Support limiting battery charge to less than 100% is important

nazar-pc

I have replaced the swollen battery on my Pixel 7 Pro second time in less than a year yesterday.
It bulged and caused the screen to separate from the body.

Since this happened twice already and I'm not looking to replace the battery twice a year I contacted Google support about this and they recommended to limit SoC between 20% and 80%, but on Graphene OS there is no such option in contrast to stock OS.

According to Google documentation limiting charging to 80% can be done using "Battery > Charging optimization" (missing on Graphene OS). My pattern of usage actually seems to match somewhat what they describe in the documentation under "Protecting your battery" (also missing on Graphene OS) on the same page (I keep my phone on wireless charger 90% of the time and it SoC rarely drops below 90% and only a few times a year below 80% unless I'm traveling).

It'd be great if Graphene OS could adopt the same/equivalent features of the stock OS.

I saw https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/9017-how-can-i-limit-battery-charge-to-80 and there is https://github.com/GrapheneOS/os-issue-tracker/issues/3213 that has priority "none" at the moment.

Just wanted to share the experience of this feature being not only theoretically useful, but also practically (assuming Google's documentation is to be believed). I believe having less flexible variant of this to start would be better than none at all, though I understand potential technical debt.

de0u

nazar-pc I have replaced the swollen battery on my Pixel 7 Pro second time in less than a year yesterday.
It bulged and caused the screen to separate from the body.

Wow! That's pretty alarming, and quite fast.

It could be due to mixture of factors, including:

Bad luck
The device frequently running hot due to CPU/GPU load, especially if there is a case that traps heat
Rapid charging
Wireless charging
Many charge/discharge cycles
Frequently discharging below 20%

For some of those an 80% ceiling would help, but not for all. You mentioned constant wireless charging, which may be a risk factor, especially if the wireless charging is high-wattage.

nazar-pc It'd be great if Graphene OS could adopt the same/equivalent features of the stock OS.

It appears that's on its way, in the sense that Google seems to be adding the feature to AOSP and it seems pretty likely that GrapheneOS won't delete it when it shows up.

AlphaElwedritsch

nazar-pc According to Google documentation limiting charging to 80% can be done using "Battery > Charging optimization" (missing on Graphene OS).

nazar-pc It'd be great if Graphene OS could adopt the same/equivalent features of the stock OS.

nazar-pc I saw https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/9017-how-can-i-limit-battery-charge-to-80 and there is https://github.com/GrapheneOS/os-issue-tracker/issues/3213 that has priority "none" at the moment.

nazar-pc I bought a device with a certain features and I intend to use them.

Yes, you can, but currently not with GOS, as you have already established above.
It may be implemented in GOS. But maybe not.
We'll have to wait and see or, if necessary, take the necessary steps.
If you are only interested in the 80% charge limit.

unplugmaverick

de0u It appears that's on its way, in the sense that Google seems to be adding the feature to AOSP and it seems pretty likely that GrapheneOS won't delete it when it shows up.

The stock Pixels already have this feature. Is Google retroactively adding stuff to AOSP after they do their proprietary implementation?

nazar-pc Annoyingly, video calls in Telegram result in very similar temperature changes

Can confirm the same happens with Signal.

nazar-pc

I only had 23 charge/discharge cycles since last battery replacement due to keeping it on wireless charging most of the time.
Charging power wasn't high either, 3-3.5W only, even lower than typical 5V 1A wired charging.

What is concerning outside of that is that camera usage heats up the battery A LOT. For example I opened a camera app, started 4k video recording and in half an hour my battery was at over 46C. This time I made sure to not use a case, though most time I do.

Annoyingly, video calls in Telegram result in very similar temperature changes despite not recording video at anything close to 4k quality, it is probably 480p-720p. Not sure who is at fault there, but I suspect it is more likely hardware than the OS, but disappointing regardless.

DeletedUser87

nazar-pc charging power isn't the issue; it's the constant charging that damages the cells. I don't think a charge limit would solve your problem. It will maybe delay it by a month at best. I would strongly suggest to change your habits in regards to charging. Use the phone so that the battery gets drained regularly, if you don't - you will have another replacement coming in half a year.

nazar-pc

DeletedUser87 It doesn't really make a lot of sense to me what you wrote. Battery is not charging constantly, it charges to 100% and stops there, that is exactly what BMS is there for, it will not "overcharge", we are not in 90s anymore.

Regular battery draining is hardly useful as well, it increases number of battery charge cycles, reducing its lifetime due to physical properties of the battery design.

The other frustrating thing is that battery was reported as "healthy" despite a few mm gap between the screen and phone body 🙈

user

Or maybe you can use this
https://chargie.org

locked

Have not had that issue with p8, however, i don't ever wireless charge. I do charge to 100% frequently. I take frequent videos. No problems with battery.

DeletedUser69

locked all know Pixel 8 has been around for hardly over a year and rapid onset of battery decline doesn't start usually until 2+ years of use unless exceptionally abused. No wonder you don't experience any issues yet, wait a little longer.

locked

DeletedUser69 My mother has a Pixel 5 she bought brand new, still using it. Guess what? No battery issues.

domnru

This would be a nice feature, still I'm curious how your battery experience is so bad? Lately I got a Pixel 9 and had a Pixel 7 Pro since the release. I never had any problems with the battery and I didn't regard anything about the battery. I used it as a tool and the life as a battery in my hands is not a nice experience i suppose. Maybe its because of wireless charging, i never did this. I charged my Pixel 7 Pro with a 75W fast charger from OnePlus and a 15W charger from Huawei, still no problems. Today it is always connected to power and functions as a nice mini server :). Try to not using wireless charging and fast charging for a time and see what happens.

DeletedUser87

nazar-pc you said it lives on the wireless charger most of the time. I assume that you pick up the phone, use it for a short amount of a time and it drops a few percent. Then it goes back on the wireless charger again. Rinse and repeat. This kills batteries REAL good.

DeletedUser64

call me old fashioned, but I use my phone as a ... mobile phone.
My battery designed to power a mobile phone is happily charging and discharging without issue all the way dare I say to 100%. If I want 80% I will unplug it. Simple. If I need to video at 4k for 30 minutes, then I will use a camera designed to do that. Seems to me that the chemistry in the batteries you are using, is being asked to do way more than its designed for. Feel free to rage at me, perhaps there's an app or some software to keep the rage to 80%... or I could just log out.

nazar-pc

DeletedUser64 I bought a device with a certain features and I intend to use them. If you don't have constructive things to contribute to the discussion, it is better not to say anything at all rather instead of derailing the conversation.

de0u

unplugmaverick The stock Pixels already have this feature. Is Google retroactively adding stuff to AOSP after they do their proprietary implementation?

The stock OS has many features that AOSP does not. And I believe Google releases some features to the stock OS as APEX modules before putting them into tagged AOSP releases.

other8026

nazar-pc sometimes people can get into arguments about this topic. Being rude isn't going to benefit anyone.

The simple fact is that not everyone cares about charging limits. They may think that developers spending time on adding that feature is less important than other things. Some don't see the point of not using their full battery.

If you think a post is off topic, you can feel free to flag it and let one of us deal with it if we agree.

The project does plan on adding the requested feature or something like it (they said so at the bottom of the thread you already linked to here: https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/9017-how-can-i-limit-battery-charge-to-80/36). I don't know the details or if they've started working on it, just that it's planned. This is the last post I know of where the project account said something on this topic: https://discuss.grapheneos.org/d/17670-is-grapheneos-guaranteed-to-get-the-80-charge-limit-feature-in-december/18.

DeletedUser143

This looks like device's issue, not battery's. I wouldn't keep the phone in the near-balls pocket, if I were you

nazar-pc

AlphaElwedritsch Yes, you can, but currently not with GOS, as you have already established above.

I meant hardware features like camera. I acknowledge software side is different from stock.

NetRunner88

Pixel 6a built January 2022.
405 charge cycles.
The phone charge at night. As I wake up the battery is at 100%.
I leave home.
Plug it to my car radio to use android auto.
I drive a lot everyday.
The phone is force charged at 100% all day long.
No issue.
On weekends or holidays I don't drive, I become a passenger princess, guess what ? The battery still hold more than a day.
With always on VPN, orbot on socks, Simplex on constant polling, Molly Foss with websocket and Linphone without battery restrictions.

By theses days, BMS are on par to preserve battery health.

Untill you don't go below 20% often it is all good.

nazar-pc

DeletedUser87 Possibly, it'd be great if I can configure that thing specifically: stop charging when let's say SoC reaches 90%, don't start charging until it drops below 80%. According to https://github.com/GrapheneOS/os-issue-tracker/issues/3213#issuecomment-2068161800 this is something that should be very doable.