Smart Technologies AirLiner WS100 Technical Bulletin

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Lithium Ion Batteries and the AirLiner™ WS100 Wireless Slate
In This Bulletin:
• What are lithium ion batteries?
• What is the life-span of a lithium ion battery?
• Can a lithium ion battery lose all of its charge?
• What cautions should I take when handling, using
and disposing of lithium ion batteries?
This bulletin describes the behavior of the lithium ion
batteries used with the AirLiner WS100 wireless slate.

Lithium Ion Batteries

Lithium ion batteries (sometimes referred to as Li-Ion
batteries) are rechargeable batteries used in a wide variety
of portable devices.

The Life-span of a Lithium Ion Battery

The slate uses a rechargeable lithium ion battery as the
power source for mobile operation, and a power adapter
cable is included for recharging the battery or for powering
the slate from an outlet.
A new, fully charged battery lasts for approximately 25
hours of constant use.
A lithium ion battery lasts about two or three years. If your
battery exceeds its life-span and no longer recharges, you
can order a new battery from SMART Technical Support
(part number 01-00173).

The Charge of a Lithium Ion Battery

The AirLiner Wireless Slate Installation Guide includes
procedures for ensuring that there is always sufficient
charge in the battery. For example, it cautions that once the
battery has lost all of its charge it can't be recharged. This
could be interpreted as meaning that the slate's battery
could become useless before it has reached the end of its
two or three year life-span. However, a number of features
built into the slate make it unlikely that a battery would
prematurely lose all of its charge.
Lithium Ion Batteries and the AirLiner WS100 Wireless Slate
T
ECHNICAL
• (Windows computers only) When the battery's charge
falls below 20%, an alert in the system tray reminds
you to recharge the battery.
• When the battery is nearly empty, the Power indicator
flashes slowly.
These are visible prompts to connect the slate to an
external power source using the power adapter cable.
By connecting the slate to an external power source,
you can continue to use the slate while also recharging
the battery.
• If your battery is nearly empty and you do not connect
the slate to an external power source, the slate will turn
itself off. You will not be able to use the slate until you
connect it to an external power source using the power
adapter cable. You may continue working while the
battery is recharging.
The battery still draws a small amount of current when the
AirLiner wireless slate is off. However, by switching itself
off, the slate ensures it is drawing only a minimum amount
of current, greatly reducing the risk of the battery losing all
of its charge.
Although these features are included to prevent the battery
from losing all of its charge, we recommend the following
as additional precautions:
• if you don't expect to use the slate for a number of
days, recharge the battery
• if you won't use your slate for an extended period (one
month or longer), recharge the battery fully and then
remove it from the slate
NOTE: Do not under any circumstances deliberately
attempt to drain all the charge from a lithium ion battery.
Although you can extend the life-span of some batteries by
completely draining and then recharging the battery, this is
not true of lithium ion batteries. If a lithium ion battery loses
all of its charge, it can't be recharged.
www.smarttech.com/support
B
ULLETIN
No. 6, August 26, 2005
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