Chip 2000 November

home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search

/ Chip 2000 November / Chip Kasım 2000.iso / prog / palm / 01 / setup.exe / readme17.txt < prev

Wrap

Text File | 2000-03-26 | 35.4 KB | 781 lines

================================================== BATTERY MONITOR - v1.7 - (c)1/29/97, Peter Strobel ================================================== CONTENTS: ========= 1. WHAT'S BATTERY MONITOR? 2. INSTALLATION 3. USING BATTERY MONITOR 4. BATTERY MONITOR SETTINGS 5. CRASH RECOVERY 6. THE LITTLE BATTERY MONITOR FAQ 7. RELEASE HISTORY AND UPDATES - previous users, read this! 8. WHAT'S COOKING 9. HOW TO REGISTER AND HOW TO CONTACT ME 10. DISCLAIMER 1. WHAT'S BATTERY MONITOR ? --------------------------- Battery Monitor (BM) gives you quite an exact power consumption profile of your Pilot. BM monitors the total ON-time, how long the backlight (if you have one) was used and how long the serial port was active. If you're a user of Eco Hack, BM will also tell you, how much percent you saved by using Eco Hack. But that's not all: From the collected data, BM calculates the used energy and tells you, how much percent you spend on each of the functions. Since BM also detects automatically when you changed batteries, it stores the date and a complete previous consumption profile. From the total time the batteries are in use, BM also calculates, how much of your batteries are used while your Pilot is 'sleeping'. UPDATE v1.7: Most important change is a new setting for TRG's new SPII-XL 8MB memory board (BTW, a phantastic piece of hardware!). The new board needs more power, no question, but for 8MB it's not that bad! As always, you can play with the setting, even if you don't have the board installed. That way, you can see how much power you would have consumed if you had the SPII-XL. Well, I finally added the export function I promised for so long. You can export the 'Actual' or the 'Previous' screen to the MemoPad, so you can keep an archive for your battery usage. Changed the total time-in-use display. It now has the format days:hrs:min:sec, alot of people asked for it. Same display format is now used for the estimated time left in the oracle screen. 2. INSTALLATION --------------- For Battery Monitor you have to install two PRC files. One is the BMD.PRC that has to be installed on all Palm models. The other one is a hack, either BMH.PRC or BMH16x.PRC. Which one you have to install depends on your Palm model. For all old models up to the standard Palm III, use BMH.PRC. All newer models with an EZ CPU, like the Palm IIIx, have to use BMH16x.PRC. PLEASE NOTE: BM v1.7 is only compatible to OSes up to 3.1 !!! It does not work on newer OS versions like 3.3 or 3.5. I'm working on that. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ... we will be back after this short messages ... To use BM Hack, you need to run Ed Keyes HackMaster on your Pilot. Look for the latest version of HackMaster on http://www.daggerware.com. Because of questions I got from users, I want to point out once more: I have nothing to do with HackMaster. HackMaster is a program, that allows system extensions/replacements like BM Hack to reside in 'peace' amongst others of its kind on the Pilot. If you want to know more about HackMaster, please check Ed's pages. There you'll find also the HackMaster API, in case you want to write your own hack. PLEASE NOTE: Hackmaster is a great piece of software, and the farsight of Ed ============ made it possible, that the Pilot community can enjoy alot of great system extensions, USR missed to implement. PLEASE REGISTER HACKMASTER IF YOU USE IT ! ATTENTION: A hack *MUST BE DISABLED* before you can delete it safely from ========== your Pilot! I still get angry e-mails from people, who had bad crashes. I'm sorry, there is nothing a hack programmer can do. This is just a hackmaster rule. ... and now for something completely different ... ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- After the installation, go to Hackmaster and activate the BatteryMonitor Hack. Then switch your Pilot once off and on again, to create the database. From that moment on, BMH will collect the needed data. The normal BM application will read these data later, and calculate all the informations. After you activated BMH, you can basically forget it. All settings are done in the BM application. 3. USING THE BATTERY MONITOR APPLICATION ---------------------------------------- You'll see the following informations from top to bottom: - CHANGED: The date and time you changed your batteries and the days you used them since then. In the 'actual' screen, the days are the difference between then and now. In the 'previous' screen, you see how long the batteries were in use (the difference between 'actual' and 'previous' changed date). I displayed the time of change only, because a full day is always completed at that time. So don't wonder, when you change batteries at 8pm and *next* day 11am, it still shows 0 days. - Above the little animated battery, there is a digital voltage display, that shows either, the actual voltage in the 'actual' screen, or the last voltage of the previous battery in the 'previous' screen. I don't know, whether that 'old' voltage is good for something, but it seemed to be so senseless to show the actual voltage in both screens :). NOTE: After updating from a version prior to v1.2, the previous read out of then voltage might show a wrong, funny value. That's because BM Hack prior to v1.2 didn't save the voltage at battery change. Just ingnore it until you changed batteries at least once with a higher version. - TOTAL ON-TIME: The total time your Pilot was switched on. The hours can go as far as 99. That's more than any battery can do. - BACKLIGHT USED FOR: The total time, the backlight was in use. If you have an older model without backlight, that time will remain zero. Just ignore it. - SERIAL PORT USED FOR: The total time, the serial port was open and the (power sucking) serial driver was activated. - TURBO MODE USED FOR: The total time, the turbo mode was used. If you don't use Eco Hack, the time will remain zero. In case you don't know what the turbo mode is, please visit my site and look for 'The Eco Hack easter egg'. - ECO MODE USED FOR: The total time, the eco mode was used. If you don't use Eco Hack, the time will remain zero. All the above times are displayed HH:MM:SS. This top part of the screen is always the same, for all BM modes. The lower half of the screen shows different infos, depending whether you press the 'Actual', the 'Previous' or the 'Oracle' button. 'ACTUAL' OR 'PREVIOUS' BUTTON PRESSED: -------------------------------------- First is the total capacity used in mAh. Following a short explanation of the unit mAh: 1 mAh is the energy that is used, when 1 milliampere is flowing for one hour. I took that unit, since most batteries and rechargeables are rated by their mAh capacity. A good Alkaline AAA for example should have around 900 mAh capacity, NiMH and renewals around 500 mAh and AAA-NiCad's have about 250 mAh. That value gives you the best overview of how much power is left, assuming you know about how many mAh your batteries provide. The value displayed by Battery Monitor is the sum of the general consumption of the Pilot when switched on, plus the extra current for backlight and serial port operations, turbo mode and even the little current used while your Pilot is off (sleeping). The Eco Hack savings are subtracted. The general consumption of the Pilot depends highly on how it is used. In idle mode, the current is much lower than in busy mode. That means, when you're a game freak, emptying a battery set with a few Galax sessions, BM's averaging algorithm won't work properly and the display shows a lesser consumption, than it actually is. For 'normal' usage, the display should be pretty right. IMPORTANT: To get the right value for the sleep consumption, you must use the OS update 2.0.4 or Powerfix when you use a OS 2.x Pilot. The next four lines, show the percentage of consumption of every single function. That means, if you read 20% backlight, the backlight used 20% of the total *capacity*, NOT that you used the backlight 20% of the time. I found that value much more interesting than time, since different functions need various amounts of current. The Eco Hack saving is in fact a negativ value. When you read: 80mAh used capacity and 20% Eco savings, it means that it would have been 100mAh without the Eco savings (yeah, I know .. percent calculations ... <g>). NOTE: In case the total used capacity still shows 0 mAh (batteries just changed or BM just installed), there are no percentages. Wait until there is at least one lousy mAh used <g>. The little bar graphs for each value can be calibrated in the settings to have either a 50% or a 100% scale. I personally like the 50% better, it gives you a better resolution, especially for low percentage functions (i.e. serial) and a single function can't hardly get more than 50% anyway. But I got alot of votes for the 100% and I learned the hard way, not to do unusual things: Means, the bar grows now from left-to-right ... :) Except for the Eco savings bar, you can easily see with the bars, how much power you 'wasted' for additional functions you 'basically' don't need for example, to look up a phone number. So the more gray you see there, the more you used backlight, the serial port or the turbo mode of Eco Hack. Finally you find two buttons, 'actual' and 'previous'. When you change your batteries, BM starts a new dataset and stores the old one in 'previous'. So, you can always compare the actual values with the previous ones, comparing how much capacity you got last time from your batteries. Oh, nearly forgot: tap the buttons to get the actual or the previous data set :) When BM is started or on power-on (when you switch off your Pilot while using BM), the 'actual' set comes always up and the display is refreshed. HINT: BM v1.1 (or later) refreshes the display automatically every 65 seconds, but you can also tap the 'actual' button to get the latest values. 'ORACLE' BUTTON PRESSED: ------------------------ When you press the oracle button, the upper screen still shows the timings, but the lower screen changes. Right below the estimated power used so far, you find a percentage bar, showing the capacity still left from the reference capacity. The reference capacity depends on the setting in the 'Oracle' menu (see below). The next line displays the percentage numerical and the reference capacity. Now a few wild numbers follow: The estimated time left is calculated from the total time the battery is in use (insertion time/date, no matter how long the Pilot was switched on) and how much energy is used so far. The 'Next change' time/date display, is just the actual time/date plus the time still left. NOTE: This display is getting more and more accurate over the time. Immediately after battery change, it'll show you probably a very low estimated time left. That's because nearly 100% of the time the batteries are in, the Pilot is also in use. So the calculation ends up with giving you the time you would have, if the Pilot was never switched off. Wait at least one day until you 'trust' that display. On the other hand, if you wouldn't switch on your Pilot for one week immediately after battery change (nearly no power used), you get probably a ridicolous high number of days left. There has to be at least 1% used, until the 'Oracle' shows results. In case the actual used capacity is already greater than the reference, you get a message and oracle doesn't show any values either. In case you use the previous results as reference (see menu settings below), Oracle also tells you, whether you used your Pilot more or less or equal so far, compared to the previous battery set. This decision is made on the average consumption over the time of the last batteries. NOTE: The more 'regular' your usage habits are, the better Oracle will work. If you don't touch your Pilot for days and then you play 5 hours Galax, Oracle will tell you pretty 'funny' values due to the missing predictable average. SCREEN REFRESH -------------- The screen is automatically refreshed every 65-70 seconds. Before you send me mail :), yes, it's intentional, that certain screens return automatically to the 'Actual' screen. Whenever there is not much to display (no or too small reference in Oracle, no previous data set in 'Previous' etc.), BM returns after 5 seconds to the 'Actual' screen. When you enter BM or when you switch on your Pilot with BM running, either 'Actual' or 'Oracle' is refreshed, depending on where your left. The 'Previous' screen however is switched back to 'Actual', it's also left automatically after 65 seconds (not much change to see there). 4. BATTERY MONITOR SETTINGS --------------------------- THE SETTINGS SCREEN: -------------------- Memory: - If you use any original 3Com memory card, select the 512k, 1MB or 2MB button, according to your memory size. - If you have a 3MB TRG SuperPilot board type I or II, tap the 'TRG SP' button. - If you have a 2MB TRG SuperPilot Lite, choose the '2MB' button. - The last button is for the new SPII-XL 8MB board. Again, in case you want to know why: Since TRG uses true static RAM with a much lower standby current (only on their SuperPilot I or II board, not for 2MB upgrades, the PSRAM SP Lite nor the SPII-XL!), that setting is necessary for the sleep consumption calculation. Although having 3MB instead of 1MB, the true static RAM used on SP I or II needs only less than 1/3th of the standby current of the PSRAM used on the other boards. NOTE: For newer 4MB units, just use the normal 2MB setting. Its close enough until I have an updated version. Oracle ref: The Oracle function needs a reference to calculate estimated remaining capacity and time. Choose one of the 8 fixed values: 180 mAh = NiCad, older type 250 mAh = NiCad 360 mAh = NiMH, older type 550 mAh = NiMH (even if it says 500 on them) 650 mAh = NiMH, very new type (Sanyo) 950 mAh = Normal Alkaline 1150 mAh = Duracell or Energizer Alkaline 1500 mAh = High capacity Alkalines as announced by i.e. Duracell Previous = If you have a good, complete previous data set Please note, the fixed values should cover also other types, just take the closest value. Please don't forget that Oracle does an estimation, so it won't really matter whether the battery has 1150 or 1200mAh in the end! User profile: It adapts BM to your individual use of the Pilot. It influences the average current assumed for the on-time. Start with an entry you think it fits. After you emptied a set of batteries, check whether it met your expectations. Example: You use good Alkalines (1150 mAh), but you get only 950 mAh from BM. Choose a lower setting, obviously you use lesser current per time. If BM tells you 1300 mAh for the same batteries, take a higher setting. PLEASE NOTE: Again, this setting doesn't change your collected data, it only recalculates them with different parameters. So, you can play with them and always return to your previous settings. Battery: If you're using Alkalines or renewals, tap the Alkaline button. For NiCad or NiMH rechargeables, choose the NiCad button. In case you're interested: That setting is important for the current calculation. The Pilot consumses the more current, the less the voltage is. Since NiCad and NiMHs have a lower average voltage, the consumed current is always a bit higher. Since v1.2 this setting has a second function: It sets the voltage difference of the automatic battery change detection for BM Hack. Alkalines have the tendency to 'refresh' during power-off times. The difference is now set to 0.5 Volt for Alkalines to prevent faulty battery change detections. For NiCad's, the difference is set to 0.3 Volt. Good rechargeables don't 'refresh' that much, but have a lesser voltage swing between full and empty. If you don't get at least 0.3 Volt between charged and empty, get new rechargeables or a better charger. %-Bar calib.: You can set, whether the little bar graphs have a 50% or 100% full scaling. Well, 50% show a better resolution and practically no single function can use more than 50%. Then again, 100% are the standard for a bar graph ... I guess a question of personal taste :) Enable new battery-detect: Check this box, if you want BM Hack to detect new batteries automatically. This should be suitable for most users. But some users reported, that they had faulty detections, due to extreme voltage swings of certain batteries under load. So, you can uncheck that box, then BM never detects a battery change and you have to force a battery change manually. --------- NOTE: Changing any settings doesn't change your collected data, only the way they are processed. So you can play around with them and try out i.e. what would happen to the sleep percentage, if you had a TRG card. THE MENU ENTRIES: ----------------- TOP MENU 'SETTINGS': Settings: Calls the settings screen Force new batteries: If for any reason you want to 'simulate' a battery change, or you have disabled the automatic battery change detection, use that menu entry. It does, what is says: Moves the actual values to the 'previous', and starts new 'actual' ones. Undo new batteries: Since I *hate* these 'Are you sure you want to do this', the menu 'Force new batteries' works instantly. With that menu entry you can undo it. ATTENTION: After you left Battery Monitor, the undo memory is gone! You can only undo a new battery command within the same BM session. When there are no undo data, you hear a short beep. Clear 'Actual' only: Starts a new 'Actual' record without transfering the current actual to 'Previous'. With that function you can start a new battery set and still keep a good previous reference. Undo clear 'Actual': Quite obvious ... ATTENTION: After you left Battery Monitor, the undo memory is gone! You can only undo a clear 'Actual' command within the same BM session. When there are no undo data, you hear a short beep. TOP MENU 'EXPORT': Export screen to NotePad: It does what it says, exporting the current visible data to the memo pad. If you want to export your previous data, make sure you're in the 'Previous' screen, to export the current data, choose the 'Actual' screen before you export. The export creates a new note in the 'unfiled' category. NOTE: You can't export the 'Oracle' screen. 5. CRASH RECOVERY - THE CORRECT PROCEDURE AFTER A HARD RESET ------------------------------------------------------------ This chapter tries to explain, what traps are lurking after a crash or a hard reset with a total restore of your data afterwards. If you don't like long explanations, just follow the steps below: 1) Most important, check whether the time and date of your Pilot is correct and if not, correct it BEFORE you restore your data! Assuming of course, the time & date was correct before the crash. 2) Restore your data. 3) Make sure, BM Hack is enabled in Hackmaster. If not, enable it. 4) Switch your Pilot off and on again. That's it. Of course you lost the data BM collected after your last hotsync prior to the crash. For all of you, who are interested in a few details: BM is working with the real time clock only to keep track of operation times. Let's look at the total on-time for example. When you switch on your Pilot, BM stores the time and date, and caclulates the difference when you switch off the Pilot again. Since I wanted BM to be soft reset resistant, I needed to store this data in a memory that is automatically backed up during a hotsync. It is also important to realize, that BM only updates its database, when BM Hack is enabled. Now, after a crash, the last switch-on time/date is restored. Then BM Hack is enabled again and when you switch off your Pilot, BM calculates the difference between switch-on and switch-off time. If your last hotsync was 3 days ago, BM would think your Pilot was on for 3 days (don't forget, prior to the restore BM Hack is not present, so the true switch-on time after a crash can't be stored!). That's why I implemented he 5 hours limit. If the on-time would be greater 5 hours, BM ignores it. The same nonsense happens, if the real time clock is not set right after a restore. Especially the battery change date and the resulting sleep consumption would give ridicolous values, if the real time clock is off by a year or so. HINT: Because of the above, BM Hack also checks, whether you adjust your real time clock and adapts the adjustment to the stored values (i.e. if you do a daylight saving adjustment, your battery insertion time also 'moves' one hour). So, if you restored your Pilot already and you forgot to adjust the time/date, DISABLE BM Hack first, then adjust your real time clock and then enable BM Hack again. That way, BM Hack won't move the wrong data by the same difference you adjust the clock. 6. THE LITTLE BATTERY MONITOR FAQ --------------------------------- !!! PLEASE READ THE FAQ THOROUGHLY !!! I get already *alot* of questions about my programs and I'll try to answer all questions as fast and good as possible. But I will *NOT* respond to questions that are covered in the following FAQ! Please understand, that I save my time for a better use than answering already answered questions over and over again. Q: I just installed Battery Monitor and get no data? A: 1. You have to install BatteryMonitor Hack and activate it. 2. Best is, after activating BM Hack in Hackmaster, just switch your Pilot off and on again. That creates a new database after first installation. Q: I used BM for a few minutes now, and I still get funny values? A: Battery Monitor works on averaged values. As it is with all statistics, the values of BM are becoming better and better, the longer the data is collected. After a few hours of usage, BM will show you the right values. Q: I used my Pilot always with the backlight and BM shows still different timings for ON-Time and backlight time. Why? A: BM monitors all timings with a resolution of 1 second. So, when the system misses a few milliseconds at the right time (in fact the wrong time <g>), it'll produce a minimum error of 1 second. Overall these few seconds will cumulate, but don't really matter for long term accuracy. Q: What are that Eco savings? A: Eco Hack is a tool that saves power by slowing down the Pilot a bit. Basically Eco Hack can save up to 30% from the CPU consumption, but can't do anything about backlight and serial port consumption. Battery Monitor considers all consumers and calculates the true savings. Q: What is turbo time? A: Eco Hack can also speed up your Pilot, depending on your hardware up to 40%. Please visit my homepage and look for 'The Eco Hack easter egg' to get all the details about it. Q: BM says I have an ON-time of 2 hours and a backlight time of 2 hours. Why don't I get then a backlight percentage of 50% ? A: The percentages displayed, are *power consumption* parts of the total consumption. Since the backlight for example needs more power than the Pilot alone, it uses more than half of the power when used together. Q: What happens with my data during a soft reset? A: Since v1.1 all data is reset resistant! That's particulary usefull for Recycle (the 'natural' defragger at www.deskfree.com), that has to reset the Pilot after defragging is done. NOTE: I had complains from users after a hard reset. Basically all data are saved with the app preferences, which again hot-sync should handle. I'm still looking into that matter and what happens exactly. Q: I had to hard reset my Pilot, do I loose all BM data? A: No, only the collected data since your last hot-sync. Q: I changed my batteries - why doesn't BM start a new data set? A: 1. Make sure the automatic detection is enabled in the settings of BM! 2. The battery-changed detection is done on power off. So when you change your batteries, the next time you switch off your Pilot the set will be swapped. If you want to 'force' it immediately, change batteries, switch on your Pilot, *wait* until the new, higher voltage has settled (that can take up to 20 seconds, watch the battery bar or whatever you launcher shows) and switch off your Pilot again. From v1.1 on, you can also use the menu entry 'Force new batterie'. Q: How does BM know that I changed batteries? A: BM monitors also the voltage and saves it. When the voltage is 0.5 Volt higher than the last saved value (0.3 Volt for the NiCad setting), it assumes new batteries were inserted. So, when you exchange 'dead' batteries with 'old' ones that are not at least 0.5 Volt (0.3 Volt) higher than the previous ones, BM won't detect the change. NOTE: If for any reason, your voltage is 'refreshing' more than the choosen difference when your Pilot is off, there will be a faulty change detection. But that shouldn't happen under proper conditions. If it happens, your Pilot is either kaputt, or you use very lousy batteries or renewals. Q: Does the permanent monitoring of the power consumption slow down the Pilot? A: Not really. The time consuming work is done on power-on and power-off when you won't realize it. BM is written in pure assembler language and the monitoring work during on-times takes only 0.0025% of the CPU time! Q: I just changed batteries - Why does Oracle tell me I have to change again in 20 hours, my batteries last normally 3 weeks? A: When you change your batteries and you work immediately 30 minutes with your Pilot, you have a 'battery age' of 30 minutes with 30 minutes usage. Oracle 'thinks' now, you use your Pilot 100% of the time. Wait until tomorrow, then the batteries are 1 day older, but the usage is still 30 minutes. That is about 2% and oracle will tell you according values. Q: Oracle doesn't display that 'Compared usage' anymore, why? A: You get that line only, if you set the reference capacity in the Oracle menu to 'previous'. With the fixed numeric values, Oracle doesn't use any of your previous stored data and so it can't tell you anything relative to previous results. Q: Why do I never get the expected results from my batteries? A: Check your setting of the user profile in the setting screen. If you get constantly too less, choose an entry more towards 'lazy', you use lesser power than BM estimates. If you get to much, choose a value more towards 'busy', you use more power. ============================== 7. Release history and updates ============================== v1.7 - Functional update (04/16/98) 1. Added a new memory setting for TRG's new SPII-XL board. 2. Added an export-to-MemoPad function. 3. Changed the total time display to days:hrs:min:sec. v1.6 - Functional update (04/03/98) 1. Even more plausibility tests to avoid bogus data after a crash. BM Hack now detects when your last battery change date lies in the future :). 2. Added more memory choices for a better sleep consumption calculation. 3. Added the Clear 'Actual' only function. v1.5 - Functional update (03/20/98) 1. Fixed the 'hot-sync' bug caused by BM Hack. 2. Removed the 1350mAh reference setting, added a 650mAh entry 3. Checked the OS 3.0 compatibility, added a version resource, so OS 3.0 will properly display the version of BM and BM Hack. Though, still no tiny icon in the new 3.0 list display, damn missing documentations from 3Com! v1.4 - Functional update with some cosmetics (03/09/98) 1. Moved all settings to a common settings screen. 2. Changed the cosmetic of the little bar graphs. They can be calibrated to either 50 or 100% and they grow now from left- to right ... too many users where confused by my percentage- bar-revolution :) 3. Added the possibility to disable the automatic battery change detection. 4. Added the user profile setting. It should increase the accuracy of BM and the Oracle, once the user found the right setting. v1.3 - Functional update with some more 'bells-and-whistles' (02/18/98) 1. Added the turbo calculation, after the easter egg in Eco Hack went public. 2. Percentages now have little bar graphs. 3. Added 'Oracle' function (please read the section above) 4. Still another bug in BMHack discovered. Was only relevant, if BM was installed the very first time. 5. Moved the 'about' menu from the left, to the right side :) v1.2 - Main reason was a nasty display bug (02/11/98) 1. When the total on-time reached 18:12:16 or similar, the total consumption calculation was messed up. Fixed that by implementing complete own 32-bit integer arethmetics (yeah, I would love to use the float routines of the OS, but from what I heard ... ). 2. Added a voltage display (yes, I had to shrink the animated battery a bit <g>), actual or the last recorded in previous. 3. The Hack now looks for the Alkaline/NiCad setting in BM, to set the automatic battery change detection difference (wow, what an expression) individually to 0.5 Volt for Alkalines (possible 'refresh' during power-off) and 0.3 Volt for NiCads. v1.1 - Rewrote the damn thing completely (02/08/98) 1. Totally different db structure, all timings are reset resistant now. Main reason was Recycle, that has to reset the Pilot after defragging. I didn't want to loose all that defragging time. 2. Rewrote the display routines. Now all timings are actual, no more switching off and on to get the latest timings. The display is automatically refreshed every 65 sec. or on tapping the 'actual' button. 3. System time and date adjustments are trapped now, and timings are compensated (my favourite in the update). That means, you can set your Pilot to year 2008 and your batteries are *not* 10 years old all of a sudden :) .. seriously, it was important for daylight saving adjustments for example. 4. Fixed a bug in the 'previous' screen. The 'battery days' display showed the wrong duration (showed always the difference to actual date instead of difference to latest battery change). 5. *Tried* to fix the strange hotsnyc problem, when power off, and the hotsync button is pressed. It seems to be better ... 6. A manual battery change is now possible. For everyone, who changes batteries and the new ones are not at least 0.35 Volt better than the old ones (frankly, even if you use NiCad - you do something wrong! I use NiMH, and change them sometimes at 2.1V - still, the freshly charged ones should have at least 2.5V. Mostly mine show even 2.7V at the very beginning.) 7. Well, last not least some internal flaws are gone, that nobody discovered so far <g> v1.0 - Initial release. (01/29/98) ================= 8. WHAT'S COOKING ================= - Well, in the moment all functions I wanted for BM are implemented. Let's see what's coming ... ======================================== 9. HOW TO REGISTER AND HOW TO CONTACT ME ======================================== To register Battery Monitor, please visit: either http://www.pilotgear.com or http://www.pspilot.de (section Software) HINT: On my page you'll find a 'Buy Me' button right beside the download link, that brings you directly to my register page at PilotGear, so you don't have to search for it. German users can also pay me directly, click on the link '▄berweisung' below the 'Buy Me' buttons. And for the latest version, always check *my* site - I can't track all archives and whether they always offer the latest version of my apps. After registering, you'll receive your new version directly from me, usual within the next 24 hours. Registered users get also all further, improved versions and updates for free. If you have suggestions, likes, dislikes, found bugs etc., feel free to e-mail me at: PSPilot@pstec.de ====================================================== 10. Now for the unavoidable disclaimer and legal stuff ====================================================== Battery Monitor is an $8 shareware. You can try it out for 3 weeks without any limitations. After the trial period, BM won't read out any more data. NOTE: If you plan to register BM, *DON'T* deactivate or delete the BM Hack. It will keep collecting data and you can read them again with the registered version of Battery Monitor you get. If you decide not to register, please remove Battery Monitor from your systems. ATTENTION: As all hacks, you *have* to disable BM Hack first in hackmaster before deleting it! You may give a copy of BMON.ZIP to others under the same terms, but make sure to keep always all files in the archive. BMON.ZIP may be included on any disk or CDROM of shareware sold by non-profit organizations. If you want to include it in a commercial software collection, please contact me. Under no circumstances the registered version of Battery Monitor is allowed to be distributed without the written permission of the author. I took great care to release Battery Monitor bugfree, and in the moment there are no known bugs. However, Battery Monitor is provided without warranty of any kind, express or implied. I can accept no liability for data loss or any other problems caused directly or indirectly by the use of Battery Monitor. Both programs are copyright 1998 by Peter Strobel. (c)Peter Strobel - 1998, 16th April (revised temporarely March 26th, 2000)