VOGONS

Palmtops and extreme battery life

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First post, by snorg

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So the HP 200 LX is basically a completed 80186 PC and able to run for 40 hours on AA batteries.

Which got me to thinking: if you were going to design a similar modern style device, perhaps with the format of a the Asus EEE 800 but with one of the main design criteria being battery life, how would you configure it?

I know that a backlit color screen that is high-res would probably be out, you'd probably have to use something like what a Kindle paper white uses but could you get a similar battery life if you were willing to make some concessions?

I wonder how much you'd have to gimp it. I see a lot of people making Raspberry Pi based portables but they never seem to get more than 5-6 hours of battery life, which is not much better than most commercial laptops (and the Pi hardly uses any juice at all so most of the consumption must be the screen and wireless).

Just trying to decide if it would be worthwhile to attempt this as an exercise in minimalism, but get something slightly more modern looking than an HP 200 LX, even if it is only limited to DOS and GEM or something.

Reply 1 of 3, by Jo22

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This thread reminds me of my original Gameboy and PalmOS handhelds. ^^
These devices ran for hours with just a few batteries.

I don't know a lot about the HP 200 LX, but I think the reason for the long battery life was the 80186 and the simple LCD screen.
The 8018x was basically a highly integrated computer on a single chip. Today someone would call this a SoC (system-on-a-chip) perhaps.
Or a "microcontroller" a few years ago.. Or a single board computer (SBC) if it had no screen.

Perhaps someone could use an ARM chip to create a low-power computer in the same style.
I'm afriad it would be necesarry to lower its frwquency to do so. Which isn't so good for complex OSes like WinCE or Linux.

Another idea is to use one of these Vortex86EX chips and a tiny OS like MenuetOS (or KolibriOS).
Haven't tried them myself yet. I only know that they are used in the 86Duinos (x86 Arduinos)..

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

Reply 2 of 3, by snorg

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Well an R Pi only uses like 2.5 to 3 watts total or something like that, so you'd think it would be perfect.
I think you would have to ditch color and go with some sort of grayscale screen.
And also get rid of the wireless radio since that is a power hog. I think that
would be enough to get you in the 10-12 hour range but not several days, for that you'd have
To use something like an Intel Quark or Edison.

Reply 3 of 3, by Jo22

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Good idea! What about a Pi Zero ? I heard it requires only 0.5 to 0.7 watts.

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

//My video channel//

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