Newly arrived Pandora won't turn off!


Snorbert

Still Fresh
Joined
Oct 1, 2008
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Edit: Okay, just read that the unit powers itself on whenever it is on the AC charger. For some reason, after reading that, I tried shutting down with the charger removed, and it actually powered down that time. No idea what I was doing wrong when I tried that the first time... at least I know how to shut the unit down now. I only leave the text below in case it motivates someone to put a bit more "getting started" info that could prevent some of this confusion into the Quick Start Guide.


Hi folks,


Just wondering if anyone has seen this oddness on a newly received Pandora:


Battery was already installed when I received it.


Attached the charger cable.


Unit powers up, and I read in the Quick Start Guide that I need to do a full boot and shutdown to "maintain the battery usage profile desired".


So I go through the first time setup and create my account, and I'm sitting at the login prompt. I try to shut down the unit by pushing the power switch to the right. Nothing happens.


I try logging in and choosing "log out" from the Pandora menu, then tell it to shut down.


I get logged out, and see the shutdown progress bar zipping towards zero.


Screen goes blank, unit starts up again.


I tried logging in a couple of times, and telling it to shutdown. Each time it reboots.


I tried logging in, and momentarily pushing the power button to the right. Nothing happens.


So I try holding it for a few seconds, still nothing happens.


Edit: apparently my fat fingers failed me - I used my fingernail on another attempt, and after a few seconds got the "shutting down in N seconds" window.


I disconnect the charger cable (it's been charging for a while now), then try the "logout & shutdown" sequence from the Pandora menu. The Pandora shuts down... and reboots.


I have subsequently tried:


a hard reset - nothing changed... when I put the battery back in, it boots, then when i tell it to shutdown it reboots.


Dropping the battery out, waiting 30 secs, putting the battery in... rest is same as for the hard reset.


So, has anyone seen this? Does the OS image as shipped include any hotfixes that affect this? My unit was shipped on the 1st of March.


Edit: Also, my battery showed 52% charge quite soon after the unit booted for the first time. I'm a bit surprised, I thought that Li-ion batteries were generally shipped uncharged for safety; how long would it take to charge to just over 50%?
 
Last edited by a moderator:
It's not a good idea to drain out a lipo battery completely. If it drops too low, the lithium starts to crystallize and can puncture the packaging. Even unused, the battery will still discharge into ambient air, albeit very slowly. As a result, they actually don't want to ship it too close to empty: if it gets stuck in transit for a few weeks and the last couple of percent run out, you can have a dangerous battery (probably not, but it could happen so why take the risk). The usually recommended storage level is 40%. 50% is pretty close. To answer your question, it normally takes several hours to fully charge. I've never timed it exactly, but you can bet it's going to be at least 4 hours to go from nearly empty to fully charged.


As far as the Pandora powering up when the AC charger is plugged in, and rebooting on shut down, this is actually (partially) by design. Most modern systems using lipo batteries have a "micro-kernel", a tiny program that the CPU loads if it is plugged in to charge. This microkernel starts quickly, and does nothing but monitor the battery to make sure it doesn't overcharge, and then shuts down when the battery is full. The Pandora does not (yet) have such a microkernel, it has to boot the entire thing to get the same safety. At some point in the future there probably will be, but not for a while yet. That being said, Chris_C has written a script which will manipulate the charge circuit so that it doesn't turn back on when shut down with the AC plugged in, and will also shut down the Pandora when it reaches 100%.
 
It's not a good idea to drain out a lipo battery completely. If it drops too low, the lithium starts to crystallize and can puncture the packaging. Even unused, the battery will still discharge into ambient air, albeit very slowly. As a result, they actually don't want to ship it too close to empty: if it gets stuck in transit for a few weeks and the last couple of percent run out, you can have a dangerous battery (probably not, but it could happen so why take the risk). The usually recommended storage level is 40%. 50% is pretty close. To answer your question, it normally takes several hours to fully charge. I've never timed it exactly, but you can bet it's going to be at least 4 hours to go from nearly empty to fully charged.
Thanks for the info - that all makes sense to me.

As far as the Pandora powering up when the AC charger is plugged in, and rebooting on shut down, this is actually (partially) by design. Most modern systems using lipo batteries have a "micro-kernel", a tiny program that the CPU loads if it is plugged in to charge. This microkernel starts quickly, and does nothing but monitor the battery to make sure it doesn't overcharge, and then shuts down when the battery is full. The Pandora does not (yet) have such a microkernel, it has to boot the entire thing to get the same safety. At some point in the future there probably will be, but not for a while yet. That being said, Chris_C has written a script which will manipulate the charge circuit so that it doesn't turn back on when shut down with the AC plugged in, and will also shut down the Pandora when it reaches 100%.
Again, that's great to know - I'll look for that script. Thanks! :)
 
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