less.
The next release will give finer steps which will give you less uncertainty.
Also turning on the Display will tend to load the battery and might push the level down a notch in the current firmware.
Well, it finally dropped down to 25% roughly 20-30 minutes ago. I’ll keep you posted…
Battery just died… Here’s a log of the hours & battery percentage:
1st 4 hrs(give or take, wasn’t watching time carefully)- 100%
12-1pm- 75%
10:30-1:45pm- 75%
10:35-2:40pm- 75%- 2:05pm, dropped to 50%
4:40-7pm- 50%
9:25-10:37am- 50%- 10:10am, dropped to 25%
10:37am- battery died.
Total approx hours: 15:50
Message Edited by Sasafrass452 on 01-18-2008 10:58 AM
I understand the clip has a lithium polymer battery. Let’s hope the engineer that designed the charging circuit did it right. Check out this video. The World’s Most Dangerous Battery. I think it’s cool. It’s obviously a much larger cell than that in the clip and intentionally made to blow.
Robert
Those flight packs in the video are much bigger cells than in the Clip, with far greater potential for disaster…
The LiPo in the Clip is “almost” inherently safe by virtue of it’s limited ampacity; I accidentally punctured a fully charged one in this size class (~500mA / hr) with a hobby knife and it did emit an…interesting jet of fire and battery goo, but it went out within seconds. Even the plastic case of the Clip should contain this, and there is a metal EMI shield inside the Clip that will help absorb the released energy further. IF you managed to somehow puncture it.
Merely overcharging the cell will cause it to first swell to 2 or 3 times it’s normal thickness, which might be apparent from the outside. Remember that the USB port is current limited to 500mA, which is only 2.5 watts. Not much opportunity for catastrophe there, really.
I wouldn’t worry about it going incendiary on ya
Miikerman, what about the fact that it stayed at 75% for several hours? That seems rather odd to me…
Thanx for the response, Miikerman. I was seeing about 7 1/2 hrs at 75% & about 30 minutes at 25%. It would seem the battery calibration is WAAAY off… I recharged it, & I’ll keep better track of the time so I can get a more accurate tally of the total hrs. It’s probably about the same, not that I’m complaining… I was just concerned about the battery meter being so inaccurate. I look foward to the new firmware!
I only got about 12 hours out of my battery! 
I ran the Clip with half volume, 128 Kb/s mp3’s, the rock EQ, and all of the rest were the factory settings. Where’s my 15 hours?
