Homebrew Question Paranoid about battery RCM

[yusuo]

So I'm on 4.1.0 and got my ex fat sd card today. Followed the tutorial to get that working on my switch and all is good, through backing up my band and doing the whole procedure my switch only used 2% battery, it was also plugged into my laptop the whole time.
As the title says I'm just making sure this is normal due to all the crazy stories of RCM being a mess around on battery.

Reassurance this is normal would be fine,
P. S. I'm crazy

 

[JellyPerson]

As far as I know only Linux fucks up your battery, but don't quote me on that. You should be good. And if your battery does fuck up, power cycle your switch for one day.

 

[Centergaming]

Unplug and plug back the battery to make sure its working normal

 

[Draxzelex]

RCM doesn't accept charge but it will use up the battery. The battery worries with RCM were actually more focused on AutoRCM because this meant you couldn't charge your Switch without sending a payload that would turn the Switch on. Trying to charge the Switch with AutoRCM installed would turn on the Switch and immediately send it into RCM because that's what its designed to do. However, now it is in RCM which sucks up battery and there's no visual cue for RCM.

The Linux issue was due to Linux and Horizon both keeping track of different battery levels. If your Switch is fully charged and you immediately boot into Linux then say you consume 30% battery, your Switch will think this 70% is still 100% because that 30% was not depleted in Horizon, but in Linux. I have not heard of any battery calibration issues with RCM. I think it maybe due to no OS keeping track of how much battery is being consumed.

 

[yusuo]

Awesome thanks guys. I knew was being stupid but just wanted to make sure.

 

[Zumoly]

Wasn't it said somewhere that the Switch does not charge while in RCM?
So even though it was connected to your PC, it wasn't taking charge.
And if you consider the time spent backing up, that should've taken some battery.

 

[Red1Reaper]

Wasn't it said somewhere that the Switch does not charge while in RCM?
So even though it was connected to your PC, it wasn't taking charge.
And if you consider the time spent backing up, that should've taken some battery.

well, even if it takes time, we know if it actually is battery consuming? mostly black screen, a few white characters, a minimum code running, does no seem like a thing that whould consume too much battery

 

[Zumoly]

well, even if it takes time, we know if it actually is battery consuming? mostly black screen, a few white characters, a minimum code running, does no seem like a thing that whould consume too much battery

OP did say he was making a backup which I think takes time (1 or 2 hours maybe if rawnand)?

 

[thealgorithm]

Backing up the nand I guess from hekate black screen and text on initial exploit transfer would take a few % off, but not the end of the world. Hopefully there will be some software fix for this issue at some stage (which I believe has been in testing already for some FW revisions)

 

[Zumoly]

Backing up the nand I guess from hekate black screen and text on initial exploit transfer would take a few % off, but not the end of the world. Hopefully there will be some software fix for this issue at some stage (which I believe has been in testing already for some FW revisions)

Hard to say as RCM is basically a blank state for the Switch.
My guess is battery needs to communicate with the OS to draw some charge.
Ever wondered why the Switch just boots to Horizon when plugged into a power source?
What I'm actually curious about is when you do switch off your console while being charge?
Does it keep charging without booting or does it stop charging?

 

[thealgorithm]

I think if you are on the hekate black screen and text and plug in a charger, then select power off from the menu (not horizon menu) then it should start charging (pressing power button briefly should show the charging indicator). The issue arises when the machine is turned off and the charger is plugged in (if autorcm) it then goes to that autorcm and charging stops as there is no protocol in place. Not tried it myself however, but I recall someone mentioned this in another post.

 

[RHOPKINS13]

I wouldn't worry too much about it. Worst case scenario you'll have to take apart your switch, unplug the battery, and plug it back in. I've already had to do it once, due to the Switch dying while I had AutoRCM. It wasn't terribly hard. If I had to send my Switch in for repairs I doubt anybody would even be able to tell it's been opened before.

 

[Red1Reaper]

OP did say he was making a backup which I think takes time (1 or 2 hours maybe if rawnand)?

yeah but time does not matter as long as in that time there is not much energy used, backing up the rawnand does not seem like a thing that whould consume much battery, even if there is 3 hours.

 

[Lacius]

In short, if you don't have AutoRCM installed, there's nothing to worry about.

If you do have AutoRCM installed, you might only run into issues if your battery is dead enough that it can't boot into RCM but not 100% dead. Temporarily detaching the battery or allowing it to completely die should allow it to enter RCM.

 

[Zumoly]

yeah but time does not matter as long as in that time there is not much energy used, backing up the rawnand does not seem like a thing that whould consume much battery, even if there is 3 hours.

I'm guessing 2% in 3 hours is quite logical?

 

[Centergaming]

I'm guessing 2% in 3 hours is quite logical?

5% is more logical

 

[thealgorithm]

To come to think of it, the screen is also completely on (and does not seem to be at lowest brightness) hence screen consumption would be significant. (If the display was amoled, only the pixels that are active would be using power, but unfortunately the LED backlight of the switch uses power regardless of content displayed on the screen). 3 hours sounds pretty long however. I was able to backup my 32gb nand in less than an hour.

Did not seem to suffer however (not that I let the battery go too low. It was at around 12% when I was playing super Mario odyssey and I decided to put it on charge. Perhaps it would have turned off at any stage soon if I did not

 

[Centergaming]

To come to think of it, the screen is also completely on (and does not seem to be at lowest brightness) hence screen consumption would be significant. (If the display was amoled, only the pixels that are active would be using power, but unfortunately the LED backlight of the switch uses power regardless of content displayed on the screen). 3 hours sounds pretty long however. I was able to backup my 32gb nand in less than an hour.

Did not seem to suffer however (not that I let the battery go too low. It was at around 12% when I was playing super Mario odyssey and I decided to put it on charge. Perhaps it would have turned off at any stage soon if I did not

It also depends on the speed of your microsd, it can take from 1-3 hours. Tested it on my regular Sandisk and Sandisk Ultra. Sandisk Ultra was only an hour while the regular Sandisk was 3 hours.

 

[Zumoly]

It also depends on the speed of your microsd, it can take from 1-3 hours. Tested it on my regular Sandisk and Sandisk Ultra. Sandisk Ultra was only an hour while the regular Sandisk was 3 hours.

I was going to mention the recent update they made to the tools but that must be it.

 

[subcon959]

Does it keep charging without booting or does it stop charging?

Im pretty sure it stops charging untill you turn it on again. Utterly shit design choice.