Rockbox General > Rockbox General Discussion
High battery drain in Rockbox
Frankenpod:
--- Quote from: iPodVT on June 30, 2023, 09:01:05 PM ---I have a few iPods that think they are always connected to power, even when they are not. With those iPods, Rockbox won't shutdown automatically or manually because it thinks it's being powered. ...
What are you seeing for a charging indicator when your iPod is not connected to power? If it indicates that it's either charging or fully charged and connected to power then I'd say you have a hardware problem.
...if your iPod thinks that it's connected to power, whether or not it actually is, it will not shutdown.
--- End quote ---
Yeah, had at least one ipod classic that developed exactly this problem. Don't think I ever fixed it...
Did wonder if it was some sort of short-circuit on the 30-pin connector, but before finding what was wrong, ended up doing the classic 'breaking the battery connector off the logic board' mistake while faffing around trying to fix it.
Darthagnon:
Come to think of it, it does seem to display as "charging" when disconnected from power. The 30pin port is quite grubby and used.
I've now set idle poweroff to 5mins, will see if that works.
Looks like it might be hardware if it always thinks it's charging :'( This forum seems to suggest shorts somewhere, guess I need to teardown again and polish and crud from PCB and port with isopropyl
I don't suppose I could request a software workaround for this could I? e.g. a setting idle poweroff be more forceful and always shutdown on idle even whe it thinks it's charging.
iPodVT:
I'm just a member, not a developer, so my knowledge is limited and my authority is zero. But it seems to me that the problem isn't so much about shutting down your iPod as it is about preventing your iPod from automatically trying to reboot when the hardware thinks that it's connected to power. My understanding is that the hardware is designed to boot when connected to power.
Darthagnon:
Guess it's harwdware, as I notice it keeps randomly booting even when shut down and battery icon keeps switching from battery to "not charging". Need to dig around inside, see if there's any dirt or corrosion to clean off, or if the battery is being squeezed in a weird place.
Anyone have any ideas?
Update: Battery life: 100/99% at 7pm, 91% at 1015pm, so 10% battery = 3h while off or idle, no music playing. Total should therefore last for around 30h while switched off. Normally, switched off/sleep devices (e.g. PSP, iPhone 4S, both 2009-2011ish) last around a week or so for me while switched off.
Screen keeps waking up randomly, guess it keeps thinking it connected to power...
Darthagnon:
So, my iPod is still running (15 July 2023) off that charge. I've listened to it for several long car drives as well as at home. What changed?
I set the idle poweroff to 5mins (Settings >> General >> Startup/Shutdown >> Idle Poweroff >> 5min). It seems Rockbox's idle/sleep drains as much battery as playing music, so it's best just to fully shut it down on idle. The default setting of 30min idle poweroff is too much. It saves a lot of battery. My battery, after almost 2 weeks and probably over 12h listening time, is still at 78%
As for the random rebooting, thinking it's connected to power, that seems to have stopped once the battery's drained a bit, so I'm wondering if maybe at peak voltage, the 3rd party battery is triggering something on the circuit board. Especially since the peak voltage is around 4V, and the first 10% seems to drain the fastest.
Perplexing why the default settings on Rockbox are set to undesirable defaults. 30mins idle poweroff, HID device enabled, probably a bunch I've forgotten. It's so much better with the right settings.
I'm also working on another project, trying to figure out how to install Rockbox offline so I can install it on friends' iPods without internet. So far, it is self-hosting a proxy of the Rockbox server on my PC. I'll release a full guide once I'm done.
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