Related
Ok, here is my problem...
I am writing an IM app. I want to be able to get IMs while in suspend mode and at least play a sound or something. I have it all working, but it seems to drain the battery something awful.
I know that it is possible to do without draining the battery, because when I run AIM all night, i can get notices, but the battery use seems much more reasonable (though i haven't done scientific-type tests).
My question is this: does anyone know how suspend mode works with socket connections? I was wondering what, in my app, is causing the battery drain. Is it the windows message loop, the fact that i am doing a "ping" every 10 seconds, etc?
More importantly, how can i fix it... does the suspend ignore processes that have connected sockets, or does it only ignore threads with connected sockets? If the later is the case, the solution would be fairly simple: put all my socket code in a seperate thread.
I am running WM 2003 with the 6.24 radio stack from t-mobile. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
How are you executing code while suspended? Is the device actually suspending or are you keeping it awake all the time?
I am also interested exactly how things work while suspended and what can be done/monitored in the suspended state.
What happens to the GPRS connection when it suspends?
I do know that you can set notification timers that will wake up the device while suspended, but I'm interested to know if there other ways to do this.
-Blair.
On the XDA2i, I've been having the small problem of running out of battey since i use it for phone calls.
But, unlike normal mobile phones, the XDA2i doesn't give audio warnings when low on battery, so i find that i end up with a dead phone when i need to make a call.
Is there any settings to enable audio warnings on low battery, or any good utilities which will allow this?
Thanks.
Have you tried Spb Pocket Plus?
It shows a battery meter on screen all the time.
You are also supposed to be able to change the settings in your phone at Alerts to warn you of low battery.
To answer the subject of this post: KBattery is a good, free battery charge monitor, I use it all the time. It sits in the menu bar at the top, where the clock is. Though if you have O2 Active installed, it has a battery monitor on the Today screen. But you've removed that already, haven't you?
As for audible alerts, I don't know how you would configure those. I tend to get a warning (text bubble tooltip style dialog and a two tone noise) from the phone when I reach 20% battery, and a bit later (I'm not sure what percentage of battery left triggers it) I am also warned when the battery is really low, I believe it's around 5%, and it cuts power to the SD card.
I've noticed that various functions shut down when battery runs low, but i dont seem to get any audio alerts. Now and then, the XDA can sit in my pocket for a few days so i might not open it up just to check on the battery level. Therefore, the battery gets drained and i would need to restore a backup.
If anyone knows how to access the setting to turn the audio warning on and off, please can you let me know.
Thanks
Here is a niceone indicator.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=364278
Should do the job.
So I read this fuzemobility.com article about battery life and thought I'd write a super long comment with sweet hyperlinks but it turned out to be too long for their blog configuration. So my XDA friends, here it is. I invite you to contribute any tips and insight you may have to the handful of gems I came up with about gems other people came up with:
WMLongLife by Chainfire, the venerable codemaster known most for wmwifirouter (even though his other work is awesomely impressive), drops you down from H*/3G to EDGE when your screen shuts off for a minute. It will also kill the data connection if inactive for a minute. When you turn the screen back on, it stays on edge, but if you start an app from a 3G whitelist you make, like including Opera and SiriusWM5 but not FlexMail, that app will kick it back into 3G. Switching from edge to 3G takes roughly six seconds he says but probably worth it if you like to save yourself battery (and your gonads from radiation).
Thread
Lumos by nik3r is a great replacement to HTC's included backlight adjusting system. It uses the light meter and you can specify how dim you're willing to go in dark conditions and how bright you have to have it in sunlight. You can tweak every point in between if you want, define what conditions you believe to be bright (and warranting full backlight juice) and dark (running low power). Very low cpu usage, low memory, no battery drain when not using the phone, no cpu involved with fluttering backlight levels, delightful gui frontend, fun to configure. Requires phone with a light meter like the Raphael and Diamond.
Thread
IMAP-Idle or push activesync or instant messaging or PocketPuTTy or PocketIRC or PornTube or anything that keeps the data connection open, even with very little throughput going on, drains substantially harder than having no data connection (just phone, SMS) so use that knowing you're sacrificing battery life (which I do). I'm not sure about this but if you like to use AIM and have an unlimited text messanging plan, using an sms-based IM client like OZ Messenger/Mobile IM may use less juice than something like Agile or IM+ which keeps the connection alive. What I am right about is insisting that you use Outlook Email Scheduler to specify Pocket Outlook synchronizing frequencies over peak and off-peak hours, brilliant program (also does imap idle!!). So with this, in addition to "push" mail which now supports gmail (it's actually called IMAP-idle with non-Exchange mail servers), you can set your phone to cycle pocket outlook synching, say, every five minutes during the day and every half hour after 10pm, whatever you want.
Thread, website.
This one is more for convenience than it is a miracle battery saver, but Touch InCall Screen Tweak by StevePritchard shuts your screen off when you take a call and put the thing to your head and, using the light and g-sensor, when you pull it away as if to dial in your calling card it lights it back up and when you put it back to your head, it dims it. Very handy. The NoSleepRaphael killer.
Thread.
I definitely do not recommend trying this if you are afraid of danger or bricking your phone but here are two links for you crazy underclockers. I can't tell so far if it does in fact successfully throttle my processor, I can't tell if I was able to get the speed back up either by setting it back or by uninstalling, I just don't know but here it is. Couldn't find much feedback so if any of you know how to test battery drain and also don't care about warranty compliance, maybe post results in this thread which I have no doubt will blow up into huge popularity . You must have a Qualcomm MSM7XXX(A)-based processor, so google first to double check:
nueDynamicClock, nueClockControl
Raphael/Touch Pro/Fuze users: Make sure you got the right radio with the right rilphone.dll properly installed. If you're AT&T grab 1.12.25.19, not 1.14.25.05 (I've only seen mixed reviews and I myself was not breathtaken it), and then Chainfire and P1Tater's 1.12.25.19/rilphone.dll combo cab. If you're not AT&T, I believe you want to stick to 1.11.25.01 (and grab the right rilphone cab accordingly). If you're fully Olipro-unlocked, you probably know enough about non-Raphael radios and don't need my advice.
Raph radios, Chainfire/P1Tater raph rilphones.
Rhodium Manila is badass, I know, and I have a lot of respect and appreciation for xboxmod and his posse (I'm really in awe) but don't use Rhodium Manila if you want to save battery life (or ram or storage or cpu) more than you want to be dazzled by TP2TF3D. Use pjc's ripped oldschool HTC Home (vga) with TodayAgenda underneath. Maybe SPB Mobile Shell's better than regular Manila, it's probably better than Rhodium Manila (in terms of battery at least) unless you're spinning the 3D stuff nonstop. I don't know about WM6.5's efficiency. Just flashed it. If you know, post. SPB Mobile Shell's trialware btw.
PJC's HTC Home thread, TodayAgenda's site, SPB's site.
If you try to do your own power tests to contribute your scientific studies to your local Ultimate Radio Thread, keep in mind that in lower signal areas your phone must crank out bigger radio waves to reach the tower. So you must be careful to keep everything constant except the variable, the radio, including the time-range during the day you do battery and bandwidth tests (including weekdays versus weekends when switching from one to the other) as in dense areas, capacity gets maxed out with carriers who don't have enough infrastructure to handle the loads. I get this all the time even in Manhattan where you'd think AT&T would get their poop together.
You could cruise through the Accessories forum of your phone (here's the Raphael's) to hunt down an extended life battery but those tend not to be cheap, they make your phone thicker, you have to recalibrate your phone's mechanism to measure battery power and the initial charging training is a ***** and there's a chance you'll get ripped off so consider just buying an extra OEM battery and maybe an extra charger for your office. They fit well in that little secret pocket of your jeans, unless you already use it for a zippo lighter.
Contrary to popular belief, there is no memory effect issue with lithium ion batteries. Don't do full discharges with this intent. Don't do that. Your battery's longevity diminishes over usage, including deliberate discharges. Best bet, for a phone you rely on, is to charge whenever you can charge. Yes a battery's longevity diminishes faster over time if you store it with a full charge (verus 50%) extendedly, but hey, you need that sucker ready to go so use it and buy another one eventually. Temperature and resistance also accelerates decline meaning if you use an equivilant amount of milliamp hours over a week with your phone on standby versus four hours using GPS or wifi, and you do this a lot, it takes a heavier toll on your battery. If you have two batteries and tether or GPS or wifi a lot and then are in situations where you don't do that, consider designating with a sharpie one battery for brutal use and the other for light use. If you're draining heavily over long periods of time while charging your phone, that eats away at your battery's long-term longevity the same as if you used it and then charged it. Actually probably a little more because charging your battery heats it up even hotter than tethering all your pr0n which hurts. Two batteries. Drop $45 at your local dealer or search on froogle to save a few bucks.
According to IRC, there is no idle drain difference between regular 3G and HSDPA (but there is between either of those and EDGE). It all comes down to throughput, not the protocol; however, if you're in a rural area where there is only EDGE, you probably want to shut off 3G as, I'm told, your phone eats up considerable juice by trying to search for a 3G tower. Note that charging on USB theoretically gives you 500mA tops (more like 400 at best) whereas your charger is 1A (at least for the TP). If your phone gets hotter than 43 degrees celsius (use BatteryStatus or this Battery.zip which is a ppc exe to monitor temperature and drain) it will, based on my studies, charge slower, and not at all at 47. ABCPowermeter, by the way, does not work on Touch Pros and I'm guessing on its cousins either.
That's it I'm done.
Doug
Very nice post. Thank you.
Thanks for the write up.
I really appreciate it and some of the methods actually works for me.
All the best!
check it
This dude bauerpavel made a pretty badass pimp tight post on batteries. I didn't really read it but I can tell at first glance that he knows what he's talkin' 'bout.
Thanks for the info. I found this really well written & concise
d0ugie said:
So my XDA friends, here it is. I invite you to contribute any tips and insight you may have to the handful of gems I came up with about gems other people came up with:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nice roundup, well done! So, not much left to add. Still, this is my contribution:
Like Touch InCall Screen, cleanRAM isn't a miracle battery saver. But scheduling it and not letting it wake up your device to clean your RAM, could also increase battery life if it kills zombie battery draining processes. And managing your memory this way also keeps you from soft resetting, saving battery.
In Advanced Config, enable all the Power Management settings. And I have Network - Turn off Wi-Fi if no activity: set to Yes; Network - Wi-Fi auto off timeout: set to 1m; and in Menu - More settings - Connections, enable Disconnect after: set to 45s. I don't know how much impact the G-sensor and Light sensor polling intervals have on the battery. But it probably won't hurt if you increase them to a level that works for you.
Apart from all the nice sensor based (un)locking and launching features this lightweight application offers, I have TouchLockPro set to suspend my Diamond again after 5s, after it is woken up without unlocking it. Enough time for me to unlock it. Or just check the time or check whatever application running in the foreground at the moment of suspend. Because TLP has no foreground window like S2U2 or PocketShield.
Using a locking mechanism is already a battery saver by design, by the way. As it prevents unwanted key and touch screen actions that could possibly have an effect on your battery life.
I'm also used to suspend my device myself whenever I think I won't use it for some time. As long as it doesn't take too much time. So I've set the G-Sensor options in TouchLockPro to lock and suspend when I place it face down on any surface. And it also locks and suspends on top down. So I just have to put my Diamond upside down in my pocket, as I always do, and have it locked and suspended.
When it lies face up, I don't need to pick it up and rotate it in any way. I just keep the WinMo start button pressed for about 1s, because the QuickMenu option Long-press win logo is set to suspend.
Just in case I forget to suspend it myself I have the WinMo Settings - System - Power - Advanced options set to the lowest possible settings. Backlight off after 10s and Device off after 40s on battery power. And I have Backlight - Auto adjust backlight disabled for Lumos, of course. There's just one problem. Sometimes, somehow, Backlight - Auto adjust backlight is enabled and both Advanced - Turn off backlight and device are disabled. Without me knowing. I've noticed it a few times after a soft reset, but I can't reproduce it at will. Maybe I'll look for a way to force my power settings after soft reset.
d0ugie said:
ABCPowermeter, by the way, does not work on Touch Pros and I'm guessing on its cousins either.
Doug
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
acbTaskMan (which includes CPU and power graphing ability of acbPowerMeter) does have a version compatible with the newer HTC devices. I'm using 1.4.2 on my HTC Diamond.
Another Way of Switchiing Phone Band
Another way to switch phone band, based on MortScript and Vijay555's VJOKButt. Very lite but it works, check here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=3726097&postcount=11171
Be careful with any automatic band switches as if it does it during a phone call it WILL drop the call. Also keep in mind that if you force things to EDGE you cannot do voice and data at the same time.
In my experience, there is zero power usage difference in EDGE and 3G/HSPA except when transferring data. If my phone is running its normal compliment of programs (GPSToday, S2U2 2.02, PhoneAlarm, KaiserNotification, AEButton Plus, GPSGate, CellID (uploads CID to predefined location if changed every 10m), etc, the phone runs <1%/hr battery. If I enable Flexmail, which has two online IMAP mail boxes and about 6 others it syncs every 6 hours, 7-8%/hr on 3G, 3-4% on EDGE. So as the OP mentions, it's data usage/throughput/type but not necessarily just being connected, has to be in use.
As for backlights, personally I can't stand those programs that autoadjust the backlight as it ALWAYS fails in my office where the phone gets in the shadows and then I can't read the screen because it's too dim. But perhaps still useful if you can set how low it can go, as long as it doesn't interfere with PhoneAlarm, which I use to set the backlight for some given profiles (night time, car daytime, etc).
Good post, hope some people learn from it.
Yep...
You're fricken awesome.... Need I say more?
I just thought I should point out that you can see a marked improvement in battery life when using TF3D2 if you go to the internet tab/menu/data settings and disable push pages!
where i tup your .exe ?
in internal folder ?
khaytsus said:
Be careful with any automatic band switches as if it does it during a phone call it WILL drop the call. Also keep in mind that if you force things to EDGE you cannot do voice and data at the same time.
In my experience, there is zero power usage difference in EDGE and 3G/HSPA except when transferring data. If my phone is running its normal compliment of programs (GPSToday, S2U2 2.02, PhoneAlarm, KaiserNotification, AEButton Plus, GPSGate, CellID (uploads CID to predefined location if changed every 10m), etc, the phone runs <1%/hr battery. If I enable Flexmail, which has two online IMAP mail boxes and about 6 others it syncs every 6 hours, 7-8%/hr on 3G, 3-4% on EDGE. So as the OP mentions, it's data usage/throughput/type but not necessarily just being connected, has to be in use.
As for backlights, personally I can't stand those programs that autoadjust the backlight as it ALWAYS fails in my office where the phone gets in the shadows and then I can't read the screen because it's too dim. But perhaps still useful if you can set how low it can go, as long as it doesn't interfere with PhoneAlarm, which I use to set the backlight for some given profiles (night time, car daytime, etc).
Good post, hope some people learn from it.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So, if I understand correctly, the option "disconnect data connection after xx min" will not change the battery consumption ?
I can let my Phone continuously on HSDPA or EDGE with no difference, only when I use the connection.
other question, wich one (EDGE or HSDPA) consume more power when transmitting ?
thanks
Maybe this Battery Guard application could prove handy for battery conservation fanatics
Thanks for this post. I am about to get a Touch Diamond and have heard about poor battery life. This post gives me some confidence that I should be able to tweak my device.
pwye said:
Thanks for this post. I am about to get a Touch Diamond and have heard about poor battery life. This post gives me some confidence that I should be able to tweak my device.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Its a HTC mate & the battery life will always be crap, its the price we pay to be cutting edge i guess
can someone tell me how to improve the battery life through the options since i am new...
disable vibration at touch flo
disable auto rotation
enable auto bright
In notifications, disable the sounds and the screen coming on for Reminders etc
Make sure you Close (not minimise) apps before putting your phone on standby
Don't use push web/ auto weather update auto rss etc
set phone to 'lock' phone when you switch it off (search other threads)
These should help stop your phone from doing 'stuff' when you put it in standby (or put it in your pocket) and using up battery when you just want it on standby.
and the best thing to do is, stay with stock rom :-D
cottonpickers said:
In notifications, disable the sounds and the screen coming on for Reminders etc
Make sure you Close (not minimise) apps before putting your phone on standby
Don't use push web/ auto weather update auto rss etc
set phone to 'lock' phone when you switch it off (search other threads)
These should help stop your phone from doing 'stuff' when you put it in standby (or put it in your pocket) and using up battery when you just want it on standby.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Using S2U2 helps with all this which is both pretty and useful as a locking app.
Tony
The best thing to do is switch off data connections, but the kind of defeats the object of a PDA.
Best to grin and bear it, as ROMs and Radio improve, I've found it gets better, still crap, but better than it is now.
On the Diamond if you went into phone settings and used GSM instead of auto it gave a nice boost to battery life. Something to do with constantly searching for HSDPA I think.
Lol Chippa, That didn't work to improve the battery... But it did give me 3 more bars of reception xD Lol, PROXIMUS LIED ) I contacted them on the matter of bad reception, And they said I should have excellent reception... apparently, their 3G network isn't that good yet x)
Then perhaps, the radio on the TD2 isn't as bad as I thought
Hi
The best thing to do is switch off data connections, but the kind of defeats the object of a PDA.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think this is an urban myth now. A mobile data connection doesn't use any more power when idle. You maintain a data connection all the time with the mast, that is how your phone works to receive text messages and phone calls. A data connection on the phone is just the same thing with the added extra of your phone having a valid IP address on the network.
It will use less power to keep the IP address continually rather than have it connect and get a new one each time as obtaining an IP address uses power.
You can test yourself with any application that shows mA of the battery and it isn't any more for having a data connection on, unless of course you have an application actively using the connection.
Regards
Phil
PhilipL said:
Hi
I think this is an urban myth now. A mobile data connection doesn't use any more power when idle. You maintain a data connection all the time with the mast, that is how your phone works to receive text messages and phone calls. A data connection on the phone is just the same thing with the added extra of your phone having a valid IP address on the network.
It will use less power to keep the IP address continually rather than have it connect and get a new one each time as obtaining an IP address uses power.
You can test yourself with any application that shows mA of the battery and it isn't any more for having a data connection on, unless of course you have an application actively using the connection.
Regards
Phil
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think the problem is for those of us with poor 3G reception. Continually reconnecting to the 3G network increases consumption. I'm no expert so I cannot state this is categorically true.
Tony
in advanced config power management enable all.
I am disconnecting GPRS/3G when turning the device off and I do believe that I have a quite better batter life...
Hi
in advanced config power management enable all.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'd advise against this. HTC are not stupid and they will be disabled for a reason. The drivers are either ignoring these settings or the power savings are very insignificant or it means more power is used.
Powering down these things also costs power to bring them back up, which means it can use more power sleeping and re-awaking devices than it does to just keep them on. This is why SmartPhones (non touch screen) don't sleep like Windows Mobile PDAs, they just turn the screen off but the CPU is still on responding and programs are still running and awake. Historically Windows Mobile PDAs were not mobile phones, they were just PDAs, so it made sense to make them sleep where the CPU shuts down completely and no programs run, basically like a computer hibernating. This still happens today but isn't ideal now as PDAs are constantly having to turn on to receive text messages or phone calls or retrieve email etc, and each time the phone has to leave standby it uses power to initiate all the drivers, so you end up expanding more power transferring between power states than you save. Microsoft will move to the 'always on' modal like SmartPhones probably with Windows Mobile 7.
Why the long explanation, well HTC may be deliberately not using power management as they are moving parts of their phones to be always on, and trying to enable these things may cause instability or for the phone to use more power.
Using a program to measure mAmp draw on the Topaz there was no difference in power consumption between having power management enabled or disabled, so my opinion, leave it as it is.
Regards
Phil
PhilipL said:
Hi
I'd advise against this. HTC are not stupid and they will be disabled for a reason. The drivers are either ignoring these settings or the power savings are very insignificant or it means more power is used.
Powering down these things also costs power to bring them back up, which means it can use more power sleeping and re-awaking devices than it does to just keep them on. This is why SmartPhones (non touch screen) don't sleep like Windows Mobile PDAs, they just turn the screen off but the CPU is still on responding and programs are still running and awake. Historically Windows Mobile PDAs were not mobile phones, they were just PDAs, so it made sense to make them sleep where the CPU shuts down completely and no programs run, basically like a computer hibernating. This still happens today but isn't ideal now as PDAs are constantly having to turn on to receive text messages or phone calls or retrieve email etc, and each time the phone has to leave standby it uses power to initiate all the drivers, so you end up expanding more power transferring between power states than you save. Microsoft will move to the 'always on' modal like SmartPhones probably with Windows Mobile 7.
Why the long explanation, well HTC may be deliberately not using power management as they are moving parts of their phones to be always on, and trying to enable these things may cause instability or for the phone to use more power.
Using a program to measure mAmp draw on the Topaz there was no difference in power consumption between having power management enabled or disabled, so my opinion, leave it as it is.
Regards
Phil
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi Phil,
Theoretically you right, but i don't agree with everything.
There are other tweaks that definitely improving performance but still, HTC did not set it, so probably they have their reasons...
I used this tweak more than year on several devices & many roms and did not see any stability or other issues.
About powering on versus idle,
If it takes more power to turn on than keep idle (i'm not sure thats so but lets assume) then it must depend on how long its idle - there must be a time frame from where it do saves power.
The only question is if its actually doing what it supposed to do or not...
PhilipL said:
Hi
I think this is an urban myth now. A mobile data connection doesn't use any more power when idle. You maintain a data connection all the time with the mast, that is how your phone works to receive text messages and phone calls. A data connection on the phone is just the same thing with the added extra of your phone having a valid IP address on the network.
It will use less power to keep the IP address continually rather than have it connect and get a new one each time as obtaining an IP address uses power.
You can test yourself with any application that shows mA of the battery and it isn't any more for having a data connection on, unless of course you have an application actively using the connection.
Regards
Phil
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Dude do a simple 1 day test with data on, then data off, then lets compare notes
Hi
About powering on versus idle,
If it takes more power to turn on than keep idle (i'm not sure thats so but lets assume) then it must depend on how long its idle - there must be a time frame from where it do saves power.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Info on the subject here http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsmobile/archive/2005/08/01/446240.aspx
Like I say I've tested the current draw and saw no difference enabling the power management options, so I think better to leave alone, at best the settings are ignored by the drivers, at worse they may have some negative effect I can't see.
Yes there are settings that may make the phone quicker like enabling caches or making them larger, sometimes we think things are quicker, sometimes they really are Just like a computer some performance settings are off for safety, for example write caches which when enabled could mean data loss, so HTC (and any other manufacturer) will be very reluctant to enable these things, again these things are disabled for a good reason, and not just because HTC want their phones to be slower. I never said all settings should be left alone, and if you want to risk losing data for a slightly faster PDA (whether real or a placebo effect) why not.
Dude do a simple 1 day test with data on, then data off, then lets compare notes
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Having the phone maintain a data connection does not use more power in itself, I have done the tests and linked to an article below. If you enable a data connection to use Push/Pull email then the fact the device is constantly polling for and retrieving email will of course eat into battery life, but it isn't leaving the data connection established doing that, it's the applications using it.
http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsmobile/archive/2006/07/14/666203.aspx
I don't just make this stuff up you know, I've worked with Mobile Devices (Windows CE mainly) for some time
Regards
Phil
Hi all I've been using TESS 1.6 ROM and Radio 4.47.25.13 and did the fake Exchange server to prevent ActiveSync turning on and enabled all the power management features in Advanced Config (especially ASyncMAC power management) and I've managed to go
Standby: 98 Hours 23 minutes
Talktime: 5 minutes
Device Usage: 2 Hours 7 minutes
Mostly using Facebook application, Checking Email and Occasional webpage surf. This all from one full charge on the standard battery. I think that's pretty good! It's improved a lot with the newer radios. I've just upgraded to 4.47.25.21 hopefully this will be better!
PhilipL said:
Hi
Info on the subject here http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsmobile/archive/2005/08/01/446240.aspx
Like I say I've tested the current draw and saw no difference enabling the power management options, so I think better to leave alone, at best the settings are ignored by the drivers, at worse they may have some negative effect I can't see.
Yes there are settings that may make the phone quicker like enabling caches or making them larger, sometimes we think things are quicker, sometimes they really are Just like a computer some performance settings are off for safety, for example write caches which when enabled could mean data loss, so HTC (and any other manufacturer) will be very reluctant to enable these things, again these things are disabled for a good reason, and not just because HTC want their phones to be slower. I never said all settings should be left alone, and if you want to risk losing data for a slightly faster PDA (whether real or a placebo effect) why not.
Having the phone maintain a data connection does not use more power in itself, I have done the tests and linked to an article below. If you enable a data connection to use Push/Pull email then the fact the device is constantly polling for and retrieving email will of course eat into battery life, but it isn't leaving the data connection established doing that, it's the applications using it.
http://blogs.msdn.com/windowsmobile/archive/2006/07/14/666203.aspx
I don't just make this stuff up you know, I've worked with Mobile Devices (Windows CE mainly) for some time
Regards
Phil
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree that enabling all power saving options is probably not a good thing. I have been trying a selection
◦SD Memory power management - disabled
◦NAND Memory power management - disabled
◦SIM Memory power management - enabled
◦AsyncMAC power management - enabled
◦IrSIR power management - enabled
◦PPTP power management - enabled
◦L2TP power management - enabled
seems ok so far
Hm.. just got my D2 some days ago...
only thing I really hate is, that battery drops fast as hell!
phone was fully charged yesterday 11 PM... now at 09:30 AM battery is at 40 %...
the phone just lay on the table and only checked for mails every 60 minutes... and one phone call in the morning...
someone made same experience?
I thought battery life of Diamond 1 is bad... but now...
ChiefmasterB said:
Hm.. just got my D2 some days ago...
only thing I really hate is, that battery drops fast as hell!
phone was fully charged yesterday 11 PM... now at 09:30 AM battery is at 40 %...
the phone just lay on the table and only checked for mails every 60 minutes... and one phone call in the morning...
someone made same experience?
I thought battery life of Diamond 1 is bad... but now...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The battery thing is certainly weird. My TD2 was terrible at first never lasting a day but now lasts 3+ days and I can only put it down to using SL2U and changing over from a very old SIM to a brand new SIM.
I'm sorry I can't help more other than say it is working well here.
Tony
I am trying to compile a large list of tips and tricks that we users can use to extend the life of our small batteries.
List is here:
http://android-simplicity.blogspot.com/2009/08/bag-of-tricks-1-increase-battery-life.html
On-Going Power saving List
1. Under-clock your cpu(for root users only). Download->over clocking widget->set cpu speed to lowest value
2. Turn off GPS
3. Reduce the number of start up apps
4. Restart phone
5. Lower screen brightness
6. Turn off Wi-fi when you are not around any wifi networks
7. Turn off 3G Mobile Data Network - Settings--->Wireless Controls--->Mobile Networks and check the box that says "Use Only 2G Networks.
8. Disable auto Data Sync
9. Download and install "Power Manager"
10. Disable back ground apps - [~JDBDogg]
11. Turn off keyboard backlight (for Dream/G1 only for obvious reasons) with Backlight Off app. Only works on rooted phones. [~Chahk]
12. Turn off any unnecessary noises or vibrations, such as for on-screen keyboard and games. [~AdamPI]
13. Make sure your firmware and apps are up to date, efficiency may be improved. [~AdamPI]
14. Use headphones. [~AdamPI]
15. Turn off Bluetooth. [~AdamPI]
16. [~Yours goes here]
If you have any tricks that you use to get the most time juice out of your phone, please share them to the rest of us. Thanks.
Disable background apps
Turn off keyboard backlight (for Dream/G1 only for obvious reasons) with Backlight Off app. Only works on rooted phones.
Chahk said:
Turn off keyboard backlight (for Dream/G1 only for obvious reasons) with Backlight Off app. Only works on rooted phones.
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nice, one ! didnt think of that~
Lower the time it takes for the screen to time out.
Id also say take off any widgets you may have but i guess that falls underneath the "disable background apps" category
Bluetooth isn't mentioned.
Turn off any unnecessary noises or vibrations, such as for on-screen keyboard and games.
Make sure your firmware and apps are up to date, efficiency may be improved.
I'd guess using headphones is better than the speaker, plus no-one on the bus wants to hear your "music".
Has anyone tested decoding efficiency of video and audio codecs? AAC saves space, but does it use more battery than mp3?
up to 15
AdamPI said:
Bluetooth isn't mentioned.
Turn off any unnecessary noises or vibrations, such as for on-screen keyboard and games.
Make sure your firmware and apps are up to date, efficiency may be improved.
I'd guess using headphones is better than the speaker, plus no-one on the bus wants to hear your "music".
Has anyone tested decoding efficiency of video and audio codecs? AAC saves space, but does it use more battery than mp3?
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Now thats thinking out of the box. Thanks AdamPI
We have now 15 on the list. Lets see how long this can go~
Someone should do a test using all of these tricks and do a comparison, although it will be a very boring phone at this point with everything off.
Don't use a ROM that requires a linux-swap Partition
This causes the phone to die faster because the sd card is constantly being acessed
jf4888 said:
Don't use a ROM that requires a linux-swap Partition
This causes the phone to die faster because the sd card is constantly being acessed
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SD Cards are so cheap these days that you shoudn't worry about damaging them. In a weird way though, this advice does make sense. Swap = more apps are being kept in memory, thus more work being performed by the phone, which translates to higher power consumption.
But then again, following this logic a similar advice would be to not run any apps at all. Or better yet, just shut your phone off! Maybe then it will last a full day on a single charge
Seriously though, if you're worried about damaging your phone, read up on Lithium-Ion/Polymer batteries and how to prolong their lifespan. The main points are:
Don't let them get too hot. Heat damages battery cells and cause them to lose their capacity.
Deep discharge cycles (letting the battery drain before fully charging them) kill these batteries fast. LiIon/LiPolymer batteries like to be "topped off" once the level gets to 60-70% mark.
Discharge cycles can improve state-of-charge estimation, so only perform those when the battery meter goes out of whack and doesn't tell the charge level properly. This doesn't happen often.
They don't suffer from the "memory" and overcharge issues that used to plague batteries using older technologies (NiCad/NiMH), so it's safe to keep the phone plugged in whenever you can.
The "first-time cycle" is a myth left over from Nickel-based batteries. This means you don't need to charge the batter for 8 hours the first time you use it.
Do not use "fast chargers" since their usage can decrease the lifespan of the battery.
Get an app that turns off your data network completely (like WiSyncPlus). Not just "use 2G only" but COMPLETELY. I can go a whole weekend, with normal use, without charging my phone if I need to. (From one Fri 6am to Sun 6pm give or take was my best)
The one I use (WiSyncPlus, there are others I guess) turns off the network automatically when I unplug the charger from my phone. Txt msgs piggy back the cellular network so no issue there, otherwise, if I want to jump on the internet or check the weather, I hit the toggle switch on my Home screen...in ~3secs I'm all set again. Toggle back off when finished.
Best $3 by far I've spent on an app for my G1.
i use APNdroid for that
No one mentioned using a ROM that allows changes to the CPU scaling.
I'm on Cyanogen 4.1.2.1 and I have it scaled from 245 to 527 with the CPU only jumping up to the next clock speed when it needs it.
So, most of the time, my phone is on 245 and it clocks to 383 and then 527 as needed. I had overclock widget set so it showed me the current clock speed. Once I was comfortable with the frequency and load under which it changed speeds, I removed the widget from the desktop.
I use my phone a lot and it lasts a full day easily.
if youre using a hero rom there is an option to completely turn off mobile networks so there is no data connecion at all.
i have to go with
turn the phone off
get a car charger
spare battery or extended one