Logitech Bluetooth mouse batteries drain quickly

Logitech Bluetooth mouse batteries drain quickly

[Julius Schwartzenberg]

Hi,

I have a rather strange problem. I bought a Logitech Bluetooth mouse 
some time ago. It works very well in Ubuntu and I never had any usage 
problems.

The strange thing is though, that the batteries that are inside the 
mouse drain extremely quickly. I compared the time it takes the mouse to 
drain a set full batteries to my flatmate's who uses the exact same 
mouse with Mac OS X. It turns out that my batteries drain about four 
times as quickly as his.

I didn't test much else. May be the problem could also be related to my 
Bluetooth "receiver" which is a Broadcom BCM2046.

I suspect however that Bluez is somehow talking with the device in such 
a way the mouse doesn't sleep as quickly as when Mac OS X talks to it. 
Could this somehow be the case? If so, what could I do to help solve 
this with Bluez?

Thanks a lot in advance,
Julius

Re: Logitech Bluetooth mouse batteries drain quickly

[Iain Hibbert]

On Tue, 3 Nov 2009, Julius Schwartzenberg wrote:

> I have a rather strange problem. I bought a Logitech Bluetooth mouse some time
> ago. It works very well in Ubuntu and I never had any usage problems.
>
> The strange thing is though, that the batteries that are inside the mouse
> drain extremely quickly. I compared the time it takes the mouse to drain a set
> full batteries to my flatmate's who uses the exact same mouse with Mac OS X.
> It turns out that my batteries drain about four times as quickly as his.

how quickly is 'extremely quickly' ?

> I suspect however that Bluez is somehow talking with the device in such a way
> the mouse doesn't sleep as quickly as when Mac OS X talks to it. Could this
> somehow be the case? If so, what could I do to help solve this with Bluez?

what are the link policy settings for that link? (see hcitool(1))

for instance, if I don't enable SNIFF mode then my [Apple] keyboard drains
the batteries in a few days, vs many weeks otherwise ..

regards,
iain

Re: Logitech Bluetooth mouse batteries drain quickly

[Julius Schwartzenberg]

Iain Hibbert wrote:
> On Tue, 3 Nov 2009, Julius Schwartzenberg wrote:
> 
>> I have a rather strange problem. I bought a Logitech Bluetooth mouse some time
>> ago. It works very well in Ubuntu and I never had any usage problems.
>>
>> The strange thing is though, that the batteries that are inside the mouse
>> drain extremely quickly. I compared the time it takes the mouse to drain a set
>> full batteries to my flatmate's who uses the exact same mouse with Mac OS X.
>> It turns out that my batteries drain about four times as quickly as his.
> 
> how quickly is 'extremely quickly' ?

I have the mouse for about 7 months now. This is my 4rd or 5th pair of 
batteries I think.


>> I suspect however that Bluez is somehow talking with the device in such a way
>> the mouse doesn't sleep as quickly as when Mac OS X talks to it. Could this
>> somehow be the case? If so, what could I do to help solve this with Bluez?
> 
> what are the link policy settings for that link? (see hcitool(1))
> 
> for instance, if I don't enable SNIFF mode then my [Apple] keyboard drains
> the batteries in a few days, vs many weeks otherwise ..

Yes, it's indeed not days, but months. Here is the output from hcitool:
Link policy settings: RSWITCH HOLD SNIFF PARK

So this looks good I guess?

When I look at the info, I get this:
Requesting information ...
         BD Address:  00:07:61:DF:0D:C7
         Device Name: Bluetooth Laser Travel Mouse
         LMP Version: 2.0 (0x3) LMP Subversion: 0x229
         Manufacturer: Broadcom Corporation (15)
         Features: 0xbc 0x02 0x04 0x38 0x08 0x00 0x00 0x00
                 <encryption> <slot offset> <timing accuracy> <role switch>
                 <sniff mode> <RSSI> <power control> <enhanced iscan>
                 <interlaced iscan> <interlaced pscan> <AFH cap. slave>

Could the problem be related to the "power control" feature which may 
not be fully used right now?

Julius

Re: Logitech Bluetooth mouse batteries drain quickly

[Iain Hibbert]

On Thu, 5 Nov 2009, Julius Schwartzenberg wrote:

> Yes, it's indeed not days, but months. Here is the output from hcitool:
> Link policy settings: RSWITCH HOLD SNIFF PARK
>
> So this looks good I guess?

guess so

> When I look at the info, I get this:
> Requesting information ...
>         BD Address:  00:07:61:DF:0D:C7
>         Device Name: Bluetooth Laser Travel Mouse
>         LMP Version: 2.0 (0x3) LMP Subversion: 0x229
>         Manufacturer: Broadcom Corporation (15)
>         Features: 0xbc 0x02 0x04 0x38 0x08 0x00 0x00 0x00
>                 <encryption> <slot offset> <timing accuracy> <role switch>
>                 <sniff mode> <RSSI> <power control> <enhanced iscan>
>                 <interlaced iscan> <interlaced pscan> <AFH cap. slave>
>
> Could the problem be related to the "power control" feature which may not be
> fully used right now?

No, that relates to Link Manager Protocol which is carried out entirely
within the controller and I don't think there is any way for the host to
influence any decisions regarding that..

My suggestion is to use rechargeables. They will likely last longer than
alkalines, and I normally have spares already charged (use AA for bicycle
lights) so it never really bothered me to have a flat..

iain