Pinephone power consumption figures?

[girl]

Hey all, I'm going to setup a file server and seed box running on a 4G modem for use in a campervan I'm buildling. I just wondering if anyone has any idea of how much power the pinephone consumes when plugged in 24/7? I'm considering using the pinephone instaed of an SBC and WWAN module, because it may be cheaper and/or simpler, but given I'll be running everything off of solar, I want to optimise the power consumption.

[biketool]

Hey all, I'm going to setup a file server and seed box running on a 4G modem for use in a campervan I'm buildling. I just wondering if anyone has any idea of how much power the pinephone consumes when plugged in 24/7? I'm considering using the pinephone instaed of an SBC and WWAN module, because it may be cheaper and/or simpler, but given I'll be running everything off of solar, I want to optimise the power consumption.

Great question, and to answer all I can say is oof!
Currently the PP is pretty hungry especially if you are seeding which will keep the modem running, you could try turning off some of the CPU cores, I have been experimenting with this and it really doesnt slow me down except when web browsing or running heavy apps.  I cant find the thread I lifted this script from right now but this is what I am running as scripts, dont forget to chmod +x them

cpucold.sh shuts down all but thei first(cpu0) CPU core

Code:

#!/bin/bash
echo 0 | sudo tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu1/online
echo 0 | sudo tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu2/online
echo 0 | sudo tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu3/online

and cpuhot.sh which returns cores 2-4(1-3 with 0 as the first core)

Code:

#!/bin/bash
echo 1 | sudo tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu1/online
echo 1 | sudo tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu2/online
echo 1 | sudo tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu3/online

Ideally we will eventually have a CPU tuning app as well as better use fo the hardware video and audio acceleration to get better general battery life.

[Zebulon Walton]

Interesting idea turning off 3 of the CPU cores to save power. I really only use the phone for making and receiving calls, not videos, internet, etc. I'm going to set cpucold.sh to run at boot and see how it works out.

Addendum: I tried it and boot time increased noticeably. Takes over 2 minutes on single CPU, about 1 minute 40 seconds with all cores firing. (This is on Mobian using full disk encryption.) Might be better to run the script at login instead of at boot time.

[Zebulon Walton]

I set up a task to shut down CPU cores at login by putting an appropriate .desktop file in ~/.config/autostart. This allows the phone to initially boot up with all cores firing. With only one CPU core active though the phone lagged quite a bit with 100% CPU usage and a climbing load average - especially for a few minutes after booting up while tasks are still starting in the background.

So now I'm turning off two cores instead of three, works much better, can hardly tell the difference. Not sure how much power it will save. (I also installed a desktop icon that can quickly go to one core for maximum energy savings if desired. Wrote a quick-and-dirty C program that accepts how many cores to turn off as a parameter.)

[girl]

Found this more noob friendly, and convenient, alternative to using cli: https://github.com/vagnum08/cpupower-gui

[tunnelstrong]

Hey all, I'm going to setup a file server and seed box running on a 4G modem for use in a campervan I'm buildling. I just wondering if anyone has any idea of how much power the pinephone consumes when plugged in 24/7? I'm considering using the pinephone instaed of an SBC and WWAN module, because it may be cheaper and/or simpler, but given I'll be running everything off of solar, I want to optimise the power consumption.

Great question, and to answer all I can say is oof!
Currently the PP is pretty hungry especially if you are seeding which will keep the modem running, you could try turning off some of the CPU cores, I have been experimenting with this and it really doesnt slow me down except when web browsing or running heavy apps.  I cant find the thread I lifted this script from right now but this is what I am running as scripts, dont forget to chmod +x them

cpucold.sh shuts down all but thei first(cpu0) CPU core     happy wheels

Code:

#!/bin/bash
echo 0 | sudo tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu1/online
echo 0 | sudo tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu2/online
echo 0 | sudo tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu3/online

and cpuhot.sh which returns cores 2-4(1-3 with 0 as the first core)

Code:

#!/bin/bash
echo 1 | sudo tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu1/online
echo 1 | sudo tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu2/online
echo 1 | sudo tee /sys/devices/system/cpu/cpu3/online

Ideally we will eventually have a CPU tuning app as well as better use fo the hardware video and audio acceleration to get better general battery life.

It's very helpful. Thank you.