Wifi or Bluetooth

akpilot907

Pre-takeoff checklist
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May 14, 2013
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citabriav8tr
By using Stratus's ADS-B reciever, you must have WiFi connected. Using the Dual GPS, Bluetooth is used... From anyone's personal experience or expertise, which one (WiFi or Bluetooth) uses more of the IPad battery???
 
By using Stratus's ADS-B reciever, you must have WiFi connected. Using the Dual GPS, Bluetooth is used... From anyone's personal experience or expertise, which one (WiFi or Bluetooth) uses more of the IPad battery???

Bluetooth is much harder on your battery life, especially on an iPad or iPhone.
 
As part of pre taxi list...

STRATUS2......ON
IPAD AIRPLANE MODE.....ON
IPAD WI-FI.....ON
BRIGHTNESS LEVEL....SET

Airplane mode switches off cell data and Bluetooth. Doing this plus reducing brightness level to min needed really helps max battery life.
 
Bluetooth is much harder on your battery life, especially on an iPad or iPhone.

Why is that? Since BT is designed for short distances vs. WiFi's longer range, you'd think it would be the opposite, but my experience says you're right. It just doesn't make much sense.
 
There are a number of sites that seem to indicate tethering via bluetooth affords you better battery life than tethering via WiFi:
  • "Since Bluetooth is specifically designed for mobile use, in most cases it’s a bit nicer on your battery and consumes less power to do the same job as WiFi tethering does."
  • "You'll also get better battery life on your phone by using Bluetooth." (instead of WiFi)
  • "the biggest advantage to Bluetooth tethering is that the battery drain is much lower compared to WiFi tethering"
 
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Bluetooth is much harder on your battery life, especially on an iPad or iPhone.
An iPhone 5 (or newer) and the iPad 3 (or newer) has BT 4.0 which includes the ability to operate at much lower power (BTLE) when high bandwidth isn't needed. I don't know for certain that there are any BTLE capable GPS receivers but it seems likely.
 
An iPhone 5 (or newer) and the iPad 3 (or newer) has BT 4.0 which includes the ability to operate at much lower power (BTLE) when high bandwidth isn't needed. I don't know for certain that there are any BTLE capable GPS receivers but it seems likely.



Any Bluetooth 4.0 will be more power efficient than WiFi. And actually, most other Bluetooth versions are more efficient than WiFi. Takes less power to transmit/receive when compared with WiFi. However, this is also determined by firmware on said devices.
 
I use both the iLevil SW (wifi) and the dual 170 blue tooth. Having both permits me to have one updating FlyQ EFB and the other updating Wing X Pro without causing interference. I also use an Ipad 3 and mini with one for each. As a CFII I use the mini with Wing X and the Dual and my student uses FLYQ EFB with the iLevil. This gets around the limitations of the number of connections associated with the iPad.
 
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