I received a question about battery charging from another lady in the clinical trial and she mentioned another person that had similar concerns. I thought I would post her question and my response for other people.
How is your battery charging situation?
I’m finding that I’m charging a lot longer and a lot more often than I had expected. Michael one of the other acclaim recipient that’s about a few days after me. He has even worse battery experience.
He has to charge every two days and it takes me also from 40% all the way to 100 it takes me three hours.
I wasn’t expecting it to be so much effort at charging given we used to do this when we were sleeping, but I recall you saying that you charge it while you’re sleeping?
If I tried, I know I would be moving around so much it would disconnect right away.
I reset my battery alerts to 20% and 10% because it isn’t an issue until you get to 5%. I don’t think one should start charging above 30% because tgat really negatively impacts the batteries ability to accept a full charge. It will start to indicate a full charge when it isn’t.
That allows me to go 72 hours, basically, before feeling I have to recharge.
I have not decided yet whether it is best to charge in the a.m. or the evening, but I’m leaning towards the evening as it is easier for me to be less active than in the early part of the day.
That said, whatever time it is, I pick a quiet time when I think I’ve got a couple of hours of less walking around to start, as long as my battery is less than 25%.
I have not run my battery down to 10% yet but intend to do so because I think it is good for the battery.
I’ll start with it just placed on my chest and then when I have to start moving around more I’ll use the harness, which really needs to be redesigned, but it does hold the coil in place pretty well. If I need to stop charging for 10 minutes that’s ok, I just take it off, but I always complete the charge as quickly as possible to 100% because if you don’t it can seriously impact the life of the battery.
Yes, it takes about, guessing, 3 hours for a full charge, maybe a bit longer. 20 to 60% is fairly quick. I suspect the balance is impacted by managing the temperature.
No doubt the battery is the most inconvenient aspect but then,the implant itself is just like having a normal ear, except for the Donald Duck filter 🤣
I have started charging before going to bed, then put the harness on and gone to bed for the last hour or so. Not sure what would happen if I tried to sleep all night but it would alert me if it came off.
I have heard some buzzing when charging. Near as I can tell it’s a slightly off location induction coil that causes it because when I move the coil the buzzing stops.
I am running my implant at 95% volume and about 85% sensitivity. I expect the device has a master volume control of some kind set by the programmer but overall volume and sensitivity are going to have the greatest impact on how long a charge lasts.
I did notice that heavy clothing really slows charging and thereby drains the charger battery so I now put the coil directly on my skin when I can, or wear a very thin T or shirt.