solar charging

[Dimitrios Kanellopoulos]

@Anton-Vanderpoel if the watch is left idle and there is a black screen it actually charges faster.

[surfboomerang]

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos Is there a list (and are we allowed to see it) with the features and their impact on power consumption?

For example what is the impact of activating notifications, vibration, 24/7 HR monitor, sleep etc…?
I can imagine that it’s hard to tell for the notifications and vibration features because it relies heavily on the usage of the watch but a baseline can be created.

[zhang965]

@Anton-Vanderpoel said in solar charging:

is the watch solar charging if the display is blanc

Blanc ? Are you talk about flashlight

[Dimitrios Kanellopoulos]

@surfboomerang the specs are on:

Standby light off
Some notifications.

I personally get about 200 notifications per day and that wastes battery. Ideally you wanna limit that via the app etc.

So the watch as a “watch” with some smart functionality will last as promised and even more.

[SuperFlo75]

What happens with the Solar energy when the watch is full charged? Can we overcharge it?

[surfboomerang]

@SuperFlo75 I expect this is handled by the battery management. Like when it’s on a charger.

[Anton Vanderpoel]

@zhang965 the display is turning black after one minut not using the watch i put the watch in the sun not wearing

[deserthike20]

@SuperFlo75 Over in the Suunto Telegram group its been mentioned that the watch will only solar charge when its below 94% to prevent battery overcharging.

[Dimitrios Kanellopoulos]

@deserthike20 that is not correct I think in the lastest firmware. Not it will charge. You can test this via the widget.

Solar should stop at 99%

[surfboomerang]

Is the some kind of scale on the solar history bars?

I noticed today that 2 10min bars were almost full. Once a third appeared, with a slightly higher value than the previous ones, the previous two changed to half full.

[DMytro]

I have a question too. Afaik each charging cycle takes a toll on the battery health, even more so if the charging cycle is incomplete. Has it been investigated, how solar charging impacts battery health long term. Or has there been any hw changes implemented to meditate that, e.g. use solar power not to change but to directly power the watch s.t. the battery isn’t used and so it’s durability isn’t impacted.

[freeheeler]

@DMytro
I will let you know in 4-5 years
no, kidding!
I guess Suunto did their homework. compared to charging phones we have way less cycles, hence I don’t worry too much

[DMytro]

@freeheeler with non-solar watches, sure. But if charging cycle is triggered every time the watch ‘sees’ the sun, you probably have multiple charging cycles a day. And I wonder how healthy it is in the long run. In other words, would the watch loose 20% of its original capacity already after a year instead of 2-3 year with non-solar watches.

[freeheeler]

@DMytro
I understood that a charging cycle corresponds to 1 full charge, not every single time you point the watch to the sun… but of course I don’t know details. I just assume that all cycles could be reached within a day or two

[DMytro]

@freeheeler well, I’m no expert either - maybe someone in the forum knows more and can comment. But to me it seems that the following holds: 1 small charge via solar, e.g. increase by 5% (btw charging in the sun prob means that the watch is at least warm and charging warm battery is also not ideal afaik) is not as bad for the battery health as charge from 0 to full, but 20 such charges by 5% is worse than one charge from 0 to 100%, although I don’t know by how much.

I hope this isn’t perceived as criticism, I’m just curious.

[freeheeler]

@DMytro
@Egika once explained it well to me in a pm… I stopped worrying that moment

[deserthike20]

@Dimitrios-Kanellopoulos That’s good to hear. Charging to 99% is probably what most people would expect as normal behavior.

[Highlands]

@DMytro I couldn’t be less bothered about the battery of my watches. They have pretty long lifespan and by the time their deterioration starts worrying me, I guess I’ll have changed the watches. 4-5 years will be without any problems.

[mikeorbreak]

@freeheeler said in solar charging:

@DMytro
@Egika once explained it well to me in a pm… I stopped worrying that moment

Do you want to tell us? With permission of @Egika of course…

[freeheeler]

@mikeorbreak
as said before, long story short (what I recall): don’t worry, it takes long for watches to reach charging cycles