#133332 - OSW - Thu Jul 05, 2007 12:38 pm
Hey guys. Today i purchased a cheap fm radio for DS. Mostly because of novelty value and i hadn't seen one before.
Basically it is a standalone player with it's own headphone jack, only it connects to and draws power from the NDS's slot one. This means the DS must be on during playback.
However after testing it out i figured i might use it more than i originaly thought. This made me think about the potential for battery power saving whilst using the device.
So i was thinking, would it be possible to bring the DS to a state where it is till on (so it can supply power to the radio), yet having disabled every other function of the DS ie. backlight etc to conserve power.
Also note that it still works fine from slot one when the DS is in gba mode.
What functions could potentially be shut off?
But if it's not too much effort might someone be able to develop a .gba or .nds file which forfills this function? If i'm asking too much, feel free to reject me etc
^_^
Last edited by OSW on Thu Jul 05, 2007 2:17 pm; edited 1 time in total
#133338 - pas - Thu Jul 05, 2007 1:56 pm
Then you should be able to solder on a battery ???
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#133339 - OSW - Thu Jul 05, 2007 2:01 pm
i'm sure that wouldn't be too hard, but i like having it draw power from the ds's rechargable battery. Also it would look realllly strange by itself 0_0
also with this i could play gba games or homebrew with alternate sound! It'd be good for homebrew with no sound or games with bad sound :)
#133362 - dantheman - Thu Jul 05, 2007 7:43 pm
Just some general ideas to conserve battery power:
1. Turn off the backlight from the DS firmware before using if possible.
2. You said it works fine in GBA mode, so use that instead.
3. Eject any cartridges you're not using.
4. Turn the DS volume off if the radio has its own volume control.
As for an app that turns off most of the hardware, a multiboot GBA app might be a good idea here, if you have the ability to run homebrew GBA files.
#133418 - OSW - Fri Jul 06, 2007 2:48 am
alright thanks for the ideas. i do have the ability to run gba homebrew, so i'll have a search for those multiboot apps to see if they are any good.
might you have any in mind?
#133419 - dantheman - Fri Jul 06, 2007 3:02 am
I mostly say that because it's been shown that a multiboot app uses less battery power than running a program off a cart. You can run the multiboot app, put it to sleep, and then eject the GBA cart.
For instance, you could get a very small homebrew GB/GBC game or demo (less than 128 kb I think), make a Goomba Color compilation with it, select the "Go Multiboot" option, then select the Sleep option and eject the cartridge.
You could also just launch a different GBA multiboot file through the use of Tepples's Multiboot Menu program, ejecting the cartridge once it's loaded. Not all of them have sleep mode however, so they may use up more battery than those that have it (though they might be patchable by Dwedit's new tool to add sleep mode to any GBA game)
Here's a list of some multiboot apps you can check out (copied and pasted from another source):
| Quote: |
*''Lockjaw: The Overdose'' (formerly ''Tetanus On Drugs'') [http://www.pineight.com/gba/#tod]
*''Luminesweeper'' (no sound version) [http://www.pineight.com/lu/]
*''Vitamins'' [http://www.pineight.com/gba/#drm]
*''Lockjaw'' [http://www.pineight.com/lj/dl]
*''Herg's Solitaire'' [http://www.geocities.com/hergtoler/gbdev.html]
*''Herg's Yahtzee'' [http://www.geocities.com/hergtoler/gbdev.html]
*''Calculator Advance'' [http://gbadev.org/demos.php?showinfo=277]
*''FreeTune Advance - Tonal Guitar Tuner'' [http://www.gbadev.org/index.php?showinfo=949]
*''Evil Bob's Jumble Solver'' [http://www.consolevision.com/members/theblackfrog/index.php?page=gba]
*''CoolSweeper'' [http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=35829] (official site down, only mirror is this one, but requires free registration to download)
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#133428 - OSW - Fri Jul 06, 2007 4:27 am
Just for reference i tested out Dwedit's new sleep mode tool on two gba files and both failed to work 0_0 i'll try again with some other gba files i guess.
Ok i'll try your suggestions out. Thanks.
#133431 - chishm - Fri Jul 06, 2007 4:44 am
You could just leave it at the firmware screen and close the lid. This turns off the screens, disables sound and puts the processors to sleep.
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#133436 - OSW - Fri Jul 06, 2007 5:40 am
0_0 it really does all that? what a simple solution! Thanks chishm!
edit: oh, by firmware screen do you mean the warning screen or the normal menu after that?
Last edited by OSW on Fri Jul 06, 2007 3:04 pm; edited 1 time in total
#133461 - HyperHacker - Fri Jul 06, 2007 8:20 am
Either should work.
I'd be interested to see if there's any way to do things like tune the radio, grab the FM audio, and/or use its sound hardware though or if it's really just drawing power.
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#133495 - OSW - Fri Jul 06, 2007 3:02 pm
It'd be interesting if you could, but i'm sure you can't with this particular device because it only has two pins, one has a "+" next to it, the othe a "-" from which i draw my conclusion.
It has a small screen and 2 buttons for tuning (automatic seeking) and it's own headphone jack. Also volume control is managed only by the headphones XD. i plugged in some normal ones and it was way loud by default ^_^
Kinda makes me wish there were more complex NDS accessories in shops around here.