Statement regarding battery usage

Corjan Meijerink · 9 Jun 2024, 13:27

Hi all!

As some noticed, the battery usage of the app is quite high.
This is a known issue since spring and as you might know, the issue is caused by the HERE engine that renders the map.

I've been on the phone with my local contact @ HERE and they've confirmed the issue and expect an improvement in Q3 2023 (meaning in the next 2 months)

We are totally dependent on HERE regarding this issue and hope their planned improvements to resolve the issues you experience.

Cheers,
Corjan

Hubert Thoring · 27 Jul 2023, 06:59

@Corjan-Meijerink: Danke für die Info

Rob Verhoeff · 27 Jul 2023, 07:05

@Corjan-Meijerink Great! Thnx for the info.

Bart De Medts · 27 Jul 2023, 07:51

@Corjan-Meijerink thx for the info and welcome back

richtea999 · 27 Jul 2023, 15:09

Ah, that's vital! Good. Was there any indication of the level of improvement we can expect, say compared to Google Maps, or is it just 'We'll improve it'?

And if their API is Flutter-based, tell them to stop calling setState() all the time!

Corjan Meijerink · 27 Jul 2023, 16:00

@richtea999 Just improving Very curious about what they come up with.

Hahaha, and why that?

richtea999 · 27 Jul 2023, 16:46

@Corjan-Meijerink said in Statement regarding battery usage:

@richtea999 Just improving Very curious about what they come up with.

Hahaha, and why that?

setState() forces a stateful widget to redraw, and if HERE have them all over their code, it may cause many unneeded redraws of the screen. It's quite hard work to keep those calls to the absolute minimum.

You may request or define a 40 frames/second, but if they're calling setState() 100/second, it's going to be doing the 100 regardless of your requested setting.

But I'm teaching Grandma to suck eggs, as they say!

Well done for twisting their arm. Fingers crossed it gets properly fixed.

Corjan Meijerink · 27 Jul 2023, 17:42

@richtea999 ah like that

Flat Twin Therapy · 7 Aug 2023, 19:43

Thanks Corjan!! Really looking forward to that fix!! It really prevents me from using MRA for navigation. Tracking is fine. Navigating drains my Android phone.

paul69 · 27 Jul 2023, 19:27

excellent news thanks

Lynchy67 · 8 Aug 2023, 02:57

@Corjan-Meijerink

Personally, I have no battery issues!

I set the display Brightness to 50% in Android.
Using a 2.1 Amp Din Plug the Battery is always showing an increasing percentage.
I never use any Voice commands in the app.
And only use the following settings in the app.

Phone is Samsung S21+

Rob Verhoeff · 29 Jul 2023, 17:23

Today, during a ride of over 2 hours, I didn't experience any battery issues. I started with a capacity of only 25%. By the end of the ride, it charged up to over 80%. I didn't have any other apps running in the background, only the Bluetooth connection with the Sena was active.

Herman 1b · 7 Aug 2023, 19:43

@Rolf-Aalders said in Statement regarding battery usage:

Thanks Corjan!! Really looking forward to that fix!! It really prevents me from using MRA for navigation. Tracking is fine. Navigating drains my Android phone.

Likewise. On a recent trip I was forced to switch back to the old Navigation app as my battery was going down too fast (despite charging).

I thought the old Navigation app also used HERE. Is that not the case?

Corjan Meijerink · 7 Aug 2023, 19:49

@Herman-1b yes, correct. But a very different version / platform than it is now so they cannot be compared.

Fred Gilbert · 8 Aug 2023, 02:57

@Lynchy67

I used your settings and it seemed to work. The charge state held more or less steady.

Drabslab · 16 Aug 2023, 10:00

Yesterday, on samsung A32, and with phone on the charger all the time, the battery went empty in 2 hours with only navigation running.

OK, it was only 50% charged to start with but nevertheless...

Travelling to Austria on thursday will be with TomTom, I am affraid.

I hope HERE comes with a good solution soon.

Marinus van Deudekom · 16 Aug 2023, 11:26

@Corjan-Meijerink today Another test. This time with my Samsung S20FE in the car with Android radio. I started the trip with 90% Battery and after a 2 hours drive it ended with 73% battery. All the time the phone was hooked up with a usb cable to a 2 amp socket. The phone was quite warm but not steamy hot.
So its better than it was before the update but still the battery gets drained
Hopefully it will be better in the near future

richtea999 · 16 Aug 2023, 18:30

@Drabslab said in Statement regarding battery usage:

OK, it was only 50% charged to start with but nevertheless...

Not a solution, but a work-around might be to investigate your charger current output, and consider a more powerful one if it's less than say 2A.

The A32 can manage a max input wattage of 15W, so that's a current of around 3A max.

Con Hennekens · 17 Aug 2023, 07:07

@richtea999, good suggestion!

Martin Wilcke · 19 Aug 2023, 15:57

I did my first lap with the app today. I use a Samsung S8+, the power comes from a BAAS mini-USB, which only supplies 1A.
The brightness was permanently set to max, besides MRA I was running the Garmin Drive app (with Bluetooth connection to my Zumo XT) and an app to monitor the battery charge.

On the MRA app, route navigation and tracking were on all the time. The map settings were Theme=Light, Type=Normal, Building=Off.

I started with a battery charge of 80%, after two hours the battery was fully charged. So no problems with battery capacity at all.

Maybe the power consumption depends a lot on the smartphone model?