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The Battery Manager (BatteryMgr) allows configuration of the batery-charge indocator LED, low-battery prompts and thresholds used to determine when a battery should be decommissioned.
Zebra Android devices support three classes of batteries: Regular, Smart and Gifted. Regular batteries provide information only about battery level. Smart Batteries add the ability to uniquely identify each battery and track its origin and usage history. To those features, Gifted batteries add the ability to provide detailed charge monitoring and health information as well as more accurate "gas gauging" data.
A key feature of Smart and Gifted batteries is the ability to determine when a battery is nearing the end of its useful life and should to be taken out of service. For Smart batteries, decommissioning is based strictly on the battery's charge history. For Gifted batteries, decommissioning decisions can be based on the richer information about battery condition provided. In either case, the determination of when a battery should be decommissioned is configurable to account for the demands placed on batteries in different environments.
BatteryMgr allows configuration of the thresholds used to determine when a battery should be decommissioned. Once configured, these values (along with other battery parameters) are used by battery management software to determine the value of the decommission flag stored stored in a Smart or Gifted battery and carried with it thereafter.
Supported thresholds:
The threshold values configured using BatteryMgr are stored in batteryusage_decommission_threshold or percent_decommission_threshold files, which persist on the device following any subsequent reboot or Enterprise Reset. A Factory Reset erases all such user data. Attempts to set a decommission threshold on a battery other than Smart or Gifted battery will return an error in the Result XML document.
Controls whether the LED on the device illuminates to indicate battery charge status. Controls only charge indicator; LED operation for other device fuctions are uneffected. This parameter is supported only on the Zebra PS20 device.
Note: Supported on the PS20 device only.
Parm Name: BatteryChargingLEDUsage
| Option | Name | Description | Note | Requires |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Do not change | This value (or the absence of this parm from the XML) causes no change to battery settings; any previously selected setting is retained. |
MX: 8.1+ |
|
| 1 | Turn On | Enables the battery-charge indicator LED on the device. |
MX: 8.1+ |
|
| 2 | Turn Off | Disables the battery-charge indicator LED on the device. |
MX: 8.1+ |
Controls whether the device displays a pop-up when the battery reaches a certain percentage of charge; intended to prompt the user to swap batteries. Disabled by default.
Parm Name: BatterySwapUIUsage
| Option | Name | Description | Note | Requires |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | Do not change | This value (or the absence of this parm from the XML) causes no change to battery settings; any previously selected setting is retained. |
MX: 8.1+ |
|
| 1 | Enable | Enables a pop-up to prompt the user to swap the battery. |
MX: 8.1+ |
|
| 2 | Disable | Disables a pop-up prompting the user to swap the battery. |
MX: 8.1+ |
Used to set the Battery Percentage Decommission Threshold on devices that support Gifted Batteries. A Gifted Battery is considered "ready to be decommissioned" if its Battery Health is less than the currently configured Battery Percentage Decommission Threshold. The default value for this parameter is 75, indicating that a Smart Battery should be decommissioned once its Actual Capacity is less than 75 percent of its original Rated Capacity.
Gifted Batteries can determine their "Actual Capacity" under specific discharge conditions. Based on this, Gifted Batteries can estimate their Battery Health as the percentage the Actual Capacity is of the "Rated Capacity." Over time, the Actual Capacity and the Battery Health will diminish, and it's reasonable to expect that a battery with a lower Battery Health has a shorter remaining useful lifetime than a device with greater Battery Health.
Note: This parameter can be used on Zebra Android devices that support Gifted Batteries regardless of whether a Gifted Battery is currently installed in the device. This allows administrators to configure the decommission threshold for devices currently using Smart Batteries in advance of installing Gifted ones. If this parameter is used on a device that does not support Gifted Batteries, an error will be returned in the Result XML document.
Parm value input rules:
Parm Name: SetPercentDecommissionThreshold
Requires:
- OSX: 4.4+
- MX: 4.4+
- Android API: 16+
Used to set the Critical Low Threshold below which the battery level is considered critically low. This allows control over how long a device runs before being forced to shut down due to a low battery condition.
Parm value input rules:
Note: Supported on devices with PowerPrecision and PowerPrecision+ batteries.
Parm Name: SetCriticalLowThreshold
Requires:
- MX: 9.0+
Used to set the Battery Usage Decommission Threshold on devices that support Smart Batteries. A Smart Battery is considered "ready to be decommissioned" if the Battery Usage Number is greater than or equal to the currently configured Battery Usage Decommission Threshold. The default value for this parameter is 400, indicating that a Smart Battery should be decommissioned once it has undergone approximately 400 "charge/discharge" cycles.
Note: This parameter can be used on Zebra Android devices that support Smart Batteries regardless of whether a Smart Battery is currently installed in the device. This allows administrators to configure the decommission threshold for devices currently using Regular Batteries in advance of installing Smart ones. If this parameter is used on a device that does not support Gifted Batteries, an error will be returned in the Result XML document.
Smart Batteries retain the total number of charge/discharge cycles that accumulate in the battery over time. This accumulation is referred to as Aggregated Charge. It's reasonable to expect that a battery with a larger Aggregated Charge number has a shorter remaining useful lifetime than a device with a smaller one.
The Battery Number is calculated as the Aggregated Charge of a Smart Battery divided by its Rated Capacity. The Battery Number is therefore an attempt to assess how much impact on the health of the battery has occurred as a result of the absolute amount of charging and discharging that battery has undergone.
Important: It is uncertain whether full- vs. partial-charge cycles has an impact on battery health. Two batteries with a similar Aggregated Charge will have similar Battery Numbers. But if those batteries had different charge/discharge patterns, then comparing their Battery Numbers might not reveal useful information about their relative health. The only certainty is that the health of a given battery will reduce as its computed Battery Number increases. It is therefore reasonable to assume that batteries with high Battery Numbers are "less healthy" than batteries with low Battery Numbers. By setting a threshold based on a very high Battery Number, it should be possible to identify batteries that are most likely to need replacement.
Parm value input rules:
Parm Name: SetBatteryUsageDecommissionThreshold
Requires:
- OSX: 4.4+
- MX: 4.4+
- Android API: 16+