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

(terminalbytes.com)
447 points hemant6488 | 2 comments | 18 Jun 25 15:49 UTC | HN request time: 0.42s | source
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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.

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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.

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1. kccqzy ◴[19 Jun 25 16:40 UTC] No.44320254[source]▶
A timer is sufficient. No need to be precisely 45% or 55%.
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2. 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