[TouchPad Development] lippy lipkowski:
Actually Lithium Ion batteries properly implemented, as they are in the Touchpad, can last a VERY long time and give you WAY more cycles than typical implementations.

Consider this:

Full blown full bright full volume HD video playback via Wifi uses less than 1500ma or 1.5 amps.

The battery capacity on the Touchpad exceeds 6 amps.

The most power draw that battery EVER sees is 1/3 C or 2 amps. That type of implementation is VERY kind to the electrolyte paste. In fact that kind of implementation is the best vase scenario for life of a Lithium Ion battery.

Leaving them fully charged or leaving them fully discharged will lead to the paste spontaneously crystallizing either partially or totally and then a portion of the cell's capacity or ALL of the cells capacity is now gone.

The electrolyte paste is not stable in either a fully charged or fully discharged state.

I owned a computer store for 10 years and you would not believe how many people came in with 3 month old laptops and batteries with 4 cycles on them that have close to zero capacity left in them.

The customer would invariably report that the computer was left plugged in continuously. and rarely if ever discharged.

The best way to operate in that scenario is to remove the battery from the laptop at about 60 percent charge state so the chemistry is right smack dab in the middle of it's two ionic states IE charged or discharged.

Going to 60-65 percent is the best because then the battery will drop off to 50 percent over a much longer period of time and will keep the chemistry in the stable range longer as the battery experiences self discharge, as ALL batteries do unfortunately.

Since the Touchpad battery is SO hefty in regards to the DC current the device actually draws at max being only 2 amps, the chemistry doesn't take an extreme state change hit and that tends to avoid crystallization over a long period.

Honestly I have 6 of these Touchpads now and have not seen one of the batteries bork yet. Their charging software is SO good that you can resurrect the Lithium Ion batteries in the Touchpads.

The original one I have must gave thousands of cycles on it. It must. I have been using it constantly for the last 4.5 years and for the first 3 of them was almost fully discharging the device using it out at clients places all day, and then using it for consuming media all evening hehe.

I am a BIG fan of the design of these tablets.

So I have already brought one Touchpad I got with a spent battery back. I purchased a cell assuming the battery was cooked hard cause I couldn't even get it to come on, but their software works so well and they have a way way low current trickle charge sequence in it that sometimes takes DAYS hehehe, but it can resurrect a battery.

If your device is shutting off suddenly at 20 percent I kind of doubt it is the rom.

Only way to tell is if you had put a different rom on it since you noticed the problem to see if it does the same thing on the other rom.

I suspect it would.

If not than I guess you found a bug? Dunno I don't do software engineering like these wacko beautiful devs here so that is for them to figure out.

Here....here is some software I know. From TRS-80 Basic 1.0 from 1978 (written by MICROSOFT none other incidentally, supposedly a lot of it by Bill Gates [gag] himself!)

TRS-80 Model 1 64Kbytes Ram

Dual 5.25 inch Floppy Drives 18 Sector per Track 40 Track Double Sided with Percom Disk Doubler mod Installed in Expansion Interface

IBM Selectric with Solenoid kit installed connected to a Practicle Peripherals Parallel Port Device

10 print "BLORG!"

20 goto 10

READY

>save

READY

>run

BLORG!

BLORG!

BLORG!

BLORG!

BLORG!

BLORG!

BLORG!

BLORG!

BLORG!

BLORG!

BLORG!

BLORG!

BLORG!

*BREAK*

READY

>list

10 print "BLORG!"

20 goto 10

READY

>

That's the only software I know! I AM STUPID-N-SHIZ!

8)