Date of "Battery Birth" of Creative Zen Flash MP3 playe

Question

Date of Battery Birth of Creative Zen Flash MP3 players.
Your Zen Lithium_Ion Polymer Battery lifespan is ~ 2-3 years OR the number of discharges/charges cycles -
approximately ~ 300-500 cycles max. Whichever comes first will degrade the charging capacity of the
Lithium-Ion Polymer Battery. Keep in mind, the Lithium-Ion life span begins "aging" from the time of
manufacturing of the battery!
Translation: If you bought a Creative Zen from Walmart,Target, Circuit City or Radio Shack, your battery
lifespan begins when the battery was manufactured by SK Mobile Energy (You don't know the manufacturing
date). If it was on the Walmart shelf for 2 years (You don't know this) Then, by the time you bought the Zen MP3
player your battery "shelf life" and battery charging capacity is gone!?
It would be very "consumer friendly" if Creative would show on the LCD display under the system/information
screen the EXACT birth/manufacture date of the Lithium-Ion battery and the number of discharges/charges
(300-500 max?) the battery has been through. After all, Creative manufactures the Zen and solders
in the "non-user replaceable battery" and they know the exact date of when the battery was manufactured. By
doing this, this would prevent "shady vendors" or third parties from "pulling the wool" over unsuspecting
consumers eyes. A firmware change would be in order.
Also, they should put a 0-00% battery capacity in numerical numbers near the battery symbol.
Keep in mind, the battery discharge rate and battery symbol is non-linear.
If Creative doesn't want to do this firmware change maybe they should do the following:
Have just only a Lithium-Ion Polymer battery warranty (not just the player warranty)? to protect the end users from too long shelf life of a battery.
Ref. Links
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithium_ion_battery
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_th...ithium_battery
A unique drawback of the Li-ion battery is that its life span is dependent upon aging from time of
manufacturing (shelf life) regardless of whether it was charged, and not just on the number of
charge/discharge cycles. So an older battery will not last as long as a new battery due solely to its age, unlike
other batteries. This drawback is not widely published.[3]
DRM? DVD Copy? Music Copying.

Answer 1

I don't know the internal workings of the Zen Lithium-ion charging circuit but you should be able to use your
Zen player just like a laptop plugged into the wall.
Once the charging circuit sees a certain charge voltage on the battery it should shut down or go to a float mode.
(added this)?
Allow the battery to completely discharge from time-to-time then recharge it fully.
From the link:
http://www.omnica.com/omniview_electronics2.htm
Regarding lithium-ion shelf life, one of our engineers recently met with a battery-house representati've. It has come to their attention that repeated charging and re-charging of a less than fully discharged Li-ion cell affects the battery "gas gauge" included with many devices. Over a number of cycles there is a resultant loss in accuracy. Frequently, the indicated remaining charge has little relationship to the actual amount of life left in the cell! Fortunately, according to the battery expert, the gauge will reset itself if the battery is allowed to completely discharge from time-to-time.
Message Edited by Zenandy on 05-03-2008 05:09 AM