Initial DS Charge

Hocky27 · August 2007

The guy at EB said that I should charge it for 10 hours before I play. I was just wondering if perhaps he over exagerated or something. What did you guys do ?

spookymuffin · August 2007

I charged mine overnight.

Technicality · August 2007

I would read the stuff that comes with your DS, and see what it says in there. As far as I know nimh's don't benefit from this nearly as much (if at all) as lithium or nicad, so I wouldn't be surprised if he was talking rubbish.

Hocky27 · August 2007

Well the maual says 3 hours is a max charge but I dont wanna shorten the life of the battery if I play it without the 10 hour charge the employee reccomended

Technicality · August 2007

My mistake, the DS is a li-ion

batttery university wrote:

Preparing new lithium-ion for use

Unlike nickel and lead-based batteries, a new lithium-ion pack does not need cycling through charging and discharging. Priming will make little difference because the maximum capacity of lithium-ion is available right from the beginning. Neither does a full discharge improve the capacity of a faded pack. However, a full discharge/charge will reset the digital circuit of a 'smart' battery to improve the state-of-charge estimation

So according to them, no.

Brodo Faggins · August 2007

I just played it the day I got it until it turned red, and then recharged it fully.

HolyHesus · August 2007

Brodo Faggins wrote: »

I just played it the day I got it until it turned red, and then recharged it fully.

If it is anything like a lithium cell phone battery than I would do the same. Let it die first then charge it. Apparently it makes the life last longer.

Gihgehls · August 2007

Lithium ion packs are limited to a (estimated) number of charge/discharge cycles. This number goes up as stress on the pack decreases. You will get far more life out of your lithium ion batteries if you just leave them on the damn charger, as charging from near zero is more stressful for the battery than charging up from 80%. The only possible downside of constantly charging a lithium ion battery is that the smart guage will slowly lose calibration. But that is only a meter, it isn't the actual capacity of your battery that is changing.

Also, lithium ion batteries cannot be taken down to 0% without permenant damage to the pack. This is why it is dangerous to let most lithium ion devices discharge too much. Eventually that little clock we all have in just about all devices will ruin the battery, and it will never hold as much power as it used to. (side note: if your Li-ion device shows no battery remaining, it is still probably hiding 5 or 10 percent from you, for its own safety.)

For what it is worth, lithium ion batteries also have a "shelf-life" which is usually a few years from their date of manufacture. Eventually they will just wear out, even if you don't use them, which is why it is also a good idea not to stress out too much about the number of charge/discharge cycles you have left, because the pack is going to die anyway no matter how much you baby it.

Most battery packs are made of seperate cells (think of those battery packs that look like a bunch of AA batteries strapped together.) The reason they tell you to charge it so long is to ensure that all the cells are balanced. Heat, age, and manufacturing variances affect the internal resistance of a cell, and the internal resistance affects how quickly current is drained from it. In a severely unbalanced pack, many of the cells might be doing no work at all and will drastically affect the appearent capacity of the battery.

tl;dr: Keep that shit plugged in as often as you can for the best possible performance from your battery.

Mmmm... Cocks... · August 2007

... There needs to be an Inital DS game...

mcdermott · August 2007

Listen to everything Gihgehls said. The man knows what he's talking about.

EDIT: Also, thanks Gihgehls for getting here first and saving me all that typing.

Gihgehls · August 2007

mcdermott wrote: »

Listen to everything Gihgehls said. The man knows what he's talking about.

EDIT: Also, thanks Gihgehls for getting here first and saving me all that typing.

Thanks mate.

And you're welcome!

Argus · September 2007

I got my DS, saw the warnings about charging it before playing, and turned it on. I played for ~1 hour or so, then continued playing with it hooked up to the charger while playing to keep it charged. It's going on 2 years old, no problems so far.

Penny Arcade

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