[HN Gopher] An update on the Farphone's battery
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An update on the Farphone's battery
Author : louismerlin
Score : 40 points
Date : 2025-11-28 13:57 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (far.computer)
(TXT) w3m dump (far.computer)
| bbarnett wrote:
| [flagged]
| growt wrote:
| I have multiple devices with lithium batteries plugged in 24/7.
| A kindle that I use as a display for example. So far nothing
| exploded. If exploding kindles were a thing I guess I would
| have heard.
| lisper wrote:
| I have not had anything explode, but I have had Macbook
| batteries expand on me on two separate occasions to the point
| where the case was visibly warped. Both times I was away from
| home, so it was extremely inconvenient.
| conradev wrote:
| For how long?
| Induane wrote:
| I have a fire tablet I hucked into my wall to use as a home
| assistant console.
|
| It's been in there for 5 years now, always plugged in.
| neilv wrote:
| > _I have a fire tablet I hucked into my wall to use as a
| home assistant console._
|
| OK, but "fire" is right there, in the name.
| misnome wrote:
| Right, but, this is just a single data point anecdote,
| right? Let's say for same of argument that there is a 5%
| chance of overheating in five years - and another sub-
| percentage where this causes a fire, depending on where it
| is plugged in.
|
| 95%+ of people would report "zero problems here, all
| concern is overblown".
|
| Safety doesn't work that way?
| ewoodrich wrote:
| I've been using an old Pixelbook for 3 years that I had
| laying around for an always on Home Assistant control panel
| (but with adaptive dimming that defaults so extremely low
| brightness to reduce heat until approaching it).
|
| I noticed a few months ago that the battery has started to
| significantly swell pushing the back panel apart, but I
| haven't worked up the motivation to try removing it yet.
| From what I can ascertain from user experiences, it
| actually does boot sans battery but haven't confirmed, it
| would be awesome if that worked and would probably give me
| 5+ more years of usage.
|
| So in my case, data point is that 3 years of 24/7
| use/charging of an old laptop/tablet was enough to push it
| over the edge and finally swell. It's really a shame how so
| many otherwise usable devices that could be wall mounted
| turn into e-waste because they won't run without a battery.
| With USB-C PD a well-designed device should be able to get
| whatever power is needed on demand but manufacturers don't
| really have any incentive to future proof for the .01% of
| users like me who would benefit.
| sanitycheck wrote:
| I have a Samsung tablet in a non-flammable container
| waiting to be disposed of after being mostly plugged in for
| 3 years then suddenly swelling quite alarmingly. YMMV.
| bbarnett wrote:
| Until the heat death of the universe, and a couple beyond.
| Telaneo wrote:
| The fact that they can doesn't mean they will.
|
| On older devices the controller might make some assumptions
| that holds true with a new battery, but very much doesn't with
| an old and worn one.
|
| My Macs have all been sensible about it, but I've seen Windows
| machines with batteries that just died from being plugged in
| all the time not even 10 years ago. Even if that specific
| instance was just a bad battery and not due to a charge
| controller, I have no faith in Random Windows or Android OEM
| Number 582 doing this correctly.
|
| For devices that are fixed, I'd prefer to eliminate the
| potential of there even being a problem in the first place.
| oceanplexian wrote:
| There's basically zero risk for these cell phone batteries
| outside of freak accidents, speaking as someone who who's
| been building packs since pouch cell Lipos first started
| coming out for model airplanes back in 2008/2009.. That's
| because in a single cell configuration, there's no way for
| the charge controller to run up an imbalance and overcharge
| one of the cells.
| joecool1029 wrote:
| I somewhat agree with you. As my last comment suggests, I
| have a lot of experience running phones as AP's including
| phones with dual cell configurations.
|
| Where things go off the rails is situations where extreme
| heat can be present (shoving phone in direct sunlight in
| window with hot climate is a bad move) another thing they
| don't tolerate well and people don't talk enough about this
| is deep discharging the batteries frequently. This causes a
| breakdown of the SEI membrane and makes it so future
| recharging generates more heat and gas. This will cause
| expansion and might cause a short/failure if poorly
| designed (galaxy note 7).
| pengaru wrote:
| I've gone through a dozen or so LiPo-utilizing portable devices
| at my property in the Mojave desert. All it takes is a single
| season for many of these batteries to swell up to such an
| extent the enclosures split open.
|
| Ostensibly they contain charge controllers and temperature
| sensors, yet they're unable to prevent this outcome when the
| ambient temperature exceeds 110F day after day while the device
| stays on in a hot attic w/usb-c pd connected.
|
| Fortunately I haven't had any burst into flames yet, but after
| a few years of seeing this pattern repeatedly I stopped
| deploying anything containing LiPo batteries at the property.
|
| YMMV - but IMHO it's prudent to exclude these batteries from
| such unattended, powered 24x7 devices.
| The_President wrote:
| Excellent advice. Did you swap any of the cells with a
| different chemistry?
| pengaru wrote:
| Not really, there was a brief excursion in kludging a ZTE
| MiFi device to use a DIY NiMh pack of AA cells when it
| refused to stop self-destructing its OEM LiPo batteries
| every summer. (I use a MiFi hotspot for a cheap security
| camera network)
|
| It worked as a stop-gap but I've since replaced it with a
| GL.Inet X300b ruggedized hotspot without any batteries.
|
| There's no UPS for now... if I went the route of wanting
| uninterrupted power at the property I'd probably put a
| battery bank underground outside to power the entire
| building. It's not worth risking anything rechargeable
| inside the place given how hot it can get, and how long I
| sometimes go without visiting.
| The_President wrote:
| Cheers, Thanks for the info.
| pengaru wrote:
| I'm not sure how generally applicable it is. When you
| have several acres of undeveloped land full of sand at
| your disposal it's relatively trivial to dig a pit, mix
| some concrete from the sand you excavated, and pour a
| subterranean cellar to house a battery bank and other
| hazardous infrastructure. Nobody would even notice it
| happened/exists.
|
| The situation is far more complicated for folks in
| apartments or high density housing.
| joecool1029 wrote:
| fwiw I've used 24/7/365 plugged in phones as AP's in multiple
| locations for a decade or so now, never had an issue. Past few
| years I use the battery threshold to set them to 70% charge and
| they don't move from this for months at a time.
|
| What roasts the lifetime of my laptop batteries is compiling
| with gentoo, but again never an issue with catastrophic failure
| and I have 20+ years of experience with that as well.
| immibis wrote:
| Most can, but you do get reports that sometimes they don't, and
| better safe than sorry.
|
| I'd guess it would have more to do with heat, though.
| dang wrote:
| " _When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of
| calling names. 'That is idiotic; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3' can be
| shortened to '1 + 1 is 2, not 3._"
|
| https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
| daemonologist wrote:
| Three times I've been lazy and set up an old phone or tablet as
| an always-plugged-in stationary device without excising the
| battery, and that has produced two spicy pillows and one
| completely dead battery (phone wouldn't even boot when plugged
| in, until I replaced the battery). Granted, these were all 5-10
| years ago, but I do not trust the batteries and their
| controllers in these devices.
|
| Nowadays if I want to leave a device plugged in I crack it
| open, remove the battery cell, solder on a power supply and
| capacitor, and then do the nonsense with rooted Android to keep
| it from shutting itself down.
| bayindirh wrote:
| That's silly. Batteries don't like to be kept at 100% all the
| time, not unlike your lungs which doesn't want to stay filled
| all the time (which is uncomfortable for your muscles even if
| you ignore the carbon dioxide).
|
| e.g.: MacBooks discharge the battery down to 80% by using the
| battery even if it's plugged in by citing "Rarely used
| battery", and keep the battery at 80% for at least half a day,
| then charge it again.
|
| Li-ion is an adversarial chemistry. You need to take care of it
| or the battery bites back by puffing up or losing capacity very
| fast, or becoming an indoor firework.
| prmoustache wrote:
| I would have hooked the smartphone to a small solar panel. The
| natural daylight cycle would have made sure that the smartphone
| kept having charging and discharging cycles.
|
| I doubt the traffic hitting it would be sufficient to drain the
| battery overnight.
| aziaziazi wrote:
| an even smaller https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/about/the-
| solar-website/ ?
| cretinoid wrote:
| The real question is "what the hell is a farphone"?
| bayindirh wrote:
| Your answer lies on https://far.computer
|
| In short, far phone is the phone which powers far computer
| which is in turn served from https://far.computer
| cretinoid wrote:
| Funny. I really thought it was a mistake :)
| gassi wrote:
| > this webpage is hosted on a drawer-bound fairphone 2, running
| postmarketos
|
| https://far.computer/how-to/
| Reason077 wrote:
| While I've seen plenty of swollen and deformed phone batteries,
| I've never personally seen one that has burned. Obviously it's
| happened in the past with certain phone/battery models, but I'd
| imagine that it's actually very rare now days?
|
| On the other hand, I have seen cheap 18650s spontaneously start
| smoking even when they weren't plugged in to anything...
| poolnoodle wrote:
| So the Fairphone 2 runs on just a USB cable with no battery
| inside?
| imglorp wrote:
| I'd like more details. Many devices won't run on USB cable
| alone: they won't start without a battery as well.
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(page generated 2025-11-29 23:00 UTC)