Is there an application that could turn GPS ON or OFF manually in our HTC Advantage?
cktlcmd said:
Is there an application that could turn GPS ON or OFF manually in our HTC Advantage?
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Usually, this is a function within the GPS application itself. In many of them, there is an option that allows you to decide whether GPS should still continue to run when you switch off the device. In many situation, I find it sensible to leave the GPS running while the device is switched off, so that you still know where you are while switching off the device to conserve power. If this is not what you want, you can always choose to switch the GPS off.
eaglesteve said:
Usually, this is a function within the GPS application itself. In many of them, there is an option that allows you to decide whether GPS should still continue to run when you switch off the device. In many situation, I find it sensible to leave the GPS running while the device is switched off, so that you still know where you are while switching off the device to conserve power. If this is not what you want, you can always choose to switch the GPS off.
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I see your point. I was a little concerned how it will affect battery life if left ON all the time.
cktlcmd said:
I see your point. I was a little concerned how it will affect battery life if left ON all the time.
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Glad that you do.
It is exactly because we try to conserve power that we allow switching off the device while keeping the GPS running. GPS applications, if not closed, are usually useless if the GPS is not running.
Since the GPS is a passive system I mean only "listen" don't emit signal the power used by that chip is a few even if it's connected.
The people argue that the GPS drains the battery but that is only half true. What really drains the battery is not the GPS itself is the program (Tomtom as an example) running in the CPU and the screen being on for long time. As I told you since the GPS chip only "listen" for signal shouldn't consume too much.
This is not the case of GSM, Wifi and Bluetooth and their associated chips. Those three systems emit signal draining the battery.
Best regards,
mahjong
P.S.: Sorry about my english... I hope you understand what I'm saying.
mahjong said:
Since the GPS is a passive system I mean only "listen" don't emit signal the power used by that chip is a few even if it's connected.
The people argue that the GPS drains the battery but that is only half true. What really drains the battery is not the GPS itself is the program (Tomtom as an example) running in the CPU and the screen being on for long time. As I told you since the GPS chip only "listen" for signal shouldn't consume too much.
This is not the case of GSM, Wifi and Bluetooth and their associated chips. Those three systems emit signal draining the battery.
Best regards,
mahjong
P.S.: Sorry about my english... I hope you understand what I'm saying.
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Thanks. It's very clear to me. I find this to be very true. When I use my mobile golf scorer, after four hours of use, it uses less than 10% of the battery although GPS is on throughout. The difference is that I switch on and off the device between use.
But is there a way to switch on GPS and/or to monitor its status? Telenav seems to have troubles finding the GPS at times...
Thanks everyone. This thread actually answered all my questions. This is my first GPS phone, so I'm a newbie with regards to GPS.
Related
Can anybody tell me how strong a drain on the battery Bluetooth will have if it's simply left on but not being used? I usually just leave Bluetooth on all the time even if I don't have my headset with me...will this kill the battery? Everything I've read in the past indicates that Bluetooth in this state isn't much of a battery drain at all.
Thanks!
Not By me.
I have BT on all the time and go throught two full days of usage.
CJNYC said:
Can anybody tell me how strong a drain on the battery Bluetooth will have if it's simply left on but not being used? I usually just leave Bluetooth on all the time even if I don't have my headset with me...will this kill the battery? Everything I've read in the past indicates that Bluetooth in this state isn't much of a battery drain at all.
Thanks!
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I've always made a lot of thorough battery consumption tests. In new(er) HTC devices, BT battery drain has been a non-issue.
Please also see my articles - I've published a LOT of info on all these (and similar) q's.
Thanks Menneisyys!
Also no problem here.
I also use A2DP alot when at work and usually still don't need to charge the device at all. Sometimes it will sit in it's sync cradle and get a extra battery life but I'm usually not at my desk long. If you were to leave it on discovery mode it will use a little extra but the BT chips nowadays are excellent for minimal battery consumtion/power drain.
I also use a BT carkit which I guess I'm connected to for about 1 hour each day and still see no major battery drop. My old JasJar used to have to be charged upto twice a day with all the above use.
I've had the TyTN now for over 1 month and never had to shut it down due to low battery.
Gav.
GavinN said:
If you were to leave it on discovery mode it will use a little extra
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Let me disagree. I've also thoroughly tested this and found no difference. (See my power & battery consumption-related articles.)
That is, you can safely leave BT discoverability on.
Let me repeat that again,
"it will use a little extra" not LOADS extra but a little. I'm pretty sure of that but I agree with you that you will probably not see much difference in general use, just thought I'd mention it.
Just think though - you will be broadcasting/transmitting BT identity information when in discovery mode which you were not when discovery was off.
Gav.
Hi !
I found following Post and think this might be interresting for you,....
http://elfurl.com/i9why
GPS and battery life on the G1
Lots of users/developers assume that if you enable the GPS you will drain your battery more quickly than if you don’t. While this may be true on the iPhone, on the G1 it is actually not true.
Your GPS is simply a radio receiver (k band). On some devices the radio needs to be enabled to get a ‘fix’, but on the G1 the k band radio is ALWAYS on. The G1 uses the radio for several phone features instead of using another band. As a result regardless of whether or not you have your GPS on the radio that receives the sat signals is on - the battery life of your phone won’t be different. This is great news for developers.
There is an open source project that provides a service that location dependant applications can use to ‘pre-fetch’ location data so that it is ALWAYS available regardless of whether or not you can get an immediate GPS fix. It also fixes another problem - the time it takes the GPS to obtain a fix (30-60 seconds). Whenever you use ShopSavvy to scan an item we need to figure out where you are to give you a local price. Even if you can get a GPS fix when you scan a barcode, we might not be able to get the GPS coordinates before we provide the pricing results - as a result you won’t get local results. By prefetching your location regularly we can use the last known result which is likely very close to your current location.
Anyway, turn on the GPS!
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On my UK RC8 it specifically warns that turning on GPS satellites requires more battery.
aliburns said:
On my UK RC8 it specifically warns that turning on GPS satellites requires more battery.
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As do RC33 and ADP builds. While Big In Japan makes an interesting argument I'd like to see either some good evidence or Google engineers input before leaving it on all the time.
How about the fact that even when it is "on", it is not actually "on" unless you see the icon in the notification bar.
lbcoder said:
How about the fact that even when it is "on", it is not actually "on" unless you see the icon in the notification bar.
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That automatically doesn't tell me it's not actively sync'ing with a satellite and burning juice. Along those same lines do any of the battery monitoring apps on the Market actually work? As in, do they give you reliable battery draw levels over a period of time?
uberingram said:
That automatically doesn't tell me it's not actively sync'ing with a satellite and burning juice. Along those same lines do any of the battery monitoring apps on the Market actually work? As in, do they give you reliable battery draw levels over a period of time?
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Watts seems to work rather well. It also tells you what is causing the battery to drain as it reads the Android log files.
Your GPS is simply a radio receiver (k band).
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Well, the K band is 20 - 40 GHz, but GPS (the non-military L1 frequency) is at 1575,42 MHz.
The other parts of the blog post sound similarly 'imaginary' to me.
Battery Drain G1
Guys,I own a T Mobile G1 Android 1.6 Phone and recently I’m facing some problems. The problem that appeared recently is with the battery drain. before some days ago the battery of my G1 lasted up to 4-5 days, without using Wireless, GPS, and Bluetooth. If I used the mentioned services normally the battery lasted up to two days. But recently the battery is draining too fast. Within 4 hours the battery goes down less then 15% even I do not use any mentioned services. I keep my phone on standby, without talking a single minute with the phone, not using any service etc, and again it goes down very quick. I took some measures according to HTC instructions how to save the battery but again it does not function. I uninstalled all applications and reset the phone to factory setting by again same thing. Then I searched on the Google some instructions, I tried also that one’s but again it does not function. I always used HTC charger that came with the phone but again same problem. What is the strangest thing that after some days the battery gets back and works perfectly for two weeks, which means I use the phone normally without charging 4-5 days. As I operate very well with the smartphones, Pocket PC’s etc I start analyzing G1 and monitoring very closely why the battery goes down, I monitored for a long time the query under the :About Phone-Battery use- and I see there that Andorid OS is using the battery from 76% up to 85%. Now it came to my mind that something is keeping engaged or it keeps running the Andorid OS always on. Then I suspected that thre my be any virus on my phone, but I installed form Market Flexilis/lookout antivirus application, but there was no virus and again the battery goes very quickly down. As I said after sometime the system returns to normal and the battery lasts for 4-5 days, and when I check the information under Phone,Battery use, I see that the Andorid OS is spending only 6% of the battery. Comparing with the previous description it is a huge difference. According to my opinion there is a small problem with any file which keeps always running to much the Andorid OS. Can you please give me any instruction why Andorid OS is spending that much the battery? Or give me any instruction how to prevent this operation that keeps Android OS to much engaged? or is there any programming mistake?, is there any need for update?, do I need to root my phone as it is not rooted? The reason why I’m thinking that there is a technical problem is because sometimes the system gets back to normal and sometimes it goes out of normal running. I appreciate a lot if you could help me to resolve the mentioned problem.
I found that the some GPS tool will not actually close GPS when it was terminated (Google maps seems OK), even when the phone was switched to fly mode. Battery was drained very quickly in this situation. Is there any too can check current status of GPS and also manage it?
How did you found out ?
Normally, I'll put phone to fly mode during night and it will consume about 5% power. But if I used GPS in that day, the power consumption would be ~20%.
flypp said:
Normally, I'll put phone to fly mode during night and it will consume about 5% power. But if I used GPS in that day, the power consumption would be ~20%.
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I can't provide much more details, but I'd rather tell you to look elsewhere for the solution to that huge battery drain, as from what I know it's very unlikely to be gps's fault.
The gps is turned off by the device whenever you put the hd2 to sleep with the power button, in fact every app that uses it also loses the location (see navicomputer, nonigpsplot, and tomtom) when you turn off the display.
So, even if the app "forgot" to turn off the gps, it would be turned off when you press power button.
Just to make sure, have you checked with a task manager if the gps is really closed? Some apps (GPS or otherwise) dont really close when you close them, they merely move to the background.
The suggestion GPS is always closed when you sleep the device is not correct, some apps prevent real sleep, exactly to prevent loss of fix.
I'm sure that all GPS related software was closed. The answer from HTC customer support was to remove the buggy GPS software.
I understand the effects of leaving 4G, BT, and even 3G for that matter, ON can consume more battery life. However, what's the consensus on GPS. I have it OFF and turn it ON every time I'm using Google Navigation, etc. However, this is getting quite annoying. Will GPS really turn "off" itself if an application is not using it? I heard that the HTC Sense Weather widget will use the GPS for its refreshing and just that alone will affect battery life.
So what is the final verdict? I feel we've had plenty of time to test our theories by now.
akarol said:
I understand the effects of leaving 4G, BT, and even 3G for that matter, ON can consume more battery life. However, what's the consensus on GPS. I have it OFF and turn it ON every time I'm using Google Navigation, etc. However, this is getting quite annoying. Will GPS really turn "off" itself if an application is not using it? I heard that the HTC Sense Weather widget will use the GPS for its refreshing and just that alone will affect battery life.
So what is the final verdict? I feel we've had plenty of time to test our theories by now.
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It says in Settings > Location > Use GPS Satellites "Uncheck to conserve battery", so I have to believe it will consume more battery when left on.
I leave it on, and get better than a full day of use from phone.
Only time when it flipped out was when I installed Yelp.
I was in my basement, and my battery went from 100% to 15% in 3 hours.
Uninstalled Yelp. Problem gone.
I was definitely under the impression that gps only used battery when it was being utilized. Hmmm I keep mine on all the time, so maybe its time to turn it off and see if there is a difference.
Sent from my EVO from the Apple Store.
GPS ON should only use more battery when an application that needs GPS asks for it. Android is really good about showing you an icon in the taskbar when the GPS chip is actually used.
I definitely leave GPS on since its only really "ON" and being used when the icon appears at the top of the screen. Otherwise its just available for us when its on.
The term used for the button should really be "Available" or "Unavailable" rather than on and off.
If your wondering about battery safe go into settings and undetermined battery it will show ways absorbing the most power. Believe it or not the how doesn't consume that much
sent from the EVO while punching an iPhone user!
really ? ofcourse it does
I doubt it consumes more than a fraction of your battery if left on. For that reason, I can't imagine having to manually turn GPS on and off throughout the day - complete waste of time. Even if it chews 5% of your battery in the course of a day(and I doubt it's that much) it's worth leaving on, unless you truly never use it.
My test & results regarding the 60mA standby high battery drain in Android -PLS READ
Hi all. This is a continuation to the thread here but as that thread is full of theories and speculation I figure I'd start a new thread with 'real world' results when it comes to this battery drain issue in Android.
I've been trying hard this weekend to replicate that's been causing the seemingly spontaneous leaps to high battery drain in standby.
I can confirm, at least on my end (UK HD2, WM6.5 CleanEx, Android Darkstone SuperRAM 1.5) that enabling airplane mode in WM before booting android DOES NOT stop the high battery drain.
It seems, at least right now, that the battery drain in indeed caused by the GPS module either being or having been active in Android.
This morning I was having regular 5-9mA drain in standby. I enabled GPS on the way to work, took the phone off the charger and BAM... 60mA in standby thereafter (long after closing all GPS-enabled apps).
Rather than rebooting or anything like that, I plain disabled the GPS module via the Power Control widget (you can add it to part of your homescreen). Switched backlight off and on again a few seconds later... 5-9mA drain (and this is with WiFi enabled)
Here's a test I've just done.
Conditions:
- Loaded DarkStone's Froyo SuperRAM 1.5.
- WiFi, Data, Sync, Auto-brightness, 3G+2G enabled. Bluetooth isn't enabled.
- I won't be rebooting, using task managers or anything like that in between tests as I want to find a 'practical' solution to this issue until a fix is found. Rebooting, waiting for a GPS lock, etc every time you wish to put your phone in your pocket isn't practical.
- If I report ~5mA this is just what's being said by CurrentWidget. It may spike a few seconds later but we can, I think, safely assume that there is a major difference between ~5-30mA readings and ~59-90mA readings.
Results:
1. ~5mA to ~10mA in standby since disabling GPS in Power Controls.
2. Enabled GPS control again and we're up to ~59mA to ~90mA in standby.
3. Kept GPS control enabled but disabled "Use wireless networks" in Data and Security - ~59mA in standby (NOTHING LOWER!).
4. Disabled GPS from Power Control widget again and we're back down to ~9mA
5. Kept GPS disabled but enabled "Use wireless networks" in Data and Security, then opened Google Maps to get my location based on cell tower. Switched screen off. ~10mA in standby.
6. Enabled GPS again - ~60mA in standby
7. Disabled GPS again - ~9mA
Conclusion:
There seems to be a serious problem with the GPS module/driver/whatever under Android when it comes to power management!
SO - it seems, at least for me, that the only solution to this issue right now is to disable GPS altogether and renable it when I want to use a GPS-based application. This isn't great as these wonderful devices are heavily built around being able to keep track of your and friends locations, movements and all other GPS-orientated tasks.
So +1 for an urgent call out to the devs to took further into this issue! Please everyone keep posting your results as this is the biggest, if not only, thing keeping me and I'm sure others from saying Android is perfect for the HD2!
On another note - I also find that the battery discharges when GPS is enabled (e.g. running Google Navigation or Sygic Aura) even whilst plugged in to my car's 12v port via USB adapter. This isn't *always* the case, but it ALWAYS can only 'trickle charge' at best... i.e. An hour on the road using GMaps/Aura will, at best, have around 7% put back into the battery. Under WM with TomTom active the phone would have charged/held its charge quickly. This makes using Android on the HD2 for long trips pointless.
Hope these results help weed out this issue that's been driving me and many others insane for a long time!!
I'd like to elaborate on my last point a little more. The stuff about the battery drain / lack of fast charge in the car with GPS enabled.
I disabled GPS and plugged the HD2 into my 12v, it charged pretty quick. As soon as I enabled GPS and ran for example Google Navigation it would either lose %s despite being plugged in or just *barely* charge after being plugged in for a while.
Remember I have no problem charging and holding charge in WM with GPS active. I had a similar problem with my HTC Hermes in-car years ago.
So this again points to the GPS chip or driver putting excessive strain on the battery, under Android.
Who else has been using Android for Navigation in their car and noticed this?
I will switch radios but I've been though probably half a dozen radios since Android came to the HD2 and experienced this problem with all of them!
SMS92 said:
I'd like to elaborate on my last point a little more. The stuff about the battery drain / lack of fast charge in the car with GPS enabled.
I disabled GPS and plugged the HD2 into my 12v, it charged pretty quick. As soon as I enabled GPS and ran for example Google Navigation it would either lose %s despite being plugged in or just *barely* charge after being plugged in for a while.
Remember I have no problem charging and holding charge in WM with GPS active. I had a similar problem with my HTC Hermes in-car years ago.
So this again points to the GPS chip or driver putting excessive strain on the battery, under Android.
Who else has been using Android for Navigation in their car and noticed this?
I will switch radios but I've been though probably half a dozen radios since Android came to the HD2 and experienced this problem with all of them!
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check your hd2 if it is charging as USB (charge only) or as a regular charger. That happened to me when I used the wrong cable for the charger.
You should definitely try recalibrating your battery, and as jose mentioned, if you're using a charger\cable that isn't meant for your device it will slowly damage your battery.. so I would recalibrate and wipe batt stats. Also, using EBL set to 3 sec helps a lot and using SetCPU with correct profile settings.. the list goes on man, the quicker you boot from winmo to android the better. (switching to nand might be a good decision as well if your ready to lose WM.. huge difference)
There's quite a few battery threads now.. might want to take a peak
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=9019755&postcount=29339
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=734886
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=8990839#post8990839
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=10433749#post10433749
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=881958
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=827355
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=819534
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=825989
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=796134
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=749753
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=737001
That should do it I think..
Scabes24 said:
... if you're using a charger\cable that isn't meant for your device it will slowly damage your battery..
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Curious about this statement. What would define the wrong cable? Thickness? Aren't all micro usb connections the same?
My HD2, running Dutty FAM V24 ROM, SD card version android built 2.2.1 with Sense. I installed the current widgets which shows i have over 100 mA draining even when my phone is not used. Thank for your information disabling the GPS in Power Control Widget, I now have 6-8 mA during phone standby.
Looks like this make sense having the GPS disabling, compromising some features but having 2 OS in one phone is fairly acceptable. I can just switch back to WM6.5 when I need navigation.