Questions about the DualShock 3 Sixaxis controller...

[SuperMillionaire]

Unless of course you're playing with a friend...

[Mirage]

Not even then. You'd have to have horrible luck if both ran out at the same time.

[Slothy]

Not even then. You'd have to have horrible luck if both ran out at the same time.

Precisely. Even if you play with a friend, assuming you switch between the two controllers so when one needs to charge you plug it in and use the other when you're by yourself they can't possibly die at the same time. One will always have more charge than the other so the one that's low can be plugged in without having to plug in both at once.

You'd literally have to take two fully charged controllers and play with them for more than 30 hours straight for them to run out, which as I've just established will not happen if you rotate them. The only other conceivable way they could die at the same time is if the battery was going in one or both, but the odds of that ever happening are pretty slim.

[JKTrix]

I can see a situation where batteries would die. If I lived with a super hardcore fighting game fan like me, that could be a frequent situation. 'Course, we'd have plug-in arcade sticks anyway.

There are fancy peripherals that are just designed for charging your stuff though.

[NorthernChaosGod]

Not even then. You'd have to have horrible luck if both ran out at the same time.

Precisely. Even if you play with a friend, assuming you switch between the two controllers so when one needs to charge you plug it in and use the other when you're by yourself they can't possibly die at the same time. One will always have more charge than the other so the one that's low can be plugged in without having to plug in both at once.

You'd literally have to take two fully charged controllers and play with them for more than 30 hours straight for them to run out, which as I've just established will not happen if you rotate them. The only other conceivable way they could die at the same time is if the battery was going in one or both, but the odds of that ever happening are pretty slim.

I'm not a fan of unplugging a controller if it's not fully charged, I have a cable for each one of my controllers.

[Bolivar]

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I'm not a fan of unplugging a controller if it's not fully charged, I have a cable for each one of my controllers.

That's gotta be some kind of OCD or something

[Mirage]

PS3 controllers use Li-ion batteries. A partial recharging on Li-ion batteries will not lower their capacity. The capacity of Li-ion batteries is lowered as you use them, of course, but charging them to 50% then se them to 0% twice will lower their capacity by the same amount as charging them to 100% and then using them up once.

It's the total amount of charge-discharge cycles that lowers the total capacity of them, and the electronics in the batteries will charge the least-used cells first.

Even if you hate unplugging them until they're full, it's still not a problem, because it takes less time to charge them than it'll take to discharge them in a normal usage scenario (not counting games where the vibration motors are running constantly)

[NorthernChaosGod]

I know they don't lose capacity, I just refuse to unplug an controller not at 100%; if I'm playing then I the charge time isn't noticeable and if I turn off the system it charges faster but I just walk away anyway.

And it's nice to use the cables to connect to the system instead of finding them wirelessly when you bring them over to someone's house, I only do this for 360.

[SuperMillionaire]

Not even then. You'd have to have horrible luck if both ran out at the same time.

Precisely. Even if you play with a friend, assuming you switch between the two controllers so when one needs to charge you plug it in and use the other when you're by yourself they can't possibly die at the same time. One will always have more charge than the other so the one that's low can be plugged in without having to plug in both at once.

You'd literally have to take two fully charged controllers and play with them for more than 30 hours straight for them to run out, which as I've just established will not happen if you rotate them. The only other conceivable way they could die at the same time is if the battery was going in one or both, but the odds of that ever happening are pretty slim.

I'm not a fan of unplugging a controller if it's not fully charged, I have a cable for each one of my controllers.

I'm with you on that one, NCG.

[NorthernChaosGod]

Good to see more people of a particular nature.

[SuperMillionaire]

Yep.

Another question: how can I tell how much power the controller has left? Is there some sort of power meter on the controller?

[JKTrix]

I know on the wii, the number of blinking lights when you turn it on indicates the rough charge level. Otherwise, once your PS3 is on, tap the Home button and you'll see the controller icon near the top right, with a battery icon. That's your charge level.

[SuperMillionaire]

Oh, okay. It's just like the PSP's power level that I see on the home menu.

[Mirage]

A message will pop up on your TV telling you the power level in controller x is getting low. After this, you've still probably got an hour or more of gaming before it runs out completely.

[SuperMillionaire]

Oh, good. But if I use the USB cable, that won't happen, right?