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Do you charge your SP when the light turns red or do you drain the battery out?

I always charge it when the light turns red, and I know that's supposed to be okay because Li-ion batteries don't have the "memory effect", but should I completely drain the battery out at least once a month or something? Or is it totally a non-issue?
 

Dyne

Member
Well it would probably be healthier in the long run to drain it out and charge it back up completely, maybe. I've only charged without draining it once, and that was when I was in a hurry.
 

human5892

Queen of Denmark
I charge it when it turns red, because usually I'm playing something that requires saving, and I wouldn't want to run the risk of attempting to save the game, having the power die on me right then, and having my cart and/or GBA get fucked up because the save was interupted.

Plus, whenever the light turns red, I can't keep playing, anyway. All I do is keep staring over at it and wondering nervously if it's going to shut off or not.
 
It's Lithium Ion, it doesn't matter when you charge it.

That said, I only charge it when it's in the red because I just don't care to otherwise. If it's green then I've got enough power to play before it dies, as I usually don't play GBA for more than an hour at a time.
 

sc0la

Unconfirmed Member
human5892 said:
I charge it when it turns red, because usually I'm playing something that requires saving, and I wouldn't want to run the risk of attempting to save the game, having the power die on me right then, and having my cart and/or GBA get fucked up because the save was interupted.

Plus, whenever the light turns red, I can't keep playing, anyway. All I do is keep staring over at it and wondering nervously if it's going to shut off or not.
I totally agree with this. :D

And also what StikerObi said, this attery doesn't have any kind of memory like older rechargables.
 

B E N K E

Member
I thought you were supposed to drain it a couple of times at first. To get it to maintain maximum capacity for as long as possible.
 
i had the battery die out on me right in the middle of a mission in Fire Emblem. thankfully the game saves right in mid mission no matter where you're at. Awesome feature. Awesome is fire emblem!
 
PistonHodnamn said:
i had the battery die out on me right in the middle of a mission in Fire Emblem. thankfully the game saves right in mid mission no matter where you're at. Awesome feature. Awesome is fire emblem!

It saves after every single turn you make in the game, it's a blessing and a curse really :p

And Eddie Vedder is hot.
 

Defensor

Mistaken iRobbery!
B E N K E said:
I thought you were supposed to drain it a couple of times at first. To get it to maintain maximum capacity for as long as possible.
This isn't a Ni-MH battery.
 

Dyne

Member
PistonHodnamn said:
i had the battery die out on me right in the middle of a mission in Fire Emblem. thankfully the game saves right in mid mission no matter where you're at. Awesome feature. Awesome is fire emblem!

IAWTP

I can play it literally anywhere, any time. I love it so much.
 

Wario64

works for Gamestop (lol)
PistonHodnamn said:
i had the battery die out on me right in the middle of a mission in Fire Emblem. thankfully the game saves right in mid mission no matter where you're at. Awesome feature. Awesome is fire emblem!

I hate it. Every time I do some stupid move without thinking that gets one of my characters killed, I try to turn it off before the death occurs. But when I try to go back in, it resumes and finishes the turn, killing my character. DAMMIT!
 
adelgary said:
I always charge it when the light turns red, and I know that's supposed to be okay because Li-ion batteries don't have the "memory effect", but should I completely drain the battery out at least once a month or something? Or is it totally a non-issue?

Non-issue. Li-ion has no memory effect, but more to the point, its rated for a certain number of full cycles (charging from 10-100%) In the case of the GBA, its about 500 charges. The trick of it is, a full cycle recharge causes a significant amount of stress to the battery chemistry. If you charge partial cycles (ie, from 30%-100%, 50-100%, 70-100%), you are actually likely to get more the equivalent of 500 full charges and then some, because the battery has not been as stressed.

It is possible to over-cycle a Li-ion battery, but you should be fine if you charge it every few days, or whenever it goes red. Once your system has gone through the equivalent of 500 full charges, the damage starts to become noticeable in the form of reduced battery lifetime. You can keep using and recharging it, but it will slowly, over time, get worse until the point of uselessness.

There are three other problems with Li-ion:

-Long term negligible strength (basically, leaving it empty for months at a time) will actually result in further battery damage. Unused rechargeables continue to drain at a small rate, and if it goes too far below the empty baseline, it won't be able to recover.

-Storage charge: If you're going to leave a Li-ion battery or device out of use for awhile, leave it around 40% charge (or say, from empty, a half hour charge). A year of storage can damage a fully charged battery by 20%-30%, while a 40% charged battery suffers a maximum damage of around 10%.

-Overcharging: This isn't the fault of the user, but chargers that aren't quick enough to finish the charge and shut off are likely to do intensify the amount of damage done every cycle.
 

Wario64

works for Gamestop (lol)
I got the Pelican Extended Battery for $5 (including shipping) on Ebay months ago. It retails for $19.99 in store

extendedbattery1.jpg


extendedbattery2.jpg



The battery kicks ass. Up to 18 hours and it comes with a screw driver to replace the battery. It adds a couple millimeters to the SP, but you hardly notice the extra thickness after a while. And for the price I got it, it was totally worth it. I hear there's a new version of the battery where it has a compartment to put your original SP battery in it, and you can switch between the extended battery or the original SP battery, giving you even more SP battery time
 
I refuse buy any accessory that increases the size of a portable gaming device, but if it doesn't bother you, then more power to you.

With that said, that Pelican battery Wario posted looks pretty neat, especially if it matches the unit color as the images show. Probably the "best looking" add-on battery pack I've seen.
 
Wow, thanks for the photos Wario. I had ignored the battery pack previously because the packaging made it look a lot bigger than your photos indicate. I suppose I should look into one now.
 
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