Bigpond 790S battery management is still terrible after update

[astrayan]

The ZTE modems, like MF91 manage their battery charging, so that they can be left attached to the USB cord. This is great for always-up connections.

Prior to the recent firmware update, the 790S would do all sorts of stupid random things.

After firware update, the device now seems to reach fully charged and then turn off charging, and go into a discharge state, indefinitely. However, worse than that, the firmware is a hotch potch of different rules, so you can never predict what the modem will do. If you charge from 70% and leave it connected, you might get a different result to charging from 100%. Even if I established rules for that, it's not clear when the modem is 100% charged, because the modem has different software for charging when off vs on. And it lies about being fully charged. It tends to indicate 100% full, when the battery is about 70% full. I can see much more charge going into it, via a USB current monitor.

There was always something terribly suspicious about a modem that insists on being disconnected from the power, when it charged. I have seen 3 of these modems, now. The first was a Telstra modem I got off ebay, and I sent it back to the poor chap, because I couldn't believe that a modem with that many charge faults was normal.

Removing the battery from the modem, so it shows the red connector, is not really a good option, but at least it exists as an option. I see no reason why the modem cannot fully charge, and then show the red connector, and then maybe check battery charge every day.

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When you operate one of these modems via Teamviewer, you also notice that it needs a reboot option.

I have fished around in the Bigpond html and found the SMS inbox, but there appears to be no way of sending an SMS, which I'm guessing is also a problem in the Telstra one. I don't know.

[astrayan]

The only solution to the overcharging problem, is to use it with no battery. However, when you use it in 4G mode, it will then crash, as soon as the modem needs a lot of power, to do a fast download.

[astrayan]

Tonight, I'm using one, and after it reached the overcharged state, it said 0%, and then I realized that the interface had crashed. The on/off button wouldn't work, so I had to take the battery out. I have seen this behaviour on the Telstra version.

Tonight, when I was using one on Bigpond with no battery, it allowed me to connect with 4G on Band 28, but then crashed, as soon as I started downloading.

When I tried a Virgin Broadband SIM in it, with no battery, and then select 4G, it just goes into a continual reboot loop.

I don't know how to use the 790S without continually watching over it.