Develop Bugs

Fire + CM10 = terrible battery

Last week I flashed my Fire to run CM10. I love it except for one thing.
My battery used to last 30-40 hours before needing a charge. Now, It seems like I get about 8.
Does anyone know of any services I can kill to improve that? Should I turn off wifi unless I'm using it? Or is CM10 on the Fire just a battery hog?
My thoughts are that theres something in the rom looking for GPS, or location or phone signal or something, but I'll be hornswaggled if I can figure out what it is. (yeah, that's right, I said hornswaggled)
Tips or pointers would be appreciated.
I'm running a Mac, so if I need to run software, it'll have to be compatible. (trashed my Windows when parallels stopped working with 10.8)

ottermann said:
Last week I flashed my Fire to run CM10. I love it except for one thing.
My battery used to last 30-40 hours before needing a charge. Now, It seems like I get about 8.
Does anyone know of any services I can kill to improve that? Should I turn off wifi unless I'm using it? Or is CM10 on the Fire just a battery hog?
My thoughts are that theres something in the rom looking for GPS, or location or phone signal or something, but I'll be hornswaggled if I can figure out what it is. (yeah, that's right, I said hornswaggled)
Tips or pointers would be appreciated.
I'm running a Mac, so if I need to run software, it'll have to be compatible. (trashed my Windows when parallels stopped working with 10.8)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Download cpu spy from Play store and let it run for a few hours. Then open it and see how long your fire stays in each state. It should be deep sleeping most of the time (~80%) if you're not using the fire at all. If not, try turning wifi off and limit background app processes via developer options. If your CPU is spending a lot of time around 1000 mHz try setting up some profiles with SetCPU, such as 216 mHz max when screen is off. Once these are implemented you should see battery life pick up a bit, although not as much as a stock kindle fire. I'm getting around 80 hrs of standby time, maybe 12-15 with moderate use.

My wife don't get that much on jb eye candy. Actually her battery life is horrible on that rom
Sent from my Droid Razr using xda app-developers app

[Q] How to prevent Fire TV from sleeping?

Maybe I'm blind, but I can't find any way to prevent the Fire TV from sleeping? It stays awake if I have a sideloaded app like XBMC loaded, but if I am in an official Fire TV app, it goes to sleep after 30 minutes. This confuses guests at my house when they turn the TV on and get nothing but a black screen from the Fire TV.

Red Eye Sleep Awake seems to work fine on my Fire TV. Once running, FTV never goes to sleep.

I mainly used it for the AirPin PRO app, when FTV goes to sleep, AirPin stops working. But, after letting FTV run without sleeping for 3 to 4 days, I did find FTV much warmer to touch. It was not that important for AirPin to be available on demand for me, so I uninstalled the Red Eye app and let FTV go to sleep.

martyxng said:
Maybe I'm blind, but I can't find any way to prevent the Fire TV from sleeping? It stays awake if I have a sideloaded app like XBMC loaded, but if I am in an official Fire TV app, it goes to sleep after 30 minutes. This confuses guests at my house when they turn the TV on and get nothing but a black screen from the Fire TV.
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What was your solution? I am looking for a way to disable sleep to allow the screensaver to stay active.
Thx,
riz

Screensaver.tv said:
What was your solution? I am looking for a way to disable sleep to allow the screensaver to stay active.
Thx,
riz
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Click to collapse
I need to look at it more, but I put a needle through the mic and into the ic under to prevent the mic from ever working. left it alone for ten hours, and when I turned on the tv next, the fire was fully up. usually it takes a few slaps in the head to wake up; I think the error thrown by testing voice may have also kept it awake. I'm hoping this doesn't kill the batteries in the remote.

roustabout said:
I need to look at it more, but I put a needle through the mic and into the ic under to prevent the mic from ever working. left it alone for ten hours, and when I turned on the tv next, the fire was fully up. usually it takes a few slaps in the head to wake up; I think the error thrown by testing voice may have also kept it awake. I'm hoping this doesn't kill the batteries in the remote.
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Hey guys, anyone have a solution? thx

dbdoshi said:
Red Eye Sleep Awake seems to work fine on my Fire TV. Once running, FTV never goes to sleep.
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I have sideloaded RedEye Sleep Awake onto my Fire TV and launched it but it does not keep my Fire TV box from going to sleep. A few seconds afterwards, the Fire TV white LED goes out.
What should I try?

Not a geek said:
I have sideloaded RedEye Sleep Awake onto my Fire TV and launched it but it does not keep my Fire TV box from going to sleep. A few seconds afterwards, the Fire TV white LED goes out.
What should I try?
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Works fine for me... on both my FTVs. These are rooted FTVs (if you are not rooted, I am not sure if this app works)
My settings within the app are:
Awake Level: Fully Awake (you will need to go into that option to select it)
Start at boot: Yes
Disable when screen is turned off: No
Enable when on AC: Yes
Enable at startup: Yes
Disable on low battery: No
Disable notification Icon: No
(Yes means checked, No means not checked).
Once you have the settings verified, reboot your FTV and see if it stays up. Also, my RedEye Sleep Toggle version is 1.5.2 (free version)
Also, on my FTV under Settings, Display & Sounds, Screen Saver, the "Start Time" is set to "Never". Not sure if that makes any difference, but wanted to put it out here.

Thanks for your rapid reply, dbdoshi and for the settings detail you included.
I tried again and this time the Redeye Sleep Toggle app does indeed work.
I too have two Fire TVs and why I failed on both of 'em to get the app to work, I have no idea. Anyway, all's well that ends well...
Re the sceensaver settings, I've mine set to 5 minutes and this doesn't disturb the app behaviour at all.
Also, my Fire TVs are not rooted, merely sideloaded.
For anyone confused by the app name, at the time of writing it shows up in Google Play and on the BinaryMagi Inc website as Redeye Stay Awake, but on Android devices it shows up as Redeye Sleep Toggle.

XBMC/Kodi keeps FireTV awake

If the device is idle Kodi will dim the screen but the the FireTV will never go to sleep.
I found this in the KODI FAQs:
Note: Some options might not be available on all hardware or OSes. For example, XBMC/Kodi cannot control shutdown or sleep on Android.
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I'd like to know if there is a known workaround for this issue?

Llama?

Phil402 said:
If the device is idle Kodi will dim the screen but the the FireTV will never go to sleep.
I found this in the KODI FAQs:
I'd like to know if there is a known workaround for this issue?
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"Android Power Options" screensaver from here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=2790392
P.S. For rooted device only.

Try SPMC. It allows the aftv to go into standby and it performs really well

Just go to the XBMC setting page and set Power Saving to shutdown XBMC in 60 minutes of idle or less. This will solve your problem

SPMC does not shutdown but it allows the aftv to go into standby.

lowbee said:
Just go to the XBMC setting page and set Power Saving to shutdown XBMC in 60 minutes of idle or less. This will solve your problem
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Thank you. Totally overlooked this option.

I like SPMC so far more crashes less for me and i like that it has a button to put the fire tv in stand by mode

[Q] How do I get the FTV to sleep while in xbmc/kodi?

I set up my first FTV 4 months ago and recently got another. Everything went pretty smooth except I cant remember what I did to make it sleep after x number of minutes idle in xbmc/kodi. I think the first FTV might have SPMC on it while the second has elmerohueso's XBMC/Kodi.
Any ideas what I did last year? I have kids, my brain is mush.

cardboardbox said:
I set up my first FTV 4 months ago and recently got another. Everything went pretty smooth except I cant remember what I did to make it sleep after x number of minutes idle in xbmc/kodi. I think the first FTV might have SPMC on it while the second has elmerohueso's XBMC/Kodi.
Any ideas what I did last year? I have kids, my brain is mush.
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Can't you just review the settings on your old AFTV and emulate the same to the new one?
But if not, go to:
System settings - Settings - Power saving -> toggle the Shutdown function timer to 5 min and Shutdown function to quit.
Then, under Appearance - Screen saver - Screensaver mode to dim and Screensaver time to 3 mins.
Keeping in mind that by default AFTV takes 30 mins before it actually goes to sleep.
These are my settings on my AFTV and works like a charm.
Good luck!

Macpatto said:
Can't you just review the settings on your old AFTV and emulate the same to the new one?
But if not, go to:
System settings - Settings - Power saving -> toggle the Shutdown function timer to 5 min and Shutdown function to quit.
Then, under Appearance - Screen saver - Screensaver mode to dim and Screensaver time to 3 mins.
Keeping in mind that by default AFTV takes 30 mins before it actually goes to sleep.
These are my settings on my AFTV and works like a charm.
Good luck!
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thanks for the help. I did look at my other AFTV but the settings you mention are "Off" and "Quit" which is the default setting. I checked for installed apps that might do the sleep function but didnt see anything. I really have no idea how I did this and I did search the forum for quite a while. I'd never have figured it out myself so I know the answer must be here somewhere.
I'll try your recommendation, maybe it will be good enough.

I got it working by installing elmerohueso's screensaver.

Anyone notice how fast aftv goes to sleep?

Lots of users have experienced issues getting aftv to auto sleep. For me the workaround was to set screensaver time to "never". But now with the latest update i noticed both my aftvs are quick to sleep when its left idling. Actually this is true even if i dont force quit kodi.
I went into display settings and noticed theyve been altered --screensaver time is 5 mins.
Maybe its my imagination but it seems to sleep with less than 5 mins idle time. It now sort of acts like my phone--screen goes black if im not using it.
Im not complaining. I just think its interesting theyd find this necessary at amazon. There is no battery to conserve. Anyone have any theories on why this was fixed/modified with the latest firmware?

Some time several months back I recall reading a post from a Fire TV user in Germany, whose Fire TV wouldn't go to sleep. He was reporting that during non-sleep it was drawing excessive power. This was an issue for him because of the cost of electricity.
My best guess is that it's for energy conservation, for the Fire TV at least and in some cases for the TV. I imagine some TVs will turn off automatically after some time with a blank screen, and some TVs (such as mine) will automatically turn on when the Fire TV is woken up.

MetalMan2 said:
Some time several months back I recall reading a post from a Fire TV user in Germany, whose Fire TV wouldn't go to sleep. He was reporting that during non-sleep it was drawing excessive power. This was an issue for him because of the cost of electricity.
My best guess is that it's for energy conservation, for the Fire TV at least and in some cases for the TV. I imagine some TVs will turn off automatically after some time with a blank screen, and some TVs (such as mine) will automatically turn on when the Fire TV is woken up.
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Just doing some routine maintenance today, I launched es task manager and was fiddling trying to get my wireless mouse to work (wound up needing new battery). In a very short span--no more than 5 mins, aftv went to sleep 3 times. This to me is a good thing. Its conserving power like most modern devices should. I'm just curious as to why amazon chose to address this now. Optimistically I'm hoping they just want a more power efficient product for their consumers, but wondering if there's anything that made this necessary? If maybe those long periods without sleep could potentially wear it out now that one of my aftvs is reaching its first birthday.

KLit75 said:
Just doing some routine maintenance today, I launched es task manager and was fiddling trying to get my wireless mouse to work (wound up needing new battery). In a very short span--no more than 5 mins, aftv went to sleep 3 times. This to me is a good thing. Its conserving power like most modern devices should. I'm just curious as to why amazon chose to address this now. Optimistically I'm hoping they just want a more power efficient product for their consumers, but wondering if there's anything that made this necessary? If maybe those long periods without sleep could potentially wear it out now that one of my aftvs is reaching its first birthday.
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Click to collapse
You could try an app I use on all my Android devices. It's called Screen Timeout, and it's in the Playstore. You can place a shortcut on the desktop and click whenever you want to keep the screen from timing out on you. I combined it with Pie Control and can access it from within any app by moving my mouse the side of the screen and clicking to bring up the app, then sliding over to select the Screen Timeout app. Both apps work very well, plus the Pie Control app also has a clock feature so you can see what time it is. The only downside is the clock also has a battery display you can't get rid of, but it's pretty tiny.