66 lines
4.0 KiB
Plaintext
66 lines
4.0 KiB
Plaintext
MiniSport Laptop Hacker - Vol 11, 5 Apr 1993
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Copyright(C) 1993 by Brian Mork.
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>>> CONSERVING ENERGY
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Your MiniSport runs on NiCad batteries. It is good to regularly let these
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run down until you get the red POWER light flashing and beeping. That
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deals with the well-known "memory" effect of NiCads. However, if you let
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the NiCads stay in this discharged state, the Lithium batteries ($2 each,
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CR2430, RS 23-166) will go dead *fast*. The NiCads, even fully charged,
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will eventually be discharged from backing up the RAMdisk. From experi-
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ence, I know that 2 months of inactivity will fully discharge both the RAM-
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disk and the Lithium batteries.
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There are a lot of power management techniques specific to the MiniSport,
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and that's what the rest of this section will be about. The effect of
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choosing the lower-power option on each of the following independent areas
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is cummulative. By managing my batter energy, I regularly get 4-plus hours
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of "on" time before the power light starts blinking. That's 4 hours in my
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work room, not in the manufacturer's literature!
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1) The mechanical movement of the floppy drive is by far the worst power
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draining activity. Limit it's acitivy to the minimum possible. I use
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my floppy drive to back up an afternoon's worth of work, not to perform
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that work. Each time the floppy drive is accessed, picture 5-10 minutes
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of NiCad charge going away.
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2) When you're not using the computer, turn it off! The computer only
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takes a few seconds to boot up from a power-off state. If you're look-
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ing up some documentation or twiddling some knobs on other equipment for
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more than a minute or two, there is little reason to leave it on. Turn-
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ing off your computer as you step away from the desk is a practice
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you'll have to get used to.
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3) Turn your screen to minimum brightness. If you're in a bright room or
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sunlight, you may get by with the brightness turned all the way down.
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In the SETUP menu (CTRL-ALT-INS, or ESC during bootup) you can set a
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timer to automatically turn the screen off after a few minutes. Set the
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timer to the minimum value.
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4) The I/O ports (COM1, COM2, LPT1) can each be "turned off" even while the
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computer is turned on. Once again, check the SETUP menu or use the MA-
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CHINE command at the DOS command prompt. If you won't use the ports for
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the next few hours, turn them off!
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5) The MiniSport can be set to execute instructions at a fast speed or a
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slow speed. The cost of running at fast speed is greater use of energy.
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For a portable, that means less battery life. Again, use the MACHINE
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command or the SETUP menu to choose the SLOW speed unless you need the
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fast speed.
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If you do select the FAST speed, the biggest waste of energy occurs
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when the computer makes an I/O request to the disks. It's silly to let
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the computer do nothing very fast while it waits for the disk! Zenith
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recognized this and provided a SMART option for the clock speed. With
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this setting, the computer runs at FAST except during disk I/O, at which
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time it automatically goes into the SLOW mode.
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One last thought: there's a third, even easier, way to switch between
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the speed settings. The SLOW and FAST selections on the F3 and F4 key
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provide this exact function. Use SETUP to choose the slow speed and
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then only if you need it, press the FN-F4 (fast) key. Because it's so
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easily available, I select SLOW at the SETUP menu and choose FAST from
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the keyboard only if I feel I need it.
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6) Keeping the RAMdisk saved when power is off uses energy, but because I
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use it like a small hard disk, I accept that sacrifice. If you're look-
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ing for maximum time between recharges, USE the SEUP menu to select not
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to keep the RAMdisk saved.
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73, Brian Mork (Opus-OVH) KA9SNF@wb7nnf.#spokn.wa.usa
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Internet ka9snf@jupiter.spk.wa.us
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6006-B Eaker, Fairchild, WA 99011
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