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Hey people,
following on from artisticcheese's thread about battery consumption Ive performed a few tests on some different radio versions to see what the actual difference in battery consumption is.
Right now (as of 16-01-2008) I recommend the following radios:
1.47.30.10 with an overall score of 1.22 (the highest in the test)
or
1.54.30.10 with an overall score of 1.21 (2nd place).
Remember people, if you are planning on changing your radio version, flash hardspl, and make sure nothing is running which will interrupt the flash process. The radio flash is still the most risky of all flash processes and it is possible to kill the device so be sure before you flash. In doing these tests I performed over 10 radio flashes in a day and i made usre nothing CPU intensive was running on the PC and that i wasnt going to unplug the USB by accident etc...
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Test Run 16-10-08:
Before running these tests the phone was soft reset, ALL today plugins shut off (apart from x button), internet explorer for downloding and acbPowerMeter for power monitoring.
All tests again running on WM6 "V3 cabb'd III".
This set of tests is the following:
Test 1: GSM mode, backlight off, downloading for 5 minutes.
Test 2: UMTS mode, backlight off, downloading for 5 minutes.
The results vary and a pattern ive noticed is radio versions 1.47.30.10 and 1.54.30.10 seem to have the same behaviour in GSM modes, perhaps the extra ".30" in the version number denotes a particular tweak or feature??
Radio_Power_Tests_16012008.zip
Enjoy.
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Inital test run:
Using a freshly flashed version of my "V3 cabb'd" ROM which is a tweaked version of pandora naked 6 3.60 ROM with nothing installed so a lean install and using acbPowerMeter I ran the following tests on each radio rom:
Test 1: Backlight off, automatic standby disabled, all processes stopped using start>settings>system>memory. GSM only and phone left on idle.
10 minutes and average current consumption recorded.
Test 2: Same as test 2 , UMTS only.
Ive taken a screenshot of the data with magicss and normalised the results so the earliest radio version tested is the baseline score.
The results of the first test are in the attached spreadsheet and screenshots.
Conclusions:
The results show that overall the differences are neglegable for these tests, however I still believe there is a major difference in practice. So the next load of tests I propose will test the power consumption with data connection attached. Somehow I want to test during a call or download since the HSDPA power consumption is likely to be a BIG number.
how comes you didnt test the latest radio versions? *waits for more results*
nice idea though
each test involves flashing a new radio (20 mins-ish) and two ten minute test runs...I need to use my Tytn today so can probably try the other radios later on, it takes a fair ammount of time for each one so i only went from the ground (1.43.00.00) to the one currently on my device (1.47.30.10) last night. I abandoned doing the later ones until ive figured out a worthwhile test to run for ALL versions. Ive presented my findings so far to show that essentially the 4 versions i tried are identical under idle conditions...not really a true to life test.
..big thanks to u bro! ..awesome work as usual..
mrvanx said:
each test involves flashing a new radio (20 mins-ish) and two ten minute test runs...I need to use my Tytn today so can probably try the other radios later on, it takes a fair ammount of time for each one so i only went from the ground (1.43.00.00) to the one currently on my device (1.47.30.10) last night. I abandoned doing the later ones until ive figured out a worthwhile test to run for ALL versions. Ive presented my findings so far to show that essentially the 4 versions i tried are identical under idle conditions...not really a true to life test.
Click to expand...
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Yeah, I think it will be the 3G call and HSDPA tests where the benefit of testing will be found.
My own tests show little difference in the idle power consumption.
I made very good experience with 1.41.00.10.
Good signal and low power consumption!
I've changed from 1.54 to 1.48 and I can honestly say my phone goes another day or two without charging!!!!!!!
Im gonna do some more tests tonight on the new format probably with some sort of download running (web n walk is usefull hehe).
So i'll post some more results later on if i can.
The best radio rom I've ever used
I tried many different radio roms for my Jasjam, believe me the best radio rom I've used regarding to power usage and signal is 1.46.00.11.
Even when using UMTS and 3G, in other radio roms; when connecting to internet with my laptop, I mean using Jasjam as access point to internet , the battery drains fast even if the Jasjam is connected to charger. but in this radio rom, when the charger is on, the battery stays stable and the Imate can also get charged. I know that this radio rom is designed for Trinity which is GPS enabled, but I am telling my experience. THANKS
For your testing goodness, here are pretty much all the radio roms I have ever come across.
http://www.crc.id.au/files/xda/Radio_Roms/
They are in .nb format - so you'll need to use Duttys tool to get them into .nbh files.
The power consumption is definately related to voice call usage.
My normal usage in a day means I use about 50 - 80% of my battery.
Whilst away in Tenerife I used my phone exactly the same but without making voice calls and I only used 50% after 3 -4 days.
This is certainly true. I was away in a place with no mobile coverage (no GSM or UTMS) and using the device for GPS navigation only I was able to get 2-3 full days out of the standard battery.
What is necessary to detect the correct battery consumption?
Something like this: http://www.vandenmuyzenberg.nl/PowerGuard/ ???
Should I use this tool?
matar said:
What is necessary to detect the correct battery consumption?
Something like this: http://www.vandenmuyzenberg.nl/PowerGuard/ ???
Should I use this tool?
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Click to collapse
Both threads you have posted in have shown you the program that is to be used. Why do you keep asking?
Starfury said:
The power consumption is definately related to voice call usage.
My normal usage in a day means I use about 50 - 80% of my battery.
Whilst away in Tenerife I used my phone exactly the same but without making voice calls and I only used 50% after 3 -4 days.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Experienced exactly the same thing when I was in Majorca. Even though I did use the phone a lot for sending as MMS (as that was free for me) I still got more usage out of the phone in Majorca if I had done pretty much the same usage pattern over here (UK) and that is because I suspect there transmitters put out a stronger signal, which means the phone has to 'work' less to get a stronger signal.
Starfury said:
Both threads you have posted in have shown you the program that is to be used. Why do you keep asking?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry for double posting, but I read that those tools doesn't show the correct consumption because they needs power themselves and therefore distort the result... Maybe somebody can confirm this? Thank You.
A very good point. I've known the radio kicks up the power when you have a low signal, and if it's lost - I turn off the radio until I get back to a good area or it really kills the battery fast.
Just thinking here, but to add another level of complexity to the testing - while statically measuring power drain without moving the device will give repeatable results, could a radio power draw "react" differently to signal strength variations, and not be as "efficient" compared to others while on the move (typical usage)?
For example, if the signal goes above 50db (no idea if I'm even using the correct scale here ) it incrementally increases power by 20% for 10 seconds each until an "acceptable" signal level is reached. Once this is achieved, will it reduce back down - say you came around a building an now have a better signal? How long will that take? Will some radios respond more rapidly than others - optimizing power usage vs signal strength?
Dammit Matt! Now you've really got me thinking
In a bit of the background on this, the GSM/UTMS protocol allows the base station to tell the mobile to increase or decrease the transmit power of the phone. This allows it to tune the performance of the phones radio to get the optimum signal level at the cell site. It also helps a heap in deciding what cell towers to jump between and all the critical handoff levels and names.
Much more info can be found:
http://www.patentstorm.us/patents/5357513-description.html
There's a lovely paper about it all here - but I don't want to pay for it
http://www.actapress.com/PaperInfo.aspx?PaperID=18185&reason=500
power useage is down to lots of different factors, one of the main culprits is use of HSDPA/3G and it bounsing up and down between it and GSM when the local Cell doesnt support it or has a weak signal.
I can't believe the statement made above about the battery being used quicker when you talk, of course its going to drain quicker, its permanently transmitting for gods sake
It also depends on how strong the signal to the nearest cell/Base Station is, if its a week signal then the radio/phone will bounce around to find a stronger one, I believe typically a phone will register with up to 3 base stations to enable you to auto switch between cells when you move.
if you're really bored and want to dig into how GSM works heres a starter for 10
http://www.fci-cu.edu.eg/INFOS2005/presentation/GSM_Concepts.pdf
If you want to test weak signals stick your phone in a tin box, assuming this doesnt kill the signal totally then the phone should start ramping up its power output and sucking the battery dry quicker.
My point was made in reference to the testing of the phone to see what uses the most battery and indicating that we should direct our testing at the phone application over any others.
Hi,
all Rom threads have a rather big amount of discussions about battery life. It seems battery life varies between 8 hours to several days. Several reasons for this are addressed and one might check this first before anything else
1. Usage. If you use your phone you discharge it. Use it heavily with all whistle and bells turned on and you discharge it quickly.
2. Apps. Some apps like to phone home, sending or fetching frequently data. For some apps this is obvious. However, some might be hidding this or they are just bad programmed.
Using Powertutor and juiceplotter help to identify those battery eating apps. E. g., VoIP- or Mailclients, etc. are candidates being for battery sucking monsters.
3. Signal reception might make a different. The radio modules trying to minimize the sending power to save battery. If you put the phone in an box, bag or whatever the radio module might switch to a higher sending level to reach the cell tower.
In general you can't do much, simply choice "good" locations wherever possible.
4. Cell search and switching. Using a train or any other fast moving vehicle might require to switch very frequently between different cell towers. Every switch consumes power since data will be exchanged. If no cell signal is found the phone starts searching for one which consumes more power. Switch to flight mode if possible.
This are already steps which helps to safe a big chunk of the batteryand all this steps are completely rom independent.
In my opinion roms might contribute only to a small amount to the battery power. Maybe there is a buggy program or some settings are not optimized. However any more or less stable Rom should result in a rather similar battery life time.
Same is true for the kernel. Sure undervoltage, different schedulers, etc. might all change something regarding the power consumption. However this could not explain this very different reported battery life times. Its more in the range of +- 2 hours.
I know it was discussed sometimes already. I believe that some reported battery problems are due to a wrong combination of libs and settings for the used radio module.
Many people upgraded to the newest radio, however the local carrier might slightly modified settings to there specific needs. Furthermore, the might use a special tailored library enhanced by functions for there particular network.
This was given, at least for the Japanese carrier Softbank.
build.prop contains some special calls and a look into the library libhtc_ril show corresponding functions.
If roms carrier a different version of libhtc_ril and does not call settings in build.prop people on the particular carrier might observe battery drains.
Even worth the present situation creates random combination of radio firmware, build.prop, and libhtc_ril.
What might be needed is a installation routine for a Rom, which is capable to modify and replace above mentioned files for the given carrier.
I know that this would work since I'm doing it manually every time I install a different rom.
Would be glad to hear other opinions on this topic.
sure, the use of my phone make different battery drain but with the same use, this same battery drain change with the rom installed in this same phone! and the radio or the kernel of this same rom can make also difference in the battery drain (cf DeFroST for exemple...) with a scale between 8 and 20 hours!!! so i think the rom have a lot importance in battery drain ;-)
Hi,
I think one has to differentiate between an potential bug in a rom which might drain the battery and a "stable" rom.
From the technical point you can tweak rom and kernel to the max but this would never result in 4 times longer battery.
I would not say thay you can't get a kernel highly optimized for performance which might drain much more. However, in general all roms come with power-savvy kernels the small differences between those kernels could in my opinion not make such a big differences.
Same is well known for laptops. Sure a stock kernel might drain faster but even if I tweak out the very last options in the kernel settings I could never improve battery life time by 400%. That would be instead of 2 hours my laptop would suddenly hold 8 or more hours.
I belive the same is true to roms. There are some which emphase light the use of light apps and avoid animations and other battery eating eye candy. However, it can't result in an difference of 3-4 times, unlike something is simply wrong within the rom.
The main point is, nobody seems to give attention to the different modifications different carriers introduce in stock roms.
Thus, using a rom for which libs and settings come originally from T-mobile UK might fail heavily for Softbank Japan, or Verizon US.
What would be needed is
1. Awareness of the different carrier-based settings.
2. An application which is capable to modify and replace the mentioned files specific for the used carrier.
Definitely,the battery life should be associated with ROM.The models of running ROM are different-----how the SD card works..
I've been plagued with reboots. Every time I use any app for a long period of time over 3g, the phone heats up and reboots. I've tried everything. I've read this is somewhat common.
My question is has anyone having this issue tried flashing the rUU to fix it? Any success? I don't want to waste my time un rooting and rooting again if it doesn't fix the problem.
Thanks!
Sent from my 2.3.5 Incredible Obsession
Bump...anyone?
Sent from my 2.3.5 Incredible Obsession
You mention "a long period of time", how extended is your use? The Inc is known to reboot due to overheating as the device is not the most ventilated product available. Using the RUU will likely be useless because you mention this overheating is with any internet app then the behavior will continue. The following are manners that may result in overheating:
1) excessive/constant 3g use (for example using Navigation and keeping the phone in direct sunlight)
2) using internet heavy apps in low signal areas (i.e. having 1-2 bars and using 3G will run your phone hot in a matter of moments with low signal.)
3) Keeping your phone in sunny areas or improper ventilation during use
If the overheating occurs with genuinely coded apps like Maps/Navigation, dolphin browser, ESPN, etc. then you need to curb your 3G usage and get on available wifi. If this is on various roms, the only constant is your time on 3G.
SlimSnoopOS said:
You mention "a long period of time", how extended is your use? The Inc is known to reboot due to overheating as the device is not the most ventilated product available. Using the RUU will likely be useless because you mention this overheating is with any internet app then the behavior will continue. The following are manners that may result in overheating:
1) excessive/constant 3g use (for example using Navigation and keeping the phone in direct sunlight)
2) using internet heavy apps in low signal areas (i.e. having 1-2 bars and using 3G will run your phone hot in a matter of moments with low signal.)
3) Keeping your phone in sunny areas or improper ventilation during use
If the overheating occurs with genuinely coded apps like Maps/Navigation, dolphin browser, ESPN, etc. then you need to curb your 3G usage and get on available wifi. If this is on various roms, the only constant is your time on 3G.
Click to expand...
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Thank you!! This is exactly what I needed. It happens when I have crap signal and use navigation or when I'm listening to music at the pool.
Sent from my 2.3.5 Incredible Obsession
Not a problem, really the thanks goes to HTC haha also if you notice your battery heating up too quickly even while ventilated then maybe upgrading the battery will ease that a bit.
SlimSnoopOS said:
Not a problem, really the thanks goes to HTC haha also if you notice your battery heating up too quickly even while ventilated then maybe upgrading the battery will ease that a bit.
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Click to collapse
I can vouch for that. I went to using the 3500 mAh battery and the problems pretty much went away. Cases don't help the cause at all; a fact that led me to ditching mine entirely.
Even, my phone heats up and reboots while using over 3G. Also battery gets heated while using navigation, playing games etc. I’m on Stock Gingerbread ROM, with S-Off, rooted and on gingertiny Kernel. I tried using the phone after swapping battery with OEM battery of a fellow Dinc user and also 3500 mah battery but the problem still persists. I’m located in India and using the phone on Reliance Network. What could be the cause of this? Kindly help me with some solution..
I love my s3. but once I updated to jb the freaking battery life is so bad.... it is constantly draning withiut me doing anything in it. And today gmail was on the top of the list. I didnt even use gmail today. Can someone please guide me and tell me how I fix this? Do I really need to go back to ics. I go to high school and I never use my phone but still it drains... do I really need to go back to ics? My battery life on ics was amazing but I wantdd this update and now I am regretting this update so much. Please help?
Go to an AOKP rom
Sent from my SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2
It would be worth gathering more info here before moving on to more drastic steps like flashing another ROM to deal with battery issues.
Can you start by posting screenshots of your battery life screens (go here for some examples of what I mean)? The things I'd personally be most interested in seeing are screen on duration and your wireless connectivity; if you're leaving your screen on and/or you're in areas with poor network connectivity (wifi or mobile), those can both tend to eat into battery life in various ways - for example, e-mail apps (this probably includes Gmail, but as I use other mail apps I don't know for sure) can eat battery life in areas with poor network connectivity in their futile efforts to maintain a connection to the mail server.
Apart from those basic drains, you can get a better idea of what's eating battery life by identifying causes of wakelocks, i.e. what's keeping your phone awake when it should be asleep. BetterBatteryStats is my go-to for this. The info it generates is really helpful for figuring out what applications are eating battery life and how they're doing so.
Hope this is of use.
Flashing a rom is not drastic
It was only a suggestion based on all the reports of battery issues with the official JB release.
Sent from my SGH-I747 using Tapatalk 2
smelenchuk said:
It would be worth gathering more info here before moving on to more drastic steps lik flashing another ROM to deal with battery issues.
Can you start by posting screenshots of your battery life screens (go here for some examples of what I mean)? The things I'd personally be most interested in seeing are screen on duration and your wireless connectivity; if you're leaving your screen on and/or you're in areas with poor network connectivity (wifi or mobile), those can both tend to eat into battery life in various ways - for example, e-mail apps (this probably includes Gmail, but as I use other mail apps I don't know for sure) can eat battery life in areas with poor network connectivity in their futile efforts to maintain a connection to the mail server.
Apart from those basic drains, you can get a better idea of what's eating battery life by identifying causes of wakelocks, i.e. what's keeping your phone awake when it should be asleep. BetterBatteryStats is my go-to for this. The info it generates is really helpful for figuring out what applications are eating battery life and how they're doing so.
Hope this is of use.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Icantell you right now I just checked and the kernel wakelock that is preventing my phone to enter deep sleep is msm_otg. How can I disable this?
Some digging on my part suggests that that wakelock is USB-related, though theories as to the cause vary. Some of the suggested solutions I've seen are using a different USB cable to charge the phone, or doing a factory reset.
Hi all
This may seem like a stupid question but I'm racking my brain for solutions.
Previously I've been quite impressed with the battery life on the M8, however recently updated to the most recent firmware so I can use the current version of ARHD and since then I've seen a considerable reduction in battery life. For example, today I've been off charge for just under 12 hours and have used the device very little (1 hour 26 of screen on time) and I'm down to 20%, with screen usage right at the top of the battery use chart. I've tried different ROMS, into a GPE ROM, only to see this poor life continue.
The handset was bought from Three in the UK, and on baseband 1.19.21331147A1.09G-20.57.4196.01L_F.
I'm at a bit of a loss basically, and trying to narrow down a culprit. If anyone has got any ideas I'd be very thankful.
munkimatt said:
Hi all
This may seem like a stupid question but I'm racking my brain for solutions.
Previously I've been quite impressed with the battery life on the M8, however recently updated to the most recent firmware so I can use the current version of ARHD and since then I've seen a considerable reduction in battery life. For example, today I've been off charge for just under 12 hours and have used the device very little (1 hour 26 of screen on time) and I'm down to 20%, with screen usage right at the top of the battery use chart. I've tried different ROMS, into a GPE ROM, only to see this poor life continue.
The handset was bought from Three in the UK, and on baseband 1.19.21331147A1.09G-20.57.4196.01L_F.
I'm at a bit of a loss basically, and trying to narrow down a culprit. If anyone has got any ideas I'd be very thankful.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think so, I've been having problems with mine recently but I thought it was because I'd rooted and then unrooted back to stock this week. Now I suspect it might have something to do with the latest FW. I'm managing around 18 hours but there's something keeping the phone awake so it can't get into a full sleep and save the juice.
eternal_inertia said:
I think so, I've been having problems with mine recently but I thought it was because I'd rooted and then unrooted back to stock this week. Now I suspect it might have something to do with the latest FW. I'm managing around 18 hours but there's something keeping the phone awake so it can't get into a full sleep and save the juice.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi guys. I'm on the latest FW2.22.401.4 too. On my main uni (rooted but stock) I'm not confronting such problems. But on my secondary unit with ViperOne (M8) installed I'm having such problems sometimes (not always). Think this is quite wired, as Venom works with the stock kernel ....
munkimatt said:
[Q] Can firmware be related to battery life?
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Click to collapse
Absolutely. Firmware contains radio baseband, which IMO cell reception is one of the greatest contributors to battery drain (aside from the more obvious factors like screen on time, runaway wakelocks, etc.). It could be that the new radio does not happen to play well in your area. This would also explain if some folks are getting better battery life than you on the same firmware, as reception is often a local factor.