smart battery on acer travelmate 4001

smart battery on acer travelmate 4001

[Pedro Venda]

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hi everyone,

i found out recently that i have one of those laptops with a smart
battery. mine is an acer travelmate 4001 wlmi.

i would like to ask you for some information:

1. where do the smart batteries differ from "regular" batteries;
2. what are the advantages/disadvantages of a smart battery vs "regular"
battery
3. i read that acpi4linux does not support smart batteries yet. what can
i do to help?

note: i do not code in the kernel, i am unable to write the drivers
myself... yet... but i am fully available to supply every bit of
necessary information to help others develop/test new drivers.

thank you very much for your time and congratulations for your widely
used absolutely critical acpi drivers.

regards,
pedro venda.
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Re: smart battery on acer travelmate 4001

[David Gómez]

Hi Pedro ;),

> i found out recently that i have one of those laptops with a smart
> battery. mine is an acer travelmate 4001 wlmi.

Same as mine.

> i would like to ask you for some information:

I'm nothing as far a an ACPI expert, just an user ;), but i'll try to help you.

> 1. where do the smart batteries differ from "regular" batteries;

They're a different kind of batteries in the ACPI specification. It
defines two types, control-method batteries and smart batteries. Currently
ACPI only supports the first type.

> 2. what are the advantages/disadvantages of a smart battery vs "regular"
> battery

>From what i understand, a smart battery can 'offer' some information about
its state, voltage, composition, etc... This leads to the ACPI subsystem
to a more efficient power management. In short, they last longer, or at
least that is what manufacturers say ;).

> 3. i read that acpi4linux does not support smart batteries yet. what can
> i do to help?

I cannot answer to that. I downloaded the ACPI specification from
http://www.acpi.info, i tried to learn a bit more about ACPI and smart
batteries, but i'm far from being able to write a driver :-/

> note: i do not code in the kernel, i am unable to write the drivers
> myself... yet... but i am fully available to supply every bit of
> necessary information to help others develop/test new drivers.

Great ;). I'm avaliable too to do any kind of testing and help with
information if someone starts to develop linux acpi support for smart
batteries.

cheers,

-- 
David Gómez

"The question of whether computers can think is just like the question of
whether submarines can swim." -- Edsger W. Dijkstra


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