[HowTo] Alternate way of saving battery when using 4G/LTE

arubislander

@keneda Lots of things could be useful, and indeed, no one would be forcing anyone to use it if they didn't want to.

But: implementing the feature would take time and effort from some developer. The feature would have to be implemented, tests would have to be written to check that the implementation is correct, and more importantly, remains correct when changes are made to the feature. And from there on out both the feature and the tests would have to be maintained in perpetuity (not having a feature encourages workarounds, removing a feature incurs rage).

So yes, from the user's perspective, more features are better, since everyone need only use what they find useful. But the developers must maintain all the features equally, irrespective of their frequency of usage. So you can understand why "I think it would be useful" is not a sufficiently compelling argument to take on the burden of maintenance of a new feature.

domubpkm

One way to save battery power, as seen with my Volla, is to turn off cellular data when not needed and turn it back on when needed. This does not prevent the use of phone and SMS functions.
It is the fact of being connected to a 4G, 3G or even 2G network that really drains the battery and even more so when the sky is not clear (inappropriate atmospheric conditions): there the overconsumption can get out of hand.

Keneda

@domubpkm Problem is that prevents from receiving MMS.

domubpkm

@keneda Yes, nothing is perfect! For mails, they arrive well once the cellular data has been reactivated. For MMS, when cellular data OFF, a SMS informs the recipient that the MMS could not be recovered.

jezek

@domubpkm There is a pull request waiting for approval, which handles all the trouble when receiving MMS while cellular data is off. Feel free to test and report.

Mario.CH

Hello c4pp4,
thanks for your work on the topic of battery saving.
I did the test on my Sony Xperia X (F5121). The device switches to G2 as promised. However, when the device wakes up, it does not switch back to LTE.
Unfortunately for me, my network provider no longer supports G2, so I have no connection to the antenna, i.e. "The subscriber is currently unavailable".
Now I want to remove the script or the changes I made.
Is that possible?
And how do I do that?
Could you support me.
Greetings Mario

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domubpkm

To do that, i deleted the script (lte-battery-saver) and the upstart session job (lte-battery-saver.conf) and rebooted the smartphone.

c4pp4

@mario-ch Hello,
what kind of connections are available in your case? I can help you to tweak the script for your needs.

Anyway to take back the changes, remove both files:

rm /home/phablet/lte-battery-saver
rm /home/phablet/.config/upstart/lte-battery-saver.conf

Mario.CH

@c4pp4 As it seems, or rather I think 3G would work.

c4pp4

@mario-ch You mean switch to 3G when display is off and switch back to 4G when on?

Mario.CH

@c4pp4 yep, that's exactly what i mean.

c4pp4

@mario-ch Ok give me some time, I will test it on my xperia x and let you know.

BTW you can try it on your own when you replace "gsm" with "umts".

c4pp4

@mario-ch In case of Xperia X (maybe it's related to Halium 7.1) we have to set it to "lte" option instead of "any", so the script for your needs (3G<->4G) is here:

#!/bin/bash

interface=org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties
member=PropertiesChanged

dbus-monitor --session "type=signal,interface='${interface}',member='${member}'" |
while read -r line; do
        if [[ ${line} == *"com.canonical.UnityGreeter"* ]]; then
                read && read && read -r line
                if [[ ${line} == *"IsActive"* ]]; then
                        read -r line
                        [[ ${line} == *"true"* ]] && /usr/share/ofono/scripts/set-tech-preference /ril_0 umts 1>/dev/null
                        [[ ${line} == *"false"* ]] && /usr/share/ofono/scripts/set-tech-preference /ril_0 lte 1>/dev/null
                fi
        fi
done

domubpkm

@jezek said in [HowTo] Alternate way of saving battery when using 4G/LTE:

which handles all the trouble when receiving MMS while cellular data is off

Hello. You done a huge work..! congratulations.

Does it mean that the main purpose of the work is that MMS could be received normally with cellular data OFF ?

Keneda

@domubpkm said in [HowTo] Alternate way of saving battery when using 4G/LTE:

Does it mean that the main purpose of the work is that MMS could be received normally with cellular data OFF ?

No the purpose is to not loose MMS in any cases and being able to download them when data is back on.
You can't receive MMS without data on, no software tweak can change this.
See there if not already done for full story : https://forums.ubports.com/topic/5100/the-mms-lost-story

domubpkm

It's not a story, it's a ''bible'' (which I hadn't read) like the amount of work (and surely headaches) put in by @jezek .. Yes, the aim is, rather, to have a delayed download (or to be able to delay downloading the MMS) when the cellular data is reactivated which is great. In short, the idea is to ensure that the MMS is not lost. I think it's more exact.

....and this would be good as it would allow the cellular data to be turned off to save battery power and turned back on when needed to download the MMS.

Mario.CH

@c4pp4
Hello c4pp4,
so, my device has been running with this customization for almost a week now.
Still, I can't say yet if it causes any improvement in battery life.
But for sure I can confirm that it does not contribute to any degradation.
Thank you again.

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c4pp4

@mario-ch Maybe there is no such difference between G3 and G4 consumption.

Keneda

@c4pp4
I don't use the script but i can tell you that there is a big difference on my phone in battery consumption between 3G and 4G.

TotalRando

@c4pp4 Ok, so just to confirm (because I have already messed up Anbox and will probably have to reinstall anyway just for that), this script defaults to 3G/4G? So it won't go back to 2G? Because that's what I want. It annoys me to have to switch back to 3G/4G every time I turn my phone back on (2G is virtually unusable where I live but if the phone sleeps too long, it's back on 2G.) I only need the last script from before the "note for the further investigation" part? Just copy into a Seabass, save script and run in terminal?

NOTE: I don't care about battery consumption-- my phone is plugged in a lot-- but I do like my calls crystal clear when I dial without having to be like "ugh, it's on 2G again". Also, I can't get MMS on 2G but on 3G/4G, works fine.