Underclocking + battery saver application = decreased battery

[Canefan]

I had been using Green Power battery saver with good success before I rooted my TB. I had it set to turn on data for 2 min every 15 min. This clearly extended my battery for several hours at least. After rooting I started using setcpu along with Green Power to underclock when the screen was off and my battery life became much worse with this combination. I then removed setcpu and it improved again. All I can figure is that when the phone syncs at the lower clock speed, it takes longer to process the incoming data during the 2nd minutes that the data connection is turned on, and so the data connection is active for a longer period of time. Without setcpu, the incoming data is processed much faster and the data connection is not active as long. That's my theory anyway. Thought it was interesting.

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[Its TwiX]

That's really odd... With my underclocking at 245 this thing keeps going and going and going...

 

[Canefan]

I understand that Underclocking by itself extends battery. What I seem to have discovered is that Underclocking combined with a battery saver application like green power or juice defender where the data is turned on and off may not be a good combination.

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[w0lfinator]

I think i might be having this same issue as well..I initially saw a great boost in battery life by using Tasker to disable Data when the screen is off(pre-rooted).

Now I am rooter and underclocking as well when the screen is off, and it seems to have either made the battery life worse or not improved it at all.

Is anyone else noticing this?

 

[Its TwiX]

What kernel are you using? If it's overclocked and you are a heavy user, underclocking on screen off won't do too much.

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[Larry_ThaGr81]

Hmmm.....underclocking + battery saving app = less battery life. Error! That doesn't compute.

 

[w0lfinator]

I just remembered last night that I forgot to disable the Facebook app from updating(within the app) after rooting.. We'll see how today goes, that change made a DRASTIC difference when I didn't have Tasker or root.

FYI, I am using stock kernel so I am not overclocked at all.

 

[Canefan]

Hmmm.....underclocking + battery saving app = less battery life. Error! That doesn't compute.

Error???!?! Really? I've demonstrated this on my phone several times and it's not my imagination. What I mean is that it results in less battery life then doing either option by itself.

If you think about it, it actually makes perfect sense. My data connection is only on for short periods of time because of the Green Power App. So when the data connection cycles on, the phone will attempt to sync Gmail, my Exchange account and whatever else needs a data connection (weather app, news, etc). With the phone underclocked, it will take longer to process all of that incoming data, and so the data connection may actually be on and transmitting for all or most of the 2 minutes that it is up. With the phone clocked at its normal speed, the phone is able to process the incoming data quicker and so the data connection while still up and running, is not actually actively transmitting data for very long, thus using less battery. I have experimented with this extensively on my phone and I've proven beyond a shadow of a doubt (again this is on MY phone with MY usage pattern) that underclocking and using Green Power causes the battery to drain faster than doing either of them by themselves. And in fact, my battery does better with just Green Power active, then with just underclocking alone. I have it set up so that my data connection is only on for 8 minutes out of every hour (2 minutes out of every 15). Of course, data is also on when the screen is on and unlocked as well. Conversely, by turning off Green Power which means having the data on all of the time, and then underclocking the phone with the screen off does not seem to work as well.

 

[BigMcGuire]

I've been in the OP's situation before with my Droid 1 back in the day. I loaded my newly rooted Droid 1 phone with task killers, power management apps, and all that fun stuff. I was shocked when I got 1/2 the battery life with that setup vs stock. I found out that all those apps together worked against each other and destroyed the phone's usability.

Right now I try to keep it as stock as I can. Like Canefan said - either go one route or the other. I prefer the stock route. I'll get a kernel that auto-clocks down the processor (without me having to use Set-CPU) and set my sync'ing to occur only once a day. I'm getting INSANE battery because of this.

More towards the thread - I've tried this indirectly by turning off - Settings --> Wireless & Networks ---> Mobile Networks --> Enable Always-On Mobile Data. What this does is turn off your 3g/4g radio after your screen is off after a few minutes. Then it waits till your screen is back on to sync/do data again. This is basically what those Green Power, Juice Defender apps are doing - which makes sense.

I bypass all that by just having the stuff that I do sync, only sync manually or (facebook) once a day and have an underclocking kernel (Das BAMF 1.3.2). Loving the battery so far.

 

[w0lfinator]

So with underclocking while screen off, enabling data every 15 minutes with screen off and all sync set to off basically. I got only about 13 hours of battery life(which is NOT good compared to what i was getting 17-20 hours). My usage was light to moderate and basically only included playing music for an hour or so during the day.

I am going to try underclocking at a higher rate today and sync my data while off at 25 every 25 minutes instead. Maybe this will increase the battery life.

 

[w0lfinator]

Just wanted to give a running update.. I decided NOT to move my underclocking as it was already at 368 min 368 max when screen off. I instead changed Tasker to turn data on & Autosync for 30 seconds every 25 minutes while screen was off.

By making this change I was at 43% battery left at 16 hours. I don't know if Monday was a glitch or not, but yesterday was the more likely battery life for me. I will keep track of it and continue to post here.

 

[BigMcGuire]

Good to hear. I'm getting INSANE battery life with Das BAMF 1.3.2 Unthemed and the 1.2Ghz undervolted kernel. I'm happy and unlike my days with my OG Droid, I'm probably going to stick with this for a long time.

 

[w0lfinator]

I wanted to try that ROM, but I actually really like the last apps in the pulldown bar.. I don't understand why they felt the need to remove the last apps from that...

 

[w0lfinator]

Day 2 witnessed about the same battery life, maybe even a little better. All I can really ask for with this battery is to be insured I can go a whole day and late into the night. I am always going to plug it in as I use my phone as my alarm clock and I would NEVER want to risk the battery dieing on me.

So far so good, I am going to underclock to 245760 today to see how much of a negative or positive difference that makes with the battery life. I'll continue to post as I am sure my findings are helping someone out there.

 

[BigMcGuire]

Yeah, I've been doing battery tests and getting a day's use easily. Then I started wondering, wtf am I doing, I'm just going to enjoy my phone because now it lasts all day and I have chargers everywhere (thanks to my OG Droid 1) so I don't need to worry anymore.