RockBox battery life?

[SeaHag]

I saw mention in some of the threads that one of the newer changes [patches?] to current rockbox builds has really improved battery life to near normal O.F. levels.

Well, I've only had rockbox on my player for about 5 days and I notice the battery level indicator goes down MUCH faster...probably at least 4 hours less run time.

Is there a chance that the 'new' build that was loaded via the rockbox utility tool doesn't have whatever it is that was to improve power consumption?

Any helpful hints or information would be appreciated.

[CrowdAds]

[Llorean]

Have you actually done tests to compare the battery lives, rather than simply depending on the indicator?

[SeaHag]

Originally Posted by Llorean

Have you actually done tests to compare the battery lives, rather than simply depending on the indicator?

No...just going by the indicator so far. With the O.F. I could jack it into my motorcycle for the ride to work, then take it in and play it for 8 hours, then take it to the gym for an hour after work, again jack in to the bike for the ride home and it would be at half charge or maybe a bit lower.

Last night I used it only for the 8 hours at work and the battery indicator was nearly gone.

[kugel]

I've just got 14,5h (bettery bench with 110kbit-ABR ogg vorbis album) with my build. I think the official build will go at least a bit (likely much more) over that. The battery life while using rockbox is slightly reduced, but not too much (it's especially not halved).

As you can see on this page, with FLAC codec you can go even beyond 20h: http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/SansaRuntime

[SeaHag]

Originally Posted by kugel

I've just got 14,5h (bettery bench with 110kbit-ABR ogg vorbis album) with my build. I think the official build will go at least a bit (likely much more) over that. The battery life while using rockbox is slightly reduced, but not too much (it's especially not halved).

As you can see on this page, with FLAC codec you can go even beyond 20h: http://www.rockbox.org/twiki/bin/view/Main/SansaRuntime

Well, I've got the official build as of Friday; and the only things I've added to it is a half dozen themes [settled of purple haze] and the game pack...of which I've only played once just to see what was available. I suppose the display could be off...running the graphic. Would the number scale battery indicator maybe give me a more accurate reading? Of course I could always time it till it runs dead. One long day on the motorcycle would give me enough time.

BTW: how much does playback volume effect battery life? When at work I always max out the stereo so I barely have to use any volume from the player...figured that would extend the battery life.

[saratoga]

The battery benchmark page shows better runtime in rockbox, so its probably just that either Rockbox or the retail firmware is poorly calibrated for your battery.

[SeaHag]

Originally Posted by saratoga

The battery benchmark page shows better runtime in rockbox, so its probably just that either Rockbox or the retail firmware is poorly calibrated for your battery.

Based on what the charts read, I should have nothing to worry about. I don't really know what the ogg or vorbis stuff is, but my files are Mp3 and have an avg bit rate of 192...so I should get similar results to the guy with the e270 I'd guess; although I am using the crossfader and EQ....but still that shouldn't take more than another two hours off my runtime....right?

[advcomp2019]

I get about 15 to 17 hours on my e280R with Rockbox.

[eybjerke]

I changed from firmware to rockbox on my Sansa e280 and improved my battery capacity ~4 times.
This is not because Rockbox itselves is using less battery, but because you have more setting options specifically regarding backlight and button light.

Do the following:
-Turn off light on the wheel-button.
-Set backlight to minimum (unless you use the player primarely in a very bright place)
-Set backlight completely off when on hold.
-Set backlight to go off after 4-5 seconds.
-Make a playlist so you don't need to change tunes all the time.
-Don't play Doom...

I made a 3 1/2 hour drive and spent 4%(!) percent of my battery.
I made an intercity journey on a bus one way with original firmware and made it half way there before battery went out. Then I went back the same trip with Rb and had 50% battery when I got back.

In other words; backlight kills your battery-time.

[dfkt]

Have you seen how ancient the thread is you replied to?