Kobo Remote causing high battery drain

[Daniel Jackson]

When using my Kobo Remote with my Libra 2, I have noticed highly increased battery drain. About 5% of drain for less than 30 minutes of reading, not very eReader-like.
I understand a wireless connection will draw some extra power, but this is just too much. Wifi is turned off, it's really only the bluetooth connection that's active. When not using the remote and bluetooth battery usage is very low, as expected.
Over at r/Kobo there are a few reports of people experiencing the same issue and the common denominator seems to be Libra 2. Owners of other devices don't seem to have the same problem.
So I'm wondering what people's experiences here are with battery usage?

[LordP]

Clara BW - yes, it seems to drain my battery too.

I really can't believe they put this out so completely untested. I get they want the Christmas money, but this software should have been tested a bit more.

I mean, assuming it was tested at all.

I also noticed that touching the WiFi icon, or the Bluetooth has a lag, especially the Bluetooth. I touch the icon, then touch "Bluetooth Settings" and it takes 10 seconds to get to the Bluetooth connection screen.

[kakoo]

With the current software, turning Bluetooth on via the Kobo UI toggle forces WiFi to stay enabled as well. Simply opening a book or waking from sleep enables WiFi again, so turning WiFi off with the UI toggle provides little power saving.

A temporary workaround is to turn Bluetooth on using a nickelmenu command. In this case, only Bluetooth is enabled and WiFi is not affected. After sleep, the connection is not automatically restored, so it is best to place the nickelmenu command in both the home screen and the in reader menu.

Additionally, enabling the Force Wifi ON option keeps Bluetooth active even during sleep and avoids the need to reconnect, but this should be avoided if battery life is a concern.

[DNSB]

For what it may be worth, Kobo is aware of the issue and is working on a fix. On the Libra 2 due to the hardware link (Bluetooth and WiFi are implemented on the same chip) which leads to enabling Bluetooth also enabling WiFi, you need the logic to save the state before sleep and restoring it after sleep.

[Haesslich]

Originally Posted by Daniel Jackson

When using my Kobo Remote with my Libra 2, I have noticed highly increased battery drain. About 5% of drain for less than 30 minutes of reading, not very eReader-like.
I understand a wireless connection will draw some extra power, but this is just too much. Wifi is turned off, it's really only the bluetooth connection that's active. When not using the remote and bluetooth battery usage is very low, as expected.
Over at r/Kobo there are a few reports of people experiencing the same issue and the common denominator seems to be Libra 2. Owners of other devices don't seem to have the same problem.
So I'm wondering what people's experiences here are with battery usage?

Mine has been the same so far with the remote paired - I don't turn off WiFi and haven't seen much of a change in battery life thus far. Clara BW, so it may be due to the newer chipset? I've seen the MediaTek handling power savings better in both it and the Libra Colour, compared to the older Libra 2 and Sage that used different processors AND wireless chipsets.

[Odyssee]

Kobo Sage. The same problems. I timed 30 minutes of reading and the battery drained 15%. Also very annoying that wifi is turned on when bluetooth is activated. I hope they will fix this soon.

[fogice]

Same for me, but with the most recent firmware on the Libra 2 and an 8BitDo rather than the Kobo Remote. I'm glad to hear DNSB's inside information and will wait for the next firmware update to test again.

[retro]

I don't have the remote and I keep wifi/bluetooth turned off all the time.
There is a major difference if how my battery is draining on my Libra 2 Colour since the last update.

I might have to revert to an older version to see if it fixes it.

[Aleron Ives]

Originally Posted by DNSB

On the Libra 2 due to the hardware link (Bluetooth and WiFi are implemented on the same chip) which leads to enabling Bluetooth also enabling WiFi

Does this mean battery drain will always be higher on the Libra 2, as it's impossible to enable Bluetooth without also wasting battery on Wi-Fi?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

Does this mean battery drain will always be higher on the Libra 2, as it's impossible to enable Bluetooth without also wasting battery on Wi-Fi?

Once the chip is enabled, you can turn WiFi and Bluetooth off and on independently. The problem is the chip is turned off in sleep mode so when you turn the chip on to enable Bluetooth when exiting sleep, WiFi is automagically enabled. So you now need to set a status flag from any action that touches WiFi before sleep to be able to set WiFi back to that state on wake.