Power Draw of Everdrive x5 Mini

[nuu]

Ok good to know. I guess it's the REGISTRY.BIN file.

[Uliner]

I was able borrow a GameBoy Micro off my buddy to test this further and just post the data.  I actually found a video where someone was testing an Everdrive x5 Mini vs. EZ-Flash Omega, giving me a benchmark to compare to:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UO9ITGY35jk  (The Everdrive x5 Mini lasted 259 minutes in this video)

Console: GameBoy Micro (OXY-001) Highest brightness, 100% volume
Battery: Official 460 mAH
Game: Everdrive x5 Mini (Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance)
Trial 1: 61 mins, Charge time: 138 mins
Trial 2: 65 mins, Charge time: 135 mins
Trial 3: 58 mins, Charge time: 136 mins

Game: Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance
Trial 1: 381 mins, Charge time: 135 mins

[KRIKzz]

AGS-001 in pair with everdrive x5/x5 mini should draw around 80mA during the game. You can look at battery life test here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-o10jkhfms
If your cart draws much more then it could be some defect. You can send it to us for replacement.

[Uliner]

AGS-001 in pair with everdrive x5/x5 mini should draw around 80mA during the game. You can look at battery life test here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-o10jkhfms
If your cart draws much more then it could be some defect. You can send it to us for replacement.

Thanks for the info, Krikzz.

I may as well post an update here.  I'm in the middle of an RMA request with Stone Age Gamer; my flash cartridge is on its way over to them.  After troubleshooting the issue with them and referencing this thread, they asked that they send it in for replacement under their warranty.

I'll edit this post further as I get updates.

[Syrion]

I'm very interested if your battery life will be improved once you get it back. I'm using an Everdrive X5 Mini I just received this year with my Game Boy Micro and also get a low battery life. I bought a new 460mAh battery and at full charge I get around 100 minutes of play time with different games on the lowest brightness settings. Subjectively it was pretty much the same with the 15 year old original battery.
I also just tried to mimic the test on the video you linked to, running kill.switch at the highest brightness setting and letting it idle on the first mission. Again, I got around 100-110 minutes, no more, with the new battery.

At least in my case, I didn't suspect the Everdrive to be the cause of the short battery life so far, but rather the quality of the battery, as aftermarket Micro batteries have a bad reputation in general. I'm still waiting for a second battery to arrive, hoping it will grant longer playtime.

[Uliner]

Alrighty, so I have a general update on my situation as of this time. 

EverDrive sent to Krikzz Certified Reseller and confirmed as faulty
At the beginning of April, I sent back my EverDrive to Stone Age Gamer (SAG) on their recommendation.  They had confirmed that there was something indeed wrong with how short the playtime was on their test GBA units. 

Although, they weren't able to confirm what component(s) were causing the issue, the SAG service representative told me that "the defective cart will be sent back to krikzz and we'll include some of the info you provided to them so they can take a look at it and hopefully that will help them figure out what went wrong in the first place."

@Krikzz - Perhaps later if you/your associates receives this cartridge for review, you may be able share what happened.  I'm genuinely curious, and if it helps others troubleshoot their carts, that's awesome too.

Replacement Cartridge sent by Reseller; Received and Tested

Now before SAG sent me the replacement, they actually took the time to test this cartridge before sending it to me.  It was when they were testing the length of playtime on the replacement cartridge against my original cartridge where they had mentioned that the presence of a problem became apparent. 

Nevertheless, I still took some time to test the replacement cartridge in a few scenarios.

Cartridge Info: EverDrive x5 Mini, OS 1.15, BL 1.03
Diagnostics: All tests came back as OK


Console: GBA SP (AGS-101) Backlight default brightness, 50% volume
Battery: Tomee 400 mAH
SD Card: Patriot LX Series 16GB CL10 SDHC

Game: Everdrive x5 Mini (Metroid: Fusion)
Trial 1: 296 mins

Game: Stock GBA Cartridge (Metroid: Fusion)
Trial 1: 316 mins


I also took some time to test the cartridge in my GameBoy Player using GBI under Swiss OS, everything worked great.

So holy s**t, the difference between my replacement and original cartridges are like night and day.  This is the experience I was expecting when getting an EverDrive based on the other products I've gotten from Krikzz.  It was a bit of an arduous journey to get here, but I'm glad that it worked out.

I'd like to thank everyone for the support and advice I was provided on this thread and through all the private messages I got.  I hope this info ends up helping others that get stuck in this situation.

[Syrion]

Thanks for your update!
I'm afraid I'm in the same boat, then. I was able to test 2 different original Micro batteries and two different aftermarket replacements (vhbw and Cameron Sino). The CS battery had the longest life, but still only got to 100 minutes vs 70-80 on the original batteries. I still suspected the batteries to be bad. So, today I tested the Everdrive against an original cartridge (Idle and autoplay on the menu in the game Downforce. Recommended little gem, by the way!). The Everdrive test again reached a maximum of 75 minutes on the original battery, whereas the original cartridge still runs right now, after 4 1/2 hours - and the red light isn't even on, yet.

So, I'll have to get in touch with the vendor as well, I suppose.

[edit]
Just a little update, the final result is: 75 minutes playtime with Everdrive vs 318 minutes with original cart.

This was purchased in November, just in case it happens to be a bad batch.