Hi !
I got my pocket reform 2 weeks ago. It’s a great small laptop but still learning how to use it.
There is battery issue though that bothers me.
In off mode, the battery loses 50% in evening (around 7hours).
If I turn off the power standby switch, drain is lower but for me still non-negligeable.
Any workaround or fix for that?
What is the purpose of the power standby switch? I can’t imagine myself carrying a pin everywhere just to conserve a little more of battery life.
Thanks for any suggestions on what to look at, check or correct usage.
From what I can tell, the firmware on the two microcontrollers could use some improvement with regard to standby power. I posted a patch here Reprogramming the Pocket Keyboard - #3 by wdouglass that should reduce power draw from the keyboard when its off (seems to help a little bit, but could be placebo)
I’m also seeing a non-negligible standby loss of approximately 25% overnight; the delta between Lloyd’s observations and my own could be a result of the System Controller firmware update which purports to improve idle power consumption, though another user there notes an approximate 1% loss per-standby-hour before the upgrade so I’m not sure.
I’ll experiment with your patch the next time I get a free weekend @wdouglass and report back if I see any improvement.
I’m using a fairly off-the-shelf wall plug and usb-c cable, the same one I use to charge my phone. I’m not super surprised that it’s slowish to charge, but I am surprised that it seems to drain the battery faster than it charges when on. Is this anyone else’s experience?
This is probably a bug that @nanocodebug has recently chased down. It is probably not charging at all. Does it charge when you connect the charger before turning it on? Then it should continue charging when you turn it on in that state.
The problem is that when the charger’s 5V is not a higher level than the 5V that is output by the Pocket’s USB port (in “on” state), the charger isn’t recognized by the PD chip. Apparently I have to redo the PD logic in the system controller firmware to fix this. I didn’t find this issue before shipping because it never happened in the lab/with our chargers.
Ah I had been wondering if this might be true, if it simply wasn’t charging when on. And yes, it did charge before I plugged it in.
Happy to see a hopeful firmware fix is in progress. I might look around the house for some other chargers and see if any of them work “better”, and if not order one of the chargers that the community has definitively said charge quickly and nicely.