decrease battery life - 600D, Nightly Build 2015-04-19

Started by raba, May 25, 2015, 02:34:10 PM

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raba

Hi.

Wasn't able to find an existing post that fits for my question.

I'm using now the latest Nightly Build (2015-04-19) of ML and I'm mostly happy with it. Especially with the audio settings (I've used the v2.3 on my 600d before). The only negative thing i recognized is that my batteries don't work as long as with the old v2.3 version.

Is this a common problem? I've been wondering because i wasen't able to find any information or questions from other people for this topic.

thanks, raba

Walter Schulz

Significantly reduced battery life (aka: Much higher power consumption) compared to "native" Canon firmware is one of those things frequently posted. But not a single poster was able and/or willing to deliver anything substantial (reproducable for others) if asked to deliver hard data.
If you come up with more details it may be worth a second look.

One thing is for sure (and may be found in FAQ): If you remove card too fast after shutdown (or without shutdown at all) ML's tasks will not be able to be terminated correctly causing battery drain. Give cam some time (5 seconds and you are on the safe side) before opening card compartment lid.

LU72

I too noticed the battery draining quicker on my 600D.

(
Quote from: Walter Schulz on May 25, 2015, 03:16:08 PM
Significantly reduced battery life (aka: Much higher power consumption) compared to "native" Canon firmware is one of those things frequently posted. But not a single poster was able and/or willing to deliver anything substantial (reproducable for others) if asked to deliver hard data.
If you come up with more details it may be worth a second look.

How would one be able to provide "hard data" on this? Is there a utility I can run on the camera?

I just figured it's because ML is running a lot of processes that the original camera's firmware wasn't, and compensated by pulling out my wallet and ordering a Vivitar camera grip with 2x batteries.
600D (T3i), Vivitar Battery Grip, Sigma 17-70C, Canon 10-18 EF-S, Canon 1.8 50mm STM II, Sigma 70-300 APO, Speedlite 430 exII

dmilligan

Like a scientist doing an experiment:

Fully charge a battery and perform some repeatable tasks on the camera until the battery is dead. Record how long it took for the battery to drain. You should do this again several times and take the average.

Now for your "control group" uninstall ML and perform the same tasks and measure the time for the battery to drain. Again it would be a good idea to do this several times and take the average.

You can go further and perform different types of tasks both with and without ML to see if it's perhaps one particular type of task that may have a difference.


Some examples of types of tasks you might try:

- Disable auto power off and simply leave the camera on until it dies.

- Put the camera in LV and just leave it in until it dies (you will have to press some button every 30 mins to keep it from stopping LV)

- Record a time lapse with an intervalometer (you will need a real physical intervalometer, or use EOS Utility, as ML's intervalometer is not available without ML)

- Record movies until the camera dies (you might have to stop and clear the card, if your battery lasts longer than you have space on your card)

- Take one long bulb exposure until the camera dies

Also if you have different batteries, try this on each one.

It's also worth trying different lenses.

Tabulate your results and post them here.

raba

My problem isn't the reduced battery life in comparison to the canon firmware. I was using the ML v2.3 for a long time and it worked just fine. I'm using the Nightly Build for about a month now and recognized the difference in battery life between the v2.3 and the Nightly Build.

Is there any new feature which needs more energy? Like the audio settings for the 600D?

I just want to know if there could be a common reason before i do the tests with my camera.

Walter Schulz

Is it reproduceable? When switching back to "stable" (which is pretty easy by just wiping ML dir and autoexec.bin and replacing them with "stable" build contents) do you have longer battery life?