Aura One battery experiences???

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by brudigia

If it helps: just had it for one week. Read one book, recharged it yesterday and I noticed an 11% drain in an hour and discovered that even though the wifi was off, the KA1 was trying to synch and there was no way to stop it, but to start it up again.

After that the synch was not there anymore.

This is the important thing. There is a bug in the 4.0 firmware that means it can start doing a sync but never complete. This uses lots of CPU and hence battery.

And just because the WiFi is off, doesn't mean the sync process isn't started. What is probably happening is that some event happens that triggers a sync (this might not be a full sync, but a "sync current book status" or something else like that). The sync process is started and it gathers data about what it needs to do. Part of that will be checking for an active network. My guess is that there is a bug in this process that means it doesn't terminate and keeps trying. And the only way to stop that, is to restart the device. And that's what is needed until Kobo fix the problem and release firmware with the fix.

I topped it up and did some work on the books I had loaded on it (about 1400, 203 pages). There should have been 400 hundred fewer of them, but also the ones which were not downloaded appear, thanks to the disappearance of the option for not showing them.
Anywat, just paging through them, to check for doubles between epubs and kepubs, which means turning slightly more than 200 pages, plus some activities (very few) and the battery went down to 91%.

Thus if 200 pages = 9%, 100% of battery might be good for 2000 pages. I do not believe it will ever be like that, though, because of the consumption of power for the lighting and other issues which have already been mentioned.
Even the, apparently, if well used, with no synch and no wifi, the battery should not be so bad. We shall see at the practical level, I would like to be able to read more than one book (I know it depends on the number of pages), with one charge, we'll see if I can.

I'm not sure if you can compare paging through the library with reading. The library list will probably user more power. It has to read the cover images from the disk, and if they don't exist, render them from the book. If you are just going back and forth through a few pages, it is probably similar, but paging through the whole lot will probably use a lot more power than paging through a book.

[vandafc]

Originally Posted by Corpsegoddess

I'm experiencing the power drain. I took my fully-charged Aura One to bed, read for about an hour and a half--had autos to off, read with 8% light. Put it to sleep, light went off.

Opened it up this afternoon and it was at 9% battery.

Got the same issue. If it can help, I disabled the wifi and - in my case - it was enough to stop the hemorrhage.

Switching on/off automatic light detection has no impact.

[Poppaea]

David, how long do you think it will take Kobo to release a new firmware?

[Katsunami]

I don't have any power drain. The reader has been idle during the night and most of the morning, and it dropped from 80% to 79%. Wifi and auto-sync are both off.

[Poppaea]

Wifi off, auto light adjustments off, sync in the config disabled and it still drains waaaay too fast. Also the automatic sync stays checked even though Davidfor said it should be unchecked after changing the config.

The powerloss has been cut but it is definitely still there. I loose about 10% power per hour.

It annoys me to not being able to use all the features and to have to charge it nearly as often as a tablet. I do have a super light 320something dpi tablet, so if this isn't to be fixed in the foreseeable future, I might send the One back. I still have a perfectly fine working Aura here after all.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Poppaea

David, how long do you think it will take Kobo to release a new firmware?

My guess has been sometime in October.

[Poppaea]

Thank you for your quick answer!

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Poppaea

Wifi off, auto light adjustments off, sync in the config disabled and it still drains waaaay too fast. Also the automatic sync stays checked even though Davidfor said it should be unchecked after changing the config.

Are saying that after putting "PeriodicAutoSync=false" into the correct place in the config and when you look at the settings page it has the option ticked? It has to be exactly that. The case is important, and it has to be in the "ApplicationPreferences" section.

The powerloss has been cut but it is definitely still there. I loose about 10% power per hour.

With that battery usage, there is a rogue process running. Power off and on. That will kill the process, and hopefully it will be a while before it is started again.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Are saying that after putting "PeriodicAutoSync=false" into the correct place in the config and when you look at the settings page it has the option ticked? It has to be exactly that. The case is important, and it has to be in the "ApplicationPreferences" section.

In another thread, she stated she had it like this (as far as I understood):

[ApplicationPreferences]PeriodicAutoSync=false

I've warned that this possibly wouldn't work and this was needed:

[ApplicationPreferences]
PeriodicAutoSync=false

She said she put a space there (I assumed she meant an Enter), it was now working.

[Poppaea]

I put it there and the little case on the settings page is ticked no matter how often I untick it. But the powerloss isn't as dramatic anymore as it was before the changes in the config.

Given that some do have a battery problem and others don't I am not so sure it really is a software bug. We all run the same firmware, so how is this happening?

[Poppaea]

Originally Posted by Katsunami

In another thread, she stated she had it like this (as far as I understood):

[ApplicationPreferences]PeriodicAutoSync=false

I've warned that this possibly wouldn't work and this was needed:

[ApplicationPreferences]
PeriodicAutoSync=false

She said she put a space there (I assumed she meant an Enter), it was now working.

Correct! Thank you.

[brudigia]

Originally Posted by davidfor

This is the important thing. There is a bug in the 4.0 firmware that means it can start doing a sync but never complete. This uses lots of CPU and hence battery.

And just because the WiFi is off, doesn't mean the sync process isn't started. What is probably happening is that some event happens that triggers a sync (this might not be a full sync, but a "sync current book status" or something else like that). The sync process is started and it gathers data about what it needs to do. Part of that will be checking for an active network. My guess is that there is a bug in this process that means it doesn't terminate and keeps trying. And the only way to stop that, is to restart the device. And that's what is needed until Kobo fix the problem and release firmware with the fix.


I'm not sure if you can compare paging through the library with reading. The library list will probably user more power. It has to read the cover images from the disk, and if they don't exist, render them from the book. If you are just going back and forth through a few pages, it is probably similar, but paging through the whole lot will probably use a lot more power than paging through a book.

David, I stand with you. You are absolutely correct in what you say, I only wanted to say that I think it likely that the theoretical maximum of page flips the KA1 can support with this battery is about 2.000. For what a page flips, as unit is worth, it is just an indication.
You have to detract a lot of things to that

1. kepub / eput interpreting
2. lighting control
3. turning on / off must consume something, as little as it is; pushing the button must activate an interrupt of some sort that must be handled with some CPU cycles within the operating system.
4. higher resolution may have some small impact
5. time spent off (however little)
6. additional activities (settings, browsing in collections, requested system data such as time and place in book etc.)
7. etc. (you get the idea)

And all of this is further worsened by the individual style of reading (going back and forth, looking up words etc)
I would hazard that the practical limit of useful page flips is about a quarter, i.e. I do not expect to be able to read more that about 500 pages before needing to recharge.
Which is slightly annoying; I wonder if it can last a transatlantic voyage, it should...
If I remember correctly a few years ago the readers were able to get about 2-3 times as much of pages. I was able to read about 3 books with one charge. I wonder if writing a reader SW on the bare HW instead of having to negotiate through an OS would be less wasteful of energy, but I understand that the effort of writing it from scratch is too big (too many things missing).

All said and done, though, I think KA1 is gorgeous, I would not go back to the 6" format, I am spoiled now.
I find also the keyboard much better and really useful, but that should be due to the SW, not the HW.

[Stingo]

When I first got my KA1 I had no battery issues. I then developed the problem when I found the battery half drained overnight and added the "PeriodicAutoSync=false". Since then the problem has been intermittent. For a day or two there won't be a problem. Then the problem returns.

Three days I go I found it syncing and could not get it to stop without a reboot despite the fact that the autosync box was still unchecked. Sat and Sun battery was full despite using the reader and this morning it was down to 60%. Read on the train this morning and battery is down to 25% just now although sync is still off.

This is really a bad way to impress new users.

[SCION]

Just adding another take...

Original device had no battery drain issue (wifi always on, auto sync on, auto brightness and auto natural light on). Replacement device has no battery drain issue (wifi always on, auto sync on, auto brightness and auto natural light on).

PeriodicAutoSync=false not used on either. I have no sideloaded books.

[Barty]

Has anyone tried to unlink (ie forget Wi-Fi password) so it can't connect at all and see what happens? Or is it only going to waste battery searching for a Wi-Fi network?