#1

2 questions:

  1. what’s the expected typical battery run time of a factory norns? i.e. approx. how long should a norns run on battery before I need to recharge it?

  2. can I replace the battery with an off-the-shelf new one with longer run time / more capacity?

Mine (a brand new one, bought a while back) has never seemed to have ever lasted more than 30 minutes or, and I’d like it to. I typically use it with WIFI on, and a grid connected, but nothing else out of the ordinary happening. Just the usual scripts.

#2

  1. battery life is extremely variable, because power draw is incredibly variable. the wifi nub draws a lot of current, and grids can draw even more depending on how many LEDs are lit. what’s more— the CPU itself massively impacts battery life depending on how hard it’s working: some engines are very heavy. you can observe all of this by hitting K2 on the HOME screen, where you’ll see the power draw (in mA, negative is draining battery, positive is charging), something like -520mA.

  2. this battery is identical to what we use: https://www.adafruit.com/product/2011 and you can also contact help@monome.org if you think your battery is defective. this is the biggest battery that will fit. i spent months working this out, and wasn’t interested in making the physical design bigger just to accommodate a bigger battery.

generally i’d suggest powering the norns externally, especially if you have a bunch of USB devices plugged in. the raspberry pi is a pretty high powered computer compared to the tech that is inside many other instruments that use batteries. if you need reliable operation on the go i’d very much suggest using a battery powerpack plugged in to the norns power port. but of course it’s ok to use the built-in battery as-is, if you’re conscious of the realities of how much power your current setup (script and external devices) are using.

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#3

thanks for the detailed response - all understood.

I doubt my particular battery is defective, but I’ll do some more tests and make contact if needed.

FYI, I’m in Australia, and these batteries seem to be hard to come by. I’ve not yet found any local stock (after 5 mins of googling), and digikey and other big retailers won’t deliver these batteries here at present (coronavirus?).