BlackBerry® PlayBook™

[knottyrope]

Initial charge

There is no need to charge a Lithium battery 100% before using your device. It will not affect battery life in anyway.

Chargers

You can use just about any Micro USB charger without ill affect on a BlackBerry device. A charger with a higher mili amp rating will charge your battery faster. A charger with less mili amps will charge it slower. Lithium batteries have built in protection from heat and evercharging. Once a Lithium battery reaches its fully charged voltage, current flow is stopped and you cant charge it more.

Typical BlackBerry smartphone chargers are about 500 to 650 ma and PC USB ports can vary from 100 to 500 ma. The playBook while connected to a PC can actually never charge up while you use it since the battery drain is higher than the charge rate. The standard power supply on the PlayBook is actually a fast charger for your Smart phone rated at about 1800 ma.

Info here http://ca.shopblackberry.com/Product/BlackBerryPremiumCharger/ACC-39343-301

Discharging a Lithium battery

Ther is no reason to discharge a Lithium battery, there is no memory like NiCad batteries had. There is a reason to discharge it once every 3 months so the charging circut is calibrated to show proper level on your device. Running a Lithium battery low all the time actually does harm it more than topping it off when when possible.

Want to read more

http://batteryuniversity.com/learn/article/charging_lithium_ion_batteries

about USB

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Serial_Bus

[playbook_fan]

I just want to correct/explain some parts of your message:

1. I wouldn't recomend to use any micro USB charger on the playbook, unless you check the technical data in the charger, if its not at least 500mA and specifically 5 Vdc in the output, DONT USE IT, because if the voltage is higher, the tablet's battery will get damage permanently. I have seem some micro USB chargers for other devices that work on 9v, 12v, it is rare but you dont want to take that risk. The current could be more, >500mA, the battery is charged by constant current, so if its more current it will charge faster.
2. If the battery is completely charged, it wont hurt the fact that you keep it plug in overnight, because the current will go down to a lower value to mantain the charge on a stand by mode. The tablet can be charged only when is turned on. If you planned to leave it charging overnight, close the applications and set it to go to sleep or stand by , so the charger is better monitored by the control circuit built-in in the battery, and will present less resistance to the charger. I dont know what  is the stand-by current of the tablet but following above procedure will help in the charging cycle.
3. If you use the USB of your PC, make sure is 500mA, and the tablet has no applications running, so the only current drain will be the stand by current of the playbook. It will take longer to charge though.
4. The battery life when is fully charge has 5300mA/h, which means that it can deliver 5.3 Amps for 1 hour constantly. That won't be the case because i dont think you will use so many application simultaneously to drain that much current. The battery charge last up to 10 hours as it says in the advertisement, with apps running.

[cuse165]

When charging the Playbook when it is off is there any ligts that turn on to tell you it is charging?

[playbook_fan]

Unfortunately you cannot recharge your playbook when it is OFF, only when it is ON, you can close all the applications running and let it fall in the sleep mode, and let it recharge. The only indicator I see is the lightning bolt on the screen, over the battery indicator on the upper right corner of home screen, when you connect the micro USB charger, no LED indicates battery status.

[RJK]

Erm, this may sound like a really dumb question, but what do you do if the battery fully discharges ? If the PB can't be charged when off, and you're all out of power, then what ?

[cuse165]

How do you get  it to sleep mode just not using it for a few minutes and goes by itself? I love Blackberry and my Playbook but I have to say can't charge it when it is off is the DUMBEST thing EVER?

[playbook_fan]

It is a good question. In that case if the battery is fully discharge, I wuold use only the FAST CHARGER that came in the box with tha playbook, the current capacity is overdesign for such a load (1800mA), so first of all plug the charger, then turn ON the tablet, since that point on it should recharge and keep the device in a sleep mode.

[playbook_fan]

I am with you ericuse, but I don't know if this is a problem in the OS that can be fixed in the code, or it is a  hardware issue, hopefully is not hardware.

To put it in the sleep mode, just do it like you said, don't use it for a little bit and automatically will go to sleep or stand by mode. The time can be adjusted on the home screen, on the upper right corner tap the sprocket  icon (tools) and then on the left tap on screen, the adjusting screen will open and in there you can adjust the time for stand by, the backlight time, and brightness, when it is used on battery or plugged in. Make sure you turn OFF all the applications running, otherwise it won't to to sleep.

[cuse165]

Okay thank you I also hope it is not a hardware issue. I want to just say to people that I feel like it is wroth the money to buy the fast chargers. I charged my Playbook using the everyday charger it took for ever just to charge 10% and hours to chage to  full. I just bought a fast charger and it works very well it was at 26% and went up to 46% just under 30mins. So I say if your really into your Playbook and really enjoy it buy a fast charger it will make everything much better.

[RJK]

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playbook_fan wrote:

It is a good question. In that case if the battery is fully discharge, I wuold use only the FAST CHARGER that came in the box with tha playbook, the current capacity is overdesign for such a load (1800mA), so first of all plug the charger, then turn ON the tablet, since that point on it should recharge and keep the device in a sleep mode.

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Is the one in the box a fast charger ?  I thought it was the regular one..... ?  Otherwise it means I have to go out and spend 70 bucks on a top end charger (as opposed to the $30 regular one) just in case I don't keep my PB charged.