Hacking CycloDS Battery Saver Mode?

[sean0007]

Just wondering what the battery saver mode does as there are no notes about it in the release log for firmware 1.5 final.

Does it automatically reduce the brightness when the battery indicator turns red?

 

[Ferrariman]

It Saves Battery.

 

[sean0007]

It Saves Battery.

By doing what? Disabling features? You have to enable it in the system settings so it must have some cost associated with it.

 

[DeMoN]

No one knows for sure how it works (obviously it's kept secret so other flash card teams can't copy it). However, we know that it works, very well in fact.

 

[Toni Plutonij]

We don't actually know (or at least I don't know) in which way it works..But so far, everything works exactly the same, with function enabled or disabled!

They said it's something about the way that CycloDS reads microSD, and some other aspects of it..

 

[apb407]

has anybody tested what the difference is between battery life on saver mode and regular?

 

[Toni Plutonij]

I have, and it saves battery some time..I'm not sure, because I haven't timed it....but people report 1-3 hours of longer battery life..

 

[Salamantis]

I had the experimental version on before, and it did save some battery life. I didn't time it, but I played for longer than I ever had played without charging my battery.

EDIT: I don't know what it does because honestly I forgot I even had it on until I read the changelog.

 

[DarkLG]

I want a cyclo Ds now so badly .Yay my 500th post.

 

[Swip]

This is just a wild guess, I have no knowledge on this stuff.

But maybe... The Cyclo creates a savestate upon closing the ds, shuts down some bits, then loads it back up when you open it again.

 

[irulethegalaxy]

Niiiiiiice. I'd love to see some more feedback on how good/effective the battery saver is. In the battery department, the Cyclo is such a huge step up from my R4 it's unbelievable. I thought the battery in my DS was dying, but it was really the R4 sucking away its life like some sort of unholy electronic vampire.

 

[pEpz]

This is just a wild guess, I have no knowledge on this stuff.

But maybe... The Cyclo creates a savestate upon closing the ds, shuts down some bits, then loads it back up when you open it again.

that would be pretty smart.

 

[foob]

In the battery department, the Cyclo is such a huge step up from my R4 it's unbelievable.

Never tried the R4 but I have always found my CycloDS Evolution to be a battery hog when 'sleeping' with lid shut (Toshiba 2GB card, Sandisk 2GB card; doesn't seem to matter). I was pleasantly surprised when recently acquiring a cart from another manufacturer (can't remember whether I tried the AceKard or the TTDS; I have both now). Anyway, I left it in 'sleep'... several hours later, no red indicator. It seemed it was actually drawing far less power, because the battery powered on for hours after those several hours in sleep.

CycloDS would chew it up in no time under the same circumstances. Would be great to get more info on how this works and/or how much less power draw there is. I'm not expecting miracles, just curious as to what it's doing, too.

 

[Kyrue]

From what I've gathered on the Cyclo forums is that it only saves battery power during certain situations, and isn't guaranteed to save everyone battery life.

I have experienced improved sleep life, but that's it. Other than that, I'm sure it's something subtle that can't be pointed out so generally.

 

[irulethegalaxy]

In the battery department, the Cyclo is such a huge step up from my R4 it's unbelievable.

Never tried the R4 but I have always found my CycloDS Evolution to be a battery hog when 'sleeping' with lid shut (Toshiba 2GB card, Sandisk 2GB card; doesn't seem to matter). I was pleasantly surprised when recently acquiring a cart from another manufacturer (can't remember whether I tried the AceKard or the TTDS; I have both now). Anyway, I left it in 'sleep'... several hours later, no red indicator. It seemed it was actually drawing far less power, because the battery powered on for hours after those several hours in sleep.

CycloDS would chew it up in no time under the same circumstances. Would be great to get more info on how this works and/or how much less power draw there is. I'm not expecting miracles, just curious as to what it's doing, too.

I don't use sleep much, so I can't comment on that. But my R4 was getting about 4-5 hours of play per full charge

. I haven't done real timing of the life with the Cyclo. . . but my guess is I played about 2.5 times that since my last charge and the red light just lit up for the first time!

 

[decayed.cell]

This is just a wild guess, I have no knowledge on this stuff.

But maybe... The Cyclo creates a savestate upon closing the ds, shuts down some bits, then loads it back up when you open it again.

that would be pretty smart.

Sounds like what iPods and Zunes (possibly other media players) do, after sleeping for a certain amount of time they'll dump the contents of RAM to disk and when starting up again it'll read, a bit like hibernating a PC

 

[berkley]

If you want to know how much battery saver saves you should check out the TC forum, I think it can save upto like an hour it's pretty good.

 

[Vincent T]

Yea, it helps.

 

[foob]

I don't use sleep much, so I can't comment on that. But my R4 was getting about 4-5 hours of play per full charge

. I haven't done real timing of the life with the Cyclo. . . but my guess is I played about 2.5 times that since my last charge and the red light just lit up for the first time!

Sleep on the CycloDS always disappointed me. Recently confirmed my TTDS was saving power in sleep, as it should (probably similar performance with AceKard, too, but so far haven't done the sleep tests). Anyway, I put the TTDS in sleep overnight for a total of about 15 hours and it was still sleeping next day, no red light. Cyclo could never manage that.

I have a white cyclo (older model). Dunno if the black cased ones have improved, but I've always been disappointed with Cyclo's sleep battery performance while sleeping to the point of having to power off rather than use sleep. Lots of room for improvement here, I feel.

 

[Pedobear]

it probably runs on less energy