Before using Green Power, please read the “Warning & Troubleshooting” section.

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Presentation

Configuration

Notifications

Warning & Troubleshooting

Presentation

Green Power decreases the use of your phone's battery by switching off the wireless connections (Wifi and / or Mobile Network) when they are not used. Basically the idea is: Why should the wireless connections be always on, emptying the battery, even when you don't use your phone? Most people would answer: In order to get live notifications of new mails and other push data. Right, but in most cases you don't need to be notified the second you receive a new mail. Each few minutes is enough. So why not switch off wireless most of the time and turns it on regularly for a short time, to let applications receive their push data? This is what Green Power does.

How much battery is saved by Green Power is of course depending on your use of your phone. In a future version, Green Power will display some estimations of battery saved time.

In its default configuration, Green Power will regularly turn off wireless connections for 10 minutes, then turn it on for 1 minute and so on, and will keep wireless on if you are using the phone (screen on) or if the phone is connected to the power. In order to avoid interrupting other application's connections, Green Power will check if there is some in/out going traffic before turning off wireless. This default configuration can be changed in Green Power settings.

Startup

When started, Green Power displays a simple information page with current status, a summary of the settings and a list of pending notifications.

If you don't need to change default settings, you can just leave this page (back or home button).

A leaf icon is displayed in the notification bar to confirm that Green Power is running. It is green if everything is fine, and orange if there is a notification requiring your attention.

By pressing the menu button on the information page, you can display several options:

Configuration

Green Power default configuration should be OK for most users. Nevertheless, it can be changed by selecting the menu “settings”. The following settings are available:

Manage Wifi

If this setting is selected, then Green Power will regularly turn on and off the Wifi connection, based on the durations specified in the settings below.

If this setting is not selected, then Green Power will leave the Wifi as it is, never turning it on or off.

Please note that if you manually switches off the Wifi, then Green Power will unselect the “Manage Wifi” setting in order not to automatically switch on the Wifi again despite your manual action. Then, if you switch back on the Wifi or reselect “Manage Wifi” setting, Green Power will resume managing Wifi connection.

Manage Mobile Network

If this setting is selected, then Green Power will regularly turn on and off the Mobile Network connection, based on the durations specified in the settings below.

If this setting is not selected, then Green Power will leave the Mobile Network as it is, never turning it on or off.

Please note that in order for Green Power to turn on / off Mobile Network, this one has to be manually enabled by the user first in the phone settings (Wireless & networks → Mobile Network) or in Green Power settings (Global wireless settings → Mobile Network) . Green Power can't itself turn on Mobile Network as this is a limitation of the Android system for security and cost reasons.

Global Wireless settings

This is a shortcut to the phone system wireless settings where the user can find the setting “Mobile Network”. That one should be checked or Green Power won't be able to properly manage Mobile Network. Note that this is only applicable to HTC phones.

Screen off wireless delay

This setting defines how long Green Power should wait before switching off wireless when the screen is turned off. Delaying turning off wireless is useful for instance if the user is reading something on the screen, not touching it. At some point the screen might turns off and you will touch it or press some buttons to switch it on again. Therefore, the wireless shouldn't be interrupted here. So, instead of switching off the wireless at once when the screen turns off, Green Power will wait that this delay elapses before switching off the wireless.

Wireless on delay

This setting defines how long Green Power keeps the wireless on before turning it off again. This applies to the Wifi is the setting “Manage Wifi” is selected, and this applies to the Mobile Network if the setting “Manage Mobile Network” is selected.

Wireless off delay

This setting defines how long Green Power keeps the wireless off before turning it on again. This applies to the Wifi is the setting “Manage Wifi” is selected, and this applies to the Mobile Network if the setting “Manage Mobile Network” is selected.

Screen on setting

If this is selected, the wireless will be kept on when the screen is on. This applies to the Wifi is the setting “Manage Wifi” is selected, and this applies to the Mobile Network if the setting “Manage Mobile Network” is selected.

If this is not selected, then Green Power will not make any difference whether the screen is on or off:: It will regularly switch on and off wireless if needed even if the screen is on. This can be useful if the you are using the phone for anything else than using wireless data (calling, playing local game, etc). In such a case you don't need the wireless to be always on.

Power on setting

If this is selected, the wireless will be kept on when the phone is connected to a power source. This applies to the Wifi is the setting “Manage Wifi” is selected, and this applies to the Mobile Network if the setting “Manage Mobile Network” is selected.

This overrides the “Screen on setting”: If this is selected and the power is connected, then wireless will be kept on whatever the screen state is.

If this is not selected, then Green Power will not make any difference whether the phone is connected to the power or not:: It will regularly switch on and off wireless if needed.

Check Traffic

If this is selected, then prior to turning off wireless, Green Power will check that there is no network traffic. If there is, it will wait a few seconds and checks again until there is no traffic anymore.

Notification

If this is selected, Green Power displays a notification in the notification bar with a summary of it's status.

Notifications

If the configuration of the phone or of Green Power is not optimal, a notification is displayed in the notification bar. The main screen of Green Power lists pending notifications. By clicking on a notification, you can display a description of the problem and how to solve it.

Warning & Troubleshooting

Killing Green Power

If you use a Task Manager application that enables you to kill other applications, you should avoid killing Green Power.

Green Power should instead be stopped properly by using its menu “Stop Green Power”, or will be stopped properly if you turn off your phone.

The consequence of killing directly Green Power is that if you do so while the Mobile Network is disabled, then the Mobile Network might stay disabled. See next point to solve.

Disabled Mobile Network

If Green Power has been improperly stopped, it might result in the Mobile Network staying disabled.

To solve this, simply start again Green Power that will automatically fix the Mobile Network. Then you can either leave it on, or quit properly Green Power by using the menu “Stop Green Power”.

Delay when turning on screen

In the most common configuration, Green Power will turn on wireless when you turn on the screen. Please be aware that turning on wireless can take a couple of seconds. This is usually quite fast, but between 2 and 5 seconds are common. In addition, it's usually faster with Mobile Network, so that if both Mobile Network and Wifi are managed by Green Power, you'll first see Mobile Network connected, and shortly after will the Wifi be connected.

Mobile Network management not supported

Mobile Network management is currently not supported on all phones. This is due to some specificities on how Mobile Network is handled on different phones which is manufacturer, carrier and model dependent. Support for a wider range of phones will come gradually.