[BRAINSTORM] Increasing battery life by deactivating APN when low signal

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Apologies if this belongs in Themes & Apps, but I thought it seems more like programming at the OS level than a new app.

I had an idea while driving home after a long day in a location that had low 3G signal, and my phone was dead:

Latedroid's Juicedefender helps save battery by turning off the APN every x minutes, and we know that using 3G/EDGE data eats up a lot of battery, especially when in a low signal area (takes more power to transmit).

How feasible would it be to create an app/build in code in Android for the functionality to turn off/disable the APN when the signal level is below a certain threshold?

Of course, you would need to build in some sort of manual override for times you really want to use data even if you are in low signal area. Perhaps if the device is NOT in sleep, do not disable the APN regardless of signal strength. But if the device is sleeping, disable APN if signal is lower than x dB.

What do you all think? Problems I already foresee is that switching APN on and off would have a delay upon first wakeup, or possibly interrupt data transfers in progress when device goes to sleep.

Thanks,

--Hans

Very interesting

Actually, this sounds like a very good idea. Now, just need to find a dev capable of producing such results. Maybe contact the developer of Juice Defender/Plotter and see if it is feasible. I like where this could go though. Battery is the ONE complaint I have about my otherwise sexy and powerful device!

Great idea.
I have thought about this as well.

this would be too difficult to implement i would think. even in strong signal areas, the reception bounces all over the place sometimes. the phone would constantly be bugging itself out i would think as the signal dips below, then goes right above, the threshold level.

Originally Posted by RogerPodacter

this would be too difficult to implement i would think. even in strong signal areas, the reception bounces all over the place sometimes. the phone would constantly be bugging itself out i would think as the signal dips below, then goes right above, the threshold level.

Nah, I don't think so. With some clever programming and it watching maybe an average signal level over some period of time, I think it could do pretty well. The idea is to avoid HUGE battery drains over a moderate amount of time.

For example, if i'm at work in my office building, i get 0-1 bars of signal strength for 8 hours. It would be great if it detected after, say...10 minutes that my signal strength was in the crapper, and turned off the APN (or at least, account syncing) so I won't leave work 8 hours later with 5% battery life. But, if I wake my phone up, it will automatically turn the APN on so I can use data as I see fit.

But let's say I go out for lunch. The phone would either detect that I'm changing position/location via cell towers, or it would just regularly poll signal level and when it found that my signal level had increased by some delta amount over say...5 minutes, it would turn the APN back on.

I find that most of my frustration with this phone is with battery drain, and most of the drain comes from sitting in low signal areas for extended periods of time. If this could be accomplished (with configurable thresholds and stuff about time to average the signal over, etc) I think it would be an excellent addition to the customization-ability of android!

Good thoughts.

Originally Posted by THATTON

Actually, this sounds like a very good idea. Now, just need to find a dev capable of producing such results. Maybe contact the developer of Juice Defender/Plotter and see if it is feasible. I like where this could go though. Battery is the ONE complaint I have about my otherwise sexy and powerful device!

But yeah, this may requires a good dev.

Thanks for launching the discussion!

Originally Posted by dyndragon

Nah, I don't think so. With some clever programming and it watching maybe an average signal level over some period of time, I think it could do pretty well. The idea is to avoid HUGE battery drains over a moderate amount of time.

For example, if i'm at work in my office building, i get 0-1 bars of signal strength for 8 hours. It would be great if it detected after, say...10 minutes that my signal strength was in the crapper, and turned off the APN (or at least, account syncing) so I won't leave work 8 hours later with 5% battery life. But, if I wake my phone up, it will automatically turn the APN on so I can use data as I see fit.

But let's say I go out for lunch. The phone would either detect that I'm changing position/location via cell towers, or it would just regularly poll signal level and when it found that my signal level had increased by some delta amount over say...5 minutes, it would turn the APN back on.

I find that most of my frustration with this phone is with battery drain, and most of the drain comes from sitting in low signal areas for extended periods of time. If this could be accomplished (with configurable thresholds and stuff about time to average the signal over, etc) I think it would be an excellent addition to the customization-ability of android!

good points. you're probably right. i also sit at work all day at my desk, and i only get 1 bar of 3g signal. stupid building blocks reception.

Posted this in the Google Dev Group from Latedroid... Dont think he will work on it in the near future though, as a new JD version will come to the market very soon

Very nice idea actually. After some beta versions, could be really really useful.