Kobo Remote causing high battery drain

[kakoo]

Using Nickelmenu to enable Bluetooth actually has a positive effect on battery life. On my Clara BW, after reading for about 30 minutes with the front light at 20% while using Kobo Remote, the battery only dropped by around 1%. I’d say that’s quite good.

[John F]

Originally Posted by kakoo

Using Nickelmenu to enable Bluetooth actually has a positive effect on battery life. On my Clara BW, after reading for about 30 minutes with the front light at 20% while using Kobo Remote, the battery only dropped by around 1%. I’d say that’s quite good.

Could you detail what you are doing when it sleeps and wakes up, please.

[kakoo]

Originally Posted by John F

Could you detail what you are doing when it sleeps and wakes up, please.

Nothing special is required. After the remote is paired once, Bluetooth must not be touched in the Kobo UI and should be kept off there at all times.

Bluetooth is controlled exclusively via Nickelmenu. If the connection is lost after the device goes to sleep, it is manually re-enabled using a shortcut added to the reader menu.

menu_item :main :Bluetooth Toggle :nickel_bluetooth :toggle
menu_item :reader :Bluetooth On :nickel_bluetooth :enable

Not sure if this works on models with a different chipset.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by kakoo

Nothing special is required. After the remote is paired once, Bluetooth must not be touched in the Kobo UI and should be kept off there at all times.

Bluetooth is controlled exclusively via Nickelmenu. If the connection is lost after the device goes to sleep, it is manually re-enabled using a shortcut added to the reader menu.

menu_item :main :Bluetooth Toggle :nickel_bluetooth :toggle
menu_item :reader :Bluetooth On :nickel_bluetooth :enable

Not sure if this works on models with a different chipset.

Umm... on any Kobo model with Bluetooth (this change was made for the Kobo remote control), if Bluetooth was enabled before going to sleep, it will be re-enabled after waking up.

[John F]

Originally Posted by kakoo

Nothing special is required. After the remote is paired once, Bluetooth must not be touched in the Kobo UI and should be kept off there at all times.

Bluetooth is controlled exclusively via Nickelmenu. If the connection is lost after the device goes to sleep, it is manually re-enabled using a shortcut added to the reader menu.

menu_item :main :Bluetooth Toggle :nickel_bluetooth :toggle
menu_item :reader :Bluetooth On :nickel_bluetooth :enable

Not sure if this works on models with a different chipset.

That sounds a little strange to me, from what I've tried.

Bluetooth must not be touched in the Kobo UI and should be kept off there at all times

I've been using Nicklemenu, and enable blue tooth (through Nicklemenu), also shows it is enabled in the UI.

And for me, when bluetooth was on before going to sleep (and wifi is off), when the Kobo wakes up, both bluetooth and wifi are on. I'm surprised that either your wifi isn't being turned back on after waking, or that you are getting such good battery life with wifi on.

Thank you for the info.

[John F]

From my limited experience, my battery has dropped 60% in 3 days using the remote. I turn off wifi after waking from sleep (using Nicklemenu). I normally get 2-3 weeks (edit: and I charge when the battery gets to 30%).

[kakoo]

This may or may not be helpful, but here are some additional observations from my Clara BW.

It appears that the following entry in Kobo eReader.conf represents the Bluetooth state:
[BluetoothSettings]
EnabledByUser=false

On my Clara BW, enabling Bluetooth by the home screen toggle changes this boolean to true, and the system then persistently tries to force WiFi on. In contrast, when Bluetooth is enabled by Nickelmenu, this value remains false. Bluetooth is turned on only temporarily and remains active until the connection is dropped during sleep. Interesting.

[LordP]

This is all nuts.

Everyone seems to have a different experience, but we all have our power being drained. Except for kakoo, it seems.

I'm going back to my clip-on remote until Kobo fixes this.

This unit is a battery vampire.

[criscros]

Originally Posted by kakoo

Nothing special is required. After the remote is paired once, Bluetooth must not be touched in the Kobo UI and should be kept off there at all times.

Bluetooth is controlled exclusively via Nickelmenu. If the connection is lost after the device goes to sleep, it is manually re-enabled using a shortcut added to the reader menu.

menu_item :main :Bluetooth Toggle :nickel_bluetooth :toggle
menu_item :reader :Bluetooth On :nickel_bluetooth :enable

Not sure if this works on models with a different chipset.

Thank you for sharing this! It works on my KLC. I read about 3 hours a night and the battery was going down 30% a night. When I changed to doing it this way, it only went down 8% a night. Very cool!