New power consumption tests (Dell x51v, HP hx4700, PLoox720,HTC Universal and Wizard)

What bitchy comments are you talking about. All I see are people asking his opinion.

the original "bitchy " post has been edited to an "i'm sorry"

That's good to know and thanks again for the heads-up on the utility.
Unfortunately, when I run the utility it reads 0 mA and I can't seem to figure out how to get it to read current. Any suggestions? I have an X50v running A05.

Thanks

Is your Axim plugged in by any chance?

[thevery]

Menneisyys
It's strange, but I've got some different results on my x51v - for example about 90 mA when idle.. I've also noticed very high power comsumtion when using bluetooth dial-up connection with my se k750i - more than 450 in idle!!! I have widcomm bt stack. I'll try to make measurments soon using some hardware methods.

[Menneisyys]

Menneisyys
It's strange, but I've got some different results on my x51v - for example about 90 mA when idle..

With our without backlight? What hardware revision do you have?

I've also noticed very high power comsumtion when using bluetooth dial-up connection with my se k750i - more than 450 in idle!!! I have widcomm bt stack. I'll try to make measurments soon using some hardware methods.

That IS a lot! In the previous BT test, I could only test pre-0.5 Windcomm BT stacks; they had no such problems. If you continue getting results like this, I'll too check out 0.50 + A12 in this respect.

[thevery]

my some results using acbpowermeter:

initial charge: 27%:
auto+bt+min backlight=116

initial charge: 21%
auto+min backlight=85

initial charge: 15%
auto+max backlight=191

Test time about 30 minutes
A12, of course
HW revision seems to be A00(old), I can't find it
irda beam enabled
I'm using BT 0.5

That IS a lot!

It is definitely too high, because device is getting hot!

[dvmed]

the original "bitchy " post has been edited to an "i'm sorry"

I am aware of that. It's just that he (bully) probably was referring to more than one incident otherwise he would just have quoted that one post. Sorry to be out of topic.

I'd say nothing (without explicitly testing it - that is, I may turn out to be wrong), but I will certainly test it as soon as I have some free time.

Ok. I noticed that I was getting more battery life when using Odyssey client than Dell's WLAN utility so I did some testing myself using abcPowerMeter.
The test was done with the following conditions:
1. No other appications were running except abc power meter and either Dell WLAN utility, Odyssey client, or Bluetooth PAN.
2. Tested connection, made sure that I'm connected with the same SSID (except for bluetooth), and tested internet connection by opening PIE and check if I can load some pages.
3. Backlight set to the minimum.
4. Double checked that no other applications were open including PIE.
5. Each tested for 15 minutes.
6. For each test, waited a few minutes for the processor to settle before starting abcPowerMeter
7. Dell Axim X51V Hardware: 00 ; ROM: A06

Image#1 WLAN utility
battery at 75%
Ave. = 371 mA
Total = 63 mAh

Image#2 Odyssey client
battery at 63%
Ave. = 146 mA
Total = 25 mAh

Image#3 Bluetooth PAN
battery at 57%
Ave. = 127 mA
Total = 22 mAh

note: done the tests again along the same results.

Conclusion: for whatever reason, Odyssey client uses a little less than half mA than what Dell WLAN utility is using and just a little bit more than Bluetooth PAN.

p.s. I'm going to try and test again, but next time with practical usage. (eg. network mp3 streaming)

[Menneisyys]

Wow! I will also re-check the BT PAN power usage - with the Widcomm hacked version that was the current on 04/02/06 (don't remember the actual version number), I had absolutely no excess power problems - it didn't consume at all any excess power, as opposed to both of your BT PAN measurements.

I'll also check the Odyssey client ASAP.

[Menneisyys]

That's good to know and thanks again for the heads-up on the utility.
Unfortunately, when I run the utility it reads 0 mA and I can't seem to figure out how to get it to read current. Any suggestions? I have an X50v running A05.

Thanks

Did you disconnect the AC charger before testing? Also, third-party batteries can cause this (for example, I've just been reported such a case with the HTC Universal).

If you can't make it work in any way, I'll test the app on a friend's x50v to see whether it's indeed different from the x51v in this respect.

[Gelo]

Hi Menneisyys,

Have you tried to run the test from 100% to 0% under WM5 to check how accurate acbPowerMeter is against stated battery capacity?

When I did the following test on standard Dell 1100MaH battery:

- Maximum backlight
- WiFi & Bloothooth on
- Processor set to Maximum
- PDA idle

I got different results under A05 and A12. Under A05 total consumption was 1090MaH, which was close to stated, however under A12 the total was 1000MaH. I can't explain the difference, but it may be the reason for the speed gain people noticed.

I also done some tests on Mugen batteries and it seems that their capacity varies with different test. I have written a post a while back (http://www.aximsite.com/boards/showthread.php?t=123870) where I compared the Mugen batteries to the standard battery.

It would be great if you can do your test over the longer time periods as my tests show that consumption steadily rises with use.

Thanks.

Oleg

[thevery]

Great results for odyssey!
I've got great results with it, too

[dvmed]

To Werner,

I don't know if that has been pointed out already but I just want to share my experience. I don't know how many X51s act this way but it might be the reason for battery drain / hot battery (when wifi is left open when going on standby) that people are reporting before the ActiveSync fake server trick. But then again, it's just a thought.

When I tested Dell WLAN utility with the conditions stated above (see my post above), I got an average of 371 mA and stays at that level until the remainder of the test. To reiterate, the conditions are that no other applications are open, just Dell WLAN utility and abcPowerMeter with wifi on and connected to the SSID. I did the test over and over again with just about the same results (meaning it can be reproduced).

Image#1 - same conditions as the ones pointed above, except that I used 10 minutes and not 15. Not much different from Thumbnail posted above.
Ave: 358 mA

---

I decided to test it again "after" testing mp3 network streaming. (results to follow with my next post. )

Image#2 - still using WLAN utility, but tested "after" mp3 network streaming. There is a significant decrease in power consumption with an Average of 166 mA. Note that I was getting an average of 358 mA(10 mins) and 371 mA(15mins) by just turning WLAN utility on with not other applications running.

The results found in Image#2 can be reproduced by:
1. Turning WLAN utility on
2. Either use PIE, stream a movie/mp3, or use a network resource.
3. Test with abcPowerMeter.

The big question is why does power consumption stick to 350(++) mA when it is "just" connected, but drops to 166(+- )mA as soon as I use a network resource?

Bonus Image#3 - testing mp3 network streaming (WLAN utility) with abcPowerMeter. Playing 4 Songs using TCPMP. Graph spikes when moving from one song to another.
Note that mp3 streaming produces results lower than Image#1

Don


p.s. I used the latest Widcomm Stack (0.50) in my previous post.

[bigbop]

Is your Axim plugged in by any chance?

Ugh - yeah - I was charging it at the time. Now I see that it works when the PDA is unplugged.
thanks

[Menneisyys]

I've made some thorough MS vs Widcomm BT stack power comsumption tests on the x51v; see http://www.aximsite.com/boards/showthread.php?p=1227909