Resolved coconutBattery 3.4

[Gixene]

MacRumors Community,

I recently downloaded coconutBattery 3.4 on macOS Sierra Version 10.12.1 based on the recommendation here on MacRumors. The application displays celsius and not Fahrenheit. Coconut-flavour offers both temperature options in the Preferences plane. When selecting Fahrenheit, coconutBattery still displays celsius. I've tried uninstalling via AppCleaner, restarting and then re downloading.

The Temperature and State of Health are the two most useful features of this application I believe. All other information can be found in battery status in menu bar or in System Report. Certainly I can do some 'math in the air' and come to a rough estimate of converting celsius to Fahrenheit. Though it's not convenient. With an application that does not serve it's full intended purpose, it begs to wonder if it is beneficial.

I'm here asking if anyone else experienced or is experiencing this issue?

FruitJuice seems to earn high customer ratings on the App Store. It seems to provide more useful features such as, "detailed record of your battery charge and discharge activity so that it can make precise recommendations about how long to use your machine on battery based on Apple's recommended usage patterns."

This could be beneficial. While I Googled the issue with coconutBattery, I learned that it's recommended to allow your battery to cycle. I rarely take this machine off the charger as it does not leave the room often. With a 2016 MacBook Pro with Touch Bar and Touch ID, it shows only 7 cycles since it was delivered 3 weeks ago. I believe it it would provide helpful reminders to use the charger or remove the charger compared to other Mac users who may be more mobile with their machine.

If this issue can't be resolved, is FruitJuice or a similar application besides coconutBattery recommended?

Thank you, Gixene

 

[Weaselboy]

While I Googled the issue with coconutBattery, I learned that it's recommended to allow your battery to cycle.

You don't need to do that. All that does is add unnecessary charge cycles to your battery.

Here are a couple links from Apple on batteries.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1446

http://www.apple.com/batteries/

I never paid attention until I saw your post, but I just checked Coconut battery on my system and is displayed in celsius and when I go to preferences to change it, the two options (C/F) are greyed out and I can't change anything. So maybe a bug.

 

[ignatius345]

You don't need to do that. All that does is add unnecessary charge cycles to your battery.

Apple's official Li-ion battery info page used to explicitly say, not that long ago, that you should unplug your Macbook periodically and let the battery run down -- I remember this because it even offered to send you an iCal reminder to unplug your machine (I think twice a year). Now they seem to have removed that recommendation, which is weird.

Either they've changed their battery specs so this is no longer required (which wouldn't necessarily apply to older Macs); or maybe they've decided this is too complicated for consumers to do.

edit: I looked up a little info and found that apparently this was about keeping the power manager calibrated more than anything else.

According to Apple, MacBooks, MacBook Pros, and MacBook Airs released after mid-2009 are pre-calibrated and don’t require calibration. http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/calibrate-maintain-macbook-battery-best-performance/​

 

[Weaselboy]

You are correct that Apples page used to have something like that, but they no longer do. I'm thinking maybe they figured out that just adds battery cycles without really helping so they changed it.

 

[campyguy]

I use coconutBattery, despite the bug alluded to in this thread. I own and use two rMBPs, and there's a bunch more used in the small company I own - they're used as portable workstations, not as "laptops". My edict, and the rule I follow is put the Mac laptop on a charger - lithium ion batteries are fuel sources that can be filled to a finite capacity before they're exhausted, and that capacity is affected by a few environmental factors, most significantly heat and humidity.

Alluded to here are Apple's own recommendations. The interwebs are littered with articles like this one: http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/a15731/best-way-to-keep-li-ion-batteries-charged - which offer that there are no downsides to keeping a device with a lithium ion battery inside on a charger as much as possible. Your Mac has 7 cycles in 3 weeks - my late-2013 rMBP has 1 cycle and my mid-2012 rMBP has 6 cycles. I use my rMBPs in clamshell mode with an external trackpad/display/keyboard - *BUT* my rMBP is slightly opened to allow heat to dissipate, using a small fan if I'm using CAD or another intensive app. On a related note, my business partner and I bought an iPhone 5 one Day 1 - he doesn't leave his on a charger until he has to and I leave mine on a charger, after all this time he's lucky to get a few hours while mine can go all day.

There's two opinions that I have on this matter. First, use your Mac as you see fit - it's your Mac. Second, keep your Mac on a charger whenever possible and keep it running cool. These laptop batteries aren't cheap, and I like my plan better than the one extolled by others, but that's just me... Cheers!

 

[mpainesyd]

It puzzles me why the USA still uses Farenheit when the rest of the world switched to Celsius decades ago. Maybe the CoconutBattery developer feels the same - why cater for an outdated measurement system?
The switch would not significantly affect any manufacturing, retail or commerce. Science (including NASA) already uses Celsius.
It would not take much education: 0C = freezing, 100C = boiling, air temp of 30C is hot!

 

[Mlrollin91]

It puzzles me why the USA still uses Farenheit when the rest of the world switched to Celsius decades ago. Maybe the CoconutBattery developer feels the same - why cater for an outdated measurement system?
The switch would not significantly affect any manufacturing, retail or commerce. Science (including NASA) already uses Celsius.
It would not take much education: 0C = freezing, 100C = boiling, air temp of 30C is hot!

30C doesn't sound hot! 100F sounds hot! Even though 30C is only 86F.

 

[Gixene]

You don't need to do that. All that does is add unnecessary charge cycles to your battery.

Here are a couple links from Apple on batteries.

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT1446

http://www.apple.com/batteries/

I never paid attention until I saw your post, but I just checked Coconut battery on my system and is displayed in celsius and when I go to preferences to change it, the two options (C/F) are greyed out and I can't change anything. So maybe a bug.

Interesting! In fact, Apple seems to phrase it in a manner that states it is better to constantly charge the MacBook machines instead of cycles. Below is a quote from the second link you provided. Thank you for taking the time to reply.

"It could take several days to complete a cycle. The capacity of any type of battery will diminish after a certain amount of recharging. With lithium-ion batteries, the capacity diminishes slightly with each complete charge cycle. Apple lithium-ion batteries are designed to hold at least 80% of their original capacity for a high number of charge cycles, which varies depending on the product."

I removed the coconutBattery application via AppCleaner for the reasons I stated.

I use coconutBattery, despite the bug alluded to in this thread. I own and use two rMBPs, and there's a bunch more used in the small company I own - they're used as portable workstations, not as "laptops". My edict, and the rule I follow is put the Mac laptop on a charger - lithium ion batteries are fuel sources that can be filled to a finite capacity before they're exhausted, and that capacity is affected by a few environmental factors, most significantly heat and humidity.

Alluded to here are Apple's own recommendations. The interwebs are littered with articles like this one: http://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/gadgets/a15731/best-way-to-keep-li-ion-batteries-charged - which offer that there are no downsides to keeping a device with a lithium ion battery inside on a charger as much as possible. Your Mac has 7 cycles in 3 weeks - my late-2013 rMBP has 1 cycle and my mid-2012 rMBP has 6 cycles. I use my rMBPs in clamshell mode with an external trackpad/display/keyboard - *BUT* my rMBP is slightly opened to allow heat to dissipate, using a small fan if I'm using CAD or another intensive app. On a related note, my business partner and I bought an iPhone 5 one Day 1 - he doesn't leave his on a charger until he has to and I leave mine on a charger, after all this time he's lucky to get a few hours while mine can go all day.

There's two opinions that I have on this matter. First, use your Mac as you see fit - it's your Mac. Second, keep your Mac on a charger whenever possible and keep it running cool. These laptop batteries aren't cheap, and I like my plan better than the one extolled by others, but that's just me... Cheers!

Thank you for the resources and experience. I agree after further reading of Weaselboy's Apple links, it seems constant charge is better than cycling the battery.

Thank you, Gixene

 

[nebo1ss]

I use coconut battery and never look at temperature. The three pieces of information on both the MAC and iPhone that I look at is design capacity compared to full charge capacity and number of cycles.