# First impressions after a day of heavy use **URL:** \ **Category:** uConsole\ **Created:** [March 2, 2024, 1:31pm UTC](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/t/first-impressions-after-a-day-of-heavy-use/12589 "2024-03-02T13:31:28Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![selfawaresoup](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/forum.clockworkpi.com/selfawaresoup/32/9065_2.png) [@selfawaresoup](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/u/selfawaresoup)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2024, 1:31pm UTC](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/t/first-impressions-after-a-day-of-heavy-use/12589/1 "2024-03-02T13:31:28Z")
Some first impressions of the uConsole from actual use today: Battery life is amazing. I’ve been using it quite a lot today for about 5h and it’s at 65% now. I’m using two 3500mAh cells. The build quality is great. This thing feels really solid and reassuring. I should probably get a screen protector though. The screen aspect ratio is quite wide. It’s a bit challenging to fit stuff but it’s ok. Setting up your desktop environment to that there’s nothing unnecessary taking up vertical screen space helps. The keyboard is nice, but I wouldn’t want to type long form text on this. The space bar is a little hard to hit sometimes because you have to hit it near the center. The lack of a dedicated “meta” or “super” key makes working with some linux desktops difficult (Sway for example). The tiny trackball works really well. I’m surprised. The speakers are not good, as expected. Boot time is very fast. It’s no problem to power down the device when it’s not in use for a while and then just cold-boot it again. But I can also leave it on with the screen off for hours and it’ll still last the whole day. A desktop setup that has worked out well so far is LightDM + GNOME-Xorg. The Wayland version of GNOME has some rendering issues so I went with Xorg instead. I added the Dash-to-Panel extension to get a more compact taskbar that auto-hides for more vertical screen space. I’m using my uConsole to run RStudio at university and general web browsing, reading PDFs and email. It works well for that. ![IMG_2543](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/uploads/clockworkpi/original/2X/c/c91e1d68d1f3376043d8de5bd05eab18e67d769c.jpeg) ---
**Author:** ![Arkaium](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/57b2e6/32.png) [@Arkaium](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/u/Arkaium)\ **Post date:** [March 2, 2024, 4:23pm UTC](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/t/first-impressions-after-a-day-of-heavy-use/12589/2 "2024-03-02T16:23:32Z")
Literally the only thing I want from them now is a new CM4 OS image based on Bookworm. ---
**Author:** ![sacred.goose](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/forum.clockworkpi.com/sacred.goose/32/8403_2.png) [@sacred.goose](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/u/sacred.goose)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2024, 8:08pm UTC](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/t/first-impressions-after-a-day-of-heavy-use/12589/3 "2024-03-03T20:08:49Z")
Totally share your experience after a week of fiddling with the unit, except for amazing baterry life part. Which batteries exactly do you have? I ordered a pair of LG INR18650-M36 3600mAh - 5A for ~12$. I maybe get 3.5 hours at best with the lowest screen brightness. Maybe those are counterfeit cells or maybe there are some settings I can tweak for a longer discharge time? Or 3.5h is amazing? 😀 ---
**Author:** ![selfawaresoup](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/forum.clockworkpi.com/selfawaresoup/32/9065_2.png) [@selfawaresoup](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/u/selfawaresoup)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2024, 8:28pm UTC](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/t/first-impressions-after-a-day-of-heavy-use/12589/4 "2024-03-03T20:28:35Z")
I’m using two XTAR 18650-3500 cells and I get about 8-10h. I ordered mine from a dedicated electronics parts supplier in Germany (Reichelt) who I trust to sell genuine parts. ---
**Author:** ![MHam68HC11](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/forum.clockworkpi.com/mham68hc11/32/5046_2.png) [@MHam68HC11](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/u/MHam68HC11)\ **Post date:** [March 3, 2024, 9:24pm UTC](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/t/first-impressions-after-a-day-of-heavy-use/12589/5 "2024-03-03T21:24:16Z")
Samsung cells - I purchased them based on recommendations on the battery selection for the DevTerm - [https://forum.clockworkpi.com/t/battery-model-recommendation](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/t/battery-model-recommendation) > **[The Best 18650 Battery Guide: Everything You Need to Know](https://www.18650batterystore.com/pages/best-18650-battery-guide)** > > Unlock the secrets of batteries with our comprehensive guide. Discover the types, maintenance tips, and how to maximize their lifespan. Start powering up your knowledge today! ---
**Author:** ![sacred.goose](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/forum.clockworkpi.com/sacred.goose/32/8403_2.png) [@sacred.goose](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/u/sacred.goose)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2024, 9:26am UTC](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/t/first-impressions-after-a-day-of-heavy-use/12589/6 "2024-03-04T09:26:30Z")
Thanks for sharing, my _inner cheap Joe_ prevented me for spending more than 10$ per cell so I guess the performance I get shouldn’t be a surprise 😆 Going to source some proper ones from my trusty supplier. Cheers! ---
**Author:** ![Snoozer94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Snoozer94](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/u/Snoozer94)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2024, 9:30am UTC](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/t/first-impressions-after-a-day-of-heavy-use/12589/7 "2024-03-04T09:30:48Z")
You can always keep the first pair as a backup if you ever need some extra juice ---
**Author:** ![selfawaresoup](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/forum.clockworkpi.com/selfawaresoup/32/9065_2.png) [@selfawaresoup](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/u/selfawaresoup)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2024, 1:00pm UTC](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/t/first-impressions-after-a-day-of-heavy-use/12589/8 "2024-03-04T13:00:19Z")
More battery life updates: I just compiled a pretty substantial Rust application (gurk-rs which includes libsignal) on my uConsole and while it did eat into the battery noticeably, it wasn’t bad at all. I continue to be very impressed 💜 ---
**Author:** ![selfawaresoup](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/forum.clockworkpi.com/selfawaresoup/32/9065_2.png) [@selfawaresoup](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/u/selfawaresoup)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2024, 2:30pm UTC](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/t/first-impressions-after-a-day-of-heavy-use/12589/9 "2024-03-04T14:30:03Z")
I have started to collect my notes on what customisations I’ve made over the last few days and how I got the stuff running that I need, namely RStudio. My current setup already works really well so I’m probably at a point where I’ll only make minor tweaks now. I was quite unhappy with the default Raspberry Pi OS UI so that was the main priority. GNOME Shell turned out to be a good option in terms of performance and screen space. There’s also a few snippets I’ve gather from this forum here. I’ve added links where applicable and copied them for quick reference. I hope this helps someone > ---
**Author:** ![MHam68HC11](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/forum.clockworkpi.com/mham68hc11/32/5046_2.png) [@MHam68HC11](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/u/MHam68HC11)\ **Post date:** [March 4, 2024, 2:57pm UTC](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/t/first-impressions-after-a-day-of-heavy-use/12589/10 "2024-03-04T14:57:07Z")
I started out with Amazon batteries as well - so called 3 amp hour ones - they are best used in rechargeable LED flashlights/lamps not heavy loads like hand held computers. ---
**Author:** ![Tempo](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/forum.clockworkpi.com/tempo/32/9072_2.png) [@Tempo](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/u/Tempo)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2024, 8:09am UTC](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/t/first-impressions-after-a-day-of-heavy-use/12589/11 "2024-03-08T08:09:57Z")
Re: battery life, My battery indicator starts showing 100% long before my batteries are fully charged, and keeps showing 100% long after I unplug. I was concerned my Samsung cells might be phoneys, but it turns out I can get a nice long battery life just by leaving it plugged in past the false 100% reading. (By the way, does anyone know how to fix this issue?) ---
**Author:** ![DeRock25](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/forum.clockworkpi.com/derock25/32/7976_2.png) [@DeRock25](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/u/DeRock25)\ **Post date:** [March 9, 2024, 10:14pm UTC](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/t/first-impressions-after-a-day-of-heavy-use/12589/12 "2024-03-09T22:14:44Z")
id problably check if these values are right… /sys/class/power\_supply/axp20x-battery/uevent POWER\_SUPPLY\_NAME=axp20x-battery POWER\_SUPPLY\_TYPE=Battery POWER\_SUPPLY\_PRESENT=1 POWER\_SUPPLY\_ONLINE=1 POWER\_SUPPLY\_STATUS=Charging POWER\_SUPPLY\_VOLTAGE\_NOW=4173000 POWER\_SUPPLY\_CURRENT\_NOW=680000 POWER\_SUPPLY\_CONSTANT\_CHARGE\_CURRENT=2400000 POWER\_SUPPLY\_CONSTANT\_CHARGE\_CURRENT\_MAX=2400000 POWER\_SUPPLY\_HEALTH=Good POWER\_SUPPLY\_VOLTAGE\_MAX\_DESIGN=4200000 POWER\_SUPPLY\_VOLTAGE\_MIN\_DESIGN=3300000 POWER\_SUPPLY\_CAPACITY=85 POWER\_SUPPLY\_ENERGY\_FULL=8000000 POWER\_SUPPLY\_ENERGY\_NOW=7500000 don’t i don’t think you can change the values in that file… From fixing the charging current… I “think” you can do what is listed below… the max or min voltage could be wrong… you have to create a rule… like… echo ‘KERNEL==“axp20x-battery”, ATTR{constant\_charge\_current\_max}=“2000000”, ATTR{constant\_charge\_current}=“1800000”’, ATTR{voltage\_max\_design}=“4200000” | sudo tee /etc/udev/rules.d/99-uconsole-charging.rules ---
**Author:** ![dima.valiev.dv](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/forum.clockworkpi.com/dima.valiev.dv/32/7257_2.png) [@dima.valiev.dv](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/u/dima.valiev.dv)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2024, 3:43pm UTC](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/t/first-impressions-after-a-day-of-heavy-use/12589/13 "2024-03-11T15:43:30Z")
I’m very glad for your experience! What equipment do you have? I also recently received my uConsole (CM4+Lte). I had to solve several problems. The last one was today. 1. Low battery charge. (I did not decide the fairness of the indication) Create file: `/etc/udev/rules.d/99-devterm-charging.rules` ```auto KERNEL=="axp20x-battery", ATTR{constant_charge_current_max}="2500000", ATTR{constant_charge_current}="2400000" ``` 1. Not a transparent button. I really love the black button that came with the keyboard, but knowing what’s going on is more important 2. Poor WiFi/BT signal. add to the end ` /boot/config.txt` ```auto dtparam=ant2 ``` If there is no effect, do not throw away the default antenna. Carefully peel it off and glue it to the plastic. In my case, this helped significantly. ![image](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/uploads/clockworkpi/original/2X/7/7b6ac66c463b089abd25dbd6e4873196fc97da31.jpeg) ![image](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/uploads/clockworkpi/original/2X/7/7bdaf98b5f737e57682446de67368c3c7d93925a.jpeg) After that my bt headphones is pairing and sound great. WiFi began to work stably and a little faster ---
**Author:** ![dima.valiev.dv](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/forum.clockworkpi.com/dima.valiev.dv/32/7257_2.png) [@dima.valiev.dv](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/u/dima.valiev.dv)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2024, 3:47pm UTC](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/t/first-impressions-after-a-day-of-heavy-use/12589/14 "2024-03-11T15:47:16Z")
oh yeah!) upgrade os image is the best gift for the community ---
**Author:** ![Snoozer94](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Snoozer94](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/u/Snoozer94)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2024, 4:13pm UTC](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/t/first-impressions-after-a-day-of-heavy-use/12589/15 "2024-03-11T16:13:07Z")
I find padded double sided tape works just as well for the antenna but from others on this community, its better to upgrade the antenna. You could use an esp32/8266 as a nat router or a wifi repeater ([GitHub - martin-ger/esp\_wifi\_repeater: A full functional WiFi Repeater (correctly: a WiFi NAT Router)](https://github.com/martin-ger/esp_wifi_repeater)) which is a temporary as well as an over engineered way of fixing the wifi signal, i only have one just to able to ssh to other devices when im in a remote area with no access to any wifi. I do have a battery problem which i need to work on, any help would be great and im going through here to find any other bits of information about battery ---
**Author:** ![KompaktCat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/59ef9b/32.png) [@KompaktCat](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/u/KompaktCat)\ **Post date:** [June 24, 2024, 11:41pm UTC](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/t/first-impressions-after-a-day-of-heavy-use/12589/16 "2024-06-24T23:41:31Z")
Pretty similar to our first impressions. Got some MXJO 18650s and just running terminal/a bunch of terminal apps in zellij I can pull about 10 hours of battery life. Currently running i3 on top of XFCE which works pretty well so far, though can sometimes be a little bit clunky. ---
**Author:** ![count](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bcef8e/32.png) [@count](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/u/count)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2026, 1:34am UTC](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/t/first-impressions-after-a-day-of-heavy-use/12589/17 "2026-04-09T01:34:47Z")
Yea, I couldn’t wait and got the pico calc just so I can have fun and I rarely use GPIO stuff. I mostly used it for games. Then I got the uConsole two days ago and really love it. Mouse sux and they gave me two which both were kind of defective, but its bluetooth and I ordered blackberry mouse as well. I have to use my glasses but it’s super fun to play games or ssh into something, HDMI works great and it’s definitely a super toy. I wrote a language called lux at [GitHub - thecount12/lux · GitHub](http://GitHub.com/thecount12/lux) and it compiled without issues. The wait when you order is a killer but worth it ---
**Author:** ![DigitalDreams](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/forum.clockworkpi.com/digitaldreams/32/16007_2.png) [@DigitalDreams](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/u/DigitalDreams)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2026, 8:12am UTC](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/t/first-impressions-after-a-day-of-heavy-use/12589/18 "2026-04-09T08:12:04Z")
Keep it plugged in overnight. The % reading is a calculated estimate that has to learn what 100% and 0% actually is. I’ve seen it on mobiles with a charging light, it displays 100% even though the led shows still charging. It’s normal, as it goes past 100% it keeps recalibrating the new level as 100… ---
**Author:** ![WhyDev](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19adc/32.png) [@WhyDev](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/u/WhyDev)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2026, 9:32am UTC](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/t/first-impressions-after-a-day-of-heavy-use/12589/19 "2026-04-09T09:32:13Z")
I also got cheap batteries some spares I have lying about ( I plan on replacing) but I have fine battery life but occasional shutdown on a heavy task I know its not heat leaving RAM and voltage as my issues I believe its my voltage though I believe I have rather low RAM as I got hit cheap for another project (again plan on replacing) if anyone could help me by telling me which to replace first that would be ideal. ---
**Author:** ![white-round-square](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/forum.clockworkpi.com/white-round-square/32/10385_2.png) [@white-round-square](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/u/white-round-square)\ **Post date:** [April 9, 2026, 10:06am UTC](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/t/first-impressions-after-a-day-of-heavy-use/12589/20 "2026-04-09T10:06:36Z")
> [@WhyDev](#): > > have fine battery life but occasional shutdown on a heavy task do you have a CM4 or CM5? CM5 is quite power hungry, but uconsole was designed for CM3. if so – try better batteries. [Next page](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/t/first-impressions-after-a-day-of-heavy-use/12589.md?page=2)