There was something that always bothered me from the Samsung Q1, and it's the fact that the BT chip is always on. It bothered me but I assumed that it should not consuming too much battery so I did not think too much about it.
But recently I have been working with John, user of OrigamiProject forum, trying to find why he is getting less battery life than me. Well, according to John's tests that he asked me to check and that I confirmed with the same numbers, the BT On in our Q1 uses 1 Watt of power. That's 10% of the power used by this UMPC! And basically wasted doing nothing. I checked to see if there is any easy way to turn off the BT but I could find any beside going into the Device Manager and disable it there, and that option does not seem to me something that I would be willing to do all time. There should be a way to turn off the BT from the task trail, or from Desktop. Do you know of any?
I hate it when you're right about stuff like this. I can't find anything to turn it off either. Funny thing, there are lots of utilities like this for a Pocket PC.
ReplyDeleteMark
Exactly Mark. this is just stupid! All PPCs have that!
ReplyDeleteWith the energy-sipping VIA processor in my Samsung Q1b, your suggestion immediately shot up my battery meter by 45 minutes! Very cool! I just installed a copy of Notebook Hardware Control (being absolutely sure it would have a feature to turn Bluetooth on or off), but no luck there. Such an obvious overlooked feature.
ReplyDeleteHi CTitanic,
ReplyDeleteim a Microsoft Student Partner from Italy, my name's Tommaso.
I won a Q1 cause we did some works for Microsoft and as u can imagine, being a hardware and software addicted tricker, i began as soon as to open it, configure it, change it, trying Vista, modifying drivers for GMA915 and trying to run the WDDM from beta 2, also trying to modifying them.
So, i was just knowing the answer to ur questions since a lot before, but as soon as i used my q1 i applied it.
Im using the Widcomm 5.1.X.X drivers on my Vista, cause im feeling a lot better with them than the new 6 edition, and a good thing of those drivers is that there is a key in the registry.
Look the key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Widcomm\BTConfig\General
Search the Value:
DisplayTrayDeviceDisable
Is a DWORD put it at 1 to show the Disable bluetooth voice in the tray icon.
After this it will remain disabled until u will enable it again.
Hope that this helped u, i will be glad to point this out also on the OrigamiProject Forum if u will point me to the right thread. Or do it by urself if u want.
Bye,
Tommaso
MMMMH,
ReplyDeletethe key is
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Widcomm\BTConfig\ General
There is a "General" as last part, but it is not seen in the previous post.
Hope it is seen now,
Bye,
Tommaso
Tommaso, as far as I know that key just hide the icon from the tray but does not turn off the device.
ReplyDeleteAt least for what i know, that key doesn't hide the icon.
ReplyDeleteIt gives u another voice, from where u can "disable the peripherial".
When u disable it, the bluetooth stops to work, cause it is like when it is not detected (Red B inside blue), all the linked peripherials are turned off (Com ports, modems, etc etc).
Inside the device management, u can still see the bluetooth device not disabled, but it is not working and it is not searchable in the bluetooth wireless space.
This is what i know until now, and im often using it in my mobile pcs.
Although, i never did "power tests".
U can try with that user and do the tests, cause u are just doing them.
Maybe it is the right voice u were looking for :P.
Bye,
Tommaso
Tommaso
ReplyDeleteThe main problem is thatI do not have any of the keys you are mentioning.
Starting from:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Widcomm\
This means, u are using the microsoft stack, not the widcomm one.
ReplyDeleteI never liked microsoft stack it is so unuseful.
As u can expect, Widcomm stack is licensed, so u cant use it as u want, without being a bit illegal.
Normal Q1 is just using it.
If u want to give a try, and im not wrong in remembering, u can go http://www-307.ibm.com/pc/support/site.wss/MIGR-61425.html and dowload it.
then after it im usually going http://www.broadcom.com/products/bluetooth_update.php and downloading the updater.
If ur module is produced by Broadcom, usually it is working like a charm.
Hope that u can try it, if u need more information i can write again here or i can give u my mail.
Bye,
tommaso
Your are right, we do not use that.
ReplyDeleteAh perfect Ctitanic,
ReplyDeleteu are using the new version, the 6.
If u want, u can remove it, and try the old version, that in my opinion is a bit less integrated into vista, but is giving u more options (also, the ability to share the connection over bluetooth).
Im just using it inside vista and i preferred it to the new one.
Also ur module is a Broadcom, so u can use it without legal problems, the only problem would be finding it, but i gave it to u in the previous post.
I really dont know if newer version of the 6 will be able to turn off the device, but until now i didnt see any option.
If u want to give a try, let me know... i can help u.
My email is etomm [@] email [.] it.
Bye,
Tommaso
I had problems with older versions and my BT GPS and this version is so far the only one that have been working for me.
ReplyDeleteAh, okey, i couldn't guess a thing like this.
ReplyDeleteThe only thing i can say right now is that the newer version 5 is almost using the same base code of the 6 one, but with the "old XP style".
I never had problems about gps, strange in fact, cause they are usually opening a simple Virtual COM connection.
I'm sad that i couldn't help u, Ctitanic.
The only last advice i can give is that i know there is an example in the Windows SDK that teach how to disable and enable a device. It could be useful to write a little try icon to disable the device.
I saw the SDK and I thought about downloading and at least try to write that little tool but I hate conditional downloads asking me for my email. I'm receiving enough spam already.
ReplyDeleteI'm hating them too :P...
ReplyDeleteI think i can't help u more than that, im sorry.
I don't have the new sdk too... unluckily.
There are some examples outta there about using services (also device services).
http://www.codeproject.com/csharp/svcmgr.asp
http://www.codeguru.com/forum/showthread.php?t=240376
But i didnt try them at all, also under vista can happen that UAC and "the Session 0" will block every try to change the serivces...
Thanks!
ReplyDeleteStopping the service does not help. I tested that. The service is stopped but the circuit but it self still using power.
ReplyDeleteI had the same question and had a similar post on my bog. Someone left a comment sharing that the icon in the system tray is the easiest way to turn the radio on and off. Click and hold on the Blue tooth icon and one of the options is "Stop the Bluetooth Device"... voila!
ReplyDeleteIf you ane using version 5 yes, but if you are using the version 6 you wont have this option anymore and version 6 is the latest version fully Vista compatible that have really worked for me.
ReplyDeleteSorry for my late post Ctitanic.
ReplyDeleteI didnt mean to stop the service of bluetooth, cause that service, in my knowledge, is used just to support HID device, like bluetooth keyboards and mice.
I meant that u must stop the Driver service. In Windows NT, every driver device is also a service.
I think there are two ways to stop them: one is using the services functions, and one is following the device management example of the SDK.
In fact, i really dont know if the services functions can stop a device service too, i dont believe that, but i thought it was worth a try.
Bye for now,
Tommaso
Hello Frank.
ReplyDeleteTry this:
1) download devcon utility from MS here: http://download.microsoft.com/download/1/1/f/11f7dd10-272d-4cd2-896f-9ce67f3e0240/devcon.exe
2) use it like this: devcon disable "@usb\vid_0a5c&pid_200a\2035b0000001" using the instance ID for the device in Q1
It can be enabled again by using: devcon enable "@usb\vid_0a5c&pid_200a\2035b0000001"
Let me know if it works.
Forgot to say that the downloaded file is an archive, the real devcon.exe is inside... Just in case... :-P
ReplyDeleteSorry, above I wrote the example using the instance id., but you should do it better by using the hardware id. like this:
ReplyDeletedevcon disable "usb\vid_0a5c&pid_200a&rev_0001"
As you can see, in this case the @ prefix is not used. That id in the sample is for an USB BT dongle I was using for the test.
I'll test it tonight. Thanks Angel.
ReplyDeletehal9000, that works. I´m preparing a little tool launching the devcon to have it in my desktop.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
You are welcome. I'm glad to help.
ReplyDelete