i know why battery life sucks so much!

[sirtronics]

I have been going crazy with battery life on my Diamond!
I have stripped it down to nothing running but the basic Sprint Rom.
With nothing running and maybe 4 calls (if the phone actually lets me answer it) Battery dead in under 5 hours!
I have recently changed it to the Juicy 2.4 Rom with hopes of better battery life. battery dead in 6 hours today with no more than 20 minutes total on the phone.
The phone also goes into this mood of being non-responsive and just hangs up until it catches itself!
I write this to see if I am alone with a defective phone or if we are all on the same boat. PLEASE RESPOND! THANKS!

[snovvman]

Originally Posted by sirtronics

I have been going crazy with battery life on my Diamond!
I have stripped it down to nothing running but the basic Sprint Rom.
With nothing running and maybe 4 calls (if the phone actually lets me answer it) Battery dead in under 5 hours!
I have recently changed it to the Juicy 2.4 Rom with hopes of better battery life. battery dead in 6 hours today with no more than 20 minutes total on the phone.
The phone also goes into this mood of being non-responsive and just hangs up until it catches itself!
I write this to see if I am alone with a defective phone or if we are all on the same boat. PLEASE RESPOND! THANKS!

How is your coverage? Do you observe the phone switching between 1xRTT and EVDO and/or roam often? Does your phone sometimes not ring on incoming calls? Does your screen turn on by itself sometimes? It seems like the Diamond handles poor coverage poorly. At home, my phone will only go for about six hours with ~10 SMS per hour ONLY.

[Dreading]

Originally Posted by cappy

That sounds about right, but I am guessing that you are reading from NuePower. It has been determined that NuePower always reports 100mA higher draw, for whatever reason. The reading for your settings, as reported by others here is 57mA, at the lowest backlight.

So assuming that you are reading from NuePower and that your backlight setting is 3 instead of 1, here is my guess at your adjusted reading.

175mA - 100mA(NuePower) - 18mA (backlight-each level adds 9mA) = 57mA - same as the others in the thread

To take this a step further, with the device in standby (screen off), 57mA becomes 13mA. So with your settings you should expect 1340mA/13mA=103 hours in standby.

Note: I always have the light sensor on and have found that it has no measurable effect upon the discharge rate.

Thanks - I'm glad you were able to make sense of my post even though I misspoke and said "when" when I meant "without." Yes, I was using NuePower. Didn't realize it was inaccurate. My phone is also one of the ones that gets really hot. Not sure if that's also normal or just some folks are having it.

Oh, and I tried just putting the light sensor back on for a day (because I wasn't able to see the screen outside on a sunny day) and it drained much faster than normal, so it does seem to be a factor for mine. I then changed it back to level 3.

[Chef Ben]

I set my phone to the highest screen backlight setting and went to a bar that has terrible reception (a 2nd concrete floor above the bar). In 2.5 hrs my battery went from 90% to 30%. The only phone activity was sending about 10 texts. No internet, no phone calls, no games, no apps. WTF?!?!

[darren.wlsn1]

i use the auto adjust feature and that helps, still does eat battery.

[Curb71]

that sounds as bad as mine. you using Juicy's rom?

[sn0b0ard]

Originally Posted by Curb71

that sounds as bad as mine. you using Juicy's rom?

I was going to ask the same thing. The stock ROMs are pretty bad with battery life compared to other ROMs such as Juicy 2.4.1. I get double (possibly more) battery life than the stock Sprint ROM. I used to have to take my charger with me to work, and I would have to charge my phone half way through my 11 hour shift. With Juicy 2.4.1, I took it off the charger this morning at 9:30am, and have used my phone off and on (sometimes heavy usage) all day. It's 1:06am the next day, and I still have 50% battery life

[cappy]

Originally Posted by Dreading

Thanks - I'm glad you were able to make sense of my post even though I misspoke and said "when" when I meant "without." Yes, I was using NuePower. Didn't realize it was inaccurate. My phone is also one of the ones that gets really hot. Not sure if that's also normal or just some folks are having it.

Oh, and I tried just putting the light sensor back on for a day (because I wasn't able to see the screen outside on a sunny day) and it drained much faster than normal, so it does seem to be a factor for mine. I then changed it back to level 3.

Observation of the mA discharge rate will help us manage the batttery discharge. If we know what is draining power and when, adjustments can be made. Your backlight adjustment is an example. Although true for me, the statement that I made that the light sensor has no effect on battery was wrong. It depends how the device is used. in my office, the screen brightness is usually at 3 and the screen is usually not on for long. In the sun, screen brightness would go to 5 (I think there are 5 levels). At 9mA draw for each level, that is 18mA more discharge per hour. So you do indeed save battery by turning off the light sensor and setting brightness to 3, if you are using the device in the sun and the screen remains on for long periods. But it should not be more than a savings of 1% to 3% over a 10 hour period.

I would not refer to the NuePower readings as inaccurate. Just different. I am not sure that any of the tools used for the readings are accurate in an absolute sense. NuePower and the other tools all appear to report consistently. But to establish a benchmark, apples to apples, we need to adjust NuePower by -100.

The heating issue is an unknown. My device does not heat up. It has been charging for an hour as I write this and it is not even warm. There are some smart people on this forum who appear to have the technical expertise to evaluate this heating issue. Perhaps they will evaluate the problem more closely and draw some conclusions. It may be defective hardware or a defective battery or weak signal or something else. Who knows? Though it is a problem that is widely reported, it is not universal.

IDEA for one of you programmers out there: We need a piece of software that will evaluate the mA discharge rates that we have been discussing. It should monitor the current discharge rate, screen on or off. It could then report your projected battery life, based upon the current discharge rate and make suggestions on what adjustments to make - well before you run out of power. It could catch things like active Data Connections, unusually high discharge rates, etc.

I have been writing code for many years, since Bill Gates moved out of his garage. I do not have the time to write for mobile devices. but might be willing to collaborate regarding the design and logic. I am confident that this can be done. Any takers? If the application has already been written, pass it on.

[dew.man]

It's the reception - anytime the phone is searching for a signal or switching to/from roaming, it's gulping the juice!

[mr.squonk]

Originally Posted by dew.man

It's the reception - anytime the phone is searching for a signal or switching to/from roaming, it's gulping the juice!

Doesn't that mean we can blame Sprint (or other carriers) for not having better coverage?!?

I have the same problem at work, jumps from EVDO to 1X to Roam all day...but I have to admit that I have only had the dreaded "Turbo-Drain" a few times on my old Mogul and once with my Diamond since I have had it.