Is it safe to leave your PDA on in the cradle?

[Unregistered]

Is it safe to simply leave your PDA on the cradle with Pocket Aquarium for half the day?

[Rizal]

Yes, I usually keep it in the cradle on my desk with the clock on.

[exiii]

I hope so. Mine sits in the cradle almost every day when I'm in the office. I'm a little worried about the LCD aging and turning yellow over time, so mine is usually turned off.

[wilsonch_98]

Originally posted by exiii
I hope so. Mine sits in the cradle almost every day when I'm in the office. I'm a little worried about the LCD aging and turning yellow over time, so mine is usually turned off.

You are definitely right on that

[plessdude]

Leave it off....trust me.

[jimod]

I use mine to play mp3's, i have the cradle with the speakers, but other than that is is in the cradle and turned off

[cjones]

Well.. if you've got an NZ you might want to think differently. It's been stated by several of the NZ'ers (of which I've recently become one) that running your battery down and *then* charging it up is a way to increase the battery life.

So assuming that theory holds any water... that means that you don't leave your Clie in the cradle. Personally I'm always running in and out of my cubicle at work, so I only put it in the cradle if I need to sync or I'm messing with the memory stick.

-chris

[r2d]

Chris - I've heard the opposite, that is if you drain the battery and then charge it up, you'll shorten the life of the battery. I don't know if it's the same type of battery, but I twice did that (by mistake) with my PalmIIIc and it took me two weeks to get the battery back to its normal performance.

By the way, my Palm sat in its cradle -turned on- for two years, five days a week and I had no problems with that. So, I was doing the same thing now with my NR. On the other hand, what is LCD aging? What will turn yellow? Now you scared me...

[mjhamilton]

Batteries really need to be cycled so that memory effect doesn't occur (it does occur in LiPoly modules also)...... also the heating effect from continuous power up may cause the life expectancy to be reduced...

I use a usb hotsync cable at work with no power and drop the unit into the cradle for a charge every Sunday night (or earlier if required)..... i have found that with my NX (as with my N770C) this has made my battery life superb..... my 770 could go for more than 2 weeks between charges and the NX can go for 9-10+ days unless really heavially used...

[tsuribito]

Don't think PDAs live long enough that you notice that battery effect :)
I heard that it could be hazardous for the Display but not for the battery.

[mjhamilton]

My N770 lastest me over a year of faithful usage.... 'cause the battery was still in great condition and the screen had been looked after (backlight low and off when not required) I managed to sell it boxed for £100 ($150).................

............ although nothing compared to the original purchase price it was still one quarter of the money towards my new NX..........

.. so looking after this gear does have some benefits!!!.. if the screen was burnt and the battery knackered then it would have been nothing but scrap.....

[DanT]

My N760C has been turning on while it's on the cradle, may be about 5-8 hours a day, 5 days a week, in the office for 18 months, no sign of weaken battery or screen yellowing or burn (knock on wood). It is also charged on the weekend at home. Battery storage once in a long while goes to as low as 60% when I'm out and about, especially when I'm out working on the yard and using it to listen to MP3. Most of the time it stays around 80-100%, since it is being charged everyday.

[kstuart]

Well.. if you've got an NZ you might want to think differently. It's been stated by several of the NZ'ers (of which I've recently become one) that running your battery down and *then* charging it up is a way to increase the battery life.

This is only true if the NZ uses a new type of battery that is different from previous PDAs.

According to Peter Strobel: I already gave a detailed description of the advantages of the new Lithium Ion Polymer battery in the m505 review. The m500 uses the same energy source.
Only because I keep reading alot of nonsense about it, here's a brief introduction to LiIon batteries: Lithium Ion (Polymer or not) batteries don't have any memory effect. Recharging them anytime doesn't harm. In fact, its even better than running them down all the way. A special little circuit that's added already by the battery manufacturer and mostly contained directly in the battery assembly, takes special care that the battery voltage doesn't fall short of a certain minimum value. If that's in store, the circuit virtually breaks the connection (electronically) with the battery totally. Not even the current for data retension is supplied then. This break can only be resetted by a current in the opposite direction, in other words if the battery is charged. No panic, the PalmOS takes enough care of the situation. A LiIon powered Palm can't be switched on long before that absolute minimum battery voltage level is reached. But nevertheless, you shouldn't forget an already empty Palm with LiIon battery in any corner for a longer time. Not only that you'll loose all your data, but after a long enough time the battery voltage will still drop below that minimum level due to self-discharge. And that damages a LiIon battery much more than other battery technologies. A LiIon cell that drops only once below its minimum voltage can loose 50% of its capacity right away and the damage is permanent. On the other hand, LiIon batteries can be maintained quite easily. LiIon batteries are not charged with a constant current like NiMHs or NiCads, neither do they need a nifty management to detect a battery-full situation to protect them from overcharge. LiIon cells are charged with a manufacturer specified constant voltage and when a they become full, they automatically don't draw any more current because the cell voltage reaches the charge voltage. In practice the situation is a bit more complicated. If a LiIon cell is empty enough, it would consume too much current in the beginning of the charge process. The charger has to limit the current to a cell specific maximum then. So in fact, a LiIon charge cycle is a mix of constant current first, constant voltage later. Another difficulty is the accuracy. The accuracy of the charge voltage has to be better than 1%. But the important feature is the nearly no current flow situation when the battery is full. That means basically, that you can leave an m500 in the cradle forever without damaging the battery. It means also, that the earlier you recharge the battery, the less current is flowing into the battery and the lesser wear you have in the cell. Of course you would charge the battery more often then, which balances out. But the bottom line is, that the lifetime of a LiIon cell is not that much dependent on the number of charge cycles, but on the total energy flowing in and out of the cell. If a LiIon battery is specified with a lifetime of 500 cycles, that means full cycles. If you always discharge the battery only half and recharge it then, you'll get 1000 of these cycles ... roughly at least. So, recharge your m500 or m505 whenever you have a chance to do so, it doesn't hurt. And after all, a full battery also gives a good feeling, doesn' it :)? Oh, a last word: LiIon batteries don't like heat nor cold. So never leave your Palm on the dashboard of your car or in other places where the temperature exceeds 60 degrees celcius or falls below -10 degrees celcius. That's the official operating temperature range of the LiIon Polymer battery used in the m500 series.

[DanT]

Thanks for the very informative tip. it sounds like I do the right thing for the last 18 months, ;). Except may for the "screen burn" issue, so I may dim out the brightness all the way down while it's on the cradle from here on. It's certainly a lot easier than having to turn it on and enter the security code each time I want to use it while it is on the cradle.

[orol]

Originally posted by exiii
I hope so. Mine sits in the cradle almost every day when I'm in the office. I'm a little worried about the LCD aging and turning yellow over time, so mine is usually turned off.

actually i NEVER believed in aging & yellowing stuff until i bought a new laptop (my old one was over 3 yeares old) and when i had side by side the new one and old one the old screen was really yellow, i didn't noticed that before, i was so surprised
but actually that laptop was under heavy use => 8-10 hours every single day!
but considering the fact i bought my sj30 just recently and i plan to buy a new palm with palm os 5 in couple of months (i'm still hoping for a clie with palm os 5 in size of sj30 => TG50 without the thumboard and 2cm shorter woudl do that!) => i'm really not worried about yellowing effect on palm :D