←back to thread

My iPhone 8 Refuses to Die: Now It's a Solar-Powered Vision OCR Server

(terminalbytes.com)
447 points hemant6488 | 6 comments | 18 Jun 25 15:49 UTC | HN request time: 0.911s | source | bottom
Show context
crazygringo ◴[19 Jun 25 14:42 UTC] No.44319142[source]▶
> The phone’s battery health held up reasonably well. After over a year of constant operation, it’s at 76% capacity.

I have an iPhone SE that I've tried keeping plugged in all the time and its battery has turned into a spicy pillow three times, first with Apple replacing the whole device (since they won't touch it with a swollen battery), then using third-party replacement kits.

This isn't going to work for long if the battery is usually at 100%.

My #1 wish for being able to repurpose old phones is to operate without touching the battery, and/or keeping the battery at 50%. Newer Apple phones have an 80% limit option which is an improvement, but I'm not sure how much. And unfortunately the option isn't there on any but the most recent phones, even on up-to-date iOS.

replies(4): >>44319210 #>>44319253 #>>44319421 #>>44320028 #
1. Eric_WVGG ◴[19 Jun 25 15:12 UTC] No.44319421[source]▶
Plug your charger to any Homekit-compatible "smart plug," and create a shortcut that turns the the plug on when the battery reaches 45%, and off when it reaches 55%.

This will of course require a Homekit hub.

replies(3): >>44319701 #>>44320254 #>>44322331 #
2. jacktheturtle ◴[19 Jun 25 15:42 UTC] No.44319701[source]▶
This
3. kccqzy ◴[19 Jun 25 16:40 UTC] No.44320254[source]▶
A timer is sufficient. No need to be precisely 45% or 55%.
replies(1): >>44320849 #
4. lucb1e ◴[19 Jun 25 17:41 UTC] No.44320849[source]▶
I can't imagine that a timer wouldn't quickly drift and either drain it to zero or charge it fully
5. crazygringo ◴[19 Jun 25 20:38 UTC] No.44322331[source]▶
That's an intriguing idea, I had no idea that was a possibility.

Unfortunately it wouldn't work for my particular usage, which was keeping it plugged into an old but expensive smart speaker as a music player via its lightning port. A smart plug would turn off the speaker along with the phone... But I appreciate the suggestion, as complicated as it is!

replies(1): >>44324350 #
6. Eric_WVGG ◴[20 Jun 25 02:57 UTC] No.44324350[source]▶
it would still work if you used some kind of lighting/audio splitter (yes, that's a thing) into your speaker, but yeah, that's definitely a fringe case