Navitel Observation Thread

[yaozer]

that is not normal i believe. i think you just minimized both apps and did not close/exit them. make sure to exit navitel and gps status after use. to make sure use the taskbar and exit them if they are running. antennas like hsda, gps etc use more battery when they have a weak signal. so if your gps is on and your inside the house it will use more battery.

alternatively, you can also use setcpu to downclock and undervolt. i used to notice heat build up when using navitelplus charger, and while playing some games. not any more...

Nope, they weren't minimized, I am the paranoid type, I always launch Taskbar to exit all active programs after closing ANY app I also go to Settings - Applications - Running Services to kill any unwanted stuff. All antennas are turned off too, I always ensure none of them (GPS, WiFi, 3G) are on when not in use.

[arvin555]

Aaaah! See that is why it is in my opinion that dedicated GPSrs will not die as quickly as some people think they will, because of battery life as well as concern of the lifespan of the Smartphone/device, including heat.

But all these concerns are so far the same whichever OS or device or software you use. There probably are small differences, but I imagine very small differences. Heck even dedicated GPSrs only last around 4 hours on battery power. Add to that the GSM singal and stuff...

TTFN
Arvin

[travelbug]

Nope, they weren't minimized, I am the paranoid type, I always launch Taskbar to exit all active programs after closing ANY app I also go to Settings - Applications - Running Services to kill any unwanted stuff. All antennas are turned off too, I always ensure none of them (GPS, WiFi, 3G) are on when not in use.

gps status may still have some hidden services running. you can alternatively try setting auto agps d/l to never. see if that helps.
also d/l betterbatterystats and look for wakelocks.

[yaozer]

I can confirm that, my kg2 rom consumes 2% battery life for the whole night while idle, lately it has been consuming 20%, my battery usage stats has gps status taking up almost 24% of total usage.

For now, I have gps status frozen for further observations.

At least I'm not alone on this observation hehe My S2 also consumes only 1-2% battery life for the whole night when I sleep. This was the pre-Navitel days. Last night was the worst, 45% down to 10% in just 7 hours idle time.

I mentioned before that I noticed this heat up, but only actually realizing this yesterday that it heats up my phone ALL the time after closing Navitel down. I now remember that it wasn't that bad before because I was experimenting on NTP server configurations that time. After every NTP server change, I always reboot my phone in order to make a controlled observation as to which NTP server is better (so it will be a fair comparison). After each reboot, I turn on my WiFi to get Ephemeris using GPS Status (reset and download), and then fire up Navitel for the test. After everything is finished, I rebooted one last time. This in effect prevented the heat up stage. But yesterday was different, I did not reboot after playing with GPS Status and Navitel...

Since I've rebooted this morning and charged the battery, my current battery percentage is still at 100% full (6hrs have passed already after full charge). So I believe there really is something running in the background before the last reboot, and it might be in a loop.

[travelbug]

Aaaah! See that is why it is in my opinion that dedicated GPSrs will not die as quickly as some people think they will, because of battery life as well as concern of the lifespan of the Smartphone/device, including heat.

But all these concerns are so far the same whichever OS or device or software you use. There probably are small differences, but I imagine very small differences. Heck even dedicated GPSrs only last around 4 hours on battery power. Add to that the GSM singal and stuff...

TTFN
Arvin

agree. i wouldnt rely on these smartphone gps'es on an enterprise level.

[yaozer]

looking at % battery usage is not an effective way of gauging things if you dont take usage into account.
so if you are using your gps for an extended period, of course apps like gps status will take up more %, especially so when you have specific settings turned on- and it will use up more battery than the screen.
a better way to test it is to download betterbatterystats and look for partial wakelocks.
look for gps status and navitel and if they are keeping your phone awake even after you exit the programs.

on my phone with villainrom 2.4.2, nimpehtamine 2.0.5 kernel, kg6 modem, i get 1-2% battery loss at night even after using navitel or gps status. i have no wakelocks from both programs and no running backround processes.

I understand what you mean about the battery usage not being a good gauge, because the percentages are only in reference to the apps' current take at this point in time. Even for just 11 seconds of CPU use, which is so little, it might be the biggest battery hogger compared to all resources at that time. BUT, for the whole day of yesterday, the only time I turned on GPS Status and Navitel was that 55secs getting a GPS lock (at 4pm). I turned both off after. I played with Wordtwist (and the occasional SMS sending and receiving) before 4pm for maybe 10minutes. I'm guessing this would have made the Display rank higher than GPS Status in terms of Battery Usage, but it wasn't the case. At home (8:30pm), GPS Status was 32%, Display 30%, Cell Standby and Phone Idle at 6%, Navitel at 2%!! This morning when I woke up, GPS Status was at 39% (still the highest), Display 23%, I forgot the Idle Time percentages (I remembered it went higher), and Navitel already vanished from the chart. If GPS Status was really idle, its percentage would have been lower by then, and passed on to the Phone Idle percentage. Another thing, GPS Status was only turned on for maybe the 11secs it used the CPU (just to get Ephemeris (via WiFi) and not to get GPS lock, I turned it off (and Wifi), then I turned on Navitel. Navitel should have eaten more battery because it was the one using the GPS radio (for 55secs), but then it only reported 2% consumption. Before anything, I have frozen both WiFi Sharing and WiFi Sharing Manager.

Travelbug, I cannot find betterbatterystats in the market. Is there a different name? I'm very much interested in your suggestion. I would like to see battery stats for each app so I can understand which ones drain the most juice.

[yaozer]

Aaaah! See that is why it is in my opinion that dedicated GPSrs will not die as quickly as some people think they will, because of battery life as well as concern of the lifespan of the Smartphone/device, including heat.

But all these concerns are so far the same whichever OS or device or software you use. There probably are small differences, but I imagine very small differences. Heck even dedicated GPSrs only last around 4 hours on battery power. Add to that the GSM singal and stuff...

TTFN
Arvin

Arvin555, I'm actually okay with smartphone GPS radios zapping batteries here and there, I have car chargers everywhere But it should be zapping it WHILE it is being used, not when it has been intentionally turned off to conserve power. It's like being robbed under your nose hehe Traydor kumbaga hehe

My Sony Ericsson Xperia X1i also heats up pretty fast when GPS and Garmin Mobile XT is turned on, but it cools down after turning both off. I'm okay with that, because it is to be expected, it's a "give and take" so to say.

[yaozer]

gps status may still have some hidden services running. you can alternatively try setting auto agps d/l to never. see if that helps.
also d/l betterbatterystats and look for wakelocks.

I'll try to put auto download to Never. I hope that's the culprit.

[travelbug]

I understand what you mean about the battery usage not being a good gauge, because the percentages are only in reference to the apps' current take at this point in time. Even for just 11 seconds of CPU use, which is so little, it might be the biggest battery hogger compared to all resources at that time. BUT, for the whole day of yesterday, the only time I turned on GPS Status and Navitel was that 55secs getting a GPS lock (at 4pm). I turned both off after. I played with Wordtwist (and the occasional SMS sending and receiving) before 4pm for maybe 10minutes. I'm guessing this would have made the Display rank higher than GPS Status in terms of Battery Usage, but it wasn't the case. At home (8:30pm), GPS Status was 32%, Display 30%, Cell Standby and Phone Idle at 6%, Navitel at 2%!! This morning when I woke up, GPS Status was at 39% (still the highest), Display 23%, I forgot the Idle Time percentages (I remembered it went higher), and Navitel already vanished from the chart. If GPS Status was really idle, its percentage would have been lower by then, and passed on to the Phone Idle percentage. Another thing, GPS Status was only turned on for maybe the 11secs it used the CPU (just to get Ephemeris (via WiFi) and not to get GPS lock, I turned it off (and Wifi), then I turned on Navitel. Navitel should have eaten more battery because it was the one using the GPS radio (for 55secs), but then it only reported 2% consumption. Before anything, I have frozen both WiFi Sharing and WiFi Sharing Manager.

Travelbug, I cannot find betterbatterystats in the market. Is there a different name? I'm very much interested in your suggestion. I would like to see battery stats for each app so I can understand which ones drain the most juice.

is not in the market:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1179809

also try to uninstall that gps aide app you installed.

from your example above, it is still possible that gps status will use more battery since you used your phone sparringly the whole day. remember that gps status uses gps, gyroscope, wifi, 3g. i think it also defaults to smooth animation or somwthing and that uses a lot of resources.
try to also remove all sensor filters to get a faster fix.

[yaozer]

is not in the market:

http://forum.xda-developers.com/show....php?t=1179809

also try to uninstall that gps aide app you installed.

from your example above, it is still possible that gps status will use more battery since you used your phone sparringly the whole day. remember that gps status uses gps, gyroscope, wifi, 3g. i think it also defaults to smooth animation or somwthing and that uses a lot of resources.
try to also remove all sensor filters to get a faster fix.

Thanks I'll try the betterbatterystats app from xda. Regarding GPS Status using lots and lots of resources (though for 11secs only), it still doesn't explain why there was so much battery drain only after both GPS Status and Navitel executed. Before this, I played a game, as well as texted a few, but it hardly affected the battery life (Display being turned on for 10mins should have affected it quite a bit, it probably dropped only 2%). My S2 has always been quite laid back, it always had really long battery life per charge (pre-Navitel/GPS Status).

I will test out GPS Status and Navitel separately. I have already installed Betterbatterystats, let's see if any wakelocks show up.

[travelbug]

Thanks I'll try the betterbatterystats app from xda. Regarding GPS Status using lots and lots of resources (though for 11secs only), it still doesn't explain why there was so much battery drain only after both GPS Status and Navitel executed. Before this, I played a game, as well as texted a few, but it hardly affected the battery life (Display being turned on for 10mins should have affected it quite a bit, it probably dropped only 2%). My S2 has always been quite laid back, it always had really long battery life per charge (pre-Navitel/GPS Status).

I will test out GPS Status and Navitel separately. I have already installed Betterbatterystats, let's see if any wakelocks show up.

lets see how it goes.
im thinking two things:
either gps status has hidden background processes when it is autoupdating agps or that the gps aid you installed also has a hidden background process.
note that they may or may not show wakelocks.

[kicks4us23]

Hi, im very pleased with the navitel 501 on my tab. works flawlessly

[travelbug]

Hi, im very pleased with the navitel 501 on my tab. works flawlessly

i like navitel a lot too. the only feature in garmin i miss, is the detour feature.
i know there is a work around in navitel but it isnt as easy as garmin.

[yaozer]

i like navitel a lot too. the only feature in garmin i miss, is the detour feature.
i know there is a work around in navitel but it isnt as easy as garmin.

Well it's not actually a workaround in my opinion. They've designed it so that you can either insert a detour in between your start point and destination, or after the destination. I believe Garmin Mobile XT / Mobile PC cannot add a waypoint after the destination.

[arvin555]

I'm not sure if related to the above discussion, but yeah just now I quickly scanned my Navitel and couldn't find a way to manually force navitel to recalculate an alternative route.

With Garmin, you go to the main start page while following a route, and on the lower left hand side of the screen is a Detour button you can click so that you can force the GPSr to recalculate an alternative route. But can't find it on Navitel.

Of course we can just drive a different route and navitel will recalculate a new route, but is there a button that one can press to force a reroute?

TTFN
Arvin