HiBy R2 - HiBy's entry-level HiFi digital audio player

[PtNikko]

Like (many?) others, I have had one occurrence of dead battery overnight on the R2-II. I’m still waiting for another occurrence to investigate a little more, but it hasn’t happened…
Then it hits me: could it simply be a self-calibration feature of the battery gauge? If a “fuel gauge” chip is used, full discharges are needed to calibrate the chip, either as they happen in use, or forced by the OS, once, or periodically.
The “(show) battery percentage display” setting may have something to do with this—it’s “on” on my R2-II…

That is not a thing. The battery percentage is basically the battery voltage. The gauge will start to show wrong values when the battery is old because the voltage itself isn't a good way of comparing the real capacity anymore. It might show 4.2 volts like it's fully charged but as soon as you put a load on it it will tank to half, for example. This only happens with old batteries.
Some smartphones have a way of calibrating themselves when you do a full cycle, but they don't force you to do the cycles by telling you the battery is dead. And i doubt a device like this has any kind of calibration like that.
Also, i already contacted hiby with the problem. If that was the case, they would have informed me but they just told me to do a factory reset to see if it helps and if not, to send it in for repair. They clearly don't know what's going on.

It is also possible for the meter to read 100% too soon after charging without the R2II being fully charged. I haven't experienced the sudden discharge since I started "overcharging" it, i.e. charging it longer than the full charge color indicates.

This is also not a thing. The battery has protection (if it's working), it literally won't let you charge more to protect itself.
If by any way the protection is not working and it it indeed still charging the battery even when it told you it if full, best case scenario your battery will be damaged in a month, worst case, it will burst in flames.
Anyway, there is no real advantage in leaving the cable connected after it's charged. It will slightly degrade the battery was well. As soon as it's full it will stop charging, some minutes later it will drop to 99% and then charging will kick in again and keep doing forever. This is the reason why people don't recommend you charge your smartphone overnight.

 

[XTF1]

That is not a thing. The battery percentage is basically the battery voltage. The gauge will start to show wrong values when the battery is old because the voltage itself isn't a good way of comparing the real capacity anymore. It might show 4.2 volts like it's fully charged but as soon as you put a load on it it will tank to half, for example. This only happens with old batteries.
Some smartphones have a way of calibrating themselves when you do a full cycle, but they don't force you to do the cycles by telling you the battery is dead. And i doubt a device like this has any kind of calibration like that.
Also, i already contacted hiby with the problem. If that was the case, they would have informed me but they just told me to do a factory reset to see if it helps and if not, to send it in for repair. They clearly don't know what's going on.


This is also not a thing. The battery has protection (if it's working), it literally won't let you charge more to protect itself.
If by any way the protection is not working and it it indeed still charging the battery even when it told you it if full, best case scenario your battery will be damaged in a month, worst case, it will burst in flames.
Anyway, there is no real advantage in leaving the cable connected after it's charged. It will slightly degrade the battery was well. As soon as it's full it will stop charging, some minutes later it will drop to 99% and then charging will kick in again and keep doing forever. This is the reason why people don't recommend you charge your smartphone overnight.

You’re probably right…. But are you absolutely sure that the battery percentage is “basically the battery voltage” and nothing more?

In the R3 thread, @losber has published pictures of the R3-Pro 2022 PCB. They clearly show an AXP202 IC from X-Powers:

It’s a fairly advanced battery management / Buck DC-DC / multi-LDOs chip and interestingly, it does include a fuel gauge (coulomb meter) feature !!!

Now, I don’t know if the R2-II uses the same AXP202 chip as the R3, but if it does, the SW may use this fuel gauge feature to calculate and display the battery percentage… and it may need a full “calibration’ discharge once or periodically.
In that context, @DjBobby question also makes perfect sense.

It’s purely speculative, so any additional information you have is more than welcome!

 

[PtNikko]

You’re probably right…. But are you absolutely sure that the battery percentage is “basically the battery voltage” and nothing more?

In the R3 thread, @losber has published pictures of the R3-Pro 2022 PCB. They clearly show an AXP202 IC from X-Powers:

It’s a fairly advanced battery management / Buck DC-DC / multi-LDOs chip and interestingly, it does include a fuel gauge (coulomb meter) feature !!!

Now, I don’t know if the R2-II uses the same AXP202 chip as the R3, but if it does, the SW may use this fuel gauge feature to calculate and display the battery percentage… and it may need a full “calibration’ discharge once or periodically.
In that context, @DjBobby question also makes perfect sense.

It’s purely speculative, so any additional information you have is more than welcome!

I'm not sure, but now that i've searched it a little bit, it almost certain is using the chip since the original R2 uses it as well.
My opinion still stands though. Using a coulomb meter will help a lot as the battery gets old and lose capacity. Like i said in my old post, capacity can't be deduced by voltage alone on old batteries.
Also, just because they are using the chip doesn't mean they are using all its features. I gave a look at the datasheet and there are features i know for certain they are not using.
Anyway, it is possible they are using it. What i'm not swallowing is the fact that when the devices needs calibration, it will completely drain the battery overnight (i've tested this with a usb meter, it is truly drained and not just showing a wrong value). In fact, not all fuel gauges that uses coulomb counters need calibration.
I can't find any information on the chip calibration process. I've even searched some open source arduino projects for that same chip and can't find anything related to it.
The host just gets the information from the registers and calculates values like batt capacity, charging/discharging current, etc. It is possible the calibration is made inside the chip itself but i think the datasheet would inform it if that was the case.. i have no idea.. What i'm not buying is the whole "lets drain drain the battery in order to calibrate. Hiby would have known this.
Also, there are lots of devices using this same chip (and many others) and i've never heard this being a thing. Imagine not waking up because your smartphone discharged itself during the night and the alarm didn't go off, or being unable to use your smartwatch for the same reason.
This is all speculation of course, but the fact that hiby is unaware of this problem and the fact that some users already had several occasions where this happened, being such a new device, makes me doubt it's working as intended.

And now that i've seen in the datasheet that this chip is responsible for sleep/wakeup functions as well as the cutting of/providing power to different parts of the pcb, makes me think even more that a poorly design circuit could be responsible. All speculation of course.

I've been trying several things to see if i can trigger it but with no avail for now. It's taking its time because i'm doing one thing at a time and letting it rest for the night to see if it triggers it.

 

[PtNikko]

By the way, did your pre applied screen protector came with scratches and looks low quality in general? Usually screen protectors come with a second protective layer for you to peel, with a small paper tab. This one doesn't have a tab but if you use your nail carefully you'll be able to remove that layer. If you're not bothered by it, keep it and remove it when needed. 2 for 1.

 

[XTF1]

By the way, did your pre applied screen protector came with scratches and looks low quality in general? Usually screen protectors come with a second protective layer for you to peel, with a small paper tab. This one doesn't have a tab but if you use your nail carefully you'll be able to remove that layer. If you're not bothered by it, keep it and remove it when needed. 2 for 1.

Mine looks fine. There are a few scratches and scuff marks on the screen protectors (perhaps more on the back one) but nothing abnormal or unacceptable IMO. Under the right light exposure, the scratches are visible, but I can't even take a good picture. to show them.
I use my R2-II without case and the (white) housing is doing very well--no visible scratch. Moving away from the R2 OG metal housing may not be that bad after all. However, the (silver) volume wheel does have a few scratches, face and edges of the knurling indents. The wheel may be the most scratch-prone element.

 

[Neewbie]

Any updates on Hiby fixing the bugs?
Want to get it but not worth it if the whole thing will be a mess...

 

[happyblack]

Not really.
So far, no one has addressed those issues here and when I e-mailed them two months ago they recommended sending the unit back, without mentioning any firmware update whatsoever.

 

[PtNikko]

Not really.
So far, no one has addressed those issues here and when I e-mailed them two months ago they recommended sending the unit back, without mentioning any firmware update whatsoever.

I also informed them about some bugs and quirks i found. They said they were going to inform the dev team about it.
About the unit discharging itself, they advised me to do a factory reset and send it back if that doesn't fix it. They never mentioned new firmware.

Any updates on Hiby fixing the bugs?
Want to get it but not worth it if the whole thing will be a mess...

To be honest, it's not that bad.

 

[Neewbie]

I also informed them about some bugs and quirks i found. They said they were going to inform the dev team about it.
About the unit discharging itself, they advised me to do a factory reset and send it back if that doesn't fix it. They never mentioned new firmware.


To be honest, it's not that bad.

Would you say its usable, like not gonna crash on me, bluetooth ect?

 

[PtNikko]

Would you say its usable, like not gonna crash on me, bluetooth ect?

For me it's pretty stable, however, i don't use wifi or BT. I did test everything and didn't find any major problems apart from that one time the unit discharged itself.
Things i did find and might be annoying, depending on the person:
-DLNA streaming works fine with bubbleUPNP (after properly configured) but on windows it seems to only properly support mp3. And i mean the native dlna implementation where you right click the file and select "cast to device". If you try a flac file it will freeze the DAP for a while and with AAC you can't scrub the songs.
-Using the EQ (specially raising any frequency band) will decrease the volume A LOT. This is supposedly how it works. More about it here . It's just strange because it's the first time i encounter this behavior. It will make some ear/headphones harder to drive, like the PR2's.. in case you want to use EQ.
-The audio recording volume is extremely low, even putting you mouth right up to the mics.
-The volume knob only increases the volume by 1% every click. Those like me who like to have the DAP in the pocket and use it by feeling the buttons will struggle to change the volume because you have to rotate the knob a lot, which is hard to do with the plastic case and only one hand.
-Battery only lasts 12 hours using wired IEM's with volume at 50% and gain set to low. 10 hours with the PR2's and volume set to 90%. The advertised time is for bluetooth earphones. I come from a player that lasted more than 20 hours so for me it's a downer.

 

[Neewbie]

For me it's pretty stable, however, i don't use wifi or BT. I did test everything and didn't find any major problems apart from that one time the unit discharged itself.
Things i did find and might be annoying, depending on the person:
-DLNA streaming works fine with bubbleUPNP (after properly configured) but on windows it seems to only properly support mp3. And i mean the native dlna implementation where you right click the file and select "cast to device". If you try a flac file it will freeze the DAP for a while and with AAC you can't scrub the songs.
-Using the EQ (specially raising any frequency band) will decrease the volume A LOT. This is supposedly how it works. More about it here . It's just strange because it's the first time i encounter this behavior. It will make some ear/headphones harder to drive, like the PR2's.. in case you want to use EQ.
-The audio recording volume is extremely low, even putting you mouth right up to the mics.
-The volume knob only increases the volume by 1% every click. Those like me who like to have the DAP in the pocket and use it by feeling the buttons will struggle to change the volume because you have to rotate the knob a lot, which is hard to do with the plastic case and only one hand.
-Battery only lasts 12 hours using wired IEM's with volume at 50% and gain set to low. 10 hours with the PR2's and volume set to 90%. The advertised time is for bluetooth earphones. I come from a player that lasted more than 20 hours so for me it's a downer.

Thank you for all that info
Most of that I could deal with but also plan on mainly using bluetooth.
Anyone have any input on that? Thanx.

 

[PtNikko]

Thank you for all that info
Most of that I could deal with but also plan on mainly using bluetooth.
Anyone have any input on that? Thanx.

I tried with a simple receiver using SBC at what i think is a low bitrate and it played fine. Can't give you any feedback with other codecs using higher bitrates. Some people do say they have dropouts.

Edit: Ok i paird the DAP with my smartphone and used LDAC at 96kHz. 5 meters and two brick walls in between and it was still playing fine.
This isn't a fair test because earbuds have way smaller antennas and i don't know if my smartphone has a higher transmit power than the DAP. You should probably wait for someone who also uses bluetooth buds exclusively to have a better idea.

 

[Neewbie]

Not really.
So far, no one has addressed those issues here and when I e-mailed them two months ago they recommended sending the unit back, without mentioning any firmware update whatsoever.

What about the original Hiby r2? Is it more stable?

 

[XTF1]

What about the original Hiby r2? Is it more stable?

I have both versions of the R2 and they are absolutely fine IMO. Perfect & bug-free? No… And sure, I didn’t experience the depleted battery issue with the OG R2… But it happened only once with the R2-II: puzzling, but not unstable.
I like the R2-II volume wheel and much prefer the UI over the original R2 and R3-2022. The upcoming R3-II may be my next best toy !!!

 

[ytsejam1138]

New firmware v1.1 for the R2 II was just released.

Changelog:
1. Optimized the stability of Bluetooth playback
2. Optimized recording volume
3. Optimized device performance and stability
4. Various bug fixes.