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Battery Frugality


rragan

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  • 1 month later...

I was struck by this as well when I recently tried out Cachly after years of using Geosphere. I wish I had a way to collect real data on this but those bits are history.

Does the Groundspeak app fully support offline use now and, if so, does anyone know how they compare here? I'm not feeling compelled to use it (I was a long-time devotee of Geosphere for a reason), but I'm curious about how the app landscape changed during the break that I took from caching.

 

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4 minutes ago, rragan said:

I presume letting the phone sleep or switching it off also suspends GPS use. I notice my current position scooting along to catch up when I turn it on.

I see current location on the Compass screen so I guess it needs the GPS for that. 

Yes. Leaving Cachly shuts GPS off. Compass screen is a map screen also, so it uses GPS. 

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If we had an option to toggle on/off off the GPS completely, then that would verify why my battery drains so quickly while using the app. I only use the App for information on caches. Only rarely do I use it to navigate to them.  But as I have to use the map screen to find them, the GPS is used all the time. 

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Try the Battery section under Settings App. It gives you %used by each app in last 24 hours. If you tap the clock icon, you can see how much time was on screen time versus background time. It's worth checking this because I have found apps chewing my battery that I didn't even know we're running in background.

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5 hours ago, rragan said:

Try the Battery section under Settings App. It gives you %used by each app in last 24 hours. If you tap the clock icon, you can see how much time was on screen time versus background time. It's worth checking this because I have found apps chewing my battery that I didn't even know we're running in background.

Google Maps can be a huge offender. That said I'm often surprised at what has chewed up battery life. 

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So when would you turn off the GPS if you could?

Maybe our usage is different. I'm in a high density LTE coverage often even when out in the woods. I've noticed in other areas where cell service is marginal that the phone sucks a lot more battery in 1 bar 3G and 1X land. Turning off celllular, when I happen to notice helps some. 

The recent good experiences with Cachly were all along a linear trail with caches along the trail. When I found one, I would put the phone away until I got near the next one and then wake it up. I did not look at the screen much while walking to the next cache. As I understand it, this is equivalent to turning the GPS off.  I was operating on offline list with offline maps, no sat views. I could probably have pulled up sat views but they wouldn't help as it was wooded.

i can't rule out that I religiously plug the phone back in when I'm in the car - car voice nav sucks power. 

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Link on battery conservation. 

http://solutionowl.com/ultimate-guide-iphone-battery-drain/

Also looking for Wifi networks can use power.

I have noticed that my habit of voice dictating logs in the field uses more power than I like so I've turned to a brief typed note and write the full log later. That has helped. And I tote an external battery for when it all runs down.

 

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On 10/12/2017 at 4:57 AM, MrGigabyte said:

If we had an option to toggle on/off off the GPS completely, then that would verify why my battery drains so quickly while using the app. I only use the App for information on caches. Only rarely do I use it to navigate to them.  But as I have to use the map screen to find them, the GPS is used all the time. 

Not using Cachly to navigate seems a pretty niche use of it.  You could turn off Cachly’s GPS access in iOS’s privacy settings.

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On 12/9/2017 at 7:57 AM, MrGigabyte said:

If we had an option to toggle on/off off the GPS completely, then that would verify why my battery drains so quickly while using the app. I only use the App for information on caches. Only rarely do I use it to navigate to them.  But as I have to use the map screen to find them, the GPS is used all the time. 

Ah, I maybe failed to understand. Are you navigating and finding with a GPSr and Cachly is just a DB of info to consult as needed? I'm confused on your usage pattern. 

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That is typical usage that I get as well. 100% to 10% in an afternoon (and I am not using the compass/navigation in the app). I have a new iPhone 6 so the battery is only 6 months old. (Apple replaced my previous 6 with a new one after they botched the screen replacement).  But also as mentioned, I use the app to read the data on the cache and to log my notes (typed not dictated), and they are short. But, as I have to use the map to see where they are, I am using the GPS when in fact all I needed was to see the map and cache pins, not my location. 

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It's odd that I get different behavior in the woods vs the city. There is a lot more to keep the phone busy in the city -- lots if wifi networks to check, gain/lose cell towers down in the urban canyons. I should try each with airplane mode sometime.

Try the Battery Life - check runtimes app. It shows you the capacity of your battery and how much you can use of that even when 100% is shown. My old 6s reports only 70% of original capacity can be used.

Also ambient temperature affects batteries. Your battery will die faster on a cold day than a warm one. 

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