User manual

Psion Teklogix 7535/7530 Hand-Held Computer User Manual 61
Chapter 3: Getting To Know Your 7535/7530
Monitoring The Battery And Maximizing Run Time
• The display backlight is the largest drain on the battery. Try to keep its
brightness as low as possible.
• The hand-held is ‘event’ driven – that is, when the unit is not in use, it
reverts to sleep mode (even when it appears to be running), saving battery
power. Events include a key press, touchscreen taps and scan triggers.
Power consumption is reduced if you avoid unnecessary events, and allow
the unit to sleep as much as possible.
• The hand-held battery is a ‘smart battery’ with built-in intelligence. The
taskbar battery icon is a linear gauge used to estimate the remaining run
time of the battery. It is important to note that the battery capacity icon dis-
plays quarter percentages of nominal capacity (the capacity of a new bat-
tery). An aged battery, even when fully charged, shows somewhat less
capacity than nominal.
Double-tapping on the battery icon displays a dialog box that provides
detailed information about the battery status and performance. If the
remaining capacity indication seems inaccurate, the battery may need recal-
ibration. Recalibration requires that the battery be fully charged, discharged
and then charged again before use. If the battery is fully discharged and
charged on a regular basis, recalibration should not be necessary.
• When the hand-held is switched off, it goes into a low-power, suspend state
but continues to draw a small amount of power from the battery. This
should not be an issue unless the unit is left in suspend state for more than a
week – in this case, the battery should be removed.
• Batteries left unused for durations of more than one or two months should
be fully charged, discharged and then charged again before use. This recali-
brates the gas gauge and allows the internal electronics to determine the
actual capacity of the battery.