[Clip+, Clip Zip, ClipV2, FuzeV2] Improve battery life, part 2

[johnb]

Should I go for -6 of -7 on my clip+?
I did not have any re-read numbers with -6 so far ...

[Mihail Zenkov]

Try v8: http://knk.square7.ch/cvdd2/rockbox-clip+-cvdd2_scaling-8.zip

[johnb]

Hi Mihail,

slightly off-topic, but maybe this also provides additional information:
I have tried -6 and -8 on the clip+ with the potentially dying internal memory I described here:
http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php/topic,51304.msg237134.html

With the current dev builds the crash (see picture) happens maybe every 3 or 4 weeks with daily usage, I believe when RB tries to write the .playlist_control file. All my music is on the SD card.

With -6 I had one bookmark, which triggered this reproducible. Also happened during playback sometimes.

With -8 this happens within 5 - 20s when I start playback!
I tried to increase CVDD2 to 100 and 110 in the debug section, but it didn't help.

So it seems that my internal flash needs higher voltages to be able to write.
------------------------
I will try -8 with a different clip+.

[johnb]

Different setup:
clip+ variant 0 with build -6:

Kingston 6GB:  0,0,51,0 in debug menu, number keeps increasing, but no noticable impact on playback, UI or responsiveness -> usable

Samsung Evo 64GB:
1. start from recent bookmark, skip to beginning: WPS updates but stays at 0s, no playback, backlight shuts off
2. skipping has a lag of 10s sometimes
 0,0,21,84
--> not usable

Lexar 64GB: seems to always stay at 0,0,1,0
Single occasion where after seek in a flac file, WPS updated but playback did not continue, the UI stayed responsive.
Numbers above did not change!
-> usable



I have NO clicks when changing volume above 0dB. Faintly noticeable delay, not annoying.

[Mihail Zenkov]

I have tried -6 and -8 on the clip+ with the potentially dying internal memory I described here:
http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php/topic,51304.msg237134.html

Special build for this player: http://knk.square7.ch/cvdd2/rockbox-clip+-cvdd2_scaling-8_sd_only.zip
You should install it on sd card. It should  mount only sd card so all your setting will be saved on sd card.

[Mihail Zenkov]

Kingston 6GB:  0,0,51,0 in debug menu, number keeps increasing, but no noticable impact on playback, UI or responsiveness -> usable

Samsung Evo 64GB:
1. start from recent bookmark, skip to beginning: WPS updates but stays at 0s, no playback, backlight shuts off
2. skipping has a lag of 10s sometimes
 0,0,21,84
--> not usable

http://knk.square7.ch/cvdd2/rockbox-clip+-cvdd2_scaling-9.zip
In this build I add delay again so it can be less responsive/slower. But I want to know what you have in debug menu for this cards.

[johnb]

Kingston 6GB:  0,0,51,0 in debug menu, number keeps increasing, but no noticable impact on playback, UI or responsiveness -> usable

Samsung Evo 64GB:
1. start from recent bookmark, skip to beginning: WPS updates but stays at 0s, no playback, backlight shuts off
2. skipping has a lag of 10s sometimes
 0,0,21,84
--> not usable

http://knk.square7.ch/cvdd2/rockbox-clip+-cvdd2_scaling-9.zip
In this build I add delay again so it can be less responsive/slower. But I want to know what you have in debug menu for this cards.

Kingston 8G:
playing songs from internal, went quickly up to 0,0,27,0 but then stayed there
running songs from SD going to 0,0,30,0 and stayed there within the same song. Selecting song n+2 it went up to 0,0,33,0
2 more skip songs: 0,0,38,0

and so on . Loading a song slightly delayed, but otherwise responsive.


-------------

Samsung Evo:
UI / WPS delayed, but playing from SD works
0,0,1,0
Skipping songs on SD stays at 0,0,1,0  !
Wow!

[johnb]

I have tried -6 and -8 on the clip+ with the potentially dying internal memory I described here:
http://forums.rockbox.org/index.php/topic,51304.msg237134.html

Special build for this player: http://knk.square7.ch/cvdd2/rockbox-clip+-cvdd2_scaling-8_sd_only.zip
You should install it on sd card. It should  mount only sd card so all your setting will be saved on sd card.

True, the failure is gone!
This works with the Lexar but not the the Samsung EVO. Here I cannot even browse files.
I see just the status bar for maybe 40s, then ' Select Bookmark' but just a blue bar not BM listed. 'disk access' symbol is on all the time.

[Mihail Zenkov]

Kingston 8G:
playing songs from internal, went quickly up to 0,0,27,0 but then stayed there
running songs from SD going to 0,0,30,0 and stayed there within the same song. Selecting song n+2 it went up to 0,0,33,0
2 more skip songs: 0,0,38,0

Try increase CVDD2, check debug menu, select next track and check changes in debug menu. Don't change volume after setting CVDD2 - changing volume reset CVDD2.

[johnb]

95->100 no improvement
105 lower incr respectively no increment any more -> stays now at 0,0,15,0
Reported success to early> now at 0,0,20,0

107 seems to do the job.

[Mihail Zenkov]

Try new build with this card: http://knk.square7.ch/cvdd2/rockbox-clip+-cvdd2_scaling-10.zip
It can be very slow, but I want know is it help.

[johnb]

NO! Very slow. Loading takes forever. UI lags.
Playing from internal it stays at 0,0,1,0 but from SD 0,0,x,0  with x increasing +2 per second (that is without modifying CVDD2).
With change to 107 it is ok again.

Now I even have drop outs (buffer running empty).

[g.orlandini]

Hi Mikhail,

first of all thanks for all your excellent job in optimising clip+. In order to reduce power consumption maybe it would be interesting to extend your frequency scaling to more than 2 levels (38.4 MHz and 192 MHz), for example to 3 levels (32-96-256 MHz) or 4 (32-64-128-256 MHz). I'm no expert just an happy Rockbox user, I don't know if it's easy or not to implement it and if it useful in your power saving work. Sorry to be a bit OT about your discussion but I didn't want to open another thread.

[Mihail Zenkov]

In order to reduce power consumption maybe it would be interesting to extend your frequency scaling to more than 2 levels (38.4 MHz and 192 MHz), for example to 3 levels (32-96-256 MHz) or 4 (32-64-128-256 MHz).

It hard for implementation as rockbox player, codecs and plugins expect only two state: normal (38 MHz) and boost (192 MHz).

It harder for stabilization - as we should check each frequency (+voltage) step on many players. AFAIK current voltage scaling still can be case issue for someone. So I want add options in debug menu for tuning/disabling it.

It will be minor (5-10%)  improvement in power consumption as at mostly case we still want lowest or max frequency. In linux (gnu or android) you can check "/sys/bus/cpu/devices/cpu0/cpufreq/stats/time_in_state".

[g.orlandini]

Hi Mikhail,

as I said I'm no expert and I thank you for your answer. Maybe we could turn off USB and enable/disable it inside a menu.