Librem 5 battery

[Privacy2]

@irvinewade

You mean batteries in isolation or batteries inside a device?

Most airlines strongly suggest that devices with Lithium batteries be in your carry-on rather than checked luggage. Some US airlines won’t let you keep your laptop in your checked luggage. Others will allow a laptop, but only if it is in “shipping mode” (which is a mode which prevents accidental turning on). In any case, even if it is allowed, most allow only one device/battery. No “spare batteries” are allowed.

@irvinewade

@Privacy2

The Carry-on limit is something like 100Wh.

That would be 5 batteries then.

Six, I think. People here are used to saying 4500mAh … and for Lithium Ion cells they use the assumption of 3.7V which gives 16.65Wh. So … technically 6 … since 6 * 16.65 = 99.9 . However, sometimes the TSA uses 25,000mAh rather than 27,000mAh (for 100Wh) so 5 might be safer.

[irvinewade]

@Privacy2

gives 16.65Wh

The battery itself says “17.1 Wh” (and 3.8V).

[Sharon]

@JCS

Shipping carriers and customs tend to disagree, and they are the ones Purism must be accountable to.

I did a long research in to this several times. I don’t know where you got your “Shipping carriers and customs tend to disagree” from, but your source, if any, is wrong.
I’m sure if you package the battery, on it’s own, the way your State and destination require it, you won’t need a hazmat suit to do it.

One just needs to be able to read instructions.

Again, it depends how You ask shippers/carriers and customs about shipping batteries.

One of the selling features that had me buy the L5 was the ability to purchase and easily install a battery. Turns out, that was just more Carny Barking.
I just grabbed a old flip phone from junk box. It was released in “Release Date, May 2011”. User removes cover easier than L5, removes old battery and inserts new battery. I may order the battery from US and they will ship it to Canada. It’s not a new thing.

Purism should let potential customers know that a battery replacement for Puri out-of-country is not durable by Purism.

The part you say Pursim is responsible to certifying people to handle batteries must be a opinion, not a fact.

Purism must already know the battery specs such as Wh rating, Lithium weight etcetera. Too, specifying the package is for ‘Ground Shipping Only’ will make a big difference in whittling down the extra for air regulations.

I had the opportunity to get a spare battery when the phone went back to Puri but the requirement that the battery be sent back inside (no good reason why) cancelled the idea of putting a new one in.

The ads are correct. The battery is replaceable. But just try and get a L5 battery outside the U.S.

FedEx, DHL, UPS, Purolator, all have sections on their web sites listing instructions on how to package the battery to be shipped. All the sender needs is the ability to read and follow instructions.
One may pick up the proper packaging and labels from any of the carriers.

It is doable. The process just needs a little organizing and homework done to implement it.

Side but close situation:
If I walked up to your store front, and asked to buy 10 batteries They’d be handed to me inside the store and I walk them out. Will Purism sell them to me?

~s

[shak]

From my experience premium carriers such as DHL, UPS etc do send the battery on its own. National post office wont do that or accept it when it arrives the country. However whenever i ordered a couple of used smartphones with the removable battery included inside , i had no issues receiving it. So my guess is that they scan it through the xray and if they see it looks like a phone then it goes through . So worst case scenario to buy a used librem 5 instead of buying a new one. Not sure how good the battery will be though

[Lliure]

The Librem 5 battery is likely to conform to a standard form factor.

It’s a custom enclosure designed by Purism, see the battery’s CAD files.

[Dwaff]

I’ve used package forwarder service to get replacement laptop battery shipped to Poland. Pursim shipped battery to their US warehouse and then they to me. The downside was additional $35 for shipping, the upside - I got the replacement battery

Somewhat advertising-ish details hidden here

The service in question was forward2me.com. They work fast. If you chose this route, e-mail their support first to confirm they can deliver to your location.

[drlarryaustin]

I know shipping batteries can be very problematic to many destinations. I was wondering if there could be a battery supplier that could provide batteries to Librem5 customers in various countries that conform to the physical requirements of the battery pack.

Also, I wish there was some way to clip an auxiliary battery on the back of the phone that would allow connect to the USB-C plug on the phone. Maybe one could be designed in the future.

Or, maybe another iteration of the Librem 5 model with a bigger battery pack as part of the back cover?

[JCS]

Related update for standalone international battery shipment: Can't buy a new battery? - #17 by JCS

[MArty]

Hello, so… Has anyone tried?

RUIXI Batterie pour Purism Librem 5 Linux Phone 4500mAh 3.8V

or this one
https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/1005005249551170.html?fs=true

I just sent an email to https://www.floss-shop.de/ also to find out if they have any

[lakei]

As to this seller on AliExpress, I had a bad experience with them. Bought 2, but both batteries won’t charge. Stuck at 2.5 V. Now have to send them back (that is, if I can find a printer to print the return label ).

Re: floss-shop.de, isn’t this exactly what we’re looking for? Ersatz Akku Librem 5 Smartphone | FLOSS Shop DE Because they give the impression they are in stock, I’ve ordered 2, I will report back once I receive them. (Isn’t that site run by Nicole Faeber, who was at one point Purism CTO?)

[MArty]

Ok thank you for the return on aliexpress ! Actually they put them online on floss-shop.de after my request by mail, I also ordered 2! We’ll see what happens, normally they are official batteries.

[lakei]

@MArty

normally they are official batteries

Seeing the affiliation Nicole has with Purism, I expect and hope so!

@MArty

Actually they put them online on floss-shop.de after my request by mail

Thanks for that! I was getting pretty desperate to get a new battery, so let’s hope we’re not disappointed.

[Lliure]

Periodic reminder:

Bought broken batteries for Librem 5

I don’t think anyone else than Purism sells officially sanctioned Librem 5 batteries at this moment. If you buy it from some other source, I guess you may even end up with a rejected unit that failed QA process which someone took out from the factory in China to sell for easy buck.

[lakei]

The batteries from floss-shop.de just came in. They look new (no dents, contacts look unused and no other usage marks). Voltage is 3.8V as needed and they came charged to 60%

Next up: figuring out how to measure the current capacity vs the max factory capacity.

But it looks like this is the real deal

[Aequale]

@lakei

Thanks for keeping us updated on this.
After ordering one myself, I was most disappointed to find that they cannot ship these beyond the EU, of which the UK is no longer a part.

I was interested to note that they are also offering actual Librem 5 phones, but preloaded with Mobian for some reason.

[lakei]

@Aequale

they cannot ship these beyond the EU, of which the UK is no longer a part.

I’m sorry to hear it, that sucks

@Aequale

Librem 5 phones, but preloaded with Mobian

Weird indeed. Do they consider Mobian a better alternative (newer packages) or are they not allowed to ship PureOS, I wonder.

[jonsger]

@Aequale

Thanks for keeping us updated on this.
After ordering one myself, I was most disappointed to find that they cannot ship these beyond the EU, of which the UK is no longer a part.

Maybe you can find someone (e.g. me) who lives in Germany and then sends it to the UK. It’s a bit complicated as one need to fill in some customs document. As well as sending lithium-ion batteries via DHL to the UK is prohibited: page 182 on DHLs prohibited articles list.

I ordered a battery, but now they seem to be out of stock:

[j_s]

@lakei

Next up: figuring out how to measure the current capacity vs the max factory capacity.

ls /sys/class/power_supply/max170xx_battery/
capacity             device      temp               voltage_max
charge_counter       health      temp_alert_max     voltage_max_design
charge_full          hwmon5      temp_alert_min     voltage_min
charge_full_design   power       temp_max           voltage_min_design
charge_now           present     temp_min           voltage_now
charge_term_current  scope       time_to_empty_now  voltage_ocv
current_avg          status      type               wakeup10
current_now          subsystem   uevent
cycle_count          technology  voltage_avg

purism@pureos:~$ cat /sys/class/power_supply/max170xx_battery/charge_full   
4199160
purism@pureos:~$ cat /sys/class/power_supply/max170xx_battery/charge_full_design 
4199160

[lakei]

Thanks. I suppose that is what upower -d is also using? How accurate is this? How does Linux know what the current capacity of a battery is without first fully charging the battery and then fully draining it?

[j_s]

I didn’t know about upower, that is probably a better way to go for humans.

I don’t know details of any of this, but I would guess that, subject to “calibration”, accuracy is similar to automobile fuel gauges and odometers.

The battery has an IC with various design parameters, current status and measurements. The device (phone) has a Power Management IC and the OS has a device driver for the PMIC. The PMIC measures current flowing into and out of the battery and keeps a running total. Of course there are measurement errors and accumulated quantization and round off errors. The full drain followed by full charge is part of the calibration process since the PMIC knowledge of current % charge degrades over time because of accumulated errors (where the automobile analogy breaks down, since periodic recalibration is not required).