[ltp] Battery charging control ?

[Paul RIVIER]

Thank you,
I think this is really interesting. I would like to write a daemon 
capable of managing battery charging following a policy given, just like 
what you talk about in windows. Plus, I own a multibay battery, which 
discharges at first until it is TOTALY empty, then laptop swiches on 
main battery. But everybody knows that it is the best way to reduce 
battery life. I would like to be able to switch from one to other as to 
preserve life (I don't need to empty batteries very often).
I'll mail ibm-acpi team, and talk about it. I do not have backgrounds 
required to write such a feature - at all :)
Maybe there is somewhere a good "how to reverse-engineer and write linux 
modules" ? :D

Paul RIVIER



Tasmanian D wrote:

> Hi,
> Yes, just checked with 1.30 driver on T42 and I can confirm that there 
> is such
> functionality as changing charge thresholds & maximum charge value
> (defaults are 96% & 100%).
> .
> I'm not sure however how this is done. Through SMAPI?
> $strings batinfex.dll |grep -i sm_
>     SM_GetSMAPIInfo
>     SM_IsOptionalFunctionSupported
>     SM_IsSmartBatteryInstalled
>     SM_GetSmartBatteryStatus
>     SM_IsPowerModeChanged
>     SM_IsBatteryStatusChanged
>     _SM_UpdateCalcCounter@4
>     SM_CheckResumeStatus
>     SM_CheckDischargePossibility
>     SM_StartDischarging
>     SM_StopDischarging
>     SM_GetACDischargeStatus
>     SM_GetBatteryHealthStatus
>     SM_GetBatteryCondition
>     SM_GetInhibitChargeStatus
>     SM_SetInhibitChargeStatus
>     SM_GetChargeCapacityThreshold
>     SM_SetChargeCapacityThreshold
>     SM_GetDischargeStatus
>     SM_SetDischargeStatus
> .
> BRGDS,
> Eriks
>
>
> Jerome Poggi wrote:
>
>> On Wed, 27 Jul 2005, Paul RIVIER wrote:
>> [...]
>>
>>> Someone told me that windows can do this, but I don't have windows 
>>> to check by myself.
>>
>>
>>
>> I can confirm, but the last version of the windows driver is not
>> available on IBM site. The version, that can do this deep discharge, is
>> verion 0.30 and I can find only version 0.26.
>>
>> I try the program (integrated in power manager driver) and it can do
>> some deep charge and discharge, but on the old battery, that I would
>> "regenerate" I didn't see any progress, it still only 5 minutes of
>> battery :-(
>>
>>
>>> Do you know if it is possible and how please ? should I inspect 
>>> ecdumps ?
>>> My laptop is a T42.
>>
>>
>>
>> I think, that the power supply hardware is manageable, but i never see
>> it on IBM site.
>>
>> Jerome.
>>
>> -- 
>> Jerome POGGI                                     Jerome.Poggi@hsc.fr
>> Herve Schauer Consultants   -=-   Network security consultant, CISSP
>> http://www.hsc.fr/                             Tel : +33 141 409 700
>
>