The one which is relevant to this blog is one of the battery rechargers. The old charger was big and heavy (a major concern when you're carrying equipment on public transit). It made lots of noise when it was charging - so I usually put it in another room, and then inevitably forgot it was there, and left batteries charging for too long. There was no feedback to know when it was done. The instructions from the photo company for the charger were along the lines of:
"slowly plug in the battery. if the indicator light blinks fast, unplug the battery and plug it in again. if it blinks slowly, the battery is charging. don't let it charge for more than 1/2 hr (which was later changed to 1 hr). If the battery gets hot, unplug it immediately." Not very useful for knowing when your batteries are charged.
The new charger is much better designed. First, there's no fan continually cycling off and on. So I can leave it in the same room as I am, and keep an eye on it. Second, when you plug in the battery, there's a button marked 'Start'. Press it, and it beeps at you to tell you it's charging. The first thing it does is test the battery - which it tells you it's doing with the word "TEST"
on the display. An indicator light above the word "start" blinks off and on. When it's done testing, it starts charging. You know it's switched modes because the word "TEST" changes to "CHARGE". The red light above the "start" button goes solid. And there's a diagram of a battery which, as the battery charges, "fills up" to visually show you it's getting fuller. And there's a blinking smiley face in the corner to tell you everything is working well.
When the charge is complete, the charger beeps 3 times to tell you it's done. It also shows a completely full battery in the display. The indicator light over the word "start" goes back to blinking. And the smiley face is still there. Certainly much better than the old charger. In general, it's a well-thought-out interface, with lots of visual feedback to let the user know what's going on and what state it's in. Much, much better than the old charger!
Things that could be improved: Display "DONE" where "CHARGE" and "TEST" were.
Tell you how much more time (in minutes) it has until it's done. Although there is something of a visual clue with the image of a battery getting fuller, it's hard to know how long it will take until it's done. I suppose as I use it more, I'll have a feel for how long it takes total, and therefore how much longer it has. Perhaps this is an item for novice users only, and intermediates develop a feel for how long it takes from use over time.
2 comments:
So I was an eye witness to this new and improved battery charger and it does indeed provide the user with more than enough feedback! So were the before and after made from the same company??
My Canon digital rebel came with an interesting charger so that I mostly know where I'm at in the charging process without having to spend extra money on a screen to give more feedback. When I plug the battery in, if it's nearly spent, the led light continuously lights
three times (pause)
three times (pause)
three times (pause)
until it's more charged, then it moves on to
two lights (pause)
and so on, until it gets to nearly charged, when it lights only once between pauses.
Then they screw up - when it's solid, they say in the directions that it'll be done charging in an hour (or a half hour? I can't remember), but basically you can take it off at this point. They should've waited to unleash the solid light until it was all done charging, but overall it's not bad, for inexpensive feedback.
Post a Comment