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App idea: keyboard backlight control

I have a great idea. With the problem most brown/bronze G1 users are having with their keyboards in low light situations (see here for more info) I had an idea for an app.
We need an app that controls the keyboard backlight based on ambient lighting. It can use the camera to poll the light level and enable/disable the keyboard backlight accordingly. Ideally, it would be configurable in terms of what levels trigger the backlight off and on.
This would probably cause a small drain on the battery, but would more than likely be counteracted by the savings from the backlight being off when not needed.
And, thinking about it now, it could also control the display backlight level! Darker surroundings=dimmer backlight, and vice versa.
Any thoughts or aspiring developers want to work on this?
Ryan

The problem for me (I have a black G1) is that the keyboard doesn't stay lit up. This is really annoying when the screen is on but the keys go dark.
Ideally, the keys would simply stay backlit anytime the keys are open. Especially when its dark out... the keys going dark can get rather frustrating.

I totally and completely agree with the idea, however I was thinking a little differently.
The ambient light is not always a good tell tale sign of whether or not I can see the keyboard, especially since the camera is facing down when I am typing. I was thinking of a simple keypad shortcut that would turn off the backlighting. It could be reset once you close the keyboard or reset using the shortcut again, or the option of both.
If I had any clue how to do it myself, I would. I am just one of those hopeless G1 users who has to beg for apps.
Thanks.

Keyboard backlight off
I just put a small application in the Android Market that turns the keyboard backlight off. It doesn't even show anything on the screen, so it is easy to use by binding it to a keyboard shortcut with Settings->Applications->Quick launch.
The application is in the Market in Applications->Tools and it's called Dark Keys.

steffann said:
I just put a small application in the Android Market that turns the keyboard backlight off. It doesn't even show anything on the screen, so it is easy to use by binding it to a keyboard shortcut with Settings->Applications->Quick launch.
The application is in the Market in Applications->Tools and it's called Dark Keys.
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Hey can you fix it to where you're able to enable the backlight again? I'm able to turn the backlight off, but not on again if needed. Any maybe integrate a GUI to let users choose on and off.

steffann said:
I just put a small application in the Android Market that turns the keyboard backlight off. It doesn't even show anything on the screen, so it is easy to use by binding it to a keyboard shortcut with Settings->Applications->Quick launch.
The application is in the Market in Applications->Tools and it's called Dark Keys.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Any way you can give the option to keep it on as well? I have the black g1 and when im texting at night its a pain in the butt when it keeps turning off!!

steffann said:
I just put a small application in the Android Market that turns the keyboard backlight off. It doesn't even show anything on the screen, so it is easy to use by binding it to a keyboard shortcut with Settings->Applications->Quick launch.
The application is in the Market in Applications->Tools and it's called Dark Keys.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I just dl'ed it last night and I love it! Thanks for creating this app. BTW, to reenable the backlight just wait til the other hard keys go out, then move the trackball.. Although it WOULD be nice to do it via keystroke...
Ryan

stats555 said:
Any way you can give the option to keep it on as well? I have the black g1 and when im texting at night its a pain in the butt when it keeps turning off!!
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thats real easy to do. open up power manager, edit whicher setting you want the keyboard to stay on for (or change them all), goto stay awake > keyboard > enable. now anytime you have the keyboard out, the keys stay on.

tehseano said:
thats real easy to do. open up power manager, edit whicher setting you want the keyboard to stay on for (or change them all), goto stay awake > keyboard > enable. now anytime you have the keyboard out, the keys stay on.
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Click to collapse
Cool thanks never played around with power manager before, thanks for the tip!

New version
FYI: I just released Dark Keys 2.0, which includes most of the suggestions I received from users.

isn't this in the wrong section?

steffann said:
FYI: I just released Dark Keys 2.0, which includes most of the suggestions I received from users.
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Click to collapse
awesome app- i have a black G1 and always hated it how the keyboard light went off, esp. at night. Now with your app i can have it stay on whenever the KB is open.
One suggestion, and i am not sure it is possible, can you make it so it's a timer thing- say, it would turn off after 1min, 2min, or 3min. etc
***edit**** it seems to be turning it off automatically some times- it is obviously dark keys doing it as the notification keeps coming up......

steffann said:
FYI: I just released Dark Keys 2.0, which includes most of the suggestions I received from users.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great application! Thanks!!! Like many others, I hate when the keyboard backlight goes blank on me, and this app keeps the keyboard lit so long as it is extended. This app truly has the "Zen of Android" - just like the old Palm Treo had the "Zen of Palm".

steffann said:
I just put a small application in the Android Market that turns the keyboard backlight off. It doesn't even show anything on the screen, so it is easy to use by binding it to a keyboard shortcut with Settings->Applications->Quick launch.
The application is in the Market in Applications->Tools and it's called Dark Keys.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
GREAT APP! I just added a desktop icon and tap it once to make the keyboard lights stay ON. Or, I can tap it again to turn off the light, but it's ON that I need! Thanks a bunch

oes it stay on these days? last time i tried it it kept turning off the keyboard while i was typing and at other strange times...

MontAlbert said:
oes it stay on these days? last time i tried it it kept turning off the keyboard while i was typing and at other strange times...
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Click to collapse
Yep, your right. It worked fine until I plugged it in to charge. Next morning it was all BUGGY as it would "auto turn off kb light" when the phone "auto rotates".
I wish someone would write an app that has the option of "keyboard (and home keys for that matter) ALWAYS ON when kb open". Being always ON is so important to me! When the kb light goes off on my BLACK G1, the keyboard is "invisible" unless the screen is off!

l_____l said:
Yep, your right. It worked fine until I plugged it in to charge. Next morning it was all BUGGY as it would "auto turn off kb light" when the phone "auto rotates".
I wish someone would write an app that has the option of "keyboard (and home keys for that matter) ALWAYS ON when kb open". Being always ON is so important to me! When the kb light goes off on my BLACK G1, the keyboard is "invisible" unless the screen is off!
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Click to collapse
Do you have Power Manager installed? It also manages keyboard on/off so you might have conflicting apps.

cigar3tte said:
Do you have Power Manager installed? It also manages keyboard on/off so you might have conflicting apps.
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Click to collapse
Wow, your right, I do. ...and I just have to edit the stay awake to enabled while keyboard open. I guess if I didn't have power manager, dark keys app would be mandatory to keep lights ON (or off if needed)
Thanks for your help!

Old topic but about the very similar thing....something that popped into my head recently that I do not think anyone has asked about...I searched but couldnt find anything on it...
The led light on the top of the phone (speaker is) can change multiple colors, I definitely assume that the hkb has also LED lights underneath. Catch my drift?
So any good coders out there know if there is any api or functionality possible to alter the HARDWARE keyboard lights to any color like the missing call app??? That would be amazing!!
Thanks

@johnnylicious - yes, wrong section. Should be in the
@steffann - I installed your app (although I want the backlight ON feature I don't really need/want Power Manager) and received a continuous error/force close message. It was all I could do to get Gscript open between force closes... But, I used Gscript to write a logcat output text file (attached).
Please let me know if you can see what the issue was. I would like to use your app.

One button ONLY to wake up/unlock

Is there a program so that when your screen is locked, you can assign one button only to wake your screen and have access to the unlock slider? Now, if any of the 4 hard buttons are pressed, it brings up the unlock screen. The problem is, when the phone is in my pocket, any one of the 4 buttons, if accidentally pressed, wakes up the screen. Then of course, I hear my phone in my pocket clicking because the heat from my leg is "tapping" the screen. I just want to have the right hard button wake the phone up.
I cant find an option in the settings for this, nor any threads that discuss it.
Thanks.

I really admire you if you're able to slide the slider with the phone in your pocket.

LOL. No, I dont slide it. Just that when in my pocket, when any one of the 4 hard buttons are pressed(accidentally), i have to press the power button to lock the screen again. A pain in the butt. I what the phone to have only one hard button, not 4, that will shut off the screen when the phone is locked.

I'd like it too.
Maybe even some old school unlocking shortcut that uses hardware key combination (e.g. Home + Vol Down), rather than slide.

The Diamond, or was it the HD, had a button on the top to wake the phone up. That was nice because it was hard to accidentally press that button when it was in your pocket.

I use pocketshield for automatically unlocking my phone when the light sensor senses light coming in. An added benefit for this is that when the phone is in my pocket and I accidentally press any button, the screen will automatically shut itself off again after 10 seconds since there is no incoming light. This tool has really made my life so much easier as it gets rid of the stupid slider thing as well; you can use the lightsensor, the motion sensor and an old school sliding mechanism to unlock your phone- brilliant stuff!

Iarapilot might have meant something else indeed. Most of WM6.1-WM6.5 have a tab in the Start->Settings->Buttons screen that allows you to choose which kind of wake-up you need: waking up by pressing the Pw-ON button or waking up pressing whatever button you want. Sudden power-on is very boring, even thought you can't make your device work as you need to slide the screen. But this is a power comsuption anyway and I wonder why previous version had this chance regardless the home screen features. I do want it!!
I think it's a matter of regkeys, somebody of us who's used to "playing" with regkeys should figure out how this feature could be resumed.
Hope you help us!!

Maybe I didnt make my point very well. I just would like to have only the R hardware key, when pressed, wake up the screen so as to be able to slide to unlock. Not 4 buttons, that when any of those are pressed, wake up the screen.

I also have the problem, I only want to have only one key to wake up not other key
Please help us

Since it's free, I add myself to the request queue Having the screen wake up only on powerbutton press could be useful to reduce to 25% the probabilityof screen turning on by accident when buttons are pressed inside the pocket. Battery saver for sure.

Same here. I've been looking for this since I first got the phone! My old kaiser could do this, surely it wouldn't be too hard to implement on the HD2?

edit: nevermind, posted in the wrong thread

I don't think any software can control that as key presses send electrical signals direct to the chip/power unit, where the "power on" circuits reside. What software can do is turn it off again if not unlocked within a specific amount of time, so battery is saved. Screen touches shouldn't be an issue either if using a lock screen.

les_paulde said:
I use pocketshield for automatically unlocking my phone when the light sensor senses light coming in. An added benefit for this is that when the phone is in my pocket and I accidentally press any button, the screen will automatically shut itself off again after 10 seconds since there is no incoming light. This tool has really made my life so much easier as it gets rid of the stupid slider thing as well; you can use the lightsensor, the motion sensor and an old school sliding mechanism to unlock your phone- brilliant stuff!
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Click to collapse
and doesnt create any problem in normal use? u ask because if u are in call and let some other app start while talk (maybe with earphones) its quietly impossible use portrait mode because left hand always cover light sensor and screen shut down.. its the same with that app?

Did someone already found a solution? I would like such a option too. wake up only by centerbutton for instance....

Hack/app to illuminate hardware buttons too?

Sorry if this has been covered already; I searched but didn't find anything, but then I may not know the right terms.
My question is: is there a hack or app to adjust when the hard buttons illuminate? I always forget they're there, and when I do remember I still have to look at the buttons. What I'd really like is to make them light up whenever the dial pad comes up or maybe even when the screen is fully illuminated (not staying on when the screen goes a little dim when you don't touch it for a while). I'd also like to be able to change the hardware Windows button to go back to the Sense home screen, rather than the Start menu.

i use KeypadLedControl, it enables the hardware buttons to light up whenever the screen is on

Excellent, thank you!

[MOD REQ] Turn off Capacitive buttons backlight

so heres a thought
Turn off Capacitive buttons backlight
it would save battery life and when i watch videos it can be strictly just the video screen n not the 4 buttons light too...
even better would be a feature where if u hold the back button for 5 seconds it toggles the capacitive buttons backlight on n off....
any support on this guys? im sure it wouldnt be too difficult

There is an app in the market to do this.
Its called "LEDs hack" (without thr quotes.
Type that exactly otherwise it wont show.
Sometimes regular market doesnt show it but appbrain will everytime.
First time it starts you select the phone u use. Only like 2 or 3 phones show.... you have to scroll that list to find the evo.
Sent from my PC36100 using Tapatalk

You would have found the answer to this if you searched this forum.
I'm feeling nice today so here you go http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=816128
I am now using tasker to do this for me.

Is there a way to turn off the HOME, MENU, BACK, SEARCH button light permenatly? I just want the screen on and the buttons to remain off.
thanks

gessin64 said:
Is there a way to turn off the HOME, MENU, BACK, SEARCH button light permenatly? I just want the screen on and the buttons to remain off.
thanks
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Click to collapse
I haven't found anything yet. There are triggers that will turn the buttons back on. One trigger is if you are on a call and the screen shuts off, when the screen comes back on the buttons light back up.
I am trying to find a way to block this and many triggers with tasker but it is a trial and error process.

gessin64 said:
Is there a way to turn off the HOME, MENU, BACK, SEARCH button light permenatly? I just want the screen on and the buttons to remain off.
thanks
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
leds hack works perfectly. runs for as long as you have it active. no noticeable battery drain either.
i've been using it since my old moto droid days.

Why do we need the Home button's force/3d touch?

I'm playing s8+ for over a week. Slowly the first dust settles down and I start thinking about the phone in a more reasonable way. One day I was using an app that allows rotating screen 180° (*). My first thought was: what will happen with the home button when it will be on the other side of the screen?
Will the force touch work?
It doesn't of course.
So will I be able to launch the assistant app? Yes. It launches when you keep your finger on the home button a bit longer.
Ok then. So I asked the question myself:
What this force touch is made for?
The only use I find is: enable use of Home button in immersive mode (On the AOD screen you need to double click to "turn on" the screen so I can't say that the force touch is necessary there).
Any other use you find for this sophisticated tech?
____________________
* the app is: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=nl.fameit.rotate

It's just to show off when the screen is off, and Always on Display is off (I don't use it due to it being a waste of battery) and allows someone to turn on the screen without using the power button.

Is just f'n awesome straight up bragging rights when you tell your friends that I can turn my phone on by touching the invisible button lol that's my only reason for needing it

I love the feature.... no screwing around with power button or anything just press and hold to unlock:good:

The only uses are turning on your screen from a screen-off state, and to return to home straight away when the buttons are gone. You can force-touch the place where the home button would be when the home buttons aren't there to go straight to your home screen, pretty useful when playing full-screen games. And it's super easy to unlock your phone when you set the touch sensitivity to the highest, just a small touch unlocks the screen easily

Heres a tip: If you leave the home button on with the always on display, you can also double tap it to have it open the lock screen instead of unlocking.

2003vstrom said:
I love the feature.... no screwing around with power button or anything just press and hold to unlock:good:
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Why do people keep saying this? Is there some feature I'm not aware of? It's a hard-press or, in the alternative, a double tap if the home button is showing. I've never seen any option to "press and hold" (a/k/a "long-press") like you and others keep saying. What am I missing?

eyc said:
Why do people keep saying this? Is there some feature I'm not aware of? It's a hard-press or, in the alternative, a double tap if the home button is showing. I've never seen any option to "press and hold" (a/k/a "long-press") like you and others keep saying. What am I missing?
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Click to collapse
go to display settings then to navigation bar settings then there is option for unlock with home button, once that is on, with AOD on you just touch and hold the button and it will go right to your home screen or you can shut off AOD and with the screen off you can still press and hold in the same area where the home button would be and it will unlock the phone and take you to your home screen:good:

2003vstrom said:
go to display settings then to navigation bar settings then there is option for unlock with home button, once that is on, with AOD on you just touch and hold the button and it will go right to your home screen or you can shut off AOD and with the screen off you can still press and hold in the same area where the home button would be and it will unlock the phone and take you to your home screen:good:
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Click to collapse
Strange. That doesn't work for me. I enabled "Unlock with Home Button," and when my screen is on AOD, I touch-and-hold on the home button, and nothing happens. Only double-touching or hard-pressing do anything. I'm on Verizon S8+.

Main use is for AOD. You wouldnt want your phone turning on simply be the home button screen area being rub.
But outside of that. There isnt a need for it. There had been phones with on screen home buttons before. This thing here is that they disapper when using full screen on the s8