RAM and power consumption?

How many RAM have you got on your pre-order Pyra and why?

  • 2 RAM mostly for the price

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 2 RAM mostly to save power

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 4 RAM for more RAM

    Votes: 22 88.0%
  • I am a sinner that is unworthy of pre-ordering the Pyra

    Votes: 1 4.0%
  • 2 RAM and 4 RAM because more Pyra

    Votes: 1 4.0%
  • 2 RAM for other reasons

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 4 RAM for other reasons

    Votes: 1 4.0%

  • Total voters
    25

λ the β-Redex Reducer

β-Redex Reducing Member
Joined
Sep 13, 2016
Messages
1,516
Age
54
Location
Lambda Centre
I was thinking about the Pyra and about when society collapses. We're getting solar panels with accu to store electricity but I need a device which I can use to play rogue on when society collapses. I was thinking that maybe a 2 RAM Pyra would be better due to it having less power consumption while rogue is being played on it. But I'm not sure how much the difference is. Is there any information about Pyra power consumption? Will it also be possible to underclock the Pyra in order to save power?
 
I still have the pre-preorder voucher for exactly that reason, i cannot decide which version i want.
 
If society collapses, it'll be only so long, until there are no working batteries left.
 
I was thinking about the Pyra and about when society collapses. We're getting solar panels with accu to store electricity but I need a device which I can use to play rogue on when society collapses. I was thinking that maybe a 2 RAM Pyra would be better due to it having less power consumption while rogue is being played on it. But I'm not sure how much the difference is. Is there any information about Pyra power consumption? Will it also be possible to underclock the Pyra in order to save power?

My first thought would be: Is power consumption by RAM a problem?
It might be a small issue for having the unit run on idle for long periods but when the Pyra is in use the RAM isn't the largest consumer of power.
Having the LCD backlight use a bit less power probably already negates the RAM power usage, then having more RAM is probably better as you can't add some more RAM when you need it while you can still produce some more energy.

Here is an older report for power consumption in a mobile phone:
components_power_usage.png

As you can see the RAM is probably not the largest consumer of power in a mobile device.

If society collapses your first problem will probably be water and food. If you have this arranged already you might be able to stay at home, then large solar panels with a battery would be handy to have electricty in your house.
When you can't stay in your house anymore and you need to always travel to get to water and food a Pyra would be good as you need to be mobile.
Then you probably want to have some foldable solar panel and a good portable battery (while charging the Pyra directly from solar panels would be more efficient, you can by default also load the battery as it can hold more charge). You want a backpack with a compartment that can resits water (for rainy times or accidents with water).
You can buy backpacks with solar panel and battery, like this one: <amazon> /Voltaic-Systems-Converter-Backpack-Battery/dp/B00CIYAFJW/
If there isn't much sun in your area you can always buy one of these cheap usb-hand chargers: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000699586374.html
And if you need to travel at night, you can use a usb flashlight, something like this: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000803651173.html
You might want to add some Lora part to your backpack, so you can communicate over larger distances with travel companions.
Something like these: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/4000059708434.html
You could connect your Pyra over wifi and have messages send over Lora from backpack->backpack.
In your backpack you could also use a water-filtering bottle like the life-straw one, so you can get drinking water more easily: https://www.lifestraw.com/products/lifestraw-go
Obviously you might want to pack more stuff like a pocket knife, small poncho maybe to keep you dry.
If you want to take some tech with you it could be the TS80 soldering iron to use with your faster-charging powerbank, to repair electronics on the go: https://www.aliexpress.com/item/32904641235.html
*I haven't tested any of these products, so I don't recommend any of these from personal use.

Back to the RAM discussion: I would always get the 4GB RAM version. Because you can't add more RAM later, upgrading to a different board is more expensive then buying it directly.
It's also easier to produce. And as most people get the 4GB version it's the version that is most likely to work best. Look to the Pandora: most stuff works on the 1GHz version and first batch has most issues with released applications.
At start the 2GB was proven to be working and the 4GB had issues, but since then those issues are resolved if I'm correct. The only valid reason I see now to get the 2GB version is money, as it's a bit cheaper.
 
Last edited:
If society collapses, it'll be only so long, until there are no working batteries left.
There are portable solar panels without charger, they could power the Pandora.

As you can see, I had enough power to run the Pandora, AND to charge it at the same time.
SolarPandora_small.jpg



Just start building a faraday cage if you are worried about your electronics.
 
There are portable solar panels without charger, they could power the Pandora.

As you can see, I had enough power to run the Pandora, AND to charge it at the same time.
View attachment 36008


Just start building a faraday cage if you are worried about your electronics.

You lie !! It's visible that the cable goes through the banana !! I want too a banana powered Pandora !!
 
Just start building a faraday cage if you are worried about your electronics.
Good point. I need 2 Faraday cages each with some kind of information storage device in them. Then I need to make regular back-ups of all my important information on both information storage devices while always keeping at least 1 of the information storage devices in a working Faraday cage. This set-up will protect my important files —most notably my rogue.scr— against EMP attacks. My rogue.scr could serve to attract females when it's time to rebuild the population.
 
There are portable solar panels without charger, they could power the Pandora.

Some electronics can't handle charging by solar panels well, especially at no to low voltages, and usually a solar panel provide more then 5Volts that USB uses.
That's why there usually is special charging circuitry for solar charging.

You can charge a Pyra with multiple banana's if you want to, but it's not really efficient:

Probably better to eat the banana's and use the hand-crank USB charger.
 
Last edited:
Here is an older report for power consumption in a mobile phone:
One scale starting at 35 the other at 90 tho, how annoying to compare.
That graphic card spike tho...
Ive done a few tests on the pandora back when i wrote that book reading tool, the graphic card power consume heavily changes depending on what programs are open, and i mean open, not running or displaying anything.
Just opening a window without any refresh or cpu activity, having the program just sleep for a minute increases the power usage.
In perspective that means simply having a clock shown on the desktop probably has more impact on power than the amount of ram you have.
 
I remember reading that the 4GB version actually uses less electricity. I can't remember what thread it was in.
 
As you can see the RAM is probably not the largest consumer of power in a mobile device.
Caveat: The average mobile device uses LPDDR RAM. The OMAP5 variant that was supposed to support it was cancelled, we are using the much more power hungry common DDR3 RAM.
 
Caveat: The average mobile device uses LPDDR RAM. The OMAP5 variant that was supposed to support it was cancelled, we are using the much more power hungry common DDR3 RAM.
There is a obviously a difference in power consumption between DDR3 and LPDDR3 but I can't find any real numbers on what the actual differences are. It appears to differ per brand, implementation and usage by the product.
What I did read is that the biggest difference is in stand-by time, so shutting down the Pyra instead of putting it into stand-by might be a good idea.
One of the last firmware updates for the Pandora included the removal the active LED from stand-by to extend stand-by time. From this I assume the power consumption from an active LED is in the same range as SDRAM idle power consumption.
 
Back
Top