hnridder@cs.ruu.nl (Ernst de Ridder) (05/06/91)
Some days ago, I bought a Zenith Minisport. But the machine doesn't give any information about the state of the battery (apart from bleeping when it's almost empty). Now, I heared or read some time ago about a utility called Battery Watch, a TSR which checks your computer regularly and reports the "fill-level" of the battery. Who made this program? What does it cost? How reliable is it? Since it is a constantly active TSR: how much time does it cost? Have there recently been any reviews of it in a computer magazine? Are there any other programs doing the same thing? -- What are the answers on the above questions for those? Thanks in advance for any answers you may provide, Ernst de Ridder -- popa iret Qualitas qualitatem inducit. Semper ego qualitatem. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Ernst de Ridder (student) | Email: hnridder@cs.ruu.nl Dept. of Computer Science, Utrecht University | Fido: Ernst de.Ridder UUCP: !mcsun!hp4nl!ruuinf!praxis!hnridder | 2:284/203.6 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- popa iret Qualitas qualitatem inducit. Semper ego qualitatem.
bumby@math.rutgers.edu (Richard Bumby) (05/07/91)
Two postings have asked about Battery Watch:
Article <124565@unix.cis.pitt.edu> May 6 12:56
Subject: Battery Watch Software
From: dpbst3@unix.cis.pitt.edu (David P Brennan @ University of
Pittsburgh)
and
Article <1991May06.115931.4461@cs.ruu.nl> May 6 11:59
Subject: battery-watching program for Zenith Minisport
Keywords: battery watch, minisport
From: hnridder@cs.ruu.nl (Ernst de Ridder @ Utrecht University, Dept.
of Computer Science)
I have been using this product in my T1000 and find it moderately
useful. The program itself is very small, so you buy a disk that
allows you to install it on just about anything. It is a product of
"Travelling Software" -- the Lap-Link folks. It can't perform
miracles -- it can only use what the computer manufacturer makes
available, but I have found it useful for getting a better idea of
battery life than the little "low battery" light is able to give. The
deep discharge is a nice idea in principle, but I have not found it
particularly useful in practice.
--
R. T. Bumby ** Rutgers Math || Amer. Math. Monthly Problems Editor
bumby@math.rutgers.edu || P.O. Box 10971 New Brunswick, NJ08906-0971
Telephone: [USA] 908 828 0277 (full-time message line)jackw@nstar.rn.com (Jack Wiggins) (05/07/91)
What you'll have to watch out for with "Battery Watch" is whether or not it even supports the Minisport. I bought a copy for my Supersport SX only to discover that when it said it supported "Zenith Supersport" it only supported the original "Supersport model and not the series. As far as I know, they STILL don't support the SX. -- Jack Wiggins NSTAR conferencing site 219-289-0287/317-251-7391 internet: jackw@nstar.rn.com 1300 newsgroups - 8 inbound lines uucp: ..!uunet!nstar.rn.com!jackw 99 file areas - 4300 megabytes --- backbone news & mail feeds available - contact larry@nstar.rn.com ---
brian@zds-ux.UUCP (Brian C. Barnes) (05/08/91)
In article <1991May06.115931.4461@cs.ruu.nl> hnridder@cs.ruu.nl (Ernst de Ridder) writes: >Some days ago, I bought a Zenith Minisport. But the machine doesn't >give any information about the state of the battery (apart from bleeping >when it's almost empty). Now, I heared or read some time ago about a >utility called Battery Watch, a TSR which checks your computer regularly >and reports the "fill-level" of the battery. I think the program your after was done by a company called "Travelling Software" - They also did the program LapLink - Used in PC to PC communication.
bdahlen@zephyr.cair.du.edu (Robert L. Dahlen - U. of Denver USA=) (05/08/91)
In article <8T0J22w161w@nstar.rn.com> jackw@nstar.rn.com (Jack Wiggins) writes: >What you'll have to watch out for with "Battery Watch" is whether or not it >even supports the Minisport. I bought a copy for my Supersport SX only to >discover that when it said it supported "Zenith Supersport" it only >supported the original "Supersport model and not the series. As far as I >know, they STILL don't support the SX. >internet: jackw@nstar.rn.com 1300 newsgroups - 8 inbound lines I just read that Battery Watch Pro v3.0 $49.95 is a new generic version that supports 40 "popular" laptops. Call Traveling Software at 206-483-8088. -- ------------------------------------------------------------------- Robert L. Dahlen - Director, Information Systems & Technology University of Denver - Denver, Colorado 80208 (303) 871-4385 INTERNET:bdahlen@du.edu BITNET:bdahlen@ducair
jackw@nstar.rn.com (Jack Wiggins) (05/08/91)
After trying to deal with Traveling software and my non-functional "Battery Watch", I decided it'd be easier to give up on them ever trying to support my machine. They've lost my vote for sure. -- Jack Wiggins NSTAR conferencing site 219-289-0287/317-251-7391 internet: jackw@nstar.rn.com 1300 newsgroups - 8 inbound lines uucp: ..!uunet!nstar.rn.com!jackw 99 file areas - 4300 megabytes --- backbone news & mail feeds available - contact larry@nstar.rn.com ---
laird@think.com (Laird Popkin) (05/09/91)
In article <8w5L22w161w@nstar.rn.com> jackw@nstar.rn.com (Jack Wiggins) writes: >After trying to deal with Traveling software and my non-functional "Battery >Watch", I decided it'd be easier to give up on them ever trying to support >my machine. They've lost my vote for sure. The version I have (about 2 years old) allowed me to enter any values I liked for the power drain caused by hard drive access, etc., and implied that you could use it with _any_ laptop if you could determine reasonable power drain numbers. On the other hand, there are some features such as backlighting which are specific to each model computer, so I don't see how this could be so. I can see how it could be difficult for them to keep up with the nearly infinite number of laptop models and revisions. This whole discussion _almost_ makes me think that Apple's use of a lead acid battery (which allows you to determine the battery's charge directly) was a good idea. Travelling Software has certainly changed since the days when they produced (very impressive) software for the Radio Shack Model 100. - Laird Popkin, Thinking Machines Connection Machine: Massively parallel supercomputer. Also a cool black cube with more blinking lights than you can shake a stick at.