What does my TH55 do while I'm asleep at night

[JulianL]

I'm wondering what my TH55 is doing while I sleep. I think it might be sneaking out to my local bars and having a wild time every night because in the morning it seems to have lost about 3% charge, sometimes more.

More seriously though, what are other people seeing? I know that the percentage indicator is somewhat erratic because it seems to be a bit like a trip computer so if you run a CPU intensive app for a while then on exit the percentage of battery remaining will drop a lot but if you then sit in the application launcher for a few minutes doing nothing but watching the battery indicator then you will gradually see the battery percentage rise.

With the above in mind I've been looking at my charge just before going to bed and again the following lunchtime (about 12 hours later) and I do seem to loose about 3% in the 12 hours of the TH55 being off. Is this what other people see? It seems a bit high to me because if it is linear then that would imply total battery drain in under 17 days. Could this be another artefact of the "trip computer" nature of the battery indicator? I do have battery graph installed so I'll start noting down voltage levels rather than percentage indicator but I'm interested in other people's experiences.

On a more technical note, does anyone know how "alive" a PalmOS device is while switched off? There must at least be some sort of clock running so that it knows about alarms. It seems to me that there are 2 possibilities: (1) there is a real time clock that PalmOS programs with the actual time of the next alarm before switching off, i.e. the device really is off except for the clock chip for the entire time until the alarm triggers a wakeup, or (2) there is a regular interupt that partially wakes it up every minute or so (with screen off) and it checks to see if it has anything to do. Does anyone know which of the above is the case?

Does anyone know of any strategies to reduce overnight drain? I do have a memory stick permanently installed which might contribute slightly to battery drain.

- Julian

[kp*]

It seems to me the TH is a little more quirky about waking up when it shouldn't and not turning off when it should. Sometimes I'll have it sitting on the cradle on my desk and suddenly it will turn on. No alarm, no reason, suddenly it's just on. So I turn it off, and a while later it will happen again. And sometimes when I use it as an alarm clock and don't turn off the alarm, it will still be on much later when I find it. As other people have mentioned on occasion, I've noticed the MS activity light flickering momentarily while the Clie is off. I don't know how common that is with other Clies, but I've never noticed it before the TH. I don't see a drop in battery every night, but sometimes I do, and once it was 12%. I can usually tell because I'll wake up and the Clie will be on.
As for what's causing it, I haven't really tried disabling or uninstalling things, but I wonder if it's something to do with the buggy CO software which originally had all those problems with the alarms. I have enough other software which has background activities so I don't want to point the finger at anything in particular.
Anyway, you're definitely not alone.

[Hobbit]

This App might answer your questions, it's freeware...
http://palm.jeroenwitteman.com/BatteryGraph/

[winexprt]

3% does seem like a lot to lose in 12 hours. It shouldn't be losing that much charge in that time period. Remember, our Clies are always in a power drawing state. It is always using juice, even when 'off' to keep your RAM from being erased. But 3% is a bit much.

Maybe there is some offending app that's causing your TH55 to wake up for a brief period over the 12 hours? I don't use CO, never did...so I don't have this problem. My TH55 wakes up refreshed every morn...better than its owner! :p

Good idea Julian. Pull the MS out a couple of nights and see what the charge is 12 hours later. I had this problem on my UX50. There was an app (VeriChat) that would wake up my Clie (I could see the blinky-light in my Lexar MS flashing) every couple of minutes or so. Over the course of 12 hours that will cause a significant battery level drop.

[JulianL]

Thanks for the replies. I was aware of issues with Verichat and I don't have that installed. It sounds as if others have similar overnight battery drain issues. As a result of Kp*'s post I now have something to do once I've finished watching paint dry; I can sit and stare at my Memory Stick activity light for hours on end :) .

Personally I somehow doubt that it's a problem with the Memory Stick alone, but trying it unplugged for a few nights is an experiment that I could try. Unfortunately, because of the way that my TH55 is mounted, it is very hard to get the MS in and out so I hope that isn't the problem.

I wonder if this could be a case for another simple little utility app. Maybe Igor_n could add a simple addition to PalmInternals to log software wakeup events so that it was possible to see random wakeups the morning after without having to watch one's TH55 all through the night. If it does turn out that something is switching it on then maybe it would be possible to have a utility that trapped the switch-on and at least turned it off immediately.

I'd love to nail this because if I could then over 6 days I'd end up reclaiming another 20% or so of battery life, enough to get me a full week of travelling away from home without needing to take a charger.

- Julian

[MicahDG]

Everynight when I go to sleep with my TH55 by my pillow, I turn on the 'hold' button. Then, even flybackup will do its magic in the dark without turning on the screen. Maybe that will do the trick for you?

[DZack]

I had that same problem, even though I keep it charging at night. It ended up being VeriChat. Thanks, guys!

[DZack]

Sorry, I can't add to my post because right now I'm using 1src Mobile :D

Can someone clue me in on the CO alarm problem?

[winexprt]

DZack...I get a chuckle everytime I see your avatar! :D Keep posting! lol ;)

[winexprt]

Dave has a good point. I have kept my Beam Receive option turned off as default for years. Not sure if it draws power while the unit is off, but it definately draws power while your PDA is on.

[Dripps]

how about a backup program....mine goes on and backs up while I sleep. It must be using some power to do that and also to remember to turn on for this task. 3% sounds high though.

[JulianL]

I don't have an automated backup program and my beam recieve stays permanently off. I wonder if I have a battery with an unusually high self-discharge rate. I will try putting the hold switch on overnight though and see if that makes a difference and I guess that I should experiment with the Memory Stick.

- Julian.

[jjesusfreak01]

On a th55, will beam recieve stay on even when the pda is on?

[wellsjs]

On a th55, will beam recieve stay on even when the pda is on?Absolutely!

What does my TH55 do while I'm asleep at night?
Not sure, but if I ever find it laying somewhere I didn't put it the next morning, I'm getting a lawyer and filing for divorce! :eek: :D

[winexprt]

I think he meant to say "...even when the PDA is off". Because, OBVIOUSLY it's on when the PDA is on.

[Hobbit]

I wonder if this could be a case for another simple little utility app. Maybe Igor_n could add a simple addition to PalmInternals to log software wakeup events so that it was possible to see random wakeups
- Julian

Try the BatteryGraph App, in Options, you can select "Show on/off switches" which will put an indicator on the Time axis everytime the device is switched on and off.

[MrNako]

BatteryGraph has been showing "Unbalanced on/off events" I dont know why. I have deleted the databases and it works well for some time, but then the same message appears and I'm not able to know how long has it been on.

[Erik4281]

I've had the "Unbalanced on/off events" quite a few times myself now, I think it happens when you shut down & lock your Clie. Don't now how to solve this problem though (except not using the function)

[JulianL]

Try the BatteryGraph App, in Options, you can select "Show on/off switches" which will put an indicator on the Time axis everytime the device is switched on and off.Thanks. I've been using the excellent BatteryGraph for months and I did try looking at the on/off switches (I stretched the display to 24 hours so that they were clearly visible; I normally have the display graph set to 14 days). I haven't seen any switch-ons in the middle of the night.

- Julian

[DanT]

I've had the "Unbalanced on/off events" quite a few times myself now, I think it happens when you shut down & lock your Clie. Don't now how to solve this problem though (except not using the function)

Same here. That sucks. :(

Please post here if you find the solution.

[JulianL]

I don't think that my battery drain has anything to do with my TH55 switching on unexpectedly in the night, I strongly suspect that my memory stick is the problem.

My TH55 was showing 13% charge just now and I just switched it off and pulled out the memory stick. On switching back on the charge now shows 15%. Given that the charge indicator is like a trip computer, i.e. it varies depending on the current and recent power draw, this does imply to me that pulling the memory stick has reduced the quiescent power drain.

I have a Sandisk Memory Stick Pro and I noticed on their web site that their Ultra II range of memory sticks talk about low power consumption to maximize battery life. I wonder if this implies that they are significantly better that their regular range, i.e. the regular Sandisk Memory Stick pro isn't too good as far as power drain is concerned.

Does anyone know the standby power consumption of the basic (cheapest) Sandisk Memory Stick Pro? I couldn't find this info on the web although I did find the data for various other manufacturers and most of the others claim 130 micro Amps. If my MS has this spec then it shouldn't be causing the drain which makes me wonder if either it is bad or if this is an area where Sandisk compromised on spec to get a price point and maybe I should go for an alternate manufacturer.

I think I can rule out a fault in my TH55 not putting the MS into standby because other manufacturers quote 45mA for active power consumption and if it was locked at this level all the time then my battery life would be far less than it is.

I'd love to nail this because my battery life is good even with this drain. If I could nail the battery drain issue then I would be ecstatic about the battery life. I really prefer not to have to eject the MS every night because that is hard for me to do although I could always break off the door to the MS slot and then it just becomes a push-button eject.

- Julian