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Battery life

bg4m3r

bg4m3r

Android Expert
So today I was astonished to see my battery at 75% after only 4 hours off the charger. I looked in the battery stats and didn't see anything unusual. I started looking for something that would tell me exactly what was using battery and when rather than an overall consumption percent. Does anyone know of anything like this?

I am also looking for something that will block charging between a specific % range rather than letting it charge up to 100% and hope the charging circuitry will actually stop it. I know it won't over charge, but I don't want it sitting there pumping in power every moment it drips below full either. There is software like this for laptops, so I would think there would be one for phones too.

Basically, I want the phone to charge up to like 98%, then not allow charging again until it drops to below 50%. Aside from occasional calibration cycles, this seems to be the best way to manage Li-Ion charging based on my personal research on this topic.
 
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bg4m3r said:
So today I was astonished to see my battery at 75% after only 4 hours off the charger. I looked in the battery stats and didn't see anything unusual. I started looking for something that would tell me exactly what was using battery and when rather than an overall consumption percent. Does anyone know of anything like this?

I am also looking for something that will block charging between a specific % range rather than letting it charge up to 100% and hope the charging circuitry will actually stop it. I know it won't over charge, but I don't want it sitting there pumping in power every moment it drips below full either. There is software like this for laptops, so I would think there would be one for phones too.

Basically, I want the phone to charge up to like 98%, then not allow charging again until it drops to below 50%. Aside from occasional calibration cycles, this seems to be the best way to manage Li-Ion charging based on my personal research on this topic.
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Actually, I get the same thing almost every day, just thought I have been really tough on the battery, a lot of stuff running but not a lot of screen on time, but I also have been curious if there is such an app.
 
I would also be very interested in any tools to manage charging like you described. Please share if you find anything.

25% battery drain in 4 hrs seems pretty fast for the Volt, unless you are using it heavily. Here are a couple of battery monitoring apps that can help to identify what is using your battery. GSam is a little more user friendly in my opinion, but you can try both and see which you prefer.

BetterBatteryStats (free XDA version):
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1179809

BetterBatteryStats (paid version):
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.asksven.betterbatterystats&hl=en

GSam Battery Monitor (free version):
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gsamlabs.bbm&hl=en

GSam Battery Monitor (paid version):
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.gsamlabs.bbm.pro&hl=en

I also really like Greenify, which can hibernate apps that would otherwise be running in the background, thereby saving some battery.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.oasisfeng.greenify&hl=en
 
I've used Greenify before... might look into it again. Probably check out the Battery Stats too. Hoping it was some sort of glitch. I have BatteryGuru and did a calibration last night, so we'll see what happens today. I think it may have been a calibration issue cause I ran it dead playing iHeartRadio for 3 hours on the last 15%.
 
bg4m3r said:
I've used Greenify before... might look into it again. Probably check out the Battery Stats too. Hoping it was some sort of glitch. I have BatteryGuru and did a calibration last night, so we'll see what happens today. I think it may have been a calibration issue cause I ran it dead playing iHeartRadio for 3 hours on the last 15%.
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Mine has been the same way. Started last week on heavy drain. I don't use my phone that much too
 
Been off charge for 9 hours and I'm at 81%, which is much better. I think it was the calibration cause an inaccurate read. I would still like to find apps that work as I described above though. Installed XDA Battery Stats, giving it time to monitor stuff.
 
bg4m3r said:
End of the day, 40% battery left. Much better.
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That's usually what I have at the end of the day. Medium/Heavy usage. Starting with a full charge when I wake up I usually will get through the day no matter how heavily I use my phone or what for without ever having to worry about charging it until I go to sleep. I usually end the day at 30%-50%
 
bg4m3r said:
I am also looking for something that will block charging between a specific % range rather than letting it charge up to 100% and hope the charging circuitry will actually stop it.
Click to expand...

My Dell laptop has that built-in. I did some searching and couldn't find any tools for doing this automatically on Android. The closest I could come is this app which can notify you when your battery charge percentage goes above or below your desired thresholds. Basically this just serves a a reminder to connect/disconnect your charger, but that's still helpful for me.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ru.gang018.BatteryNotificationPRO&hl=en
 
spocko said:
My Dell laptop has that built-in. I did some searching and couldn't find any tools for doing this automatically on Android. The closest I could come is this app which can notify you when your battery charge percentage goes above or below your desired thresholds. Basically this just serves a a reminder to connect/disconnect your charger, but that's still helpful for me.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ru.gang018.BatteryNotificationPRO&hl=en
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Yeah, but that's not going to help when I'm asleep.

Lenovo has a similar tool too, which is what set me on this search.
Do you know of any independent PC applications that do the same?
 
bg4m3r said:
Yeah, but that's not going to help when I'm asleep.

Lenovo has a similar tool too, which is what set me on this search.
Do you know of any independent PC applications that do the same?
Click to expand...

It can "help" by waking you up, if you consider that helpful. :)

I often charge my phone while sitting at my desk at work, so in that scenario it's helpful to have a reminder to plug/unplug the charger.

I don't know of any generic programs to implement charge limiting on a PC. I think it requires support in the BIOS. I suspect that it could not be implemented via an app in Android either. Maybe it could be done with a modified kernel, I don't know.

Here's some related discussion.
http://stackoverflow.com/questions/...id-device-from-being-charged-programmatically
 
bg4m3r said:
Been off charge for 9 hours and I'm at 81%, which is much better. I think it was the calibration cause an inaccurate read. I would still like to find apps that work as I described above though. Installed XDA Battery Stats, giving it time to monitor stuff.
Click to expand...
What kinda usage do you have? I don't get any kind of battery like that.
 
Spaghadeity said:
What kinda usage do you have? I don't get any kind of battery like that.
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That particular day was a work day, so very light with 6 hours with data/wifi and sound off. Today however, with heavy moderate use (games off and on all day), I'm at 50% after about 12 hours.
 
Okay, something must not be right with my phone then since that'd kill my battery.

I personally think it's the fact that my phone won't connect to the sprint network right, according to android the biggest drain on my battery is "Cell Standby" at 59% of my usage in the past 24 hours, vs screen being 12%, vs my most played game being 8%.
 
Spaghadeity said:
Okay, something must not be right with my phone then since that'd kill my battery.

I personally think it's the fact that my phone won't connect to the sprint network right, according to android the biggest drain on my battery is "Cell Standby" at 59% of my usage in the past 24 hours, vs screen being 12%, vs my most played game being 8%.
Click to expand...
Do you have Snapdragon BatteryGuru? Try installing that and see if it helps. Takes a few days for it to kick in to learn your usage patterns.

I also keep tight reins on what things on my phone are doing.
I turn off/block notifications on everything.
Other than having Bluetooth on all day for my Pebble, I don't think I have much of anything going on in the background.
 
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