Database Users

Battery runtime using Bluetooth

Hello together,
yesterday I made a test about the battery runtime using Bluetooth.
Conditions:
GPS mouse connected by Bluetooth in 1m distance with free view.
38400 bits/s transfer rate.
Oziexplorer is only program running at Qtek s200 and stores track points.
Backlight is switched of.
Measurement was at standstill, so Oziexplorer doesn´t need to change/move the map.
Result:
After 4.5 hours the battery was at 50%. Power drain was almost linear over time.
I´m satisfied with this result, because my old Qtek 2020 died already after half the time.
Cheers, Gerd

Hello,
here are my experiences.
Oziexplorer is only program running at Qtek s200 and stores track points.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thera are a few more than Oziexplorer. For simply track logging i'm using POIObserver. It writes a comlete NMEA log to sd card or other locations, even when i switch the device in standby. In that way the battery lasts for round about 14 hours, longer than the battery in my gps receiver!!!
Other apps i'm using which support track logging are Pathaway and Garmin Que. Pathaway has an special pocket mode, in which the keys are locked an the display is off. And Que also writes a track when the device is in standby.
Both applications are running for approx 11-12 hours with a fully charged battery when in pocket mode or standby, even if the have a moving map (bitmap/vector).
The measurements are made while moving, using bluetooth and writing the log every second!
I'm also very satisfied with that result, whereat the gps receiver wont last longer (Holux GPSlim 236, 10-14 hours, according receive conditions)
Joerg

Hello Joerg,
thank you for your hint. I will give POIObserver a try.
It will be useful for me if I´m walking around with my digital camera. In this case I use the stored tracks to achieve GPS positions for the EXIF data of the fotos.
But for this I also need a new Bluetooth GPS mouse. I´m considering the Navilock BT-338. Should have 20h operating time with one charge.
Thanks, Gerd

CompeGPS Pocket also doing this job quite as well :lol:

Further power consumption tests on the HTC Wizard

This is a continuation to my previous article on how much power the Bluetooth / infrared units in the HTC Wizard (a.k.a. imate K-Jam, T-Mobile MDA Vario, Qtek 9100, MDA Vario, XDA mini S, SPV M3000, VPA Compact II, Dopod 838) consume.
Now that I don’t really use my HTC Wizard (official i-mate AKU2 ROM version 2.16.9.1 WWE), I have time to run some really lengthy power consumption tests (with the Wizard being uninterruptedly suspended for even days) to properly measure the additional power consumption of the Bluetooth (including it being discoverable) and the infrared unit. Note that, during this, I’ve kept (I’ve just switched it off in the wireless manager) the GSM radio disabled to keep out the “random” factor of the measurements and also keep down the overall power consumption so that the results can be measured with more confidence.
Without the two wireless units,
the battery charge level of the device decreases about 2.5% a day, which means about (2.5% a day means 2.5/24% (0.1%) an hour. That is, in an hour, the Wizard consumes about 1250 (the Wizard has a 1250 mAh battery and) * 0.1 * (1/100) mWh – that is, 1250/1000 = 1.25 mWh.
Infrared
If you don’t disable the infrared auto-receive in Settings/Connections/Beam (by just unticking “Receive all incoming beams”), then, the additional battery level will decrease with about 1.5% a day (with the standard, 1250 mAh battery). This means about 18/24 = 0.75 mWh power consumption.
Note that with WM5 PPC Phone Edition devices like the HTC Wizard, the infrared unit is ALWAYS on when the device is suspended and is looking for other, discovering infrared devices (in passive mode). This is why it is promptly found by desktop Windows computers / notebooks having an infrared unit and this is why it's consuming power even when the unit is suspended.
Bluetooth
If you enable Bluetooth, including enabling being discoverable (!), the battery consumption doesn’t increase – at least not in a way properly measurable in a one and a one-and-a-half-day-long test phase.
Note that I’ve sometimes tested during the discoverable-enabled test whether the device is indeed visible to the outside world (other Bluetooth devices discovering their Bluetooth neighborhood). This was always the case.
But you…
Note that the Bluetooth figures are a bit different from my previous article. The reason for this is very simple: with the AKU2 ROM, the Wizard likes “sticking” with a previous battery consumption level and only displays the current level after a soft reset. I didn’t take this into account when I’ve told you the battery level of the Wizard decreased between 6 and 7 % a day with enabled Bluetooth (I’ve forgotten to reset before starting with the test – only after the test and reading the battery meter – and, therefore, the difference was bigger than with properly resetting the device before starting the test.)
Verdict
You can safely keep the Bluetooth always enabled – it consumes even less power than I’ve previously thought.
You may, however, want to disable auto infrared-receive. The infrared unit of the device, while, compared to the GSM radio, has a negligible power consumption, disabling it will still result in a device availability that is some (dozens of) minutes more than otherwise under normal (with enabled GSM radio) circumstances. If, for example, you don’t recharge your Wizard for three days (which is perfectly imaginable with a not power hungry device like the Wizard), then, the enabled infrared unit will cause a 4.5% more battery level depletion.
Future work
I’ll elaborate on the HTC Universal (a.k.a. i-mate JasJar, Qtek 9000, O2 XDA Exec, SPV M5000, MDA IV/Pro) in the same way. I’ll also try to test some other devices. Stay tuned

Cool deal, thanks for the info. I have always enabled bluetooth all the time and shut off IR because I have bluetooth devices and don't care about IR, but it's nice to know it's not killing anything by doing that.

Can you give me a number for power usage while actively using bluetooth? It seems like my ht820 just sucks power from my 8125.

Power consumption measurements of the HTC Universal

It was a few days ago that I’ve published some test results of the HTC Wizard (a.k.a. i-mate K-Jam, T-Mobile MDA Vario, Qtek 9100, MDA Vario, XDA mini S, SPV M3000, VPA Compact II, Dopod 838), Bluetooth and infrared power consumption-wise. Now, the HTC Universal follows suit.
Bluetooth
First and foremost, the case of the Universal seems to be very similar to that of the Wizard: that is, it’s almost impossible to measure the additional power consumption of the Bluetooth module. The difference between the switched on and the switched off case was 1% (at most!) a day (if at all).
This, incidentally, corresponds to my measurements of the BT unit with the PDA switched on. According to my measurements, the BT unit burns between 1 and 2 mA’s in those cases. This, as the device has a 1620 mAh battery, corresponds to between 800 and 1600 hours battery life alone - that is, not taking into account the need to power the dynamic RAM, which is pretty much the same as with the HTC Wizard, which is around 1.25 mWh corresponding to about 2% battery level drop/day (don’t forget that the Wizard has a smaller, 1250 mAh battery; this is why it had a bigger, 2.5% battery charge level drop figure).
Infrared
The same stands for the infrared unit: when switched on, the device consumes about 1% more a day (as opposed to about 1.5% on the Wizard; again, the latter is because of the smaller battery used in the Wizard) – that is, the power consumption of the unit is around 0.8 mWh (just like with the Wizard).
Again, with Pocket PC Phone Edition devices, the Bluetooth and the infrared unit is always on, as opposed to "plain" Pocket PC devices, and actively listen to incoming requests. This is why a desktop Windows device (for example, a notebook equipped with an infrared port and running Windows XP) notices Pocket PC Phone Edition devices at once as an infrared modem (see this screenshot) - or, for that matter, any WM5+ non-Phone Edition Pocket PC devices when not suspended (again, the wireless units of non-Phone Edition Pocket PC devices are only activated when they are on, as opposed to Phone Edition devices).
This is certainly very good news and shows the two devices may use exactly the same Bluetooth / infrared modules & hardware drivers & for example code to listen to incoming infrared requests.
How much power does the GSM radio consume?
Incidentally, I’ve also run a lot of tests to correctly measure the power consumption of the phone module itself with a removed SIM card (to avoid for example incoming calls’ having an adverse effect on battery life; the device was all the time connected to the phone network to be able to start emergency calls any time). It’s about 9%/day at a given location.
Don’t forget that this value is pretty meaningless when used as an absolute measurement: on other locations (for example, far closer/farer from a cell center (with far better/worse radio field strength) the figures would have been entirely different. It’s, however, offers great relative measurement possibilities: I’ll measure the power consumption of my other Phone Edition devices to see whether their phone radio unit is better/worse, power consumption-wise. I’ll publish some Wizard-related results soon.
Verdict
All in all, it’s only when you almost never use your Universal as a PDA (that is, switch on the screen and run something) that there will be ANY difference in the battery life between the enabled and disabled wireless state.
If you switch on the PDA a lot, play games on it and/or receive/initiate many phone calls a day, the additional power consumption of the Bluetooth / infrared unit will be totally negligible. (Let’s point out again and again that the PDA unit in the Universal is really-really power-hungry. While the Wizard – or, for that matter, power-sparing devices like the Pocket Loox 720 or the HP iPAQ hx4700 – only need to be recharged every second or third day with moderate PDA use, the Universal needs to be recharged far more frequently if you often use it as a PDA.)

i disagree on it being power hungry as a pda
mine can go 2-3 days just fine if it receives moderate pda usage
so i would love to hear the exact mA measurements on this

Very interesting, thanks for that!
Could you also test power consumption of Wi-Fi in both "Best Performance" and "Best Battery" mode? That would be very interesting, as I'm guessing Wi-Fi uses a lot more power than IR or BlueTooth does!

cmonex said:
i disagree on it being power hungry as a pda
mine can go 2-3 days just fine if it receives moderate pda usage
so i would love to hear the exact mA measurements on this
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://www.pocketpcmag.com/blogs/index.php?blog=3&p=1219&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

Standby with Bluetooth GPS

Hi
I have a problem with my MWG atom Life when using an external bluetooth GPS. Once connected and with Nav software running if you press the power button to go into standby the phone comes back on again within a few seconds. On my previous HTC Touch doing this the phone went into standby and kept logging the GPS position. Not a problem with car nav software and a power lead, but a major problem using Topo software for walking. Cant put the phone in my pocket with the screen active and major battery life issues. A search found an entry on the Magician forum with same problem. Answer was a reg change as follows:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Bluetooth\Se rialPort and set OBWakeUpByInData to 0 for Outbound Connection (like Bluetooth GPS) and IBWakeUpByData for incoming connections
Unfortunatley the Atom Life dosent have that reg key or anything that I can see about "wake up by in data".
Anyone any ideas?

Bluetooth car kit disconnects after a call...

I'm starting to struggle with my T-HD, I seem to have more fixing & patching applications on it than the nice day to day stuff you would want or expect on a high end device competing against the iPhone...
My current source of annoyance is that the bluetooth connection between the T-HD and my Landrover Freelander 2 that has been working fine for 6-months now either (a) doesn't connect or (b) does connect but when I dial out through the MMI saying "dialing" but then drops out or (c) we make a sucessful call but at the end the MMI states "phone disconnected" and when it reconnects it re-sync's the phonebook which all takes time...
Based on advice from the forum i've...
deleted and recreated the "pairing" ensuring everthing is visible,
used HD Tweak and Advance Config tools to fine tune the BT settings,
tried different BT COD values,
removed PhoneEX
installed JETware Mobile
All to no avail, the phone connection still drops.
My Nokia 6300 works fine by comparision and I can't fathom why, after 6-months of operation, this fault develops.
I've searched high and low for BT fixes, W6.1 drivers and HTC hotfixes but the options seem to be more "fixing applications" or a custom ROM nieth of which I'm keen to undertake as my T-HD is fill up with applications to fix basic functionality that should work.
Anyone else have any ideas? Can the BT drivers be replaced or updated?
HELP...
ROM ver 1.14.405.3 (22273) WWE
ROM date 12/09/08
Radio ver 1.09.25.14
BT ver 2.0/2.0+EDR

I got the same problem with my BT car Kit (Motorola T605).
I've only made it work if I connect the streaming on the BT configuration, but it have other problems as all the PDA sounds are routed through the car stereo, which can be uncomfortable if you are listening to the radio or a cd.
Could it be that problem is related to a 'power saving' configuration?

Hi there...
There seem to be plenty of fellow sufferers, strange that HTC don't seem to recognise their BT is flakey.
Sorry, what do you mean by "streaming"? I haven't seen that config.
and I have the "Power - Advanced" settings deselected (ie do nothing if inactive on mains power or battery)
All the best...

Well my HD won't sync it's phonebook with the Freelander 2... very occasionaly accepts an outgoing call via the mmi.
It will randomly lose connection also, requiring it to be re-synced.

Are you using the official ROM on your device? The bluetooth stack in the old official ROM is outdated, and honestly, garbage. Have you tried using a newer ROM, whether it's the official 1.56 ROM or a custom ROM? I used to have a ton of Bluetooth issues with my device and my car as well until I moved away from the official ROMs.