The first two entries on the statusbar or standalone applet start and stop minigpsd. If you leave it on overnight it might drain the battery (depending on what else is on - when locked without backlight I get 10 hours+, but YMMV).

There are three debs. minigpsd itself, the statusbar applet, and the standalone applet.

minigpsd runs in the background, so doesn't appear in any menu. It is controlled by the other applets. If you start minigpsd via the applet, a red circle should appear.

l2ping will continually search for a bluetooth device if one is configured. If misconfigured it might interfere with wifi. But nothing should use over 100% cpu.