GoPro Hero - battery life

codfather

The answers to this are probably located elsewhere online, but it's late and I'm too lazy to find them.

I treated myself to a GoPro Hero earlier in the year and (like many others) seldom use it, due to it's Trail Flattener feature, that makes everything one records look like an ice rink. On the odd occasion that I do strap it on, I've noticed the battery bar less than full, sometimes empty. Wondering if anyone else has had similar issues or if this is cause for concern? When I do use it, I import the videos, wipe the memory and leave it to fully charge before going back in the camera bag, so it's not for lack of charging, just seems to loose it if left inactive.

It's the standard Hero zero, nothing flash.

codfather

Anyone have any experiences to share?

oodboo

It may be due to too much charging. Batteries should be stored with approx 30% battery remaining then topped up to full when needed. There's loads of adivec out there for different batteries but that's my limited understanding (without any research so could be off).

cooldad

Battery will have a protection circuit that will discharge over time.

Leave them partially charged, and never allow them to discharge fully or it will screw up their life.

codfather

My knowledge of electronics is embarrassingly poor.

In which case I shall endeavour to avoid recharging it fully in the future and periodically make sure it isn't emptying itself.
Having posted this and not used it in a week or two, I no return to it to find the battery fully charged. Maybe it's just trying to mess with me....

The Rookie

The inbuilt charge level indicators aren't great, it saying its full just means somewhere over 80%, ideally you should just top it up every few weeks.

cooldad

This ^^^^^^^^^^^

codfather

Perfect. That's what I've taken to doing recently, seems to have had the desired effect.
Thanks chaps.