Battery impact of "Phone Cell GSM" when used in many flows

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cadudesun
Posts: 9
Joined: 13 Feb 2014 14:16

Battery impact of "Phone Cell GSM" when used in many flows

Post by cadudesun » 28 Apr 2015 13:31

Hi,

My Wifi and mobile data are always off.
Many of my flows use the condition "Phone Cell GSM" to check:
If cell ids recognized, then turn on Wifi + Autosync on
If no recognized, then turn on mobile data + Autosync off

For instance, "Phone Cell GSM" is used in different flows which triggers are:
- Screen on
- Power source connected
- Periodic time (each 45m)

I am wondering if the "Phone Cell GSM" condition causes significant impact in battery consumption, in order it would be simpler and more efective for the flows just to turn on Wifi + Mobile data together, not testing "Phone Cell GSM" all the time.

Any feedback is very welcomed! Thanks!

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Martin
Posts: 4468
Joined: 09 Nov 2012 14:23

Re: Battery impact of "Phone Cell GSM" when used in many flo

Post by Martin » 28 Apr 2015 19:38

Hi,

The condition Phone Cell GSM should not consume a noticeable amount of battery, especially for the screen on and power source connected cases where the device uses battery anyway.
The case with the periodic timer could lead to a slight increase in battery use since the device will be woken up every 45 minutes. However, 45 minutes is not very often so I doubt that you will notice this. Using Periodic Timer Inexact: every 1h could reduce the battery use a bit since the system tries to optimize the timing by batching together the trigger invocation with other scheduled activity of the device.

Regards,
Martin

cadudesun
Posts: 9
Joined: 13 Feb 2014 14:16

Re: Battery impact of "Phone Cell GSM" when used in many flo

Post by cadudesun » 29 Apr 2015 13:45

Thanks for answering!
I am facing a problem with the condition Phone Cell GSM, which happens always my phone re-starts (e.g. after power off).
All the collected cells once stored are erased and I need to start over the process to collect cells again.
Is there any workaround to keep the already collected cells stored "forever" in Automagic?

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Martin
Posts: 4468
Joined: 09 Nov 2012 14:23

Re: Battery impact of "Phone Cell GSM" when used in many flo

Post by Martin » 30 Apr 2015 18:19

Hi,

The cells collected under section Collect cells with buttons Start/Stop are only stored temporarily and cleared when Automagic is restarted. Once you have collected the cells with Start/Stop for a few minutes or hours at the same place you can use button [...] in the field Cell ID (CID) List to select the cells that you actually want the condition to test for.

You could use a global variable with a list and a script if you really want to collect and store the cell IDs for a longer time and preserve the cells across reboots.

Regards,
Martin

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