Author Topic: Poor battery life  (Read 24584 times)

wapsi

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« Reply #75 on: February 16, 2020, 01:23:14 pm »
Quote from: mithrandir
What about just disabling the Amoledison app. Should solve the problem and it is not useful anyways.
There isn't app called Amoledison? There's an app called LEDison but the wakelock has nothing to do with that. However I've tried to disable or remove LEDison app but it didn't help.

Quote from: LinuxGuy
So, might this app help: https://f-droid.org/de/packages/com.suyashsrijan.forcedoze/ ?
I doubt that because Cosmo can't enter full sleep mode. I tried to use following commands in the shell to force the device into sleep:
dumpsys battery unplug
dumpsys deviceidle force-idle
dumpsys deviceidle enable

And it worked with Gemini PDA and my another Androidn phone just fine but in Cosmo it didn't work: the device is not sleeping properly.

steeph

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« Reply #76 on: February 26, 2020, 01:42:32 pm »
Not sure this helps in any way, but I don't want to keep to myself what I noticed the other day. My Codi is broken. (It just cracked while it was inside my pocket, don't know how/why.) While it's turned on there are only very colorful lines and a white spot along the crack. So I keep it permanently turned off. But when I'm in an absolutely dark room (German window shutters down at night kind of dark) I can still see those lines and the white spot. It looks exactly as if the background light was on, but way darker.

So apparently the display isn't even turned off. The backlight gets turned down and all pixels are black, but it's still on.

maki.jouni

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« Reply #77 on: March 07, 2020, 05:20:46 am »
Quote from: steeph
...My Codi is broken. (It just cracked while it was inside my pocket, don't know how/why.)...

Did you report cracked CoDi to Planet? And did you get some answer?
Cosmo Communicator (Fin/Swe), Mix2, Sony Xperia XZ & Z3, Nokia N900, Nokia PARSA, HTC Touch Pro, Qtek 9100, Nokia 6600 & 6210 & 2110, Mobira Talkman

steeph

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« Reply #78 on: March 07, 2020, 05:40:03 am »
Quote from: maki.jouni
Did you report cracked CoDi to Planet?
I did not. Android is so buggy on the Cosmo that I gave up on bringing it in a state that makes it usable as a daily driver. If I'll only use it as an SSH client or portable keyboard I don't need an external display. I don't feel like arguing about the build quality, so I didn't report it. If you're interested, I'm relatively sure now how it must have happened. It was in my front trouser pocket, CoDi facing outside and I squeezed myself through a narrow part of a hallway. It was narrow because somebody was searching for something in a cabinet. I didn't want to interrupt them so I held the cabinet door open while going by sideways. The edge of the door must have pushed on the display. I didn't feel anything at the time and it wasn't a lot of pressure (the door would have been pushed close) so I didn't think that could have been it at first. But that's the only thing I can think of that happened around the time it must have happened where there was any pressure on the display. Sorry for off-topic. Just wanted to anwser the question.

Zarhan

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« Reply #79 on: March 07, 2020, 09:52:39 am »
Quote from: steeph
I did not. Android is so buggy on the Cosmo that I gave up on bringing it in a state that makes it usable as a daily driver.

Can you elaborate on this? I haven't seen any problems with my Android (running V19, I've got no experience on older versions). "Everything" seems to work (except apparently the builtin mic's voice quality is not so good), nothing wrong on Android level as such. What problems have you ran into with Android?

Also, battery life hopefully improves with the next FW update - I guess the wakelock held by the Codi will be gone.

steeph

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« Reply #80 on: March 07, 2020, 10:24:46 am »
Yeah, the recently announced update sounds good. It has my hopes especially in regards to battery life.

Some of the problems I have on a regular basis: The status LEDs activate randomly. Maybe it means something, idk. Often they don't turn off when closing the lid, which is especially annoying when I was playing media before closing. It never stops blinking. After opening the lid the display turns on and sometimes just when I want to unlock it it turns off again. All I can do is close and open again, hoping it works this time. Two times I had to reboot in this state. About once a day it reboots on its own. Usually while I'm not using it. Sometimes while typing. It seems to be random. Since my SIM card is locked I'm offline until I notice it. Sometimes it doesn't turn back on on its own, sometimes it does. Sometimes the display stays black after the reboot. Then all I can do is enter recovery mode and reboot. Keyboard backlight doesn't turn off when it's not used. Sometimes the setting changes to off when the device is closed for a while. The CoDi update app notifies about its background activity all the time. I have to delete the notification almost every time I open it. Sometimes it does actually find a new CoDi version. Even when there is none. Camera quality is very bad. I stopped using it. Maybe in the summer it will be of more use when there is more sunlight. All Cosmo settings are reset to default on every reboot. Some apps are only usable in portrait mode. Autorotate doesn't work though. Sometimes it rotates for no apparent reason. Then I have to force rotate which rotates it back to landscape instead of portrait as usual. This sometimes crashes the app I was currently using, sometimes not. Bluetooth turns off when I'm not using it for a few days, WiFi can't be turned off at all. Do not disturb doesn't turn off after the set time. Sometimes while do not disturb is on incoming calls ring for about a third second then become silent. Battery usage data is not available. I lost all files on my SD card once and have no idea why. Scrolling background pictures are incredibly complicated to set up. I once brought it into a state where it rotated the screen at a rate of more than 1 Hz because I chose a file with the wrong dimensions apparently. I managed to change the background back after two days. Sometimes while charging the device unlocks without being touched. And so on. Probably all of this can be fixed in software. I'm looking forward to it. But right now I'm saving up for a different device.
« Last Edit: March 07, 2020, 10:36:27 am by steeph »

Daniel W

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« Reply #81 on: March 07, 2020, 11:12:35 am »
Quote from: steeph
Sorry for off-topic. Just wanted to anwser the question.
Off-topic or not, it's still good to know that the CoDi might be quite fragile, so thank you for sharing it, though I am sorry you it found out the hard way. While at it, the CoDi is an OLED display, in which each (sub)pixel makes it's own light, so it has no "backlight" as such. A "black" pixel is just off, and should not emit any light of it's own, which is why OLED screens are sometimes said to have an "infinite" constrast ratio. When the CoDi screen is off, it's interface electronics may still have power though, and as yours is damaged, there might be a tad of leakage in some unintended way.

Quote from: steeph
Some of the problems I have on a regular basis:
Hm, interesting. I turn WiFi off and on every day, without an issue. That has worked just fine for me on the V15, V16 and V19 firmwares. Mostly for correctness, a "bug" is when software doesn't behave as the developer intended. The "not working" auto-rotate or that the keyboard backlight doesn't turn off when not used, are likely deliberate design choices (that I may not agree with), and it's hardly a fault of the Como that some third party apps tries to brute force themselves into portrait mode and/or won't play nice in landscape. I'd guess the wake locks preventing the Cosmo to sleep properly is rather one of several deliberately cut corners, to not delay the release further. Still, there are indeed plenty of actual bugs too, so I'm also looking forward to the next firmware, especially as the Cosmo is my daily driver.

steeph

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« Reply #82 on: March 07, 2020, 11:28:51 am »
Well some have a different definition of the term bug. But I think you're right. I may have included too much in the post because I'm overall annoyed by this device and it's behaviour and it's inability to shut evenly and it's loose rubber thingies and it's inconsistent key travel and now it's broken cover display. I didn't know it's an OLED. Then my theory doesn't make too much sense and you're probably right it's caused by the damage.

spook

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« Reply #83 on: March 08, 2020, 04:42:35 pm »
Quote from: steeph
Yeah, the recently announced update sounds good. It has my hopes especially in regards to battery life.

Some of the problems I have on a regular basis: The status LEDs activate randomly. Maybe it means something, idk. Often they don't turn off when closing the lid, which is especially annoying when I was playing media before closing. It never stops blinking. After opening the lid the display turns on and sometimes just when I want to unlock it it turns off again. All I can do is close and open again, hoping it works this time. Two times I had to reboot in this state. About once a day it reboots on its own. Usually while I'm not using it. Sometimes while typing. It seems to be random. Since my SIM card is locked I'm offline until I notice it. Sometimes it doesn't turn back on on its own, sometimes it does. Sometimes the display stays black after the reboot. Then all I can do is enter recovery mode and reboot. Keyboard backlight doesn't turn off when it's not used. Sometimes the setting changes to off when the device is closed for a while. The CoDi update app notifies about its background activity all the time. I have to delete the notification almost every time I open it. Sometimes it does actually find a new CoDi version. Even when there is none. Camera quality is very bad. I stopped using it. Maybe in the summer it will be of more use when there is more sunlight. All Cosmo settings are reset to default on every reboot. Some apps are only usable in portrait mode. Autorotate doesn't work though. Sometimes it rotates for no apparent reason. Then I have to force rotate which rotates it back to landscape instead of portrait as usual. This sometimes crashes the app I was currently using, sometimes not. Bluetooth turns off when I'm not using it for a few days, WiFi can't be turned off at all. Do not disturb doesn't turn off after the set time. Sometimes while do not disturb is on incoming calls ring for about a third second then become silent. Battery usage data is not available. I lost all files on my SD card once and have no idea why. Scrolling background pictures are incredibly complicated to set up. I once brought it into a state where it rotated the screen at a rate of more than 1 Hz because I chose a file with the wrong dimensions apparently. I managed to change the background back after two days. Sometimes while charging the device unlocks without being touched. And so on. Probably all of this can be fixed in software. I'm looking forward to it. But right now I'm saving up for a different device.


Dude - you have a faulty unit. I have none of those bugs except for the auto rotate (which you can fix with Tasker) and the battery usage not being available (which you can work around with an app). All  those other bugs do not happen on my Cosmo. I really think you should return it to PC for a warranty exchange. If I had all those issues I'd be really frustrated too!

steeph

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« Reply #84 on: March 08, 2020, 05:36:19 pm »
Quote from: spook
you have a faulty unit.
One would think that reading the list. It's a device that is officially released to the market, after all. But I'm not so sure. For almost all of these things you can find reports, complaints or questions by others too on this forum.

Quote from: spook
I really think you should return it to PC for a warranty exchange.
I did ask Planet about the sudden reboots though. They didn't see a problem with this. They also tried to argue away my SD card issue when the Cosmo got so hot it would hurt my fingers when I touched the hinge after opening. Quote: "The heating issue wouldn't be a fault until your device tells you on screen that it's too hot to operate." Ignoring the fact that I hardly get 6 hours of standby time out of the battery this way. They let me know though that they will charge me for repair if I do send it in and they don't see an issue covered by the warranty. Since it has a physical damage now they can claim any fault came from misusing it. At least German laws still allow for that. I don't know about the UK. Also since I have rooted it before it was officially available they'll probably charge me extra for fixing that. They didn't say how much for the software reinstallation, so a bit risky. Even if they don't repair it and I don't even want it back they charge $25 for diagnostics. So I rather wait for my new phone, install Debian on the Cosmo and see how that goes. It is still a working device after all.

Edit: I'm not criticising their rates or the fact that they charge for repair not covered by warranty. I think $25 is cheaper than any fee of that sort that I've seen before. I just want to make sure it's really necessary to send it in before I do so.
« Last Edit: March 08, 2020, 05:41:20 pm by steeph »

spook

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« Reply #85 on: March 08, 2020, 07:05:21 pm »
Ah man - that sucks. I really don't understand how many people can have similar issues but others don't. Maybe a bad batch or something? I'm so glad mine doesn't have any of these issues that stop me from using it as a daily driver... But I'm frustrated for you. It's an expensive door stop! The sad thing is - if you have one that works it really is a most amazing machine. I hope you find joy with Linux - or if not, maybe pester PC until they agree to fix it or swap it out.

Good luck!

TomJ

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« Reply #86 on: March 09, 2020, 09:42:11 am »
The battery life on mine has been reasonable, but today it was running very hot and dropped to 2% in under 6 hours from full (and it was being topped up for half an hour of that by by bike's dynamo, though it was also playing a podcast over bluetooth).  I noticed a notification from Ledison, but tapping it didn't do anything.  When I tried to open Ledison I got an "application is not responding: wait or close?" message.  I rather suspect these might not be unconnected.

NormMonkey

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« Reply #87 on: March 09, 2020, 02:29:51 pm »
Quote from: steeph
Some of the problems I have on a regular basis: The status LEDs activate randomly. Maybe it means something, idk. Often they don't turn off when closing the lid, which is especially annoying when I was playing media before closing. It never stops blinking. After opening the lid the display turns on and sometimes just when I want to unlock it it turns off again. All I can do is close and open again, hoping it works this time. Two times I had to reboot in this state. About once a day it reboots on its own. Usually while I'm not using it. Sometimes while typing. It seems to be random. Since my SIM card is locked I'm offline until I notice it. Sometimes it doesn't turn back on on its own, sometimes it does. Sometimes the display stays black after the reboot. Then all I can do is enter recovery mode and reboot. Keyboard backlight doesn't turn off when it's not used. Sometimes the setting changes to off when the device is closed for a while. The CoDi update app notifies about its background activity all the time. I have to delete the notification almost every time I open it. Sometimes it does actually find a new CoDi version. Even when there is none. Camera quality is very bad. I stopped using it. Maybe in the summer it will be of more use when there is more sunlight. All Cosmo settings are reset to default on every reboot. Some apps are only usable in portrait mode. Autorotate doesn't work though. Sometimes it rotates for no apparent reason. Then I have to force rotate which rotates it back to landscape instead of portrait as usual. This sometimes crashes the app I was currently using, sometimes not. Bluetooth turns off when I'm not using it for a few days, WiFi can't be turned off at all. Do not disturb doesn't turn off after the set time. Sometimes while do not disturb is on incoming calls ring for about a third second then become silent. Battery usage data is not available. I lost all files on my SD card once and have no idea why. Scrolling background pictures are incredibly complicated to set up. I once brought it into a state where it rotated the screen at a rate of more than 1 Hz because I chose a file with the wrong dimensions apparently. I managed to change the background back after two days. Sometimes while charging the device unlocks without being touched. And so on. Probably all of this can be fixed in software. I'm looking forward to it. But right now I'm saving up for a different device.

[Status LEDs activate randomly] - I have this problem too

[Reboots on its own] - I have this problem too, but more like once a week.

[keyboard backlight doesn't turn off] - Does this mean [a] keyboard backlight stays on when lid is closed, or keyboard backlight stays on when not touching any keys but does turn off when lid closed?  Mine behaves like .  I kind of like this, I often use it to read in the dark and I like seeing the keyboard even if I'm not typing.  But it would be nice to have the option to poke a key like [Ctrl] to wake the keyboard backlight up.

[CoDi update notification] - I haven't had this problem.  Although I do find my CoDi wakes up even when persistent notification changes state, like if battery level goes down a percent or my step count goes up.  CoDi wakes up *a lot*.

[Camera quality is bad] - I have this problem too.  Hello 1999, would you like your high JPG compression potato-quality camera back?  I find myself apologizing to people for my camera's picture quality a lot.

[Settings reset to default] - I haven't had this problem.

[Rotate sucks] - I sort of have this problem.  A bunch of apps don't work well in landscape, so I force rotate them to portrait.  Most apps seem to remember their rotation state and so when I run them again, I don't need to re-force-rotate them.  However, sometimes it doesn't work right and it is super-annoying because the app usually loses state when it rotates.  Like, if I'm logged in (e.g. to banking) I get logged out and have to re-auth.  Or if I'm halfway through reading a long page, it forgets how far I've scrolled and goes back to the top.  Or stuff that I was typing in a textbox disappears.

[Bluetooth] - Haven't had any problems with it turning off and on.  I do have a smart-watch constantly paired.  I have noticed that when I pair to other devices (like headsets) then all devices (watch and other device(s)) disconnect for brief periods but then reconnect again.  Happens randomly.

[WiFi] - My WiFi has behaved perfectly, but I always leave it on even when out and about on mobile data.  I only turn it off rarely (like if I'm in the car loading directions and I'm close enough to the house to get WiFi signal but the signal is very poor).

[Do not disturb] - This turns on and off for me at the proper times and seems to work consistently.  I haven't received calls during Do Not Disturb mode so I don't know about the thing where it rings for a brief moment.

[Battery usage data] - I have this problem too.  I use the GSam app.

[SD Card files gone] - I haven't had this happen yet.  My SD card is set up as as shared device, not an Android exclusive device, maybe this only happens in the latter case?

[Scrolling pictures] - I haven't changed my background picture yet.  Maybe now, after your horror story, I won't.

[Device unlocks] - I have the reverse problem... my Cosmo occasionally locks itself spontaneously.  Maybe once per day.  Doesn't seem to matter if I was typing or just reading without touching any screen or buttons or keys.


I totally understand your frustration.  Even with the fewer issues I have, I'm considering whether I really want this as my daily driver.  If I were in your shoes I'd probably be looking for a better daily driver.  The camera quality really bugs me.  I'm also disappointed that the HDMI output only mirrors the display, seemingly in hardware with no future hope for change.

I've also realized that there are good Bluetooth keyboards out there and thanks to this forum, there is a way to have Linux running well under Android using Devuan.  I haven't tried this yet but really looking forward to it.  The two big reasons I backed the Cosmo were for the keyboard and for linux.  I realize now that I could probably answer those with BT-kbd and with Devuan-method using any modern Android phone.

Vistaus

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« Reply #88 on: March 09, 2020, 04:27:23 pm »
Re: sudden reboots: I had that issue on my previous phones as well every once in a while, so that's not something Planet can fix.

steeph

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« Reply #89 on: March 10, 2020, 12:51:28 am »
Quote from: NormMonkey
[Reboots on its own] - I have this problem too, but more like once a week.
To be honest it's not really daily for me either. I didn't take notes. But it's definitely more than once a week.

Quote from: NormMonkey
[keyboard backlight doesn't turn off] - Does this mean [a] keyboard backlight stays on when lid is closed, or keyboard backlight stays on when not touching any keys but does turn off when lid closed?  Mine behaves like .  I kind of like this, I often use it to read in the dark and I like seeing the keyboard even if I'm not typing.  But it would be nice to have the option to poke a key like [Ctrl] to wake the keyboard backlight up.
I don't think it stays on when it's closed. It's good that it stays on while the screen is on and maybe a bit longer. But it usually never turns off when it's sitting on the desk open and left alone. But at other times the setting changes to off while it's in my pocket so I also can't trust it to be always on. It feels like it's always off when I pull it out in the dark.

Quote from: NormMonkey
[CoDi update notification] - I haven't had this problem.  Although I do find my CoDi wakes up even when persistent notification changes state, like if battery level goes down a percent or my step count goes up.  CoDi wakes up *a lot*.
The other day I opened the lid and there was no notification endlessly searching for updates. I thought something was wrong. The notification is my constant companion every day. I don't even know why it exists. There's nothing to be notified of, even if it wouldn't hang.

Quote from: NormMonkey
[Settings reset to default] - I haven't had this problem.
I've read about it at least once here. So, I'm not sure if you're lucky or I'm unlucky.

Quote from: NormMonkey
[Rotate sucks] [...]
I was used to that on the Gemini. And I just realised that the strange behaviour may come from the Tasker app that I never got to auto rotate. I didn't remove the configuration that was supposed to auto rotate. I'll see if that gets better when I remove the app.

Quote from: NormMonkey
[Bluetooth] - Haven't had any problems with it turning off and on.
I think it's not bluetooth specifically. Sometims airplane mode randomly turns on while it's in my pocket. And when I still had CoDi on it would sometimes redial the last number which got some people very annoyed. So maybe that's connected to it unlocking itself randomly.

Quote from: NormMonkey
[WiFi] - My WiFi has behaved perfectly, but I always leave it on even when out and about on mobile data.  I only turn it off rarely (like if I'm in the car loading directions and I'm close enough to the house to get WiFi signal but the signal is very poor).
Sometimes it turns off when I tap the icon, but never for more than a few seconds.

Quote from: NormMonkey
[Scrolling pictures] - I haven't changed my background picture yet.  Maybe now, after your horror story, I won't.
To still be honest, it didn't take two days to change it back. It took a few hours. But then I wanted to know what had happened and selected a picture with the same dimension agains and it started to rotate constantly again. That's why I know that really was the cause. I tried to change it back again for a while but wasn't quick enough. Tried again the next day and managed to do it after a while. Somehow that became "two days" in my head when I wrote my previous post. (Maybe because it was the second day.)

Quote from: NormMonkey
I've also realized that there are good Bluetooth keyboards out there and thanks to this forum, there is a way to have Linux running well under Android using Devuan.  I haven't tried this yet but really looking forward to it.  The two big reasons I backed the Cosmo were for the keyboard and for linux.  I realize now that I could probably answer those with BT-kbd and with Devuan-method using any modern Android phone.
Yeah, same here. I'm more of a thumb-typer on the phone anyway. So now that I know the F(x)tec Pro¹ exists, I think I'll try that. Hopefully I'll have a chance to try it out without buying it first. I still type best on a Nokia Communicator though. I don't know what it is, but that keyboard seems to be designed specifcally for my fingers. I wish there was a phone pretty much exactly like that but with newer hardware.