Anyone got any tips for extending battery life on a trackpad.
Put a couple of Duracells in yesterday morning and 24 hrs later down to 15%!!! I’ve just turned off the “Allow Bluetooth to Wake Computer” bluetooth option and updated the Bluetooth Services.
Any ideas?
Ni-cads?
Yep - going to be digging out my recharger, if I can find it.
But 24 hours on new batteries, something can’t be right!! Been using the in-built trackpad on my mac until I got my 2nd monitor couple of weeks ago.
Use only NiMH, use only proper charger for NiMH batteries, buy high capacity batteries (>=2500mAh), respect the charge cycles instructed by the manufacturer of the batteries and charger.
Here’s what I would suggest, go buy a new set of batteries, if a brand new set does the same thing - you’ve got a duff trackpad.
I find with the Apple trackpad, I get through a set of batteries in a month. The thing that irks me, is I don’t care for wireless devices like this, I would much rather buy the wired version, but Apple don’t make one.
I would LOVE a wired version of the magic mouse!
Apart from that, I do love the Apple Trackpad with all the gestures, I also recently picked up a high precision pen (for use on the iPad and it works on the trackpad too, so now I also have a (very small) graphics tablet.
Yeah, I have no idea why the trackpad is wireless. With a mouse, you at least don’t have cable drag. But the trackpad doesn’t move! I’d actually love to see a company like Mobee create a usb adapter for it. It’d still connect via bluetooth of course, but get its power via USB. That assumes, of course, that USB could meet the power demands.
For mice, wireless is pretty great actually. I hated it for a long time, but I’ve grown to love it with the right implementation. I have a Razer Mamba for my PC, and that gives me the best of both worlds. I put it on the cradle to charge, and even plug the cradle cable into the mouse itself to make a wired mouse. I’d use one for my Mac, but can’t give up the gestures the Magic Mouse provides. I think Mobee’s Magic Charger would be a good substitute, but I’ve never bothered to order one.
Actually, I should have checked first. I think their Power Bar does exactly this.
Yes, I’ve got a Mobee power bar for my Magic TrackPad. It’s brilliant: if my Mac complains that the trackpad is dying, I just plug it in for a couple of hours.
That looks superb! Thanks for sharing - I think I’ll order one.
I used the Sanyo Eneloop rechargeable battery and the charger.
[quote=9488:@Karen Atkocius]I would LOVE a wired version of the magic mouse!
Not exactly what you are looking for, but it can help.
Mobee Magic Charger for Apple Magic Mouse
Seeing some customers complains, throwing the included batteries and using 1.5V high amperage (2500mhA) batteries is what I use, and my fights with the mouse are over.
With trackpads, I never saw the utility of having a laptop thing in a workstation… specially a trackpad!
Trackpads are great - so many more gestures available, really makes a difference to the way I work.
Thanks for all the feedback - Mobee is the way to go methinks.
Popped into an Apple Store on Saturday, thought I’d ask the question to them - see what came back. Got an interesting response…
I was asked what type of Duracell’s I used - just normal ones, not the Lithium or Ultra kind. Seems OS-X may report incorrectly with these batteries .
Was told I should get 4-5 months on a set, even with my usage - it may be that my batteries are full but OSX is reporting incorrectly because there’s not enough draw.
Wow! Something is wrong with your trackpad. I use NiCads as well, but I get a few weeks out of Alkaline or my NiCads and I use my computer 10+ hours a day.
I think OS X is incorrectly reporting the amount of battery life remaining based on the draw. It’s been stable for a few days now, I’m just letting it run until it dies - see how far it gets.
In the meantime I’ll be getting my rechargeables on the go