Going back to December Firmware Upgrade

[SmartyPants]

Originally Posted by Dave_S

Same here. I think that *maybe* Buggins was using some of the Chinese firmware to base CoolReader builds after 513 on.

i am pretty sure 513 was based on Chinese firmware already. The following version (20 may) was created in order to help with opening of big files. I dont see any other changes. But starting from this firmware the battery drain started.
Thats all i can gather from the Russian forum. I can understand russian fine, but i dont get all the technical speak..

[Dave_S]

Originally Posted by SmartyPants

Thats all i can gather from the Russian forum. I can understand russian fine, but i dont get all the technical speak..

Thank you!
My problem is exactly the opposite. I am a retired electronic engineer out of the cell phone industry so the tech talk is easy, but Google Translate is an imperfect tool, and Russian is one of the many languages that I do not know.

[SmartyPants]

lol so we are probably on a roughly same level!

actually i think i was wrong... the drain started from 531 firmware... i think there might have been a couple inbetween - 20th and 28th May firmwares. I can't even remember now if i've tried them.
But as of now i am totally confused as to what the changes are between all of these?
I am trying to make sense from the russian forum but havent succeeded as yet!All I know, the firmware as at 13 May works fine and i might stick with it until a better one comes along.

PS sorry Robert for hj your thread!

[Robertb]

Originally Posted by SmartyPants

lol so we are probably on a roughly same level!

actually i think i was wrong... the drain started from 531 firmware... i think there might have been a couple inbetween - 20th and 28th May firmwares. I can't even remember now if i've tried them.
But as of now i am totally confused as to what the changes are between all of these?
I am trying to make sense from the russian forum but havent succeeded as yet!All I know, the firmware as at 13 May works fine and i might stick with it until a better one comes along.

PS sorry Robert for hj your thread!

Dear SmartyPants:

These threads always meander in and out so it is fine. No problem. My problem is that my techs tell me the visible clock uses the power and drains the battery and so many others on this forum deny this can be right. I have learned to trust BOTH. I just want to try to find a definitive answer to the problem. I love the clock feature but NOTHING should impact the long battery charge life. I am overjoyed that so many responded to this thread.

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Robertb

Dear SmartyPants:

These threads always meander in and out so it is fine. No problem. My problem is that my techs tell me the visible clock uses the power and drains the battery and so many others on this forum deny this can be right. I have learned to trust BOTH. I just want to try to find a definitive answer to the problem. I love the clock feature but NOTHING should impact the long battery charge life. I am overjoyed that so many responded to this thread.

Robert,
There is theory (the hardware being used) vs the code accessing the hardware.
Fact: the hardware clock does not use more power just because there is a visible clock on the e-ink display.

Poorly written "display time" code, that should be asleep unless a screen refresh is called for, may keep the other CPU from sleeping (or causing frequent wakeup's).

I am guessing the latter.

[Dave_S]

Originally Posted by theducks

Poorly written "display time" code, that should be asleep unless a screen refresh is called for, may keep the other CPU from sleeping (or causing frequent wakeup's).

I am guessing the latter.

Frequent *unnecessary* wakeups from sleep mode *could* do it. I would hazard a guess that the system under full 400 MHZ clock would draw a couple of hundred milliamperes, but I know that in sleep mode the current draw is down in the microamp range. I seem to remember that the RTC clocks in systems I have dealt with in the past ran about 15 microamperes, but it may be even less with more modern smaller geometry chips? Normally the hundreds milliampere draw is only a very few seconds during a page turn, but being in that high power range more often than that would draw the battery down proportionately faster.

[ThomasMcKean]

Originally Posted by jpt

I agree; a setting for it would be nice.

As for when it shows up -- it shows up in the status bar. If you're reading PDF or ePub books, the status bar only shows up when you hit Menu; other formats, like TXT, Mobipocket and HTML, have it displayed all the time.

Actually, that would be another useful feature -- the option to hide the status bar for Mobipocket, etc, books, and get an extra line of screen space. Any chance of this?

-- J.P.

It's already there. At least with Lbook it is. Yew can keep the status and turn the clock off as well.

[SmartyPants]

Robert,
perhaps you could check with techies what was the main difference between December and all later firmwares? Was it a completely re-written firmware, was it based on some different Chinese base?
I reckon whatever caused a battery drain for some on post-Dec Astak firmware is the same reason for battery drain for post May-20 Buggins versions too.
I know Coolreader in itself doesnt cause the drain.
The clock doesnt seem to either.

[jusmee]

Originally Posted by SmartyPants

I know Coolreader in itself doesnt cause the drain.
The clock doesnt seem to either.

Absolutely sure of this too, having read extensively using both of these.

[Sunspark]

I tend to end up going back to the Buggins March 25 firmware. Reason is because while it doesn't have "caching" like later ones do, or the experimental display mode setting, it also doesn't have problems with battery life and doesn't corrupt a cache file on a HTML book that I was reading (which required the deletion of the cache file to fix) with later versions. It does have Coolreader 3.

[Gena01]

I rolled back my wife's Astak reader back to December firmware and so far it's a bit better as far as battery life goes. It's not close to the claimed 2 weeks, but it did last at least 2 days on one full charge.

Can somebody confirm or check that reading FB2 and/or having FB2 books open drains the battery?

Gena01

[Dave_S]

Originally Posted by Gena01

Can somebody confirm or check that reading FB2 and/or having FB2 books open drains the battery?

FB2 is by far the most common format that I read, and it has no special effect on the battery at all. I usually go about 2 weeks between battery charges, and I always charge at or before half full on the battery meter. I always leave the reader turned on and just use the keylock when I am not using the reader.

[Gena01]

Originally Posted by Dave_S

FB2 is by far the most common format that I read, and it has no special effect on the battery at all. I usually go about 2 weeks between battery charges, and I always charge at or before half full on the battery meter. I always leave the reader turned on and just use the keylock when I am not using the reader.

Thanks for a quick reply. At this point I am not sure what to do to get it back to 2 weeks mark. It was fine when I bought it as a gift for my wife. It also came with december firmware. I flashed with newer firmware when that became available.

I flashed it back to the december firmware as she complained that the battery drains very quickly with newer firmware. I am running out of ideas as to what I could do so she could go a week reading books without a charge.

Gena01

[Dave_S]

Originally Posted by Gena01

I flashed it back to the december firmware

If your firmware regression did not put you back to your previous battery power consumption then perhaps the battery itself is the problem? Astak sells new batteries for the PocketPro for about $15 if I recall correctly.

[Gena01]

Originally Posted by Dave_S

If your firmware regression did not put you back to your previous battery power consumption then perhaps the battery itself is the problem? Astak sells new batteries for the PocketPro for about $15 if I recall correctly.

I don't know if I am going to buy a new battery since I only got the device a few months ago. I also noticed 2 vertical white lines when locking/unlocking the device. A bit concerned that they could be dead pixels.

Gena01