charleen@zodiac.ads.com (Charleen Bunjiovianna) (03/13/90)
Has anyone bothered to buy an extra battery pack for their T1000SE? Is it worth the expense? I'll be taking a long train trip in May. I'd like to take the Toshiba with me, but recharging opportunities may be spotty. I was thinking an extra battery pack would help. Thanks, Charleen
perry@key.COM (Perry The Cynic) (03/14/90)
In article <11226@zodiac.ADS.COM> charleen@zodiac.ads.com (Charleen Bunjiovianna) writes: > Has anyone bothered to buy an extra battery pack for their T1000SE? > Is it worth the expense? > > I'll be taking a long train trip in May. I'd like to take the > Toshiba with me, but recharging opportunities may be spotty. I > was thinking an extra battery pack would help. > > Thanks, > Charleen Yes, I've bought a spare, and I'm ordering another one. My price is $58 (plus tax), from my favorite computer dealer (mail order may be lower). There's two reasons (that I can see) for getting extra batteries: running time and the "memory effect". Let's look at this: You can expect about three hours of operation out of one (fully charged) battery (possibly less if you have a memory expansion installed). If you want, say, six hours of operation away from a power outlet, get one extra battery, and so on. Batteries recharge in about four hours (with the T1000SE off). If you have more than one empty one, you'll have to switch them every four hours. Remember that the T1000SE actually tells you when a battery is full (the rightmost LED goes from orange to green), so you don't have to overcharge "just in case" (though it's safe to do so, say overnight). You could buy Toshiba's quick charger (charges up to three batteries), but this is a low-volume, high-markup accessory, and isn't worth it in my opinion. Then there's the "memory effect": NiCd batteries (like the one in the T1000SE) are subject to this problem. If you repeatedly discharge a NiCd battery partially, it will end up holding only part of its original charge. You should *always* try to *fully* discharge a NiCd battery before (fully) recharging it. "Topping off" a NiCd battery is a Bad Thing (it doesn't hurt you immediately, but doing it repeatedly reduces its effective capacity). In your case, that means that you should run your T1000SE until it turns itself off (remember that this enables AutoResume, so you don't lose your work). Of course, if you have only one battery, this stops you until you can get to a power outlet. On the other hand, if you have a second battery, you can happily squeeze the last drop out of your first one, knowing that you can switch to the (presumably full) alternate. Two batteries are usually enough. In my case, there's these dratted trans- atlantic flights where six hours of operation aren't nearly enough. I just figure that after nine hours of typing and staring, I'll be tired enough to stop... Good luck, and enjoy your toy, eh, your high-tech precision device -- perry -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Perry The Cynic (Peter Kiehtreiber) perry@arkon.key.com ** What good signature isn't taken yet? ** {amdahl,sgi,pacbell}!key!perry