Hey all,
I have an idea for an application that I think could be really helpful. With more skill and experience, I might be able to write it myself but I lack in both of those fields
The general idea:
An application that can be used to measure the battery consumption, 2G/3G signal LEVEL, and data down/up SPEED over Wifi and cellular data modes, over periods of time. The device should not be moved or interfered with until the process has finished (i.e. an audio notification is used)
This could be useful for comparing various versions of radio and how they perform IN THE USERS GEOGRAPHICAL AREA.
Details:
The app will kill non-critical processes and services, and lock the phone for a short-ish space of time (e.g. an hour) so that it can test without disruption
In this time, it will read and record the cellular signal level (2G or 3G) every minute or so for the hour to find the average signal level and the same for Wi-fi
It could also download a small file using cellular and Wifi connections to test average download speed and upload could also be tested
There could be an 'overnight' mode or a longer time period where the battery level could be recorded over the space of several hours while the connection is idle or even kept alive. A decrease in battery level per hour could then be worked out
All this information is recorded and the radio is then rated in terms of battery consumption, connection strength and speed. The process can be repeated with other radio versions and the user can choose which radio suits them
What do you all think - viable or not?
A very good idea. Users can then publish their results in the forum and the radio choice will be far easier.
Good idea but so many variables, so what may be a good radio for one user may be awful for another...
dial ##DEBUG# from your phone or run the hidden file fieldtrial.exe from your windows folder. it has everything you could ask for regarding radio and consumption.
Related
Hello,
I have just upgraded to the official GPS ROM and I am on the Swedish 3 operator. I have noticed since the upgrade that the network connection is switching from 3G to HSDPA when there is a demand of bandwidth or simply when there is data in either direction.
I can see that the purpose of this was to make it possible and more reliable to place and receive calls during data sessions. I have figured out though, that with the old ROM, there was no such switching (but there was no distinction with the icon, so you really had no idea) and the connection speed was always constantly 1Mbits/s when using Internet Sharing for example. Now with the HSDPA/3G switching/throttling, the connection often drops down to 3G speeds and Skype-calls are lacking quality from this a bit when using Skype in the car which i do quite regularly nowadays using my Jabra JX-10 headset.
I also realize that there is still a problem with outgoing and incoming calls during these automaticly switched-on HSDPA-sessions. That is probably why HTC has decided to keep the HSDPA sessions as short as possible, that's fine, but what boggles me is the algorithm used for the switching. It seems to always kick in HSDPA in the beginning of a new data session, and after a short time of inactivity (while pondering what favourite page to open this time) the connection drops down to 3G and it won't kick back to HSDPA even when you start browsing again, until a certain period of "non-HSDPA-ratio" has been reached and the phone thinks it would be OK to kick in the highspeed again for a little while.
I also noticed that using Skype would keep HSDPA alive once you place a call from a fresh started data session and keep talking ;-)
This is not a particular problem to me, I was just wondering of anyone else here has noticed and had an idea of what the programmers had in mind?
BTW: I am running TomTom 6.010 and Franson GpsGate on the machine now and it works absolutely like a dream. I used to have a Blue-I Bluetooth GPS in the car (Trimble based chipset, only 8 channels but quite OK piece of hardware) but this is far superior when it comes to HOLDING a persistent fix also when moving indoors. The TTFF is quite fast as long as you are outdoors, most of the time i have a fix before i leave the parking space. I noticed there being a dynamic number of satellites of the receiver, sometimes i see 7 out of 8 satellites, and then sometimes i see 10 out of 12! Anyone noticed?
Thanks in advance! Cheers...
It’s not your phone that decide to change from HSDPA mode to normal R99 (384kbits) mode and vice versa. Everything are always controlled by the network. The behaviors that you describe are normal. Besides the HSDPA is quit new for the operators and new parameters needs to be tuned for best performance for every users.
BTW, the degradation that you notice. You are not alone that use HSDPA.... Its finally the big success for 3G
I use Phone Alarm profiles and BandSwitch to control my connection based on business hours. I get a poor singal unless on 3G where my office is located. I force it to GPRS otherwise to save battery.
I have similar problems, cannot receive or start calls when HSDPA connected. Shouldn't that be possible anyway, calling and transferring data at the same time? Or is this a network provider problem?
I too am on the Swedish operator 3. I have an unlocked, non-operator distributed HTC TyTN that I had updated the radio to 1.40xxx and the ROM to Black Dymond 3.5 and was having the exact same problem. I could reproduce the incoming call not getting through error every single time I got the phone to go into HSDPA mode.
After some initial searching I read somewhere it was network dependent (Nokia switches vs Ericsson) and the only way to solve it was to disable the HSDPA using e.g. HTweakC, which I did and it solved the problem, but then of course I couldn't take advantage of the high-speed data access, which was the major reason I got this phone.
I recently noticed that 3 released a new extended ROM with instructions to update the ROM to the latest (as is available on the ftp here) then install their ExtROM. I went to the trouble to try and breakdown what was in this extended ROM, but being a newbie to pocketpc it was all hyroglyphics to me, so I went ahead and installed it over my old HTC ext ROM (which I saved for later use just in case).
When I get around to it I may mount this extended ROM here (I have it, but don't have too much time to put it up right now, so someone may beat me to it).
Anyway, Black Dymond 3.5 didn't install the Extended ROM after a hard reset (assuming that was the intention), so I did it myself afterwards. One initial bug that showed up quickly was the Comm Manager not wanting to start saying it would only manage a max of 7 items (whatever that means). So I installed Schaps latest Comm Manager and it worked fine.
Well, guess what, now there's a daemond that starts on boot and the phone app is different (another bug is that the text on the phone app buttons remain in the 3 theme although I changed back to black, but that's minor), but now I cannot replicate the no incoming calls during HSDPA error.
Apparently they've added something that makes the phone connect properly to their 3G/HSDPA network for call handling. Now I've got full HSDPA speed and no problem on incoming calls (plus still have Black Dymond's great VOIP/SIP WM6 solution).
Ok, as a noob I of course missed the fact that the daemon starting at boot is Voice Commander. Still the actual phone app/dll is somehow different with this ExtROM and it's solved my problems.
Hello,
is there any way, to control wm6.1 profiles via GPS?
For Example:
When I go to the university, the phone should put on wi-fi and the volume has to be silent. When I left the university, the phone should put off wi-fi and turn on the volume again.
All that should be controlled with GPS.
It would be great if you know a way.
Greets
Generally a nice idea and technically not that difficult but there are some circumstances you should bear in mind:
- the tool needs to know where "university" is, so, a geographical area needs to be configured and this needs to be configurable user friendly and not hard coded. If this ought to be done via a nice GUI this is much more dev effort than just coding the core functions of checking the gps coordinates and then setting the profile. This gets even more complex if you are on a campus with several "university areas".
- depending on your device (i guess its the SE X1), your battery is going down in less than an ordinary university day due to permamently gps coordinates polling.
-what has to happen if you are without a gps signal and
- stay on university area
- leave the university area (without noticed by the device)
- ...
-what about the alternate positioning method of using the gsm cell data? This would save energy for the positioning taks but would make harder the area definition and identification (you need to map the geographical locations with the antenna positions).
...and I can continue with at least a dozen more questions...
So, in general, this looks easy and is really interesting to specify the tool but walking a bit more into detail, it's quite a project.
so short
snoman
G-profile from ageye is a nice alternative..
It's change the profile, wich include: sound volume / Landscape/portrait / launching program's / screen bright.
It uses time or A-gps (no gps) for activating.
It also has a nice today plugin to switch quick.
But also, when using the a-gps function, the batt is flat quicker..
G-Profile is the application your looking for!
It does not use (Assisted) GPS but the CellID. I used it for some time, but did not see a large decrease on the battery level.
If you can set the polling at longer infervals, let's say 30 minutes, it shouldn't have such an impact on the battery. But setting the gps areas requires a complex application, maybe g-profile using cell tower id is better and it will also work inside buildings.
Signal= 1/r^2 unfortunately. So in weak signal areas the outgoing polling amplitude increases geometrically, correct? The Droid X has a program, that among other things, will change the frequency of polling the cell tower in low signal areas that reportedly increases battery life significantly. I know there are some hit or miss apps that use proximity to infer rules about power mgmt but they dont; seem to do power mgmt anywhere as good as the included Droid X software.
Having done everything you can with ROMS, under volting and reducing extra services (facebook, frequent email checks etc.) what else can be done short of buying a CDMA repeater for the house. Are there any apps that address radio usage to that degree. Any Suggestions?
Also, is there any way to build a DIY CDMA antenna that will passively amplify signal? Like standing at the center of a parabolic dish directed at the nearest tower. I imagine the radius of the dish would have to relate to the desired CDMA wavelenghth. Any thoughts, I'm out of coherence.
A passive repeater requires a significant amount of RF geek power to make work properly if it is even practical and possible in your location. It is pretty rare to make something like that work as intended. You need a very high gain yagi antenna high up pointed at the nearest cell site. And you need an omni antenna inside the house somewhere centrally located. Low loss coax. Maybe a BDA. All of this stuff is extremely expensive with very little improvement.
You're better off getting the Airave 2.
For some reason no matter what build, radio or rom I use BatteryMinder tells me that I will get better life with wifi on vs wifi being off. (check jpegs in attachment)
If i turn mobile data off too I get better battery life as well.
Why is the Mobile network killing my battery?
Hm. Could the email checking be doing it? I would decrease the frequency of that. The processor might be ramping up during some parts of the email checking routine. It's also possible that your WiFi service makes the operation quicker. Negotiating a cellular data connection takes some overhead. Ask a radio expert...
Sent from my HTC HD2 using XDA App
Are you in an area that has poor reception? That can drain the battery pretty quickly. The phone is constantly trying to reconnect to the network.
I spend a fair amount of the day in areas with intermittent reception.
My battery life is really poor, since I think the phone is frequently looking for a signal that may not exist.
Is there a way to improve this without having to manually turn the cellular radio on and off?
Thanks!
improve the cell reception or the battery?
for battery, settings, wireless and something
mobile networks
uncheck the first 2
You could possibly use something like "locale" which is gps/location based or tasker which is system based, but I'm not 100 percent sure it support something like this. You might also want to try and take a look at the "superapp" by xda. All Apps can be found in the market.
You could use Tasker for this. You can create a profile that disables your cell radio (airplane mode) when there is poor / no reception and checks for cell signal every 10 minutes or so which is customizable. Its not a free app but a great app to invest in.
If you have Wifi where you dont have cell coverage then you could use wifi calling which saves battery as well..