If you go into the details of your app, you will see the things it is doing that are resulting in the approximated usage -- amount of time spent running the CPU (as reported by the kernel), time keeping the GPS running.
On Thu, Oct 8, 2009 at 12:40 PM, dadical <[email protected]> wrote: > > The wording on the battery usage screen is: > > "Battery used by applications when running." > > So what does "running" mean? Is it the time when any activity or > service of an app is between onResume and onPause? If it means that > when my application is consuming CPU resources (e.g., has threads that > are active), it drains the battery by X%, then my applicatoin is doing > very well, as it has very low totals for CPU usage. > > The irony here is that one of my application's primary use cases is > actually SAVING power. This is done by allowing the phone to blank > the screen automatically when the phone is not within an orientation > range associated with user interaction. On the other hand, the > application keeps the screen on when the phone is being held in an > orientation that implies user interaction. This approach works really > well, since it effectively allows users to keep an aggressively low > screen timeout without being annoyed to death. > > I'm getting the impression that my implementation of the concept has > varying degrees of effectiveness, depending on the hardware platform. > Many users of the Hero, for example, have reported dramatic > improvements in battery life (anywhere from 20% to 100% improvement), > while others claim that the app provides no power savings, while still > others claim that it drains battery. I suppose that this may also > depend on phone usage patterns, but the ratings for the application > are reasonably high (around 4.20 last time I checked) > > On Oct 8, 3:15 pm, Romain Guy <[email protected]> wrote: > > I would have to check but 40% does not mean that your app used 40% of > > the battery but that your app was responsible for 40% of the battery > > consumption. Even if that consumption was only 3% of the total battery > > capacity. > > > > > > > > > > > > On Thu, Oct 8, 2009 at 11:41 AM, dadical <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > I am indeed sleeping (I'll check out the other threads, thanks for the > > > tip). From a battery usage perspective, I can't imagine that sleeping > > > vs. alarm has any bearing though. Also, I forgot to mention that > > > when the phone's screen turns off, my background service suspends > > > itself (via Thread.sleep(99999999999999)) until the screen is turned > > > back on, in which case the sleep get's interrupted and the thread > > > continues. The net result is that the thread is only running (and > > > consuming power, I'm assuming) when the screen is active. > > > > > I'm going to take Dianne's advice and do a more aggresive battery > > > drain test, but if that turns out to not jive with the "usage meter", > > > I think that I have chalk this one up to a really bad software > > > approximation. > > > > > On Oct 8, 1:40 pm, RichardC <[email protected]> wrote: > > >> By running your background task every 2secs your are basically keeping > > >> the phone permanently on. Even though your app is not using much CPU > > >> it has to wake the phone from any sleep state every 2secs. So it > > >> either will not allow the phone to sleep or mostly keep it awake. > > >> Waking the phone will power up all hardware devices that are needed > > >> from any low power state they are currently in and reset their sleep > > >> timeouts. > > > > >> Basically any background tasks (something not associated with the > > >> current foreground activity the user is interacting with) should only > > >> wake up very infrequently (say greater then 60mins). > > > > >> Also are you sleeping in your background task or using an alarm > > >> event. Sleeping is bad ... see lots of posts by Dianne Hackborn on > > >> this very subject. > > > > >> -- > > >> RichardC > > > > >> On Oct 8, 5:55 pm, dadical <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > >> > I have an application that runs a background service. This > background > > >> > service wakes and runs once every 2 seconds. The background service > > >> > registers as a listener with the orientation sensor with the lowest > > >> > possible rate of event delivery (application). When my service > thread > > >> > wakes it uses the latest value delivered by the sensor events, so > > >> > there is no heavy-weight processing being done on the sensor thread. > > >> > Furthermore, the background thread is doing very light processing > when > > >> > it wakes. > > > > >> > I've done tests that show that my background thread poses very minor > > >> > power overhead, somewhere around 3%. The test was basically: > charge > > >> > to 100%, leave phone on for two hours with service running, record > > >> > battery level. Repeat with service off and compare. > > > > >> > However "Battery Usage" of my application is listed as some insanely > > >> > high value (e.g., 40%). Over the same two hour period of the test, > > >> > CPU usage was less than 3 seconds. > > > > >> > What does "battery usage" mean? In my case, it clearly isn't an > > >> > indication of "battery drain", but that is what the stat seems to > > >> > imply.- Hide quoted text - > > > > >> - Show quoted text - > > > > -- > > Romain Guy > > Android framework engineer > > [email protected] > > > > Note: please don't send private questions to me, as I don't have time > > to provide private support. All such questions should be posted on > > public forums, where I and others can see and answer them- Hide quoted > text - > > > > - Show quoted text - > > > -- Dianne Hackborn Android framework engineer [email protected] Note: please don't send private questions to me, as I don't have time to provide private support, and so won't reply to such e-mails. All such questions should be posted on public forums, where I and others can see and answer them. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Developers" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
