Can Someone Tell Me About Standby?

[Pleng]

OK negative feedback on the low-power mode I'm afraid.

Went to bed at 10.13 last night with the battery at 89%. Put the unit to 'sleep' by sliding the power switch to the right then closed the lid.
Woke the unit up at 8.57 this morning and the battery was down at 32%. Doesn't seem to be much, if any, better than simply closing the lid.

 

[mali]

^ It might be a good idea to inspect the linearity of the discharge curve or lack thereof. On some devices the charge indicator drops rapidly after a full charge and slows down later and barely moves from then on.

 

[Pleng]

hmm good point. so far I haven't really let it go much lower than 30%, it's been hovering mostly between 40 and 80%.

Even so, I find it difficult to imagine it lasting 2-3 days in this 'sleep' mode.

 

[juniorm33]

Do you get this problem by any chance?

4) Coming out of suspend mode (closing lid or pushing power switch) tends to bog down the system to an unbearably slow speed.

 

[Pleng]

See my previous post on the topic

Essentially, as far as I can tell, lifting the lid does not bring the unit out of suspend, but does light up the screen. You still need to push the power button to the right and then wait around 10 seconds. This will re-clock the system to full speed.

 

[mali]

Personally I think that clocking down of the CPU is nonsense and should be disabled. In sleep mode the CPU should clock down internally anyway. Clocking down only makes sense if there are programs running in the background that constantly ping the CPU and prevent it from going into a sleep/idle state.

 

[BackAssward]

CPU should clock down internally anyway.

Yes it should, but does it? I know it was posted that the hardware was supposed to do that... but many thing should be or are supposed to be. The question is, *does it*? (currently)

Edit: just an fyi, I am not making a criticism, just asking a question.

 

[nexferret]

Sounds fairly ropey if I'm gonna be honest. Ambiguous power state, and a standby mode that does very little to save power?

 

[Pleng]

iIm sure updates will improve the situation over time

 

[nexferret]

How do other platforms, such as PocketPC and the iP* handle this kind of thing? I've never noticed it clocking back up, both of them seem to be truly instant-on.

 

[BaDToaD]

As an early adopter I expect lots of little niggles, faults and even complete cockups in the system. If you don't expect that then you really should be a batch two type of person.

That said, I'd expect things to improve rapidly over the next month or two as Pandora's get into peoples hands but to be moaning at this stage is IMHO a bit harsh to say the least.

 

[mali]

CPU should clock down internally anyway.

Yes it should, but does it? I know it was posted that the hardware was supposed to do that... but many thing should be or are supposed to be. The question is, *does it*? (currently)

There are apps to check that stuff in Linux, afaik. Is it called "Top" or something like that? There is a way to tell how much time the CPU spends in what sleep state, but I'm no Linux expert and I only aquire such knowledge when I need it. It should be easy to do some tests. Someone should just shut down all programs, crank up the core clock, turn off the screen and let it run out of juice till it shuts off.

I forgot how low the standby-hack core clock is supposed to be, but it's entirely possible that it's so slow that it will take ages to fulfill requests from background processes while in that mode, so that it will burn much more juice than when leaving the clock alone.

 

[BackAssward]

CPU should clock down internally anyway.

Yes it should, but does it? I know it was posted that the hardware was supposed to do that... but many thing should be or are supposed to be. The question is, *does it*? (currently)

...

I think there is a chip that is supposed to do it via hardware, clock down the cpu cycles when not needed (it was posted), rather than software. But my question wasn't really for you (no offense), it was for the OP team.

That is, does it clock down and save power when not in use... Not in theory but in actual Pandoras. (currently, right now)

If not, then it might have to be a software solution.

Edit: Side note: It has a clock, right? What happens to that if there is no battery or power-supply? I looked at all the board pics, and I didn't see a battery to maintain a clock.

 

[mali]

^ I expect such essential stuff to be already integrated in the standard Angström kernel, it's an OS for embedded devices after all.

 

[multiplex]

Dynamic voltage scaling is one possible improvement for the future, as that didn't make it for first release. (Source: http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?/topic/53286-power-consumption/page__view__findpost__p__850452)

 

[BackAssward]

^ I expect such essential stuff to be already integrated in the standard Angström kernel, it's an OS for embedded devices after all.

I understand, but you seem to keep overlooking the question I ask (I tried to clarify). *Does it* Does it in practice actually do that, does the pandora do that. Does it presently do that?

It is a question you can't answer, and you seem to not get what I am asking.

Edit:

Dynamic voltage scaling is one possible improvement for the future, as that didn't make it for first release. (Source: http://www.gp32x.de...post__p__850452)

So the answer is, presently, NO, it doesn't. I am not sure why you keep responding with philosophical possibilities when I ask for reality certainties.

Is it just that you have reading comprehension issues, or critical thinking issues?

Edit2: Sorry to everyone, he is just trying my patience.

 

[mali]

^ Don't worry, I get what you are asking. Take it easy, I don't even try to answer your question. If it bores you to read, just feel free to ignore

edit to answer your edit:

Try understanding what is written in that other thread first before crying. Man, just relax a bit, you seem to be a little stressed.

 

[multiplex]

So the answer is, presently, NO, it doesn't. I am not sure why you keep responding with philosophical possibilities when I ask for reality certainties.

I quite deliberately didn't directly respond to you as I weren't answering your question. I just wanted to throw that out, as possible improvements are certainly on topic for this thread, and I also don't consider updating to a recent kernel a 'philosophical possibility'.

The post I linked to says that dynamic voltage scaling won't work, but doesn't directly refute that it does automatic frequency scaling. I believe there has been other posts that say it currently doesn't, but I didn't have them at hand, or I would have said so.

 

[trooper]

Edit:

Dynamic voltage scaling is one possible improvement for the future, as that didn't make it for first release. (Source: http://www.gp32x.de...post__p__850452)

So the answer is, presently, NO, it doesn't. I am not sure why you keep responding with philosophical possibilities when I ask for reality certainties.

Is it just that you have reading comprehension issues, or critical thinking issues?

Edit2: Sorry to everyone, he is just trying my patience.

I could ask you a similar question, Why do you have to respond in such a rude manner, Is it that you have a
superiority complex or need anger management courses ?.

Oh!, And what part of "Dynamic voltage scaling is one possible improvement for the future, as that didn't make it for first release." did you not understand ?.

Trooper

 

[BackAssward]

I only asked if it did power management *now*. I said nothing about if it ever could. We were told a chip was suposed to handle that, which is hardware, not requiring the OS to do it.

I got a bunch of responses that had nothing to do with the question. All responses about what it 'could' do, or is 'supposed' to do, are not responses to the question. I asked what it actually currently does.

Oh!, And what part of "Dynamic voltage scaling is one possible improvement for the future, as that didn't make it for first release." did you not understand ?.

Trooper

See, that quote came after my question, and refutes Mali's false assumptions. I fully recognized it once it was posted.

I could ask you a similar question, Why do you have to respond in such a rude manner, Is it that you have a superiority complex or need anger management courses ?.

Perhaps you should read my first question and the responses that had nothing to do with the question, before you pass judgment about a superiority complex, sir. Not saying you see a fault in someone else that you fear you yourself has.