[Q] Wifi, save battery.. - Acer Iconia A500

How change Wifi Power Level to save battery ? For example at my home, my Wifi acces is at 2 meters...

I don't think it works like that - a wifi receiver as in the A500 consumes as much power as it need to get the signal. It's the transmitter (on your router) that can be changed to save power.
Can the A500 be used ans a wifi repeater-type thing, to extrend wifi range (if so, then it would use more power to do that)?

The WiFi is an transceiver full-duplex
So, sure in receiver you can't change anything in consumption, but in transmit if you change the power in transmitting, your decrease the power in consumption of energie

Hard to imagine wanting to reduce your WiFi signal. Most hardware and software if made to optimize the signal. If you're trying to reduce power consumption try something like "CPU Tuner" which adjusts many factors both automatically (or fine tuned by you) to improve battery life.
The other option of course is to turn off WiFi if you don't need it constantly. Put a switch on your home page to allow quick on/off capability to make it a snap to do this on the fly.

LePocketPc said:
How change Wifi Power Level to save battery ? For example at my home, my Wifi acces is at 2 meters...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the same issue with my first a500-16gb, I called acer support, described the issue and they directed me to exchange the unit. The second one worked normally and could get a good signal throughout the entire house.
On closing the case they indicated that there were a batch of units identified with defective wifi chips on-board.....

Related

Powersave & Wifi

Dear all,
I'm wondering about Wifi telephony on the QTEK 9100.
It works fairly well with various software soutions. However, the phone has to stay "fully on" (except backlight) in order for th Wifi connection to remain up. This alters battery life severely.
I'm wondering if it is possible to have the Wifi connection stay up during power save mode, with some kind of "Wake on WLAN" event that would wake up the phone so that IP phone software can process incoming data.
Some of it already happens for GSM. I'm wondering whether the GSM part is "fully independant" (like on a different processor), or if it's handled by the main processor. In the later case, it may be possible to achieve something similar with Wifi telephony.
Thanks in advance for any hint.
so there is no way having WIFI enabled and lettign the pda go to sleep mode / power save mode ??
is there an APP that leaves power save mode off if the WIFI is enabled, so only the screen goes of light, and the pda stays on ?
P.
nbougues said:
Some of it already happens for GSM. I'm wondering whether the GSM part is "fully independant" (like on a different processor), or if it's handled by the main processor. In the later case, it may be possible to achieve something similar with Wifi telephony.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's fully independent. It's very cleverly written; this is why, for example, listening to incoming IMAP IDLE or Push Mail callbacks don't require the CPU at all.
yes i got that part on my own, thats why the GPRS connection stays on... but still there should be a registry somewhere to prevent device to go to sleep if WIFI conneciton is made..
tried all the powermode stuff in regisrty, nothn worked... out of clue...
papizdono said:
yes i got that part on my own, thats why the GPRS connection stays on... but still there should be a registry somewhere to prevent device to go to sleep if WIFI conneciton is made..
tried all the powermode stuff in regisrty, nothn worked... out of clue...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think you can do this - the WI-Fi module is completely independent of the radio module. Furthermore, you'll constantly need a LOT of power to keep the Wi-Fi connection up, as opposed to GSM/GPRS, where handshaking is only done during roaming to another cell and/or every (AFAIK) 10-20 minutes. Otherwise, the PDA doesn't trasmit anything, a sopposed to the Wi-Fi case.
That is, it seem sit's impossible to do any long-term Wi-Fi "listening" in the current Wi-Fi / PPC architecture.
papizdono said:
yes i got that part on my own, thats why the GPRS connection stays on... but still there should be a registry somewhere to prevent device to go to sleep if WIFI conneciton is made..
tried all the powermode stuff in regisrty, nothn worked... out of clue...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't think you can do this - the WI-Fi module is completely independent of the radio module. Furthermore, you'll constantly need a LOT of power to keep the Wi-Fi connection up, as opposed to GSM/GPRS, where handshaking is only done during roaming to another cell and/or every (AFAIK) 10-20 minutes. Otherwise, the PDA doesn't trasmit anything, a sopposed to the Wi-Fi case.
That is, it seem sit's impossible to do any long-term Wi-Fi "listening" in the current Wi-Fi / PPC architecture.
all i need is a tool that disables POWERSAVE mode if WIFI connections is made, or even if WIFI is enabled...
that would do all the work....
anyone ?
i think the closest thing is in phm powertoys (http://www.phm.lu/products/PocketPC/PowerToys/)
the screensaver option... what it does is turn off your touchscreen like in "sleep" mode but if u use this you might want to disable the power save option cause while u have screensaver on its still gonna count down n shut off ur ppc hope this helps!

Adding more power to WiFi on 8525?

Is there any registry tweak or driver hack I can do to my 8525 to power more power in the WiFi broadcast? I have a laptop that works perfectly well in my house yet my phone always loose its established connection within minutes because of its weak transmission or doesnt establish one at all. I pretty sure its the 8525 not returning the hand shake, etc. I went ahead and made sure wifi battery usage was set to performance over battery life but made no diffrence. Anyway to increase the broadcast dB?

Change WiFi switch to toggle EVDO?

Hey, I was wondering if there's a way to make the wifi switch toggle the EVDO connection instead. My EVDO is on pretty much all the time, which is a good thing when I'm using it frequently, such as when I'm bored (read: bathroom), or when I'm stuck in traffic. However, at work, I get a really weak EVDO signal, so it's constantly searching and draining my battery life. Is there any way to remap the wifi switch to toggle the EVDO connection instead?
P.S.- I know I could probably switch off all the apps that auto-connect to EVDO, such as WP or pRSS, but I'd rather just be able to kill and establish the whole connection instead. Color me weird.
Thanks in advance for any insights.
i dont think so, AFAIK the wifi switch is actually physically toggling power top the wifi adaptor, so theres no way to remap it with software
Use the Comm Manager button (right below the power button) and click on the Data Connection icon to disable EVDO. It will reconnect when the next autoconnecting program runs.
defaultdotxbe said:
i dont think so, AFAIK the wifi switch is actually physically toggling power top the wifi adaptor, so theres no way to remap it with software
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You can turn the wifi on from the comm manager even with the switch in the off position...
StarmanDX said:
You can turn the wifi on from the comm manager even with the switch in the off position...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no on mine i cant...in fact i dont even have a wifi option in comm manager, however other software controls for wifi cant turn it on when the switch is off (they can turn it off when the switch is on though)
There's really no need.
EVDO goes dormant after a short while when the connection isn't active (transferring data) to conserve resources at the base station (tower) as well as your battery. So it's really not doing much because EVDO connections are initiated from your handset, not the tower.
The low signal will drain your battery a bit faster because the voice radio (also the radio for 1xRTT or "really slow data") has to keep track of towers actively and wake up every few seconds to make sure it doesn't need to ring, pick up an SMS, or tell you there's a voicemail waiting. Lower signal means your phone has to transmit at higher power. So it's not EVDO, it's voice that you have to worry about draining battery with low signal.
I would love to do this for BlueTooth since it is having so many problems. Anyone else take a look for this?

[SOLVED] FroYo sneaks out onto 3g while WiFi is available?

When I'm at home I use WiFi and the 3G icon is off. As long as I'm actively using the phone this seems to be the case.
I've noticed on more than one occasion that when I unlock the phone after a prolonged "sleep" it is connected to 3G and switches back to WiFi!
Anyone else seen this?
Is there an explanation?
I have noticed this too and I have my WiFi sleep policy set to Never (check yours perhaps).
A little bug I would say.
Unless you've adjusted the wifi sleep policy, this is normal behaviour.
By default, when the screen switches off, so does wifi.
The Jones said:
I have noticed this too and I have my WiFi sleep policy set to Never (check yours perhaps).
A little bug I would say.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
HA! Another Advanced settings menu under the WiFi settings menu.
My WiFi sleep policy was "When Screen Turns Off". Sneaky.
Changed it to "Never". Let's see what happens.
With SYNC ALWAYS for e-mail/facebook/twitter, which uses more power/drains battery faster: WiFi or 3G?
I'm pretty sure Wifi is nicer on the battery than 3G, at least from what I've read and my own experience.
It depends on your signal from both (which equals required trasmitting power), I'd say.
WiFi power is pretty much constant, 3G/HSDPA can vary and get much higher than WiFi.
I have read that when you are connected to WiFi, it is always slightly better for power (I am sure range and signal strength do come into play though).
When you are not connected to WiFi, then the wireless uses loads of power trying to hunt a network down.

location settings and battery drain

I am confused in regard to two settings that I have noticed affects my idle battery drain significantly , even though my phone sleeps well with them on :
1- Google Wi-Fi & mobile location
2- and under advanced Wi-Fi settings: always allow scanning
I finally , after years of struggle with Android, have managed to achieve battery lives like people claim. My problem was Immense drain during idle time. My phone can never survive the say without the need for charging. Even when I am not touching.
After putting compulsion kernel and turning these two off, underclocking my cpu to 97 mhz and 2ghz on wheatley governor, my phone is sitting at 77 % 1 day and 3 hours idling . I left all services syncing on , including gvoice and whatsapp. I dont have facebook or twitter. It has also been on LTE this entire time and GPS on.
This is not really a battery stats thread.
My question is , Idle stats are really important to me, and i dont really understand the use for the above mentioned options and the difference between the two. Are they vital for anything at all ? can i leave them off al the time without any significant location deterioration ?
Thank you all !
<speculation>
#1 is only a grant of permission to collect location data from your handset - but not a power management control. It might mean that a small amount of additional data traffic occurs when either GPS or WiFi are already on - but doesn't affect *whether* those devices (WiFi and GPS) are powered up. So it applies at all times but is only meaningful when those devices are enabled by other means - either manually or automatically. Think of it as nothing other than a legal escape hatch for Google against privacy violation lawsuits.
#2 allows the *WiFi* hardware to be powered up for *reception* (probably with no indication that it is indeed dissipating power!) - but it won't try to associate and connect with any WiFi APs that you have set up. It is listening for beacons only*, and possibly band-hopping, if not channel hopping**. Think of it as "receive only WiFi"
It is my *guess* that #1 affects #2 - there shouldn't be any data collection if you have not allowed it so the #2 toggle state should not do anything if #1 is set to disable.
Having the WiFi radio in receive-only mode might not really use any noticeable amount of power for two reasons: 1st, because operating a radio in Rx mode only uses far less power than Tx mode, and 2nd because it is possible that when both #1 & #2 are enabled, the WiFi radio is only polled, rather than left on full-time. So, it's duty cycle might be extremely low.
</speculation>
None of the above speculation has been confirmed by me by looking at source code.
Whether or not this is important to you depends on your need for high precision location information. Parents that snoop on their kids' handset locations might want that WiFi listener stuff turned on - GPS does not work indoors in many locations.
HTH
* note that the geolocation databases (that map WiFi AP MAC addresses/SSIDs to lat/lon) are on Google servers, not on your phone - so this implies that there must be a way to get the data to Google even if the WiFi is "pseudo-off: receiving but not transmitting". Presumably this would then happen via the Mobile Data radio (LTE/CDMA/1xRTT)... which - perversely - would use even more power than a WiFi connection (for the same data).
**WiFi APs are supposed to broadcast their beacons on all channels (the beacon packet tells the STAs what the correct channel they should "talk" to the AP on). So it might be necessary to band-hop the receiver to account for single band APs, even if it is not strictly necessary to channel-hop within a band to observe available beacons. In any event, bear in mind that power usage by WiFi chips that are never transmitting is far lower than when transmission by the WiFi radio is also occuring.

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