Arch Linux

o1911

Member

From: Hobart, Australia

Registered: 2009-04-28

Posts: 106

Thinkpad T500 and tp_smapi, slow battery charging

Hi there,

I've followed the wiki guide to tp_smapi http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Tp_smapi to a tee, and included the override detailed on Lenovo's wiki http://www.thinkwiki.org/wiki/Tp_smapi for a T500. 

So I want to have the battery floating somewhere between 40% and 80% (or whatever I choose).  Right now the battery does seem to be controlled by the settings input as per the wiki:

echo 40 > /sys/devices/platform/smapi/BAT0/start_charge_thresh
echo 80 > /sys/devices/platform/smapi/BAT0/stop_charge_thresh

(Yes, I did put the initialisation script in /usr/sbin).  Just to play around I made the start_charge_thresh 70, such that the battery should charge should it be less than 70% (right?).  I let it get to 50% last night, and upon putting the charger in, it begins charging.  It's been about 5 hours now and it's just hit 67%.

Just wondering if there's something I'm missing here.  I didn't edit anything else.  tp_smapi is loaded up at startup etc.... can anyone give me a hand?  Thanks.

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Arch x86_64

shawntan

Member

Registered: 2010-04-13

Posts: 12

Re: Thinkpad T500 and tp_smapi, slow battery charging

Hi all,

I'm having the same problem.Does tp_smapi change the charging rate as well?
It took me 8 hours to charge from 30% to 80%.
Also, I'm using gnome-power-manager, and it seems to continously switch between the "charging" state and the "idle" state.

This is my first post, and I'd just like to add, I've learnt the most about linux from this forum than anywhere else.

Thanks!

ch1pz

Member

Registered: 2010-01-25

Posts: 10

Re: Thinkpad T500 and tp_smapi, slow battery charging

i've the same issue,

is there anyone have done this problem?

thanks.

o1911

Member

From: Hobart, Australia

Registered: 2009-04-28

Posts: 106

Re: Thinkpad T500 and tp_smapi, slow battery charging

I've just realised my dmesg was reporting this over and over again:

smapi smapi: set_real_thresh: set start to 64 for bat=0
smapi smapi: set_real_thresh: set stop to 75 for bat=0

My start threshold is 65% and stop is 75%.
There is no file called "set_real_thresh" in my system, so I don't know where to go next.

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Arch x86_64

shawntan

Member

Registered: 2010-04-13

Posts: 12

Re: Thinkpad T500 and tp_smapi, slow battery charging

Yeah, I'm getting that too.
I think its the result of the battery.sh script in the wiki.

o1911

Member

From: Hobart, Australia

Registered: 2009-04-28

Posts: 106

Re: Thinkpad T500 and tp_smapi, slow battery charging

I played around and the problem seems resolved by removing the added line to the pm script by the wiki:

/usr/sbin/set_battery_thresholds

I've still got the script set to run on startup, and the battery is charging properly again.  I just hit 75% and it stopped charging (which is my limit).

Hope that helps!
Cheers.

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Arch x86_64