A simple question needs only a simple answer, right?

Not always. Sometimes, the answer to a simple question requires an explanation.

For example, a question we hear often in tech support is, “How long will my Recon battery last on a full charge?” The answer really depends on how you use it. The Recon’s battery is designed so you can work a full day without a recharge in a typical user application. It’s been known to last as long as 60 hours or as few as three.

Several factors can have a significant effect on battery performance.

They include:

• Use of the display light
• Use of the built-in WLAN radio
• Ambient temperature
• Use of certain CompactFlash devices
• Age of the battery

Other factors which have a smaller, but noticeable, effect on battery performance include:

• Use of the built-in Bluetooth radio
• Heavy usage of the CPU

It isn’t very surprising that using the display light or built-in radios impacts battery life. However, some of the other factors, like temperature, are less obvious.. It turns out that batteries like to work at room temperature. They tolerate warm temperatures with little to no loss in battery life, but battery life drops with the temperature. At -20 C (about -4º F), you can expect about a 20 percent reduction in your Recon’s battery life. At -30 C (about -22º F), your Recon battery life may be as short as 3 hours.

CompactFlash devices which can significantly reduce the battery life include the Holux GPS card, the Socket WLAN card, the LifeView FlyCAM card, and the Audiovox GPRS card. However, if the card is not in constant use (for instance, you only take an occasional picture with the FlyCAM card), then the impact on battery performance is, of course, much less. CompactFlash devices which have a smaller effect on the battery life include the Socket Bluetooth card and the Socket barcode scanner card (unless you constantly activate the scanning laser). Using CompactFlash memory cards has no significant effect on battery performance.

Finally, the age of the battery will noticeably affect its performance. Your Recon battery performance will start to decline after about 400 charge/discharge cycles. Its performance drops more rapidly after about 500 charge/discharge cycles. So if you have had your Recon battery for more than a couple of years, and if the battery performance isn’t what it used to be, then it’s probably time to replace the battery.