iRex 800 quickly discharging

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by superhero

As I stated earlier in the thread, my 800sg is also not automatically going into standby no matter how long I leave it on. It will go into standby if I manually do it. Isn't it likely that this is related to the 4 day drain issue...25% per loss day x 4 days=100% drain.

The screen of my iRex 800 definitely went blank, so it definitely went into standby.
But of course it may have turned on again, may have had some task in the background, ...

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by TGS

I also only read PDFs, and seem to get quite good longevity out of a charge. I wonder if there is something in the suggestion that a viewer remains open - even in standby - and that a partial explanation might be that if you have read documents using a variety of viewers they all remain open until rebooting?

I've only read a single file format (B&N's PDB), before my 4 days did happen.

[pauli]

I think you might be on to something here. The PDB files are always showing "counting pages" at the bottom. Don't know what it's doing, but it's doing something. After you close the pdb file it stays in memory (there are up to 4 docs active, just like on the dr1000), so even when you've closed the pdb file, it might still be doing something/ draining your battery. We could test this by comparing two situations:
1) open a pdb book, close it, put the device in standby and watch the battery drop (%/h)
2) open the same pdb book, close it, open and close 4 different pdf files, to make sure the pdb isn't still active in the back ground, and watch the battery drop (%/h)

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by pauli

I think you might be on to something here. The PDB files are always showing "counting pages" at the bottom. Don't know what it's doing, but it's doing something. After you close the pdb file it stays in memory (there are up to 4 docs active, just like on the dr1000), so even when you've closed the pdb file, it might still be doing something/ draining your battery. We could test this by comparing two situations:
1) open a pdb book, close it, put the device in standby and watch the battery drop (%/h)
2) open the same pdb book, close it, open and close 4 different pdf files, to make sure the pdb isn't still active in the back ground, and watch the battery drop (%/h)

I'll continue my test for another 12 hours or so. If it still points towards 10 to 12 days, I'll switch to the test you suggest.
I mainly read B&N PDBs, so basically I already do your test 1.)
But I've read those PDBs before as well, so there wasn't something special, when the 4 days have happened.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by pauli

I think you might be on to something here. The PDB files are always showing "counting pages" at the bottom. Don't know what it's doing, but it's doing something. After you close the pdb file it stays in memory (there are up to 4 docs active, just like on the dr1000), so even when you've closed the pdb file, it might still be doing something/ draining your battery. We could test this by comparing two situations:
1) open a pdb book, close it, put the device in standby and watch the battery drop (%/h)
2) open the same pdb book, close it, open and close 4 different pdf files, to make sure the pdb isn't still active in the back ground, and watch the battery drop (%/h)

On iRex 1000S, I can use the tabs to switch between documents.
2 questions:
- How do you know, it's 4 as well on iRex 800?
- Any "trick", to switch back to another document, if it's still in memory - similar to the tabs on iRex 1000S?

[pauli]

There is no trick. A document or book that is in the back ground simply opens faster (almost instantly), while a book that is not in the background takes a few more seconds to open. I mostly see a "please wait" window pop-up in that case. This pop-up window is not there for the last 4 documents that I have opened.

If you sort your books on "recently read", you can easily see which ones are still in the back ground memory... you'll notice that if you open the fifth book on the list, it will have the "please wait" pop-up window. The fourth book opens instantly...

[TGS]

Originally Posted by pauli

If you sort your books on "recently read", you can easily see which ones are still in the back ground memory... you'll notice that if you open the fifth book on the list, it will have the "please wait" pop-up window. The fourth book opens instantly...

I wonder if this depends on the format(s) of the recently opened. For example, if the first four recently opened are PDFs, but the fifth is epub, then the epub seems to open without the "Please wait" pop-up. So, maybe the device can hold up to four documents of each format in whatever this background memory is.

Also, rebooting seems to clear this background memory. Whilst your recently opened list will still be there on rebooting, it takes longer for the device to open even those at the top of the list, and you get the "Please wait" pop-up-

So, maybe rebooting before putting to stand-by may lengthen battery life by clearing this supposed background memory. It might also be an argument for implementing an optional "off" state which would also clear this memory.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

The screen of my iRex 800 definitely went blank, so it definitely went into standby.
But of course it may have turned on again, may have had some task in the background, ...

We're assuming that the screen is directly related to whether or not it's in standby mode, which may not be true. Can it go into standby without blanking the screen, or can it blank the screen and not be in standby correctly? Both are theoretically possible.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by TGS

I wonder if this depends on the format(s) of the recently opened. For example, if the first four recently opened are PDFs, but the fifth is epub, then the epub seems to open without the "Please wait" pop-up. So, maybe the device can hold up to four documents of each format in whatever this background memory is.

Or it's because the PDF viewer app is still running, but the ePub viewer app has to start up (assuming they're different processes).

[badbob001]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

We're assuming that the screen is directly related to whether or not it's in standby mode, which may not be true. Can it go into standby without blanking the screen, or can it blank the screen and not be in standby correctly? Both are theoretically possible.

\sysd-3.0+3.0+svnr5463\sysd\src\system.c

static void prepare_standby()
{
    LOGPRINTF("entry");

    if ( (device_state == STATE_DEVICE_STOPPING) ||                               /* preparing power off */
         (power_state == STATE_POWER_STANDBY) ||                                  /* preparing standby */
         (power_state == STATE_POWER_IDLE) ||                                     /* preparing idle */
         ((usb_state == STATE_USB_UNMOUNTED) && (g_usb_device_source != 0)) )     /* polling for USB charger/host */
    {
        LOGPRINTF("Don't enter standby now! (device_state [%d] power_state [%d] usb_state [%d][%d])", 
          device_state, power_state, usb_state, g_usb_device_source);
        return;
    }
    
    power_state = STATE_POWER_STANDBY;
    // display updates are suppressed from here

    LOGPRINTF("Prepare standby");
    
    // standby preparations by sysd
    display_blank();
    ipc_send_prepare_standby();
    conn_stop();

    g_timeout_add(PREPARE_STANDBY_TIMEOUT_MS, on_check_standby, NULL);
}

It looks like it blanks the screen first (display_blank) before sending a standby signal to the system (ipc_send_prepare_standby) and finally stopping any connections (conn_stop). So certainly there is still things to do after the display blanks.

I wonder if just blanking out the display_blank line will achieve the "always on" look that some people want.

Further digging shows that the wacom can either be disabled or left alone to automatically go into low power mode, where it reads the digitizer at 8pps (points per second) instead of 133pps.

I'm no coder but this is what I think I see.

[mgmueller]

After checking the results of my battery test, iRex comes to the conclusion:

"...it seems you suffer a power management issue viewing PDB/TXT documents. The unit is not always switching to idle mode..."

In line with pauli's assumption.
I'll modify my battery test accordingly:
"Opening a PDB and presumably leaving it active in the background" vs. "battery duration after resetting the reader thus clearing any background task".

Again I have to say: iRex (Thom) is very fast and responsive. And it's pretty obvious, it's a company of engineers/developers = deep and thorough understanding of their unit.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

"...it seems you suffer a power management issue viewing PDB/TXT documents. The unit is not always switching to idle mode..."

In line with pauli's assumption.

Hey, I suggested that several pages ago!

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

Hey, I suggested that several pages ago!

So your staff in iRex finally did listen to you?

[TGS]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

So your staff in iRex finally did listen to you?

Big up to IREX for getting back to you, but I have to confess it feels a bit like going to the doctor and telling her you have a sore throat, and her telling you you have pharyngitis!

[The Straven]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

So your staff in iRex finally did listen to you?

Speaking of which,

@Shaggy: Hey there! So, uhhh, it's been twenty-four hours. Got my money?