Optimus V Battery Drain Optimization Tests Part 2

[mmarz]

Tested higher clocking only yesterday (480-864) and was surprised that battery life was the same as usual however it can't be good for the processor to never get a break.

Sent from my LG Optimus V using Tapatalk

I didn't know it was a Union Processor

The only thing that would shorten its life span is excessive heat. If it is not draining any extra battery, then it can't be getting any hotter either. I've left my phone overclocked to 806 exactly with great results.

With my latest advance, creating the firewall profiles to stop unnecessary 3G usage, I'm going to see how long my phone will sit in standby with minimal usage. I'm hope for more than 100 hours.

 

[aeroseek]

HA, I love this! Tweaked my phone using your results and I couldn't be happier

IF you decide to do a PART 3, may I also suggest a GPS test? Meaning GPS On, Navi On, 3g On.
I have noticed that a stock rom seems to use less current vs custom rom while using GPS. If plugged into a car charger it would charge the battery no problem. With my current rom, the battery actually slowly discharges while using Navi. Exiting said app and turning off GPS results in normal charging behavior.

 

[phreak311]

Bravo on your research man!! It's people like you that help making this phone a better experience! Great Job!

 

[davidh44]

[If you are going to use SetCPU, overclocking will save you battery life. Underclocking will actually cost you. I would recommend leaving the upper limit one notch lower than what is considered stable for your phone. The lower limit does not matter all that much. I now have my lower limit set at the same value as the upper limit. When idle, both high and low clock speeds consume the same power. When the CPU is needed, the higher clock speed is more efficient (to a point). I would advise against the "conservative" scaling that gradually changes your clock speed to task if you still decide to underclock. This will only slow you down and consume more battery power. You also don't need a separate profile for when your phone is on standby. Lower clock speeds can only worsen your battery life.

Lastly, underclocking is not the same as undervolting. Undervolting would probably decrease battery consumption, but it is not implemented in any rom/kernel for the Optimus V...yet.

Good observation, thanks! My experience with computer CPUs and measuring actual power draw has been like that...the significant power savings are from undervolting rather than underclocking, but you underclock to be able to undervolt more. There still is a power draw/heat difference when overclocking at same voltage, just much less. Given how much less power an ARM6 consumes compared to a regular desktop CPU, it wouldn't be surprising that it's to the point of not being noticeable.

If in the future we can adjust for both speed AND voltage, then there should be a noticeable power savings benefit. Is there a way to show what voltage the CPU is locked in at? (i.e. how was it determined it's running at fixed voltage?)

Setting the CPU to "Performance" mode in SetCPU should achieve the same thing as setting the min/max to the same speed.

In case it becomes relevant in the future to set different min/max speeds, do you have a recommendation on which mode to use (Interactive vs. On Demand) and the optimal settings under the "Advanced" tab?

 

[mmarz]

In case it becomes relevant in the future to set different min/max speeds, do you have a recommendation on which mode to use (Interactive vs. On Demand) and the optimal settings under the "Advanced" tab?

Besides "conservative", they sound like they all do the same thing. I'm not really an expert on SetCPU.

 

[davidh44]

Besides "conservative", they sound like they all do the same thing. I'm not really an expert on SetCPU.

I set it on "Performance" since that's the setting that doesn't involve any scaling. Just in case it's still doing the sampling/calculations for scaling even though min/max are set to the same speed.

 

[mmarz]

I set it on "Performance" since that's the setting that doesn't involve any scaling. Just in case it's still doing the sampling/calculations for scaling even though min/max are set to the same speed.

Smart thinking! I am going to play with that to see if it helps.

 

[Superorb]

Cool thread, thanks for your work mmarz. It's interesting to see that underclocking has no affect on power draw. I'll go ahead and delete all of the underclocking profile slots in setCPU then.

So, would you recommend running the CPU at its highest stable speed even if it sits idle most of the time? I already have Juice Defender turning off wifi and 3g off when the screen is off, and I don't have any apps that should be using data with the screen off. I don't use gmail push either since I work from home and am always sitting in front of the PC and I don't need email while on the go.

 

[mmarz]

Cool thread, thanks for your work mmarz. It's interesting to see that underclocking has no affect on power draw. I'll go ahead and delete all of the underclocking profile slots in setCPU then.

So, would you recommend running the CPU at its highest stable speed even if it sits idle most of the time? I already have Juice Defender turning off wifi and 3g off when the screen is off, and I don't have any apps that should be using data with the screen off. I don't use gmail push either since I work from home and am always sitting in front of the PC and I don't need email while on the go.

So I've been doing some testing (that I might release soon) covering how "best" to configure your phone. Pretty much, it is best to overclock even if your phone is on idle all the time. This is because when the CPU is idle, the clock speed doesn't matter as far as battery drainage goes, as I showed in the results, but more importantly, your phone will occasionally run tasks, finding a new tower, fixing the clock, and other general maintenance tasks. All of this is invisible to you, but underclocking can only hurt you (although, not by much).

Now in the 3G/Wifi sleep debate... I found that having any regular data transfers is reason enough to have Wifi on during the screen being off vs having 3G take over. 3G consumes so much power when data is transferred that the advantage that it has over Wifi during the idle periods is completely lots. If you truly have no data transferring, 3G won't hurt you to leave on during idle periods, but if you have an im client on, viop registration, gmail auto-sync, OR any other service that keeps you logged on, that minute amount of data transfer makes Wifi best to leave on when you can. If you want to keep those types of programs but you don't want them using bandwidth when idle, turn off your 3G or setup the firewalls like I showed.

 

[Superorb]

^^ Awesome, thanks! I have JuiceDefender set to turn off 3g and wifi when the screen is off since I don't ever have anything updating/syncing in the background (that I know of). I'll play with the OC tomorrow.

If you post about an optimal config for the Optimus please post a link to it in this thread.

 

[mmarz]

^^ Awesome, thanks! I have JuiceDefender set to turn off 3g and wifi when the screen is off since I don't ever have anything updating/syncing in the background (that I know of). I'll play with the OC tomorrow.

If you post about an optimal config for the Optimus please post a link to it in this thread.

davidh44 was right. Setting setcpu to "performance" is best: SetCPU for Root Users

 

[maxpower49]

Interested to see if the newest release of aospCMod (4/3/11) fixes the wifi battery drain bug. Someone on xda said it might.

xda-developers - View Single Post - [ROM] aospCMod for LG Optimus V | AOSP 2.3.3 / CM7 (Gingerbread) [04/03/2011]

 

[WLH7M]

I'm an utter newb to Andoid phones in general, much less rooting one. Can you increase battery life by rooting your unit?

 

[Superorb]

I'm an utter newb to Andoid phones in general, much less rooting one. Can you increase battery life by rooting your unit?

Rooting your phone merely allows you access to the phone's system, it doesn't in itself do anything. Rooting allows you to flash 3rd party ROMs which can help increase battery life.

 

[mmarz]

I'm an utter newb to Andoid phones in general, much less rooting one. Can you increase battery life by rooting your unit?

Look at my post covering my first set of tests. The stock rom with no rooting and no mods has some of the best battery life. It is more about how you use your phone than modifying it. Read up a bit more before you start rooting and flashing roms. You might be disappointed by the results.

 

[antipasta]

Do you have 'performance' as a choice in setcpu with xionia v13?

I installed the v13 posted by you in the thread about converting optimus s kernels to optimus v, and the only choices I have are conservative, ondemand and interactive. I'm using the latest setcpu 2.1.1a. Any ideas?

davidh44 was right. Setting setcpu to "performance" is best: SetCPU for Root Users

 

[Kiernon]

Really, mmarz, this is wonderful data to factor in for any Optimus user deciding on choices for their ROMs, as well as shedding light on drain questions a lot of new users may have.

Much appreciated.

-K

 

[mmarz]

Do you have 'performance' as a choice in setcpu with xionia v13?

I installed the v13 posted by you in the thread about converting optimus s kernels to optimus v, and the only choices I have are conservative, ondemand and interactive. I'm using the latest setcpu 2.1.1a. Any ideas?

Those options are set by the kernel. I guess 013 doesn't have that option. It isn't all that important. Set the scan interval to as large a value as you can.

 

[antipasta]

Those options are set by the kernel. I guess 013 doesn't have that option. It isn't all that important. Set the scan interval to as large a value as you can.

ah ok, just wanted to verify that i wasn't missing an option that other people had.

I must say that I'm really digging 013, haven't ran into any issues with it yet. I had far more FC's and random issues in 005 than I do in 013.

 

[drezliok]

FCs? What are those?