Following reports elsewhere of high temperatures being generated when the built in GPS was operative, I wondered if the battery life could be extended by using my Globalsat BT-338 GPS receiver instead of the Kaisers' built in GPS receiver. To find out, I first put the internal GPS to the test.
After fully charging my standard 1350mAh battery, I soft reset the phone, set the screen brightness to minimum, disabled phone, Bluetooth and Wifi. I started Memory Map (GPS setting set to COM4) and the stopwatch on SPB Time. When the phone eventually ran out of power and switched off I fully charged it again and ran the same test, with all the same settings except this time I enabled Bluetooth and configured Memory Map to accept GPS input from my bluetooth GPS receiver.
The results were interesting. When utilizing the internal GPS, the phone ran out of power after 5hrs 16mins. When using the external GPS it switched off after 5hrs 32mins.
I must admit I expected the battery to last much longer when using the external GPS receiver. I guess the extra power required to maintain a BT link offset the power saved not running the internal GPS receiver almost exactly.
I really need to get out more.
For what it's worth - I'm just like you! I do the same types of tests and wonderings. I think your findings are actually pretty interesting as since I've had my TYTN I haven't used my holux BT receiver, and have been wondering about power drain.
One thing you may not have considered - you tested with the phone off. With the phone on, the TYTN uses cell-towers for assisted GPS - which may actually cause more battery drain.
That's an interesting observation. I don't really know that much about the inner workings of assisted GPS. I was under the impression that assisted GPS helps the GPS receiver to get a quick fix but I wasn't aware that it continued to "help out" following this. Would assisted GPS still be operative, and draining the battery, if I had a perfectly good GPS signal I wonder? You see, I mainly use GPS whilst I am out walking (hence Memory Map). I always have a good view of the sky so I'm supposing assisted GPS would not be called upon under these conditions?
Does anybody know if there is any tweaking software for the Kaiser internal GPS like there is for the many Sirf GPS receivers?
So I mean software where you can set things like the static/dynamic mode, elevation angle cutoff etc.
Thanks
Which GPS option would consume less battery power, the interal GPS or an external Bluetooth GPS unit?
TIA
WT
Thats a good question, I know a few people have said they run external receivers.
If they don't reply I would suggest you do a test and let us know.
Same here good ? I'd guess that an external would use less as it's only running BT "external units self powered" and the software compared to GPS & software.
ah but really, which antenna uses more power? the BT or the GPS?
If you are using GPS while driving, then you can use car charger to charge. But if you want to use GPS while hiking etc, then just keep a couple (or even more) extra batteries. These days you can buy extra batteries very cheap (as low as $5).
More over there are programs which can save battery by connecting to GPS every 1 minute, 2 minutes, 5 minutes etc (e.g gpsVP).
In short, you can do much better without external GPS.
So then maybe you can do even better if you do what you're suggesting and use external bt gps. hmmm
ChumleyEX said:
So then maybe you can do even better if you do what you're suggesting and use external bt gps. hmmm
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Click to collapse
But then you have to carry external GPS, its charger, may be extra battery for external GPS. All that can be avoided by carrying extra batteries for Kaiser.
Is that what the OP is asking?
Thank you gentle for your input. The real test will be simply try it I suppose.
What I have found out is that the BT-359 has superior GPS accuracy over my Kaiser and that I like. Thanks again
WT
Working Tools said:
Thank you gentle for your input. The real test will be simply try it I suppose.
What I have found out is that the BT-359 has superior GPS accuracy over my Kaiser and that I like. Thanks again
WT
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Click to collapse
Yeah i used to use a Magician with extrenal GPS and it fixed so much faster than the Kaiser on board does
I've found the power consumption using the same backlight, same application, etc, but using internal vs Bluetooth GPS was around 100mAh. You do the math.
And the Kaiser's GPS blows.. Doesn't turn off sometimes (continuing to use battery), doesn't work well at all for low speeds (walking), not very sensitive, can be extremely slow to start, and sucks battery.
Thanks khaytsus, what current drain were you able to measure while using the internal GPS unit?
As you can tell I am quite the noob when it comes to the internal workings of the Kaiser but I am learning much from this forum. Thank you everyone for your offering of knowledge!
WT
Pros and Cons of external GPS.
Pros:
Less drain on phone battery.
GPS receiver can be placed where it gets best reception (such as on top of the dash).
Cons:
Another device to haul around.
Another battery to charge.
The hassle of pairing/connecting.
Can't use BT GPS and A2DP simultaneously.
Is it even possible to switch between internal and external GPS on the Kaiser without a hard reset?
Wilhelm said:
Pros and Cons of external GPS.
Pros:
Less drain on phone battery.
GPS receiver can be placed where it gets best reception (such as on top of the dash).
Cons:
Another device to haul around.
Another battery to charge.
The hassle of pairing/connecting.
Can't use BT GPS and A2DP simultaneously.
Is it even possible to switch between internal and external GPS on the Kaiser without a hard reset?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
what does this have to do with the OP?
Wilhelm said:
Pros and Cons of external GPS.
Pros:
Less drain on phone battery.
GPS receiver can be placed where it gets best reception (such as on top of the dash).
Cons:
Another device to haul around.
Another battery to charge.
The hassle of pairing/connecting.
Can't use BT GPS and A2DP simultaneously.
Is it even possible to switch between internal and external GPS on the Kaiser without a hard reset?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Switching? It's just a different com port. Now, if you're doing registry tweaking to route the external GPS through com4 so that 'any' program can use it, even those without the ability to modify the com port, yes you'd need a soft reset. Otherwise, of course not.
Pairing and connecting are a zero issue. You do it once.
I thought changing the hardware port on the GPS settings meant you couldn't return to the internal GPS without a hard reset.
Eh that post was just too mean. SOrry
Wilhelm said:
I thought changing the hardware port on the GPS settings meant you couldn't return to the internal GPS without a hard reset.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Nope, there's a GPS switcher app out there too, and private builds of CamerAwareBuddy supports switching too.
Also, I don't know about AD2P, but I can use BT GPS and BT headset simultaneously.
Well, from my own experience (Tilt is broken now but I used to use Igo My Way 8.1) the GPS has a function that saves battery...
How does it handle it?
Simple: if you for example have to drive straight forward for 5 kilometers the screen will turn black (standy) and won't turn on (unless pressed) but at the moment when you're getting new directions (Turn left, right, bla bla)
I used to have an external GPS only for my SE M600i but that's a different story
I wonder if anyone knows...
Will SGS internal GPS consume more power while navigating than
using external GPS module via BT ?
You are probably best off testing this yourself.. It's hard to say because BT uses a lot of power, but GPS uses the CPU
use this to find out
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=8156087&postcount=58
it will tell you the mili amps it's consuming
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=765081
The conventional wisdom is that BT is much easier on the battery than utilizing the built-in GPS.
But of course, conventional wisdom is not necessarily true.
So if you ever test it as AllGamer suggests, please tell us the results
Hi
I'm interested in this question from primarily a battery life perspective. I did some searches, but couldn't find any info on this.
I have an external bluetooth GPS module I could use. If I were to use a Galaxy Ace with bluetooth enabled, but GPS off, would this be more power efficient than using the GPS of the Ace with bluetooth off?
(Assuming all other power factors to be the same).
I guess it boils down to: Which is more efficient on the Ace; using GPS only or bluetooth only? And is it actually significant?
If there are any other aspects that should be considered, please edumacate me!
Thanks
ws
Personal experience and logic says Bluetooth consumes lesser battery juice than using GPS
Yes you are right wit an expternal GPS you will save battery, I use ana pplication called BlueGPS for pair the GPS and connect with Copilot
Thanks for the replies.
Now I've bought an Ace and had a chance to play a little bit, there's one thing that confuses me.
Once I connect the external GPS via bluetooth, and select it as the GPS source, I still have to enable the internal GPS for GPS to function.
(I can test that GPS is working via the external GPS by putting the bluetooth GPS unit on my window sill, and have my Ace inside where it can't get a GPS lock from inside via internal GPS).
So, doesn't this mean that the Ace is using battery for the internal GPS as well as bluetooth??
wiresquire said:
Thanks for the replies.
Now I've bought an Ace and had a chance to play a little bit, there's one thing that confuses me.
Once I connect the external GPS via bluetooth, and select it as the GPS source, I still have to enable the internal GPS for GPS to function.
(I can test that GPS is working via the external GPS by putting the bluetooth GPS unit on my window sill, and have my Ace inside where it can't get a GPS lock from inside via internal GPS).
So, doesn't this mean that the Ace is using battery for the internal GPS as well as bluetooth??
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I guess what's actually happening is that when u "enable the internal GPS", you're basically enabling the phone to use the GPS source you initially selected in the location settings, i.e. the external one.
So all in all, when you have the bluetooth on without switching on GPS, bluetooth is idling, and when you enable GPS, it starts interacting with the bluetooth GPS.
cheers
you vowebt
hi
I am using external bluetooth GPS too.
I did flash my phone two days ago and find out that I don't need another app to use external GPS.
My phone is flashed with CM10-nightly.
Problem is that after each time when I want to used external GPS I need to unpari and then pair that bluetooth device.
example:
a) switch on bluetooth, and pair external GPS device
b) choose that new device in GPS source
c) switch on GPS
perfekt I can use maps ...
after while I switch off GPS and bluetooth and device
then
d) switch on bluetooth, device is already paired
e) switch GPS, external source is already choose
BUT phone is not getting any data from external GPS device
f) I have to go to bluetooth devices and unpair and then pair external GPS device
I think it is a bug, what do you think?