So What Is The Pandora Battery Life?

[lulzfish]

That thing with USB devices is a little disappointing, but we should expect that since most USB devices are designed with desktops or full size notebooks in mind. The companies that make them aren't being pressed to conserve power, since losing an extra watt or two is nothing for a system that's already pulling 30 to 100 watts.

Maybe one of those cell phone keyboards will do better.

 

[moxie]

Exactly. The thing with USB devices really shows off that the builtin hardware is very well designed, powerwise. Yay to all!

 

[Kramy]

I don't understand much of this technical stuff but wasn't this "DSP"-thing one of the miracle guts of the OMAP Chipset that could optimize stuff alot? ^_^

It makes perfect sense to me.

The CPU uses about 0.05w, and the LCD about 1.6w. Downclocking will knock that down to 0.04w, which doesn't save a whole heck of a lot of battery life.

Craigix always said "about 10 hours", so I don't know why you'd expect 15-20h, especially once you examine the power consumption of the individual parts.

The Pandora as a whole should consume around 2 watts. If the LCD needs 1.6w, then you can shave off a max of 0.4 watts by downclocking and shutting stuff off. More likely, 0.1-0.2 watts. (5-10%) The biggest power savings will obviously come when the LCD can be turned off.

Perhaps if you don't press anything for a minute or two, the OS could automatically shut off or dim it to save juice. (excluding apps like eBook readers) This is the most likely way to boost battery life well beyond 10 hours.

The DSP is a processor that can do lots of the exact same thing. CPUs are optimized for doing things serially. (A, B, C) DSPs and GPUs are optimized to do things in Parallel("A, B, C" is just as fast as "AAAA, BBBB, CCCC", with both executing slower than a CPU could execute the first)

Edit: I read somewhere that the DSP is fixed-point only. That means no decimal numbers. It's good for video decoding, and situations where you can use fake decimal numbers, but I can't think of much else. Since it has a connection to the memory, it's quite possible that the CPU wouldn't have to be woken up to load new data for an MP3 player - if someone can figure out how to code it.

Edit2: My keyboard uses at least 1 watt. It has some super bright LEDs on it, and a tiny LCD. If I used it with my Pandora, I'd expect a severely diminished battery life, assuming it can even draw enough juice from the port.

Also, I have a VIA Eden computer which I use as a NAS. It consumes about 45 watts usually. When it downclocks from 1.2ghz to 400mhz, it consumes.... 45 watts. CPUs really aren't a big part of the picture anymore.

 

[may88]

I for one an glad this post exists. I only follow the latest posting and if the topic is hot again then why not.
The Pandora is still being built and 2 months is a long time (very long time if you get my drift).

We have a very thought provoking post from one of the big boys which would not have happened otherwise.

Me. I'll plug mine in the mains when ever I can and f*** the battery. Still wondering why I ordered a second one though.

 

[gruso]

.

Think of it this way. You have a stein full of beer (the battery). You turn your Pandora on, and it consumes one shotglass of beer per hour. You plug a USB keyboard in, and it consumes an additional thimble of beer per hour. It's a 25% increase in power consumption, but it's 25% of a very small number.

 

[may88]

Good analogy, I think. What's a Stein? (It's Dutch for stone).

I still think that is you in an environment to plug a USB Keyboard in the bugger you're likely to be near a power socket.

USB mice and controllers may be not. It's the price you pay.

Edit: Sorry to Dutch readers: Stein is German and the Dutch word is Steen (with the ee pronouced as the ai in train). :blush:

 

[gruso]

A stein (or more accurately, beer stein) is a large German beer mug. According to wikipedia it has the same origins as the Dutch word: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_stein

Re: plugging things in, I agree for the most part. If I'm hanging a bunch of devices off it (with the exception of a 3G modem) I'm likely to be at home anyway. Although I am looking forward to having a mobile sound rig - together with a couple of battery powered Roland toys (sampler, sound bank) it's going to be a little party machine. All I need is say, 4 hours battery life.

 

[marshal]

I hope it won't take too much time to have proper power management. It's really a shame if it uses that much power with the screen off doing nothing. Nokia IT have a much smaller battery (1500mAh) and they can last for more that a day when idling.

An important factor on the nokia IT is if your have the wifi on. But really even connected to Wifi and refreshing RSS feed and checking email let's say every hour, they last for long. I think the AP you're connecting to makes a lot of difference though (strength of the signal and if the AP has proper power management)

It would be great if we could consider the Pandora has a always on device as people do with the Nokia IT.

 

[Loonie]

That thing with USB devices is a little disappointing, but we should expect that since most USB devices are designed with desktops or full size notebooks in mind. The companies that make them aren't being pressed to conserve power, since losing an extra watt or two is nothing for a system that's already pulling 30 to 100 watts.

Maybe one of those cell phone keyboards will do better.

Logitech Nano "Eff Tee Doubleyou".

 

[jlepley]

I would personally like to configure it so it turns of the screen when I close the lid but doesn't go to sleep. That way I can leave it alone and let it run whenever it is doing something that doesn't require my attention. (like downloading large files)

 

[Tensuke]

It's supposed to have magnets or something that detect when the screen is closed and turns it off. I don't think it goes to sleep, so for instance you can listen to music with it closed. So that should work already.

 

[pelrun]

Edit: I read somewhere that the DSP is fixed-point only. That means no decimal numbers.

Not true - fixed point numbers *are* 'decimal' numbers, if by that you mean numbers with fractional parts. It just means the decimal point is fixed (you have a set number of bits for each of the integer and fractional parts), not floating (set number of bits for the significant digits, and the decimal point can be placed arbitrarily).

 

[Pleng]

It's supposed to have magnets or something that detect when the screen is closed and turns it off. I don't think it goes to sleep, so for instance you can listen to music with it closed. So that should work already.

You can configure what you want to happen when the lid is closed. Screen-off, sleep, power off are some of the options I would imagine will be provided.

 

[Monk]

Yep.
Just like the estimated release date thread.
Someone posts news, and never mind about closing the thread.

I feel desame way here now. Just let this topic run its cource until it dies.
One person starts a new thread and he's yelled at for not using the old thread. Another person pulls up an old thread and he's yelled at for necroing an old post. The only way to win is to not play.

+1

 

[may88]

According to wikipedia it has the same origins as the Dutch word: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beer_stein

Thanks for the education. Where I come from a "stone" is 14Lbs. This is considably more beer.
As long as the Pandora battery lasts longer than it takes me to drink a pint (or two) then I'll be happy.

It is my wish too for some for of "always on" power management as I want the RTC to be able to wake up and alarm covered in http://www.gp32x.de/board/index.php?showtopic=47970

 

[fusion_power]

Craigix always said "about 10 hours", so I don't know why you'd expect 15-20h

15-20h at 200 MHz (underclocked!)

. You turn your Pandora on, and it consumes one shotglass of beer per hour. You plug a USB keyboard in, and it consumes an additional thimble of beer per hour. It's a 25% increase in power consumption, but it's 25% of a very small number.

Sorry, my english is not that good to understand all the stuff here, but your analogy with the beer now really helped, thanx. :lol:

 

[Eversmile]

Yep.
Just like the estimated release date thread.
Someone posts news, and never mind about closing the thread.

I feel desame way here now. Just let this topic run its cource until it dies.
One person starts a new thread and he's yelled at for not using the old thread. Another person pulls up an old thread and he's yelled at for necroing an old post. The only way to win is to not play.

+1

+2. Way too many elitists around here who think they own the board. It really doesn't take ANYTHING away from you to read these threads. No one is forcing you to participate.

On topic:

Wow, I think maybe the battery estimates are a bit pessimistic. Can you perform some REAL tests to see how it comes out?

 

[God Ginrai]

Yep.
Just like the estimated release date thread.
Someone posts news, and never mind about closing the thread.

I feel desame way here now. Just let this topic run its cource until it dies.
One person starts a new thread and he's yelled at for not using the old thread. Another person pulls up an old thread and he's yelled at for necroing an old post. The only way to win is to not play.

+1

Not true. Gravedigging is always a bad thing to do, so that should never be done. And yes, starting a new thread about something that has already been discussed is also bad, unless you take the proper measures.

• Use the search function to see if your question has already been answered.
• If your question has not been answered, but you found a topic that had a similar question, that was either not answered, or was not answered to the extent that you were curious. Post a new topic, and in your post acknowledge the existence of the predecessor topic by linking to it. A short explanation of why it doesn't answer your question might also be useful. -OR-
• If your search returned no similar topics, then post a new topic. If what you are asking seems to you like something that should have been asked before, then list your search terms just to be safe, and say that you tried a search but didn't find anything.

Acknowledging that you searched in your opening post is always a good thing to do if you feel like you're asking something that might have been asked before.

-God Ginrai

 

[Monk]

One person starts a new thread and he's yelled at for not using the old thread. Another person pulls up an old thread and he's yelled at for necroing an old post. The only way to win is to not play.

+1

Not true.

Is so! Witness:

You guys already have several fully working prototypes with battery included, so I'm surprised that search didn't turn up anything.

Cosurgi DIDN'T perform any thread necromancy, DID mention that he's searched in his new thread without finding the answer, and STILL got told off for creating a new thread on an old topic. If he'd dug up an old thread instead he'd have been chastised for doing THAT.

 

[God Ginrai]

One person starts a new thread and he's yelled at for not using the old thread. Another person pulls up an old thread and he's yelled at for necroing an old post. The only way to win is to not play.

+1

Not true.

Is so! Witness:

You guys already have several fully working prototypes with battery included, so I'm surprised that search didn't turn up anything.

Cosurgi DIDN'T perform any thread necromancy, DID mention that he's searched in his new thread without finding the answer, and STILL got told off for creating a new thread on an old topic. If he'd dug up an old thread instead he'd have been chastised for doing THAT.

Notice who he got "told off" by. borgqueenx. No offense, but he's been told off some himself, and I think that's the reason he's come to believe that if something has been mentioned before that it's automatically taboo, especially with Chip's previous tendency to close any and all threads that had been discussed or went OT.

-God Ginrai