Neon John wrote:
On Fri, 04 Nov 2005 15:39:34 +0100, Frederic Devernay
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Dear all,
I remember having taught human-computer-interaction to masters students for a
while (those reading French can take a look at
<http://devernay.free.fr/cours/IHM/lucid.pdf>), and one of the most important
principles you learn is to put the user in the loop when you do interface
design. The user has to take part in user interface conception and this usually
improves the final result a lot. You also learn that developpers themselves are
very bad at improving the UI, simply because they know how it works.
Very true. We only need to look at the product of far eastern
programmed consumer electronics (most of 'em, particularly digital
cameras) and Windows to see that.
[snip of UI stuff I don't have any words of wisdom to address with]
* A more aggressive charging algorithm. I'd like to see the batteries
hit with as much current as possible without getting into thermal
problems.
Hardware limitation, see below. I don't believe we can make the charge
algorithm any more effective (throwing down the gauntlet ;-).
It should start charging immediately when shore power is
attached. That way, one can do "opportunity charging" whenever there
is a 15 minute or so block of time available.
Part of the charge algorithm change in the April timeframe makes it
start recharging immediately (well, within a second) of plugging in.
Caveat: if the batteries "look like" they are full or nearly full, it
does a "trickle"/"top-off" charge respectively.
http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/BatteryFAQ#Q17_My_batteries_are_at_92_the_c
I'd trade overall battery life (number of cycles) for speed in
charging. The cost of AA NiMH batteries is trivial these days so if
they have to be replaced every year, big deal.
I have an Eveready 15 minute charger that hits each battery with >4
amps. I've seen no detrimental effects to date and I process a LOT of
batteries through that charger. I'm sure the JBR can't get anywhere
near that rate but an amp, if that's possible (yeah, with a larger
wall wart) would be nice.
Sorry, the hardware design doesn't support any more amps. The best it
can do is 350mA (the charger circuitry is "constant current" set to
350mA - you can do less, but you cannot do more). If you put in more
voltage hoping to get more current, it turns into heat inside the AJR
rather than current into the batteries.
http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/BatteryFAQ#Q10_Can_I_use_a_different_charge
[snip]
John
---
John De Armond
See my website for my current email address
http://www.johngsbbq.com
Cleveland, Occupied TN
gvb
