Root Question about SetCPU & Wireless Tether

[aaz110]

So, I just rooted my Evo about half an hour ago using Unrevoked (haha, my girlfriend is not very happy right now, because I stayed up all night reading into all that I could about rooting). The root process went very smoothly...I haven't played around with any custom ROMs or kernels yet (I'll have to save that for another night) but everything stock seems to be in order.

I just installed SetCPU to underclock my phone while the screen is off, as well as Wireless Tether.... my question is: is there a way to disable the SetCPU profile while certain apps are running? I noticed that while running Wireless Tether, if I allow the screen to go off, SetCPU underclocks my phone, and my internet speed suffers greatly. I did an unscientific test with Wireless Tether and Speedtest.net running on my computer's browser. When my screen is on and my processor is running at max, I'm gettting 2.2 MB/s on 3G....when I run it again, and turn my screen off (thus prompting SetCPU to underclock), I only get 200 KB/s. Does anyone know if there is a way to disable SetCPU while certain apps are running....also, can anyone think of any other apps that often run with the screen turned off that may be affected by an underclock? All I can think of besides Wireless Tether are music player apps.

Thanks.

 

[takirb]

I use KeepScreen from the market to keep my screen on when wireless tether is enabled for that exact reason - so it's not underclocking when i'm tethering.

 

[rkkeller]

Another app called spareparts has a option to never turn wifi off and other things like that.

Nice for a free app.

 

[takirb]

Another app called spareparts has a option to never turn wifi off and other things like that.

Nice for a free app.

Problems not that wifi is turning off, it's that the processor can't use more than 245MHz when the screen is off if that's what the "screen off" profile is set to. So the screen turns off>processor gets underclocked>and wireless tether speeds are affected due to processor underclocking. I just setup KeepScreen to keep my screen on, but dimmed, when the screen is on the wireless tether/hotspot screen so the processor runs as normal.

I do this for Last.fm as well, as it stops my streaming when the screen shuts off (did this on Pandora too, before SetCPU for me). Only problems i have with it is when i get a text and it changes my screen away from wireless tether/hotspot/Last.fm. Then my screen goes black again and i have to scroll back to my app.

 

[Mr. Ed]

Really depends on your total set up. Check out the set pcu guide and play with the variables ie create a while plugged in profile and toy with your priority settings.

 

[aaz110]

Thanks for the replies so far. I was hoping for a solution where I wouldn't have to keep the screen turned on while Wireless Tether was running. Wireless Tether already burns a lot of battery life, and the screen being on would only add to that. For extended sessions, I would have to keep it plugged in, but for relatively short sessions, I would prefer not to plug it in (especially as I may not always have a USB cable with me).

Does anyone know if Tasker has SetCPU profiles included? I wonder if I could just set up a profile in Tasker, that in the condition that Wireless Tether (or Last.fm, Pandora, etc.) is on, then SetCPU profile is set for MAX. I'll have to take a look at that later.

 

[Mr. Ed]

Does anyone know if Tasker has SetCPU profiles included? I wonder if I could just set up a profile in Tasker, that in the condition that Wireless Tether (or Last.fm, Pandora, etc.) is on, then SetCPU profile is set for MAX. I'll have to take a look at that later.

you don't need a separate app to do this

Check out the set pcu guide and play with the variables ie create a while plugged in profile and toy with your priority settings.

 

[takirb]

you don't need a separate app to do this

Check out the set pcu guide and play with the variables ie create a while plugged in profile and toy with your priority settings.

I think he wants to keep the CPU up to use wifi tether while not plugged in for short durations. So if he's off the the charger, yet running the tether app, with screen off, it'll still keep the CPU up. But if he's off the charger, yet not running the tether app, with screen off, the CPU is underclocked. With the profile selections in SetCPU, his only variable choices are Charging, Screen Off, Battery, and Temp. He needs a way of determing the CPU status via application, not screen off profile.

Typically, you'd want Charging/Full profile to have higher priority over Screen Off profile, which would fix the problem if he was using wifi tether while on the charger. But off the charger, screen off is ideally set to the higher priority to conserve battery life. Anything less than that somewhat defeats the purpose of maximizing battery life with a Screen Off profile.

 

[openedmind]

I'm new to this (just rooted my evo and installed these apps yesterday) but would disabling profiles in setCPU while using wireless tether solve this problem and use the settings under main which could be set to ondemand with the max range set to 998?

 

[takirb]

Correct

 

[aaz110]

I think he wants to keep the CPU up to use wifi tether while not plugged in for short durations. So if he's off the the charger, yet running the tether app, with screen off, it'll still keep the CPU up. But if he's off the charger, yet not running the tether app, with screen off, the CPU is underclocked. With the profile selections in SetCPU, his only variable choices are Charging, Screen Off, Battery, and Temp. He needs a way of determing the CPU status via application, not screen off profile.

Typically, you'd want Charging/Full profile to have higher priority over Screen Off profile, which would fix the problem if he was using wifi tether while on the charger. But off the charger, screen off is ideally set to the higher priority to conserve battery life. Anything less than that somewhat defeats the purpose of maximizing battery life with a Screen Off profile.

This is exactly what I meant and what I'm trying to do.

I'm new to this (just rooted my evo and installed these apps yesterday) but would disabling profiles in setCPU while using wireless tether solve this problem and use the settings under main which could be set to ondemand with the max range set to 998?

Yeah...essentially, I'm looking for a way to do this automatically...without having to manually turn profiles off before starting Wireless Tether or the music apps. In Tasker, I see that I can kill the app (SetCPU) when opening another app...and then restart it again when I close Wireless Tether, but I'm hesitant to do that, as I feel like killing and opening the app so often (I use the music programs quite a bit) will not be all that smooth. I was hoping that there may be a third-party locale/Tasker plugin for SetCPU, but I didn't see anything.

Anyone have any ideas? I feel like if we solve this, it could probably help a lot of root users who use SetCPU for battery management.

 

[ecooke21]

I a looking for the answer to this question also...

 

[Mr. Ed]

so I think the difference is you aren't plugged in while using tether???

I guess I am always plugged in while using tether..actually the one time I tethered unplugged it drained the battery pretty significantly so I have simply plugged in to the wall or my laptop when using it.

 

[TT_Vert]

How hard can it possibly be to freeze setcpu or disable the underclock w/ screen off for the times you are using it?

Dave

 

[novox77]

If you have a custom kernel with HAVS, you can remove setCPU completely (if all you use setCPU for is downclocking). For me, I don't see any decrease in battery life with the HAVS kernel and setCPU absent.

This should solve the OP's problem of keeping the screen off while having wifi speeds at max. The other thing you can try is adjusting the governor on setCPU. I believe if you delete the profile that governs screen off and just set the default governor to "on demand," and set your default lower limit to 245mhz, you'll also be fine. If you use the "conservative" governor instead, setCPU will downthrottle as much as possible to still have things running, but there's no guarantee that those things will run optimally, which is what is happening with wifi tether in the OP's case.

I have a similar problem where if I putty or SCP into my phone wirelessly, it is extremely slow when the screen is off. I have SwitchPro which has a toggle for keeping the screen on. So I use that toggle when I am doing wireless data transfer to the phone.

 

[aaz110]

so I think the difference is you aren't plugged in while using tether???

I guess I am always plugged in while using tether..actually the one time I tethered unplugged it drained the battery pretty significantly so I have simply plugged in to the wall or my laptop when using it.

Yup... if I'm going to tether for an extended period of time, then I will plug it in (because of how much battery it consumes). But if I want to tether for relatively short sessions, then I leave it unplugged...or would like to anyway. Also, there are times when I may not even have a cable with me if I tether unexpectedly (like for a friend's laptop or something).

How hard can it possibly be to freeze setcpu or disable the underclock w/ screen off for the times you are using it?

Dave

It's not hard to do, but it's an extra step that could be avoided. It's not a big deal while tethering...but it can be in other circumstances. For example, if I'm driving in my car, and I want to listen to streaming music from my phone...I simply hit play on my Last.fm widget (or Pandora or Slacker widgets). I can do that without even looking at my phone. That's not the time when I want to have to go into SetCPU and disable individual profiles.

If you have a custom kernel with HAVS, you can remove setCPU completely (if all you use setCPU for is downclocking). For me, I don't see any decrease in battery life with the HAVS kernel and setCPU absent.

This should solve the OP's problem of keeping the screen off while having wifi speeds at max. The other thing you can try is adjusting the governor on setCPU. I believe if you delete the profile that governs screen off and just set the default governor to "on demand," and set your default lower limit to 245mhz, you'll also be fine. If you use the "conservative" governor instead, setCPU will downthrottle as much as possible to still have things running, but there's no guarantee that those things will run optimally, which is what is happening with wifi tether in the OP's case.

I have a similar problem where if I putty or SCP into my phone wirelessly, it is extremely slow when the screen is off. I have SwitchPro which has a toggle for keeping the screen on. So I use that toggle when I am doing wireless data transfer to the phone.

Thanks...I may try out a new kernel soon. Lately I've been having issues anyway with SetCPU and the perflock disabler for the HTC stock kernel....often, SetCPU will underclock to 245 mHz randomly. I have to open SetCPU in these instances and manually use the perflock disabler (even if I already had without rebooting the phone).

This is slightly off topic, but are there any ROMS/kernels (sorry, I'm new to rooting so I'm not sure which one is relevant here) out there that have everything working (including 4G) as well as built-in underclocking?

 

[Mr. Ed]

fresh amd kings or fresh and netarchy

there are multiple versions of kings and netarchy that do what you wish.

I understand what you are doing...I guess I just always have a cable on me lol