How to get some more battery life?

[Dago]

I'm running rockbox "current build" (downloaded yesterday) on my iPod Video (5.5gen I think) 30GB. It is working fine, the battery lasted for my whole workshift (I spend around 9h in my workplace where the ipod is playing for something like 80% of the time) but barely. According to the battery capacity indicator (I am not sure if it is an actual measurement or an estimation though) I had 10% left today and the player was on for less than normal.

I know the issues with the portalplayer chip etc, I'm just looking for something to add more "leeway" to the battery life so it would 100% sure last for a whole workday. I know the "basic" stuff, ie. dont use too complicated wps, dont change songs too often etc, is there anything else I could do? I think theres unofficial builds that give more battery life but I was kinda overwhelmed when checking a topic like EvilGs, lots of builds and I have no idea which one I need/want.

[elborak]

The 10% figure may or may not be accurate. I wouldn't assume you "barely" made it through your shift unless you've actually tested how long it will run without going dead.

[markun]

things to keep in mind if you want to have longer batterytime:

- backlight consumes a lot, so have a short timeout
- harddisk consumes a lot. If you browse a lot make sure you have dircache on.

[popopola]

Does rockbox decrease the battery life?
for example, If I were to take off my rockbox off my ipod, I would have longer battery life..

..right?

[elborak]

Whether rockbox increases or decreases battery life depends very much on the platform, and to a lesser degree on what features of rockbox you use. Not sure exactly what the story is on the various ipod models.

[Chronon]

Does rockbox decrease the battery life?
for example, If I were to take off my rockbox off my ipod, I would have longer battery life..

..right?

Taking it off is irrelevant.  It only consumes more battery while the code is running: If you boot into the Apple firmware it will operate normally.  Why not keep both?

[popopola]

well yeah, obviously I'm going to keep both, but i was just wondering if Rockbox did drain my battery more than normal.

[bluebrother]

well yeah, obviously I'm going to keep both, but i was just wondering if Rockbox did drain my battery more than normal.

On PortalPlayer targets (which the Ipod is one of) the battery consumption is worse than when using the OF. It's suspected to be caused by some wrongly or uninitialized hardware (which e.g. was the case for the h300) but as there are about no docs for the PortalPlayer chips available the exact cause is hard to identify. Once it is identified a much better battery life is expected.

[madsic]

...as there are about no docs for the PortalPlayer chips available the exact cause is hard to identify. Once it is identified a much better battery life is expected.

First of all let me just say I really appreciate all the work that's going in to making rockbox work across so many platforms. The thing is, I've been checking up on this topic for the past year or so, always to find the same answer. Obviously it's a tricky one. I'm just curious as to the likelihood of the breakthrough. I take it that it would require one of three things: a) Some sort of Deep Throat solution where the portalplayer guy in the shadows of the parking garage suggests taking a close look at the comfibulator circuitry, you might be surprised, boys..., b) relentless probing or c) dumb luck.

I won't hold my breath for a or c, so I'm just curious - is there any b taking place? Or has it sort of been resigned to the unsolved folder?

[Llorean]

Remember that b) also requires very, very specialized knowledge. So, you also have to find the right person for the job.

For example, amiconn managed some "relentless probing" of the iPods he had (which were PP5002 based, and had simpler code to study) and that's why the 1st through 3rd generation iPods now have good battery life.

It's impossible to estimate when it'll happen, because there is no "Rockbox team." Fifty people could be working on it right now that haven't told us about it. Or none. Or anywhere in between. Rockbox is entirely a volunteer effort.

And if someone's working on it, there's no guarantee anything will come of it.

So, that all being said, do you honestly think it's possible to make any sort of estimate?

The key to remember is: There is no "team" in constant communication. There are several people who talk to each other frequently, but that doesn't mean everyone knows what everyone's working on. Nor do we know what anyone else out there could be working on until a patch shows up in flyspray and catches us by surprise.

If you want to know about the twenty or so programmers I have a rough estimate of, then no, I don't think anyone is specifically working on this issue right now. It's been looked at by some of them, and then they reached a dead end, meaning all the work they'd done so far didn't really accomplish anything, and they went on to fix bugs or work on something else.

If you want the "likelihood", I guess I could say that it's highly likely a breakthrough will happen. It's just whether it's before the end of the year, or in a couple years by someone with an old dying iPod Photo who wants to solve the problem so he can get at least a little use out of it.

[madsic]

Thank you for a very comprehensive and efficacious reply, Llorean. My curiosity is satisfied

[kronzsw]

so whats the battery capacity settings for?

[bluebrother]

so whats the battery capacity settings for?

To calculate the estimated remaining runtime -- some players have changeable batteries and some people changed batteries on players without changeable batteries ...

[Pileot]

I found when i bought my 5g 30 gig ipod vid, it would last about 11 hours. i know this because i was working 10 hour shifts at the time, i would have it on pretty much all day nonstop... i would change songs every 20 mins or so (average). I could get through my shift and home and it would about die...

When i put rockbox on, a full charge lasted maybe 7 hours... granted i didnt know much about dircache or how to set the backlight properly, but thats what it was giving me...

I later went out and bought an external batterypack... iRecharge its called... this thing is genious! my battery life went from 7 hours to >12 hours. Dont know how long it would last with the standard ipod software...

In short, Rockbox decreased my battery life a bit, but there are ways to help... like the iRecharge. http://www.gazotto.com/2005/cellboost-irecharge-for-ipod-ipod-mini.html

And no, im not selling the thing, i just happened across it one day and figured i might suggest it. Hope this helps

[Sambolina3]

I use one of these http://www.batterytech.com/productlist.aspx?br=APPLE&cat=MP3_Device_Battery&model=IPOD+VIDEO
its just like the one that you showed only substantially bigger  .  When both the ipod and the external battery are fully charged I can get anywhere from 25 - 30 hours depending on how much I am changing songs etc.