Ben-DutkaThe battery life of the Dual Shock 4 controller isn't that great, as you know.
The LED light has been blamed for that shorter battery life, and gamers have been wondering if Sony could do anything about it.
Previously, PS4 owners asked Sony Worldwide Studios boss Shuhei Yoshida if there'd be any way to disable the light bar in the future; specifically, for games that don't make use of the feature. Yoshida responded bluntly, "No." But maybe there's another way to save some juice…
One gamer asked Yoshida on his Twitter page if dimming the light might be a possibility. Yoshida wasn't nearly as dismissive this time, responding- "sounds reasonable." If Sony can make that happen, maybe they can indeed lengthen the lifespan of the PS4 controller. That light can be somewhat distracting sometimes, too.
Hope you've got two Dual Shock 4 controllers so one is always charging!
It's an LED. I can't imagine it is using enough power to matter. Wish I did have a second controller though.
Yup. A giant point many complainers are missing. LEDs – nothing much more energy efficient than those!
Personally, I dislike rumble and turn it off system wide in all my consoles. I never seem to have any battery life issues. Maybe that makes a difference?
This is a more reasonable response compared to all the other responses to the last article.
The LED is not what's draining the batteries. A DS4 with the LED on and another off (as an example) would pull almost the same power. That's why led's are used in so many different industries because of their low power draw.
What's causing the power to drain at any rate is all of the things going on in the DS4. We are talking about a rumble pack, a touchscreen, all the buttons and the LED. The DS4 just does too many things and its battery life is quite impressive in that regard.
The LED has indeed been blamed, but has it actually been confirmed that it drains that much battery power?
I wish it could just be turned off. I taped mine up so it doesn't shine in my face, because it really is bright and annoying especially when you want the lights off and play. I know some might say how can it shine in the face but when I recline it definitely can. I'd welcome it just to dim as well. The battery life is truly a disappointment though. I loved that I could go a week without charging the DS3.
Just put it on a charger every night along with all your other electronics and it's fine.
Problem solved. You're welcome.
🙂
not really a practical solution.
especially when constantly charging batteries can ruin their ability to retain a charge, and in extreme circumstances can actually cause the battery to expand and crack the casing.
that happened to a friend of mine constantly leaving his phone on charge every night overnight and eventually the battery overheated, expanded, and cracked the whole phone!
That phone issue of breaking and cracking is a power supply failure. Not a result of plugging it in every night. I had a phone I had to exchange (still had full warranty thankfully) because it got super hot when plugged in. Turned out, the power supply wasn't regulating properly and generated huge amounts of heat.
I have a stylish little controller charger for PS3. Is tiered so it looks kind of like stairs in a way and sits 4 controllers upside down. It's always plugged in. When it needs to be charged, a light below is red, and when it's fully charged the light turns green and it stops feeding power to the controller. It's really nice!
I've not had any issues with battery life drain and have had it for a few years now.
Not a practical solution? It's the only practical solution, they are re – chargeable for a reason.
Exactly bigrailer!
I test cells/batteries (along with other power and pressure systems) at work, and depending on the chemistry, there is nothing wrong with leaving batteries on a charger. Most li-ion chargers are smart enough to not have to worry about that and some battery chemistries (like NiMH) just dissipate the extra charge in the form of a little heat when full.
Your phone issue could definitely be a power supply issue, but it could also be a result of an old battery (or defective one) that is no longer able to reach it's nominal capacity. The charger or power supply is trying to charge it to it's nominal capacity and if the cell/battery can no longer reach that capacity it will go into an overcharged state, causing the battery to expand. Same thing happened to the li-ion battery in my harmony remote after about 4-5 years of use.
I've done 1000 cycles on the same li-ion cells/batteries that are commonly found in laptop battery packs and they still operated within 10% of their nominal capacity.
TLDR: Your controller should be just fine being put on the charger every night for years to come.
Last edited by SaiyanSenpai on 1/23/2014 1:33:01 PM
If it is lit by LEDs (and I don't understand what else it *can* be equipped with these days) then I just don't get this at all.
LED use like… NO energy. I got a torchlight at home with a cluster of LEDs in it. It's several years old now and still lights like a front light of a car on those same batteries that it came with. I mean seriously, LED uses NO energy.
Rather blame the touch screen. But of course, that's harder to do anything with.
You are correct. It is ran by LED (6 of them in fact) and they draw almost no power at all. In fact we are talking about a difference in volts of like .10.
This is being blown out of proportion by whomever. The bigger issue for me is people actually complaining that the battery life isn't enough. I don't typically playgames for 9 hours straight and thats about how long of play time my DS4 lasts and thats on par with where they should be.
so dimming it is reasonable, but turning it off, even though you give the developers the option, is not?
sigh.
i should of known the open willing to take ideas into consideration $ony would not last long!
funny how the ps4s not out yet, yea we could do that, its not there yet but it could be done.
now its just a resounding no.
eh, i guess a resounding no from the start wouldent of sold systems as well, ay?
typical $ony!
all soft and fuzzy when they want your money, than turn into a 3 headed cerberus once they have it!
Some experiments have been done and while the LEDs do draw more power than I would expect (there are six SUPER BRIGHT lights in there) it's dubious that dimming them will effect (non-idle) battery life all that much. The big power draws for the controller are the capacitive touchpad and the rumble motors. It's also probably worth noting that the Dualshock 4 uses an old bluetooth specification that isn't particularly power efficient. The best "solution" is probably for Sony to release a controller revision with a bigger battery.
Last edited by SHADOW on 1/23/2014 5:26:37 AM
Hmm, I don't have these DS4 battery problems. I'm good for a few days on one charge, just like my DS3s. In fact I often wonder why they havent run out after a week or so.
Though, I don't play for extended period of times on most days.
I can see 3rd party controller makers including LED on/off switches on their controllers and people wanting them more than Sony's.
No probably not…
Not unless they make the rest of the controller as good as Sonys.
I tried several 3rd party controllers to the PS3 cause I was not happy with the size of the DS3, but I always returned to the DS3 quite fast. One simply can't deny the production value of Sonys controllers. They are exceptionally precise and robust designs.
Disabling or dimming the LED will do absolutely nothing noticeable for the battery life of a DS4. I can understand wanting it turned off because it's annoying, but to extend battery life? No.
You get it… to bad not many others do…
So, The things gone form DS3
1. Pressure sensitive buttons
Things added to DS4
1. Speaker
2. Touchpad
3. Led
So, if not the led, then the touchpad and speaker perhaps.
It's all of the above. They all contribute. Including the rumble feature.
He's referring to why it's got less battery life than the DS3, which has a rumble feature too. 😉
Last edited by Neo on 1/23/2014 1:49:17 PM
Yes I see that. I'm only suggesting it's not one thing to be clear. It's all of these things contributing at once, not one or the other alone.
I purchased a couple replacement batteries that were designed for the DS3 controllers. I've read a few articles about how they fit in the DS4 controllers and they are easy to change blah blah blah. I guess I'll find out later today when they get here. The stock battery is 1000mAh and the ones i ordered are 1800mAH so in theory it should give me a nice little boost in battery life.
How much did they cost you? If you dont mind me asking.
Doesn't bother me, I use it as a flashlight in the dark….
I agree with many in this post, whoever is claiming the LED is to blame for shorter battery life clearly knows nothing about them. If you turn it off it might add literally 10 seconds of life. The shorter life most likely deals with the batter itself and possibly even the way the controller communicates with the ps4. I have two so it really doesn't bother me because they charge way faster than the ps3 controllers. But I understand for people who don't. You could go to mcmelectronics .com and buy a 10' cord for $5 or so. That's what I did until I got my second.
I also don't really understand the problem with there being light. I often play in the dark and I usually forget it's there. Plus like Redman says I also use it as a flashlight!
I don't know how much of a battery drain it is but I don't understand why they wouldn't give people the option to dim it or turn it off as an option.
I don't have a PS4, but I could see that LED light being very annoying when wanting to play a game with lights off, which I do most of the time.
@bigrailer19 http://is.gd/GoL49d I don't know if this is OK but i can't seem to figure out how to PM someone on here.
Thanks you!
Works GREAT btw!