[SOLVED] Set Limit to Battery Charge

notadoc · 08-19-2022, 11:32 AM

Mint 20.1 on Lenovo P15s.

I'm looking for a program which will limit battery charge to, say, 85%. Lots of power management/battery condition apps available, like 'upower', but I want to stop charging before 100%.

Suggestions

uteck · 08-19-2022, 01:05 PM

I found this link that shows how to do it on Lenovo laptops:
https://askubuntu.com/questions/3445...to-80-capacity

dave67 · 08-21-2022, 06:07 PM

I suggest TLP read about it below. its in the repositories most of the time. Though messing with charge capacity can damage batteries I have done it. In most cases TLP will stop the battery from charging to 100% after install. Or it did on my thinkpad. Once its installed
sudo tlp-stat to view settings

https://linrunner.de/tlp/index.html

notadoc · 08-22-2022, 12:37 PM

Installed tlp; config'd to 80% charge limit. Charging stops at 71% however. I'm clueless about why this happens. I guess I could up the set point to 85% or 90% to come closer to a halt at 80%.

ondoho · 08-22-2022, 12:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by notadoc

Installed tlp; config'd to 80% charge limit. Charging stops at 71% however. I'm clueless about why this happens. I guess I could up the set point to 85% or 90% to come closer to a halt at 80%.

What is measuring the percentages? Do you get only one value, or maybe also a second one in brackets?

notadoc · 08-22-2022, 01:02 PM

Target levels are set by me in the /etc/tlp.conf config file. The charge level at which charging stops are reported by the OS, and also by running 'upower.' No bracketed level are reported.

dave67 · 08-23-2022, 08:09 AM

How old is the battery? If the battery is older that could be why the charge limit is reduced.

There are two add on packages

acpi-call-dkms

And

tp-smapi-dkms

Not all thinkpads support both of these. Use sudo tlp-stat look for theses to options to see if both are compatible. I forgot to add this info for these will be in the battery section of the tlp-stat

ondoho · 08-24-2022, 12:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by notadoc

Target levels are set by me in the /etc/tlp.conf config file. The charge level at which charging stops are reported by the OS, and also by running 'upower.' No bracketed level are reported.

I guess you misunderstood. What is providing the information about the presumed incorrect percentages?

dave67 · 08-25-2022, 11:57 AM

Did you restart TLP service after editing the config file?

notadoc · 08-25-2022, 12:25 PM

First, thanks to everyone for all the input. TLP was unsatisfactory because it caused conflicts with settings from 'powertop.' It was also too 'black boxy' for my taste. It DID point me to a simple solution to my particular problem. I just write my target power limits to
/sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/charge_start_threshold and /sys/class/power_supply/BAT0/charge_stop_threshold at boot, and everything seems to be OK.

Thanks again.

dave67 · 08-26-2022, 07:07 PM

Revelation if I had known about powertop.......