GPS Battery Benchmark

[gbm85]

I know some Kaiser users have tested the effect of GPS on the battery, but I haven't seen any Titan users do it, so I figured I'd give it a whack myself. If this has already been posted somewhere, I apologize.

I used acbPowerMeter 1.1 in this test. All today plugins were disabled. Backlight was set to the lowest level. Backlight always on, automatic power-off disabled. I soft-reset right before the test. For the GPS test, I opened TGPS, waited for a fix, then switched back to acbPowerMeter and reset the graph. The results:

Two minutes at idle:
52 mA minimum, 136 mA max, 80 mA average. 2 mAh used in 2 minutes.

Two minutes with TGPS in background:
198 mA minimum, 252 mA max, 205 mA average. 7 mAh used in 2 minutes.

So that should give you some idea of the impact on the battery with GPS active.

[schettj]

Originally Posted by gbm85

Two minutes at idle:
52 mA minimum, 136 mA max, 80 mA average. 2 mAh used in 2 minutes.

Two minutes with TGPS in background:
198 mA minimum, 252 mA max, 205 mA average. 7 mAh used in 2 minutes.

So that should give you some idea of the impact on the battery with GPS active.

Whoa, that's pretty dreadful... 120mA for the GPS. Hm. A bluetooth gps receiver is looking better (bluetooth draws 10-20mA when on)

You sure that's not doing some EVDO data? I guess its powered down when the unit is suspended? If so, that might not be too bad, but still... wow. 10 hours of that and you're on vapors.

[itsall_cooool]

Car Charger!

[gbm85]

No, EV-DO was not active at all during either test.

The car charger idea is a good one, but it's hard to find one that puts out the 1 full amp that HTC phones like.

[alex_electro]

Trick for car charger.... I was bored to buy car charger for each cell. And i bought a DC to AC converter that can charge my lap-top to for the price of a car charger at Telus-Stores...And still at Telus store i was advise to nerver charge more than 30 minute periods cause their don't regulate and protect...
Sorry for this Out of topic.

[PuckSR]

Read up on GPS.
GPS needs a powerful Amplifier, GPS signals are extraordinarily weak.
This amplifier requires a lot of power. Especially when you have a small antenna designed to fit into a mobile phone.

It isn't horrible though, long term usage is typically done in a car...so a charger is available.
I don't know that I would use this for a hiking GPS system, but then again this phone wouldn't last very long in that scenario anyway.

[esqueue]

Originally Posted by alex_electro

Trick for car charger.... I was bored to buy car charger for each cell. And i bought a DC to AC converter that can charge my lap-top to for the price of a car charger at Telus-Stores...And still at Telus store i was advise to nerver charge more than 30 minute periods cause their don't regulate and protect...
Sorry for this Out of topic.

Or just buy a regular 12 dc to 120 ac converter for $15 and use your existing home charger. I've been doing that for years to charge phones, handheld game systems and laptops.

This is on topic IMO.

[gbm85]

Originally Posted by PuckSR

Read up on GPS.
GPS needs a powerful Amplifier, GPS signals are extraordinarily weak.
This amplifier requires a lot of power. Especially when you have a small antenna designed to fit into a mobile phone.

It isn't horrible though, long term usage is typically done in a car...so a charger is available.
I don't know that I would use this for a hiking GPS system, but then again this phone wouldn't last very long in that scenario anyway.

I'm not surprised by these results at all. I know that GPS requires a lot of power. My bluetooth receiver used a regular Nokia cell phone battery, and doing just GPS and bluetooth, it only lasted about 10 hours. I did this test so that myself and others could get a more exact idea about how much power GPS uses instead of just saying "a lot."

[bob13bob]

Or just buy a regular 12 dc to 120 ac converter for $15 and use your existing home charger. I've been doing that for years to charge phones, handheld game systems and laptops.

QFT, you the have a multitasker in your care instead of one for each device. It's a better tool.