From: Frank Gruendel (fg2_at_pda-soft.de)
Date: Thu Nov 11 2004 - 14:50:19 PST
Hi gang,
I am pleased to announce that BattLog is almost ready. I started
BattLog in 1999, and I rewrote it completely from scratch no more
than three times since then.
By now I think it has matured from an application that did heaps
of things moderately well to an application that does the only thing
it was ever supposed to do quite well.
This is why I am looking for beta testers now. This is your chance
of eternal fame, since I
will mention all beta testers in the Credits section of the help
book (unless you tell me you don't want to be mentioned)
What is BattLog?
BattLog discharges your Newton's battery in a reproducible
way and logs the result to an unfiled Notepad note, giving
you an idea about the condition of your Newton's rechargeable
battery pack.
BattLog will also let you compare different brands of
non-rechargeable batteries, or different brands of rechargeable
cells that you plan to use in the Newton's battery tray.
Running a battery pack through a number of BattLog's discharge
cycles can sometimes provide the same functionality as a battery
conditioner - improving the pack's performance.
Which models are supported?
BattLog runs on Newton OS 2.0 or 2.1. This includes the Newton 120
(with a ROM upgrade), the Newton 130, the Newton 2000, the
Newton 2100 and the eMate. I have tested it fairly thoroughly with
a Newton 2100 and an eMate, and I have quick-tested it with a Newton
120 and 130.
What does it take to be a beta tester?
1) You should have a Newton model on which BattLog will run. If you
have more than one model, it'd be cool if you'd try out everything
on as many models as possible.
2) You should be prepared to leave the machine alone for as long as it'll
take
to discharge the battery, and you should be prepared to run it through
more than one discharge cycle.
With an original 2x00 pack in decent condition this would be around
20 hours, with a pack rebuilt by yours truly you can expect 35...40 hours.
3) You should be willing to read the help book from top to bottom. I won't
give you ANY instructions for using BattLog because I want to know if the
help book is sufficient (of course, I will help you if you get stuck).
The help book lets you change both the font
and the font size, so poor eyesight won't be an excuse for not being a
beta tester :-)
4) You should be willing to report any bugs you find, and you should let
me know anything you think could be done better.
5) You should be prepared to test patched versions if I can fix reported
bugs or implement improvements.
If you are interested, please let me know off-list. I will send you the
BattLog package and the help book, about 50kB each.
Thanks
Frank
-- Newton Software and Hardware at http://www.pda-soft.de
-- This is the NewtonTalk list - http://www.newtontalk.net/ for all inquiries Official Newton FAQ: http://www.chuma.org/newton/faq/ WikiWikiNewt for all kinds of articles: http://tools.unna.org/wikiwikinewt/
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