Warning: long and detailed!
Ever notice how your DualShock4 would be mysteriously dead whenever you returned to it on a full charge?
Well, I got to the bottom of this. Or at bare minimum, I have good reason to believe I did.
I bought one for use with my PC due to the touchpad which can utilize the mouse cursor, (preferable to the xbox controller imo, as well as interchangeability for tablets via Bluetooth) and I noticed that it would always seem to die on me for no reason whatsoever. I'd wake the PC up after a night of sleep, open DS4Windows, check battery level annnd... 0%. Dead. Even though it was 100% just the other night, with no wireless use that would lead into this. It should have retained its charge level over night.
I got fed up with this behavior because I (quite obviously) wanted to preserve the meager battery life for wireless usage only, leaving it tethered into the computer by wire whenever I was playing near enough to the system to prolong its usable lifespan. Being a PC guy, I'm kind of used to analyzing these things and troubleshooting, so I started experimenting and changing up my usage pattern...
Long story short, what I discovered is simple:
What happens is that if you leave the USB charge cable plugged into the DualShock4, EVEN WHEN THE CONTROLLER IS TURNED OFF, (all caps for emphasis) the battery charge is continuously leeching out into the metal wires connected to the micro USB port on the controller... This will happen whenever it is not receiving power through that cord to counteract the drain. Realistically, I'd imagine the internal battery to be in a continual state of discharge/charge as you plug it into any charge port due to this problem, and that can't be gentle on its life expectancy to begin with. It would be eating into the charge cycles slowly but surely.
However, if you unplug the charge cable at the controller, (take it out of the micro USB port) this will prevent the battery from discharging itself properly.
I don't have testing equipment to verify this theory other than a basic digital multimeter, (even though that's often all you need) but unfortunately, it's just a generic and not a nice model like a fluke. The probe tips on mine are a touch too fat to fit into the USB type A male connector and test the pinouts on it while the cable is plugged into the controller, and I don't want to loosen that connector since this is a cable I still use. The best I can say is, based on thorough observation and some amateurish understanding of electronics, it would probably check out if you did try it.
I'm sure this design fault is yet another reason why the controller has a terrible reputation for its battery life. It's not only the battery; it literally bleeds itself dry in a very common configuration (get lazy, leave the cable in for when you return) and it's so invisible and subtle that you would have no way of figuring out why unless you've really got an eye for detail. Took me at least a month to figure it out.
Try it yourself if you doubt me. Attach your charge cable to the micro USB, but don't use it. Leave the cable unplugged from any powered USB ports on your PS4, and watch it hemorrhage its charge level over time. Although I don't have a PS4 myself, I would imagine that if you turn the PS4 off but leave the cable plugged into a USB port on both ends, (PS4 and Controller) the console shouldn't be feeding power through the cable to charge it and this should eventually cause the controller battery to drop dead.
And yes, I do have the redesigned DS4 model where they fixed the thumb sticks and implemented data transfer through the cable so it's not forced to use only Bluetooth.
Sony either went cheap on that or did not design it properly. I share this information as a helpful PSA tipoff for you PS4 owners. Always disconnect the DS4 at the micro USB plug if not in use. It has to be disconnected at that specific port to preserve the battery for best practice.
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