Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Getting battery charging or discharging time

With Battery Notifier BT Free and Battery Notifier Pro BT, you can easily find out how long it takes to charge your phone or tablet's battery from any given point.  You can also find out how much time has passed since you last charged your phone or tablet, to let you know how long your battery lasted.

Swipe down to see the expanded notification area.  To display the "plugged in" information, plug your charger into your phone or tablet.  When the charger is plugged into your phone or tablet, the second line of the notification will change to say "Plugged in 0h 0m ago at (current battery level)."  Later, after the charger is unplugged from your phone or tablet after a full charge, the second line will change to say "Unplugged 0h 0m ago at 100%."

NOTE: This "plugged in" and "unplugged" information will be lost if you reboot your phone or tablet, or if you restart Battery Notifier.

1) To get the time it takes to charge your phone or tablet...

Turn on the full charge notification by going into Settings - Full Battery Charge Options -
and place a check next to "Notify when charged."

When the phone or tablet is connected to the charger, swipe down, and in the extended drop-down notification area the second line will say "Plugged in 0h 0m ago at 25%."
(In this example it is assumed you are charging your phone or tablet once it drops to 25%.)

NOTE: As a general rule, to extend the life of your battery, you should not let your phone or tablet's battery drop below 25%.  (A battery that is charged once it drops to 30% capacity will last up to four times longer than a battery that is repeatedly allowed to drop to zero.)
How to Prolong Lithium-based Batteries

When you get the full battery alert, DO NOT UNPLUG THE CHARGER RIGHT AWAY.
Before unplugging the charger, swipe down, and look at the notification area.
It will now read something like "Plugged in 2h 45m ago at 25%."
Now you know how long it takes to charge it from 25%.  If you wish, you can write this information down somewhere to compare future full battery charges.

2) To get the time your battery lasted from the last charge...

Turn on the low battery notification by going into Settings - Low Battery Charge Options - Low Battery Level.  Move the slider and set the low battery level notification to 25%.
Press OK.

After charging your phone or tablet, when you unplug the charger the display will change to say "Unplugged 0h 0m ago at 100%."
As long as you do not plug the charger back in again or restart your phone, tablet, or Battery Notifier, this information will remain in the notification area, and when you get the low battery alert at 25%, it will then say something like "Unplugged 6h 30m ago at 100%"
Now you know how long your battery lasted before it dropped to 25%.

If the information text is not fully visible or runs off the edge of the screen,
you can make room for more "plugged/unplugged" text information by hiding the icon
in the extended notifications area.
Go to Settings - Configure Notification Area - Check "Hide icon".

This works in both Battery Notifier BT Free and Battery Notifier Pro BT.