Sansа Clip Zip - Improve battery life

[saratoga]

Looks strange, but "improve_battery_life.patch" improves sometimes decode time and lowers MHZ needed for decoding (look for example vorbis_500.ogg). I can't understand, why player decodes sometimes faster with energy saving patch.

Faster PCLK means that the memory is running faster even when the CPU is running slower.

By the way, I'm assuming those builds aren't really 3.13?  Probably that patch wouldn't apply to it. 

[404_user_not_found]

By the way, I'm assuming those builds aren't really 3.13?

It's a really the old stable 3.13, not a development build. Downloaded from http://download.rockbox.org/release/3.13/rockbox-3.13.7z

Probably that patch wouldn't apply to it.

Applies without any problem.

[404_user_not_found]

So, to be fully sure I will try a battery test.

Finally, I completed the battery runtime test.
Sansa Clip+ with a connected headphone sony mdr-zx300. Repeat track, flac -q8, stored in internal memory, SD card not connected, default settings.
10h 36m - Untouched rockbox version 3.13 without "improve_battery_life.patch"
17h 44m - Rockbox version 3.13 with "improve_battery_life.patch" (Patch set 5)

[Mihail Zenkov]

Good!
Can you check how your player work with sd card? We have report from one user clip+  - it have problem with stability only when sd card inserted. In all other report from clip+/zip user all ok (with and without sd card).

Also if you want you can try on CVDD2 setting on clip+ - just remove #ifdef SANSA_CLIPZIP before it and #endif after it. This should slightly improve battery time on hour or two.

EDIT : better use git version rockbox as 3.13 have problem - usb controller consume quite match if you disconnect player without restart.

[404_user_not_found]

Good!
Can you check how your player work with sd card?

I just performed a runtime test without SD card for a new fresh sansa clip+.
For an old player, I tried from 13 December with 64 GB SD card up to today.  Works fine without any crash. May be it can help to trace a problem. I don't use a database. Most files contains a FLAC with CD Audio quality, rarely a lossy files. DSP is not turned on except volume. Volume is about -40db. SD Card formatted with MBR with huge cluster size available for FAT32.

Also if you want you can try on CVDD2 setting on clip+ - just remove #ifdef SANSA_CLIPZIP before it and #endif after it. This should slightly improve battery time on hour or two.

I will try that option.

usb controller consume quite match if you disconnect player without restart.

It's good to know. For runtime test I just for case performed a restart.

[saratoga]

Its also a waste of time to test 3.13 in general since its so old.  That's why I assumed you weren't actually using it before.

[404_user_not_found]

Its also a waste of time to test 3.13 in general since its so old.

That version is stable, so I used 3.13 as a check point. May be because of that I don't have a problems with SD card. Will try also a git version and yours test builds.

[saratoga]

For rockbox stable just means that its an old build, not actually that its likely to work better or have less problems. 

[Mihail Zenkov]

saratoga:
I received a positive response from the user with problematic clip+. To resolve this we should slightly rise CVDD1 in normal mode -  (0x80 | 20).
Also I receive report about CVDD2 on clip+ - no problem, all work, but user not measure battery time.

[saratoga]

I tested a lot on the clip + and once I had it get in such a state where the UI lagged quite a lot such that it seemed like buttons weren't working for a bit. Pausing playback fixed it. I guess it was some problem with thread scheduling.  Otherwise its been fine.

[404_user_not_found]

For rockbox stable just means that its an old build, not actually that its likely to work better or have less problems. 

But why it's called stable instead of old? For me stable means less likely to crash.

I tested a lot on the clip + and once I had it get in such a state where the UI lagged quite a lot such that it seemed like buttons weren't working for a bit.

I can confirm this in my old and new sansa clip+ after changes on CVDD2. For me it's unusable.

saratoga:
Also I receive report about CVDD2 on clip+ - no problem, all work, but user not measure battery time.

I started a new runtime test with SD card. Need two days to complete (before and after changes on CVDD2).

[saratoga]

Stable meaning unchanging not free of bugs. We fixed lots of stuff since 3.13 which is why its not useful to test it.

[404_user_not_found]

Also I receive report about CVDD2 on clip+ - no problem, all work, but user not measure battery time.

I can't complete the runtime test. My sansa clip+ just freezes after some hours because I found several times that my device is turned off with full battery and total time with some hours.

[Mihail Zenkov]

404_user_not_found:
Can you try slightly rise CVDD2 (change 111 to 112 or 113) and test runtime again?

[404_user_not_found]

404_user_not_found:
Can you try slightly rise CVDD2 (change 111 to 112 or 113) and test runtime again?

Yes, I can try.

Slightly increased CVDD2. Now player just don't play a music after some hours and I can't navigate in menu. Pressing a button just enables an OLED display but nothing else. Will try to continue increasing a CVDD2.