Is my Sony Xperia Acro smartphone a dud?

**Gremlin** · 20th February 2014, 23:19

Originally Posted by nerrrd

If by pushing the boundaries you mean use GPS navigation for more than an hour or so at a time, anyone got any idea how long a cheap dedicated in-car GPS would be able to run off a USB accessory socket with the screen bright enough to see?

GPS will run continuously when fed power, that's what it's meant to do. Generally, the car type GPS have very short battery life as they aren't meant to be used on battery. Hiking/Tramping type GPS will have longer battery life, or use AA type batteries so you can swap them out. Most GPS also don't use LCD screens, whole different technology I forget the name of...

Most car GPS are not waterproof either, or rugged for bouncing around on a motorbike.

**benhall** · 21st February 2014, 05:48

ive got an acro S with latest firmware on it and it works fine navigating even off charge. i did initially have an issue with it going flat really quick but this was solved with updating it.

The issue your seeing here is car chargers are 500mA where as the Sony charger is 1000mA nothing you can really do here aftermarket use "usb mode" charging because it doesnt know how good the charger is.

Still shouldnt run the phone flat tho

**nerrrd** · 21st February 2014, 06:48

Originally Posted by benhall

ive got an acro S with latest firmware on it and it works fine navigating even off charge. i did initially have an issue with it going flat really quick but this was solved with updating it.

The issue your seeing here is car chargers are 500mA where as the Sony charger is 1000mA nothing you can really do here aftermarket use "usb mode" charging because it doesnt know how good the charger is.

Still shouldnt run the phone flat tho

Thanks for the suggestion, haven't checked that for a while. Tells me everything is up to date (although the syncing program on my Mac is behaving a little strangely).

**BoristheBiter** · 21st February 2014, 07:49

Originally Posted by nerrrd

If by pushing the boundaries you mean use GPS navigation for more than an hour or so at a time, anyone got any idea how long a cheap dedicated in-car GPS would be able to run off a USB accessory socket with the screen bright enough to see?

I have the Garmin waterproof nuvi 550 for both car and bike.

when it was new it would last about 8 hrs on battery, now after 4 years it lasts about 3 hrs.

If i was doing it again I would get something like the Magellan.
http://www.magellangps.co.nz/

**Akzle** · 21st February 2014, 08:32

use something that isnt jewgle. That shits a data whore.
I assume it doesnt have a proper integrated gps? That should be all you need to get a +/- <10m fix.
If its relying on data, (Asisted-gps) then yes will suck the milliamperes.
If no real gps youre probably pushing shit up hill.

Turning off 3g will only present savings outside 3g coverage and while youre in zone 3g will use less power than 2g.

If you have full current mini usb you have 5v at ~2.3A.
Id expect your gayphone can handle 12v usb, check what your wall charger is rated at.

**nerrrd** · 21st February 2014, 10:51

Found something called 'navfree', gonna try that.

**SMOKEU** · 21st February 2014, 17:35

Originally Posted by Akzle

use something that isnt jewgle. That shits a data whore.
I assume it doesnt have a proper integrated gps? That should be all you need to get a +/- <10m fix.
If its relying on data, (Asisted-gps) then yes will suck the milliamperes.
If no real gps youre probably pushing shit up hill.

Turning off 3g will only present savings outside 3g coverage and while youre in zone 3g will use less power than 2g.

If you have full current mini usb you have 5v at ~2.3A.
Id expect your gayphone can handle 12v usb, check what your wall charger is rated at.

I've found that switching to 2G gives significant reduction in power consumption compared to leaving it in 3G, no matter where I am or how good the 3G coverage is, if it's even available.

Originally Posted by nerrrd

Found something called 'navfree', gonna try that.

Navfree is good.

**nerrrd** · 26th February 2014, 18:20

So I've:

Done a complete 'repair' on the phone, which involved downloading / reinstalling / resetting lots of stuff.
Rejigged my Aquabox, replacing the non-reflective touch screen cover with a clearer but much more reflective one, and made an even bigger sunshade for it.
Been running the phone at 50% brightness which is only just visible - although, after experimenting on the way home today realised that if I had a helmet with a sunshade that would actually help quite a bit.
Finagled a button which works through the case so I can turn the screen off and on while inside.
Been using Navfree. I would say it's OK - seems to involve less stuff going on in the background, but nowhere near as readable as Google Maps (to my eyes anyway) and can't always find street numbers.
Installed something called 'super task killer' for an easier way of turning off all the programs running in the background.

Level of improvement so far: instead of the phone running itself down about 4% using GPS on my commute in to work, today it only ran down 1%. I guess that's a 75% improvement (and I'm really guessing because my maths is shite) but somehow still disappointing.

**oneblackflag** · 26th February 2014, 19:13

Had similar issues when I installed a tablet in my car (replacing crappy Jap only GPS). Check your USB cable is good quality, cheaper ones use thiner gauge wire which lowers amps. In this situation even if the charging port is rated at 1 amp or whatever the phone can't recive at that rate because of the cable. Also make sure the cable is as short as possible to prevent losses over distance (OMS law I think?).

**Akzle** · 26th February 2014, 19:21

Originally Posted by SMOKEU

I've found that switching to 2G gives significant reduction in power consumption compared to leaving it in 3G, no matter where I am or how good the 3G coverage is, if it's even available.

Navfree is good.

jewgle. Youll get kicked off the 3g every now and then. And phone will keep searching for better signal. Searching eats battery.

**Akzle** · 26th February 2014, 19:25

Originally Posted by oneblackflag

Had similar issues when I installed a tablet in my car (replacing crappy Jap only GPS). Check your USB cable is good quality, cheaper ones use thiner gauge wire which lowers amps. In this situation even if the charging port is rated at 1 amp or whatever the phone can't recive at that rate because of the cable. Also make sure the cable is as short as possible to prevent losses over distance (OMS law I think?).

yes and no. If the cable is hot after use, this could be issue. Unlikely.
Cable will be fuckall OHMS, the connectors will be the worst in this scenario. But irrelevant. its 5/8ths of fuckall watts.
An' watts is what ya need.

**nerrrd** · 27th February 2014, 06:51

Originally Posted by oneblackflag

Had similar issues when I installed a tablet in my car (replacing crappy Jap only GPS). Check your USB cable is good quality, cheaper ones use thiner gauge wire which lowers amps. In this situation even if the charging port is rated at 1 amp or whatever the phone can't recive at that rate because of the cable. Also make sure the cable is as short as possible to prevent losses over distance (OMS law I think?).

It's the cable that came with the phone, I'm using that mainly because it's got a right-angle end on it so it's the only one that fits. It's something like 60cm long. One thing it does have which others I've used don't is a 2cm long / 1 cm diameter plastic cylinder thing which the cable goes through around 5cm down from the micro USB plug, not sure what that's for.

Originally Posted by Akzle

yes and no. If the cable is hot after use, this could be issue. Unlikely.
Cable will be fuckall OHMS, the connectors will be the worst in this scenario. But irrelevant. its 5/8ths of fuckall watts.
An' watts is what ya need.

Haven't noticed the cable getting particularly hot - at least it hasn't been when I've touched it.

**Akzle** · 27th February 2014, 07:47

Originally Posted by nerrrd

plastic cylinder thing which the cable goes through around 5cm down from the micro USB plug, not sure what that's for.

thats called a ferrite supression core.
It smooths the electron flow. More useful for stable data streams than dc power. Will, however provide some clipping which is fucking irrelevant on a mosfet charging circuit.

Srsly. Find out what your wall charger cranks out, hope its 12v, then get an apropriate for teh bike.

**Scouse** · 27th February 2014, 07:53

Originally Posted by nerrrd

Hey all you sophisticated techy-types, hope you can help with an explanation for what's happening with my phone. It's a Sony Xperia Acro, I've had it for about six months and have been trying to use it as a GPS on my bike.

AFAIK for it to work I have to have GPS, WiFi, Mobile data all turned on and the brightness turned all the way up (for visibility). When I do this, the phone loses charge even though it's plugged in to a USB accesory socket connected to the battery (charging icon is visible), to the point where if you leave it on for long enough it will run the phone battery down altogether.

As an experiment today I plugged it into the sony charger which came with it at my desk, switched everything on, started a google maps navigation (although I wasn't going anywhere) and left it going to see if the phone would charge normally. Turns out it got just as hot as it does on the bike, and although it didn't lose any charge, it only managed to gain about 4% in a couple of hours.

So overall it seems my phone is only barely able to power itself while running all this stuff. Is my phone a dud, or would the same thing happen with any other smart phone?

Luddite much