48 replies to this topic

[Monk]

Even more extremely useful information. And even with all this, as I understand it, the Pandora *should* be able to run on AC power alone, without a battery pack in it. So if one of us really, really wants to use our Pandora twenty years from now, we could still plug it in. Portability's trashed though.

Not so! Or, at least, not necessarily. Let's assume you can get a 5V battery supply of some kind, and that the Pandora can run without a battery (as with most things, this has not been confirmed or denied definitively by OpenPandora and is STILL up in the air at present). In that case all you need is a 5V supply plugged into the DC in, right? Well, in the scenario I have posited you have an empty battery compartment - put a 5V battery of the future in there and drill a small hole fo the lead to come out an plug into the DC in (you could be even tidier if you were willing to open the case up and make the conenction internally). Unless batteries get significantly better in futur e(which they might!) you probably wouldn't have the same weight/batterylife combo, but you would still be portable.

I'm a little more concerned about the proprietary nature of the battery - all OpenPandora have to do to make the Pandora "obsolete" is to stop making batteries. The market could well be small enough to make other battery makers not consider Pandora Batteries commercially viable, which would make each of us getting our own batteries custom made... prohibitively expensive. I preferred it when the Pandora was supposed to operate off of standard commercially-available batteries. But that ship has sailed (and improved runtime replaced it).

[mali]

Let's assume you can get a 5V battery supply of some kind, and that the Pandora can run without a battery (as with most things, this has not been confirmed or denied definitively by OpenPandora and is STILL up in the air at present).

I'd really like a definite confirmation, if it works or not. Last thing I know, before I was away for a few months, is that one of the board revisions specifically removed the necessity of a battery to be present. A recent comment of Wizardstan(which I trust, because he usually has a good memory regarding that stuff) suggested that a battery has to be present.

[Vlynndar]

I'm a little more concerned about the proprietary nature of the battery - all OpenPandora have to do to make the Pandora "obsolete" is to stop making batteries. The market could well be small enough to make other battery makers not consider Pandora Batteries commercially viable, which would make each of us getting our own batteries custom made...

And imagine having to search the internet for 'Pandora Battery'.

And I also recall someone trustworthy posting that there had to be a battery present.

[Monk]

I'd really like a definite confirmation, if it works or not. Last thing I know, before I was away for a few months, is that one of the board revisions specifically removed the necessity of a battery to be present. A recent comment of Wizardstan(which I trust, because he usually has a good memory regarding that stuff) suggested that a battery has to be present.

As would I - it's make me feel a lot happier, personally... and yes, Stan's usually quite good at being right. It's not often that I hope he's wrong, or simply outdated - but this time I hope that he's quoting what he read correctly, but that the information is indeed no longer relevant or correct. I hate proprietary components, I really do - sometimes you really need them to do a given job at a given price/size/speed/convenience/whatever, but they can suddenly become an anchor round your neck

[Tor]

Let's assume you can get a 5V battery supply of some kind, and that the Pandora can run without a battery (as with most things, this has not been confirmed or denied definitively by OpenPandora and is STILL up in the air at present).

I'd really like a definite confirmation, if it works or not. Last thing I know, before I was away for a few months, is that one of the board revisions specifically removed the necessity of a battery to be present. A recent comment of Wizardstan(which I trust, because he usually has a good memory regarding that stuff) suggested that a battery has to be present.

I agree, we'll need an update of this. I too remember that the requirement for presence of a battery was removed at one point, and that indeed one ore more of the earlier demo videos of the Pandora was running without any battery present. But then again Wizardstan remember something else. Maybe this has been changed more than one time. The N900 definitely needs a battery (and can't flip into reflash mode if the battery is discharged) and this has been creating grief for myself and some others.

Edited by Tor, 02 February 2010 - 01:35 PM.

[mindlord]

This is the last quote that I can find from MWeston regarding Mains Power only, no battery. I can't seem to locate any updated information, and this quote is very old. FWIW.

Currently, the design requires the battery to be connected for the system to come alive. It isn't a design error but a function of the power management chip coupled to the OMAP processor. The very first time I powered up the Pandora board with a DC jack, I thought I screwed up and the design didn't work. It turned out that I had to attach a battery for the PMIC to acknowledge a "battery OK" condition before starting the regulators. <img src="http://www.gp32x.com...IR#>/smile.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid="" border="0" alt="smile.gif" />

I have been trying to ask some TI engineers on whether there is an alternative hook up possible to keep the system up when the battery is removed but so far no response on that. Since this chipset was designed with mobile phones in mind, this is likely how it will stay.

[Tor]

I'm certain I've seen more on this topic from MWeston, somewhen between the order taking and mid-summer last year.

[mali]

One of the latest board revisions(if not the last) addressed it. It was before mid February 09.

Edited by mali, 02 February 2010 - 02:54 PM.

[mindlord]

I'm certain I've seen more on this topic from MWeston, somewhen between the order taking and mid-summer last year.

Something more current:

Here's a good one: Can I run the system without a battery?

Unfortunately that answer has returned to a big fat NO. I think there is an errata issue with the non battery mode (called CVM). It runs without a battery if the LCD and Wifi are off (power drain is low) but then it won't charge the battery properly (takes about 30 hours!). No CVM and everything runs fine but you can't yank the battery.

[mali]

So that is it then

[WizardStan]

So that is it then

It's not necessarily a problem. All it probably needs is something to act as a 3.7 volt buffer (or whatever). A resistor/capacitor combo across the contacts could function the exact same way, enough for it to think there's a battery present anyway. Don't ask me to design such a thing though, it would probably just explode.

[Poem58]

Why Doesn't someone just PM Notaz? His new pics showed the Pandora next to a PSP, maybe he can just yank the battery and plug in his PSP adapter and then we can have a definite answer as to if the battery has to be there or not!? I'm really surprised that this late in the game there are still not definite answers to something like this.
I remember reading that if the battery was unable to charge that was OK, but it had to be there for the AC to function. So in less than a minute Notaz could solve the issue once and for all. I would ask him myslef but my internet access is temporarily out and I can only catch a nearby access point for a few moments at a time. Here's hoping THIS goes through to the router on the next block!

[mali]

Notaz made it work without battery
http://www.gp32x.com/board/index.php?/topic/51654-notaz-and-his-pandora/page__view__findpost__p__806714

[Monk]

Notaz made it work without battery
http://www.gp32x.com...post__p__806714

Intesresting! Who do we prod to update:

http://pandorawiki.o...ry_connected.3F

?