Le Pan II - very, very slow charging?

AfterShafter

Member
Dec 1, 2011
33
2
Hello all,

After my "tablet for grandma" experience I have a Le Pan II that I'm quite happy with. In spite of the odd hitch, my experience is generally very good. There is one thing that I'm wondering about, whether it's a hardware problem or just the way it is.

As a habit, I try and train batteries properly - I fill them to max, them kill them completely, and then recharge completely. With the Le Pan II, I've found that if I use it down to the auto shut off and then leave it charging over night, in the morning it is only 30% or so charged. If I leavei t for over 12 hours, I have never had it get to over 50% charged. At the moment I am away from my home base and it is my primary computing device - I'd like to know if it really takes this long to charge, or my unit is messed up somehow.

So, wall charger, standard outlet, only 50% charged after 12 hours charging. The battery still lasts a long time after that. Can anyone tell me if this is abnormal or not? I have tested it out on quite a few charge cycles and it consistently takes this long to charge. I haven't had time to get it to 100% in over a week now.


Thanks all!
 

Johna2u

Senior Member
May 21, 2011
372
52
I generally charge mine about every 36 hours. Plug it in over night. Next time I plug it in before work. I charge it when it gets less than 50%. It should charge quickly. No more than a couple of hours in my experience. It is important that you are using the original factory charger. It is more powerful than most standard usb chargers for cell phones. A cell phone charger or usb port on a computer will charge it very slowly.
 

J515OP

Super Moderator
Staff member
Jan 6, 2011
5,172
899
Hi AfterShafter, I hate to brake the news but your "battery training" is actually battery abuse. Modern Lithium Ion batteries shouldn't be deeply discharged and recharged on a frequent basis. Unlike older rechargeable batteries there is no memory effect so you don't need to train them. The good news is it is unlikely you have done any really damage in the short amount of time you have had the tablet (no guarantee though).

As Johna2u said, start with the stock charger and cable from the wall to make sure you are getting enough juice to the tablet for maximum charging. Generally speaking a full charge and run down to shutoff will condition the system to see the full battery range so you get more accurate predictions about the % charge and time remaining on the battery. However, this can sometimes get out of sync.

I don't know specifically how the Le Pan tablets work but there is often a battery stats reset option in the recovery section of the software. It may also be built into the advanced options under Settings. Try poking around and see if you can find the battery statistics reset. While it won't actually improve the life of the battery it will align the % so instead of showing 50% when fully charged it will show 100%.

JP
 
Last edited:

leeshor

Senior Member
Dec 27, 2011
6,330
1,037
I agree with JP regarding the use of training. +1 on that. But there is an app called Badass Battery Monitor that may provide you with m0re information about what's going on in the background.
 
May 3, 2012
39
2
I had the same problem for a short while. 1. Definately make sure its the standard charger, secondly (this was my fix) make sure the USB cable is fully seated in the wall adaptor. Even if it looks like its in, unplug the USB cable and plug it back into the wall unit. Thirdly make sure the 20 pin is seated correctly.



Also I too do the same as you with fully dischaging before recharging whether its good practice or not its out of habit and my lepan II charges in about 6-8 hours from 0-100%


Hope this helps!
 
Last edited:

camanokid

Member
Sep 4, 2011
8
1
Le Pann II specs claim a 6800mA battery with a life of 7 hours.My experience is a charge time of about 8 hours.Stock Charger - output 5.0V 2.0A calc charge time estimate is 4 hoursUSB2 outlet - 5.0V .5A " " 16 hours12V DC charger - 5.0V 2.1A (Le PannII will not accept - warning bleeps)12V DC charger - 5.0V 1.0A calc charge time estimate is 8 hoursCalc charge time computed with an online estimator.Note: since the actual charge time is about 8 hours, and my Le Pan II would only accept the 12V DC 1.0A port, I suspect the unit ACTUALLY charges at 1.0AI'm no expert.
 

AfterShafter

Member
Dec 1, 2011
33
2
Wow, tons of helpful information here. As it stands, the comments on the "stock charger" helped me solve the problem. I was using the stock charger, but I had a USB extender plugged in. I took that away, just used the stock cable and stock charger, and it charged in about 8 hours.

J5, thanks for the battery training advice - though it'll break my poor mother's heart to know that the rules she taught me for our alkaline charger some 25 years ago is finally obsolete. I won't run the battery into the ground before charging any more.

Again, thanks all. Problem solved, and the forum has been very helpful, as usual.
 
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