Problems with the battery duration

[espruino-discuss2]

Posted at 2024-10-12 by Fenixin

Hello there!

This August got a bangle.js 2 and I'm pretty happy with it, is what I want from a smartwatch.

The only problem I've got is the battery duration. I really think there is a problem with the consumption of the smartwatch and I have no idea how to diagnose it.

The first time I used it only lasted for a week but that was normal, I installed like 50 apps ant tested every feature.

The next battery charge (more than 12h charging) also lasted for a week and this time had a very casual use. After this, I decided to try to configure the watch for the maximun battery so I did a factory reset and used it for only the basics: default face and notifications from the phone. And there it was, the battery graph (see screenshot) had a slope that was pointing to 4 weeks of duration.

The thing is that after the first week the connection between my phone and my bangle did something strange, had to reconnect and after that the slope went back to 1 or 2 weeks of battery. This happened again after a new factory reset (new screenshot).

I have no idea of what is happening and not sure how to diagnose it. I'm using the cutting edge firmware and a small list of apps, I also tried the last stable firmware.

How can I start to discern what is happening?

Thanks for reading!

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Attachments:

• Screenshot_2024-09-14-22-57-19-845_com.espruino.gadgetbridge.banglejs.jpg
  
• Screenshot_2024-10-11-20-16-51-406_com.espruino.gadgetbridge.banglejs.jpg

[espruino-discuss2]

Posted at 2024-10-14 by @gfwilliams

Hi - please can you check and make sure the LCD timeout is low, and only Wake on Button is set in the Bangle's settings?

But as you say this could be related to the Bluetooth connection. Someone asked about this recently and there's a bit of background in https://forum.espruino.com/conversations/399937

But basically when Bangle.js has a bluetooth connection, it goes into a low power low speed communications mode after 1 minute of inactivity, but when something is sent to it or it sends something, it enters the high power mode for 1 minute. If you've got something like a notification from the Android phone that keeps coming in every few minutes, that could kick it into the higher power mode?

To track down you could enable write log in Gadgetbridge on your phone, then dump it out, and look to see how often UART TX/UART RX lines occur normally.

Also in Gadgetbridge, make sure allow high MTU is enabled in the device's settings (I think it's the default) - if the Bangle can send/receive just one packet it won't put itself into the high power mode

If this is the issue I guess it's something we could look at as a firmware update - making the Bangle less willing to put itself into the high power radio mode (like requiring more than 2 packets before it does it)

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Posted at 2024-10-14 by Fenixin

Hi - please can you check and make sure the LCD timeout is low, and only Wake on Tap is set in the Bangle's settings?

Just checked: LCD timeout is 10 and only wakes on button is enabled not even wake on tap is on.

I thought wake on tap was more taxing than wake on button. Should I change it to wake on tap?

But basically when Bangle.js has a bluetooth connection, it goes into a low power low speed communications mode after 1 minute of inactivity, but when something is sent to it or it sends something, it enters the high power mode for 1 minute. If you've got something like a notification from the Android phone that keeps coming in every few minutes, that could kick it into the higher power mode?

My phone have a few permanent notifications, one of them is home assistant but it never triggers a visible notification in the bangle. Can a permanent notification triggen the high power mode without seeing the notifacion in the bangle?

I don't think that I recieved more notifications in the last weeks compared to the first week of the screenshots.

To track down you could enable write log in Gadgetbridge on your phone, then dump it out, and look to see how often UART TX/UART RX lines occur normally.

I'll do it for some time and report back. How do I dump the logs? Where to find them?

Also in Gadgetbridge, make sure allow high MTU is enabled in the device's settings (I think it's the default) - if the Bangle can send/receive just one packet it won't put itself into the high power mode

High MTU is enabled.

If this is the issue I guess it's something we could look at as a firmware update - making the Bangle less willing to put itself into the high power radio mode (like requiring more than 2 packets before it does it)

My gut says is the phone but is very strange that after a factory reset I get like a week of low power usage.

I'll check the logs and post them here after a day. And I'll be around, If there is anything ellse I can test just tell me.

Thanks for you answer!

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Posted at 2024-10-15 by @gfwilliams

Sorry - yes, Wake on button is best - I wrote the wrong thing.

Can a permanent notification triggen the high power mode without seeing the notifacion in the bangle?

No - it's just when data is sent to/from the Bangle.

How do I dump the logs? Where to find them?

https://gadgetbridge.org/internals/topics/logs/

but is very strange that after a factory reset I get like a week of low power usage.

What if you just factory reset and leave it not connected to a phone? What's the power usage then?

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Posted at 2024-11-04 by Fenixin

Sorry for the wait. Tough weeks in the job and Factorio Space Age at the same time (the factory must grow).

I have more than a few logs stored but I reaaally have to sanitize them. I had no idea how much personal information there are on those logs. Any advice on how to do this efficiently? Any topics I should just remove from the docs?

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Posted at 2024-11-05 by @gfwilliams

The important stuff we need is the UART RX and TX lines - you can delete all the rest (but it might be handy if you can keep the original file just in case I need to look into something further)

... but obviously you'll want to sanitise the UART TX lines which will include message contents/phone numbers/etc. It's probably enough that I can just see the GB({"t":"messagetype part and the time, and not what's after.

Someone posted up just yesterday that they'd been having poor battery life and they tracked it down to the messages widget (which by default flashes once a second when a message is unread). So you could try uninstalling that (you don't need it) and see if it helps at all?

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Posted at 2024-11-11 by Fenixin

Attached is a log file from today. I'm keeping the original.

I just removed the messages widget. I'll be around!

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Attachments:

• Sanitized banglejs_debug_20241111-212844.log

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Posted at 2024-11-12 by @gfwilliams

Thanks! I could be wrong on this but looking at the log it seems like you receive messages which then may stay showing on your watch with a flashing messages widget for half an hour or more.

There was another thread on this recently where @WizardStan tracked the battery use down to the messages widget: https://forum.espruino.com/conversations/398746/

You could try uninstalling it (or disabling flashing in the messages settings page)? The widget isn't vital, but if it's flashing every second for several hours a day on average, that would definitely hit your battery life.

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Posted at 2024-11-14 by Fenixin

In these three days without the messages app the battery seems to be going down at a slower rate. I'll update in a week or so.

Crazy that it was the flashing of the icons that did that. If after a week or so I the consumption rate seems ok I'll install the widget and disable flashing to see if there is any change.

[Fenixin]

Hello!

This whole time I have been checking different configurations of my Bangle.js and trying to get more battery time.

And after a lot of test I think that the battery (or at least the battery in my smartwatch) has a very strange but specific discharge pattern.

No matter what I try the pattern is always the same:

• 100% - 80% normal dischager, it takes around 1 week to reach 80% this level
• 80% - 20% the battery indicator changes rapidly and drastically and the battery goes down faster than before.

Is this normal?

Some screenshots to show what I mean (wall of images incoming):

Thanks for reading!

[gfwilliams]

Hi! You may find that Settings -> Utils -> Calibrate Battery when the battery is completely charged will help even the curve out a little.

But I think some non-linearity is to be expected. Bangle.js has to work out battery percentage based on the voltage, but the voltage depends on the power drawn and temperature as well as battery level. And the voltage is very non-linear, something like this:

From here, the different C values are different power draws. Bangle.js has a correction it performs where it tries to take that very non-linear curve and turn it into a straight line, but you can imagine if it's even slightly mismatched you're going to end up with some points where the battery level drops faster than others.

[Fenixin]

Thanks for the answer. I don't know If I can mark this as closed or answered. If there is a way just tell me.

On the battery subject, I did some research and I found that there is no builtin way to measure the mah the battery is able to take. Any suggestions on how to measure that?

[gfwilliams]

I'm not quite I quite understand the question?

The Bangle has a 175mAh battery, but it has no way built-in to measure power in/out (although it can estimate with E.getPowerUsage()). If you want to measure how much power goes in you can buy external USB power meters.

Now I think about it, the Bangle battery charges at around 0.1A (until it starts to get full, then it falls off) so I guess in theory you could measure how many hours it takes to charge, multiply that by 100(mA) and then get the capacity in mAh.

The new health app records battery level and charge state every 10 minues so in theory you could even run back over saved data (most likely it'll have only started recording it from 1st April anyway) to get a rough idea as well.

[Fenixin]

This is the first time that I use github discussions. At first I tried to close the issue, then I realized that it was a discussion and there is a "Suggest an answer" thingy but I don'w know how to use it, that is what I was asking. I guess this is just like a forum.

Thanks, I'll look into it

[gfwilliams]

Yes, you just tap "Suggest as Answer" next to a post - but I did that for you when you said.

It was actually:

... measure the mah the battery is able to take. Any suggestions on how to measure that?

that I wasn't sure what you were asking about - but hopefully what I said above mostly answers you

[Fenixin]

Ah, yes, it was the capacity of the battery. And yes, you answered my question