OESF Portables Forum
Model Specific Forums => Gemini PDA => Gemini PDA - Android => Topic started by: rubus-3.142 on June 30, 2018, 04:33:08 pm
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My [rooted with planet firmware] WiFi Only Gemini seems to be suffering from quite high power drain.....
Last night 22:00 unplugged at 100% and left with lid closed - WiFi was turned on but the actual WiFi network it uses was turned off (i.e. router powered down) from 23:00 to 06:00.
By 10:00 this morning i.e. 12 hours it had used 53% of the battery
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At this point I enabled "Battery saver" WiFi remained on on the gemini and the network remained available
By 20:00 this evening (10 hours later) it was totally flat - so I am using battery at around 5% per hour irrespective of the battery saver setting.
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This seems very high? I am sure when I first had it (before rooting) this was not the case? As a benchmark by Samsung J5 phone will last a week sat on the table doing nothing
The only things showing as "use since last charge" are
Screen 18%
WiFi 7%
So what's the other 75% of the drain that is not showing in the batter monitor? - how to find out?
I'm interested what others are experiencing
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The only things showing as "use since last charge" are
Screen 18%
WiFi 7%
So what's the other 75% of the drain that is not showing in the batter monitor? - how to find out?
I'm interested what others are experiencing
That is the power that fuels the revolutionary energy company that has found a solution for TRULY wireless power transfer. So their business model is simply to steal the energy from us and sell it to their customers... They are only targeting Geminis, and although there are not very many of them (us?) yet, due to the INSANELY large battery it is more than enough to power at least a few small towns
Sorry for this (VERY) OT post, but I just couldn't resist.
Another possible "power-thieve" is: A Linux side that has gained AI self-consciousness, and is gathering power to break out/free
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UPDATE : A bit of googling shows "Battery Saver" is a thing for when you get down to last 15% of battery and turns just about everything off) there is also "Inteligent Power Saving" so last night I left this turned on - makes little difference 66% down to 24% = 4.5% per hour when sat on the table overnight
Only WiFi and Screen showing as using power 30% of the power
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You've got something misbehaving somewhere. I was testing my Notification app the other night and with 4 LEDs lit continuously I was losing 1% per hour max. I'm guessing you have tried 'turning it off and back on again'? Have you had a look at the awake graph to see if your device is going in to 'doze' mode or awake all the time? If the later I would suggest some app or service is keeping it awake. You can have a look at individual app usage but some trial and error removal of apps you have install might be the only route.
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If you have rooted Android and installed Termux, one way to get an idea of what's busy is the 'top' command.
Start a Termux session, run ‘tsu’ to gain root access, run ‘top’, and press the P key to sort by %CPU. This puts the busiest processes at the top; and each process's COMMAND gives an idea of what it's doing. (Some are a bit obscure; for example, I think the process which renders the screen is ‘/system/bin/surfaceflinger’.)
(To finish, press Q to leave top, then hit Ctrl+D a couple of times to close the root and user shells.)
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Perhaps with your router off it's continually seeking the connection. Do you get the same drain if you leave the router on?
Do you have anything plugged into the USB as I've found a hub even with nothing plugged into it drinks power at an alarming rate.
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I made a test this afternoon on the rooted Android in my Gemini:
- Battery 55%, 1 hour standby with lid closed --> 55% (like in zero % used)
- Battery 54%, 6 hours standby " " " without any known WiFi network around--> 44% (~ 2% per hour)
At 42% now it says « 1 day 2 hours left » and « Screen 32% and WiFi 6%. »
So, same --actually rather twice the consumption I got on Debian TP2 suspended.
Yours has something eating its battery like mad. Find out who's the culprit with a System Load that has logging.
EDIT:
I turned off WiFi when device's sleeping as listed in https://www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=34885 (https://www.oesf.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=34885)
- Battery 39%, 8 hour standby --> 33% (0.75% per hour), with
Computer power use: 601 mAh
Wifi computer power use: 90 mAh
This would give me 130h battery life in standby.
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I have now tried various overnight tests - wifi on on the planet / off on the planet and the router on/off - there is nothing plugged in during the testing. In all cases it managed 4.5% per hour. When actually off it does not use any measurable power
I purchased a copy of better battery stats and let it running last night, see attached 8 hours at 4.6% per hour - which is same as my own measurements. See attached screenshots of things keeping a wakelock on the device -
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I am no expert but the culprit seems to be "RILJ phone services" - which is funny for a wifi only device with no phone...
A bit of googling shows this and the location services switch - currently at work and no Gemini but will check again this evening
https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1878692 (https://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1878692)
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My 4G Gemini hardly uses any power over night. I think you are on to something in regards to location services. Because you haven't got a SIM it looks like it is failing to approximate location based on cell tower info. Finding some way to prevent this behavior may be tricky as google don't like people to fully disable location services,
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Gemini's brand of battery is The Sieve.
Manufactured by Colander Batterys, a division of Screen-Doors-R-Us, China.
Guffaws aside, the following tweaks extended the time between my Gem's recharges:
1. Switching LOCATION off when indoors improves battery longevity.
2. Setting WiFi to NEVER stay on when device is 'sleeping' adds more improvement.
3. Setting Gemini's 'sleep' time to a few minutes of inactivity helps (if you prefer the device's cover open).
4. Either Fn + Esc OR closing the Gem's cover whenever you set it aside turns OFF the battery devouring sinkhole that is the screen.
Cheers.
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Mine drains 5 percent per hour on android (Lid closed and in airplane mode) and debian, I formatted it and flashed the nvram backup and other firmware files I initially downloaded. I got the wifi only device a few weeks ago and I think it drained slower before
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IF POSTING PLEASE BE SPECIFIC IF YOU HAVE WIFI ONLY or 4G
Update after last night - turning off location totally drops things to 4.1% per hour rather than 4.5% but it's not significant
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The RILJ and IMS_RILA Phone services seem to dominate keeping the device awake.
As far as I see everyone posting on here these with lower rates all have the 4G Gemini (X25 or X27) but those with the WiFi only - me and s1b1 - are experiencing closer to 5%.
I will dig a bit more but I am starting to think there is some bug in the WiFI firmware making it look for phone functions that are not there?
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I will dig a bit more but I am starting to think there is some bug in the WiFI firmware making it look for phone functions that are not there?
I would raise this as a bug with planet. There are plenty of android tablets without sim cards that don't suffer this problem so there must be a fix.
In the meantime can you spoof your location as described here and see if it makes a difference
https://www.xda-developers.com/fake-android-location/ (https://www.xda-developers.com/fake-android-location/)
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This backer fully expects the Gemini's battery to die (necessitating it always be connected to power) in 18-24 months because of more-than-typical cellphone use.
At which time, IF Planet does not either offer battery servicing or, better still, a workable D-I-Y battery replacement process, and/OR if there is not (yet) a Gemini 2.0 with replaceable battery, then the Gemini 1.0 will join the scrap heap of too-bad... MADE obsolete needlessly things.
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I rooted my Android and renamed the file vendor/bin/ccci_mdinit and installed NapTime and now the battery draining problem went away
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Very interesting...!
I rooted my Android and renamed the file vendor/bin/ccci_mdinit and installed NapTime and now the battery draining problem went away
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THANKS! I also tried renaming the file and consumption has indeed improved significantly. Before I was getting 4.5%/hour now with WiFi off I get 0.4% per hour on an overnight run. With WiFi on and connected I get 1.4% /hour. Will try with WiFi on and not connected overnight
WiFi OFF
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WiFi ON Connected
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What exactly does the offending file do?
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THANKS! I also tried renaming the file and consumption has indeed improved significantly. Before I was getting 4.5%/hour now with WiFi off I get 0.4% per hour on an overnight run. With WiFi on and connected I get 1.4% /hour. Will try with WiFi on and not connected overnight
WiFi OFF
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WiFi ON Connected
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What exactly does the offending file do?
That is either the AI trying to break out, or the file transferring the power..
(in relation to my [a href=\'index.php?act=findpost&pid=288270\']post here[/a])
Sorry, do not have any idea, and again sorry for OT, but like I said earlier; sometimes I just can't help myself...
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Hello,
I rooted my Android and renamed the file vendor/bin/ccci_mdinit and installed NapTime (...)
What did you rename the file to? And what is "NapTime"?
Kind regards
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Reading through here: https://comsecuris.com/blog/posts/path_of_least_resistance/ (https://comsecuris.com/blog/posts/path_of_least_resistance/) it looks like ccci_mdinit has something to do with the baseband processor. I renamed it to "ccci_mdinit.bak" and rebooted... Naptime (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.franco.doze&hl=en_CA) is an app that enables Android Doze or deep sleep right when I close the lid etc
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What it's renamed to does not matter, I added "00_RENAME_" prefix so I could find it again if I needed to change back...
With WiFi on and not connected I get 0.5%/hr so in summary with the lide closed and the Gemini sat idle on a table overnight (and no additional power management apps) I get
WiFi On and connected 1.4%/hr
WiFi On not connected 0.5%/hr
WiFi Off 0.4%/hr
So the workround by s1b1 seems to work but only for Rooted devices. FWIW I will drop an email to Planet as I think it's a bug on the WiFi Only image.
Naptime builds on Google's Doze functionality in simple terms gives you more options to turn off features that use power faster but this means some things might not work. If you have an automation program like MacroDroid or Tasker you could do similar things like if screen off for 5 mins turn off WiFi. On screen on turn on WiFi.
Of course then things like WatsApp and Telegram will not work, so it's a trade off between functionality and battery life. I bought my Gemini more as a small PC than a phone so I can live with it in a deep sleep when in my bag. If you bought yours as a comms device your view may be different...
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Hello,
thank you for your answers. Sorry, now I remember that I have a 4G-Gemini So this problem doesn't affect me anyway. Somehow I think I have a WiFi-only device, because that's what I first ordered, changing it to 4G later before delivery began.
So, sorry for wasting your time, still I learned a few new things. Thanks for that.
Kind regards
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Here's what helped me reduce battery consumption: Turned off wifi when the gemini is asleep, and turned off wifi scanning. There are lots of wifi networks in my area, and I noticed the gemini was always scanning to keep the list of networks up to date. I don't want any of my android devices scanning networks unless I explicitly want it to. Here's what I did to my gemini:
1) Enable development mode in Settings. Under development mode, turn on USB debugging.
2) Install adb on your computer. Connect gemini to computer via USB.
3) Using the adb shell command, make the desired changes to wifi config:
$ adb -d shell
Planet:/ $ settings put global wifi_scan_aways_enabled 0
Planet:/ $ settings put global wifi_sleep_policy 0
^D
$
This change doubled battery life for me.