[Q] Light sensor issue on Android 3.1? - Xoom Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

I updated my Xoomto 3.1 right after unboxing it. Then I found that its light sensor does not work.
Setting screen brightness to auto has no effect, it just keep the same brightness regardless of ambient light. So I must set the brightness manually, it is very annoying.
I installed some sensor utilities such as AndroSensor, Light Sensor,... but they don't display any value (just "waiting for event").
Does anyone meet the same problem? Is this an error in the sensor or a bug of Android 3.1?
(My Xoom is CDMA version)

Yeah I noticed the same thing the other day. Auto does nothing.

Could you give more details?
Did it work before upgrading? How is it now?

I'm not sure if it was doing it with 3.0, just noticed mine the other day.

Same here...

I have no light sensor issue--before or since the update.

I downloaded a sensor app and confirmed that i have no light sensor readings. I'm jusrt not sure when it happened or if it ever worked. could it be a kernel thing?

Thank you all for your replies.
Same here...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What do you mean? Does it work or not on your Xoom?
Anyway, as I see, this is not a common issue, so I returned my Xoom.

Actually I take it back, the auto brightness is working for me

I didn't even notice mine wasn't working until this thread. I'm just going to go with it.

so this is weird. I upgraded to the new Tiamat kernel today and my light sensor is working again. It must be a kernel thing. I'll post a message in that thread.

Related

[Q] Does the ambient light sensor even work?

I have been playing with my TF for a little over a month. I updated to 3.1 so I don't know it this is an issue. My problem is the ambient light sensor. It doesnt seem to work. No matter what brightness i have or if it's on auto or not I have never seen my screen get dimmer or brighter in any situation. I put a flashlight right on the sensor and I see nothing change onscreen. Anyone else have this going on?
My light sensor appears to work. It does have a fair amout of hysterisis in it otherwise it would drive you nuts.
Sounds like you're either not shining your torch at the actual sensor or yours really doesnt work. It's about an inch to the left of the front camera in case it's the former. It should poll every 4 seconds when on 'auto' brightness, and change the screen accordingly. I find that it works, but it doesnt really change the screen brightness to the best level for viewing. I'm sure there's an app to deal with this although I usually just set it manually. It's easy enough to do.
Oyeve said:
I have been playing with my TF for a little over a month. I updated to 3.1 so I don't know it this is an issue. My problem is the ambient light sensor. It doesnt seem to work. No matter what brightness i have or if it's on auto or not I have never seen my screen get dimmer or brighter in any situation. I put a flashlight right on the sensor and I see nothing change onscreen. Anyone else have this going on?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's perfectly possible the sensor is sensitive to IR or some other wavelength in daylight that's not emitted by your flashlight. The sensor definitely works just fine for me.
I never notice the screen changing brightness (it's designed to gradually change according to the different light exposure so human eyes don't notice it changed, but in reality it did change). When I'm in a car however, if there's trees near by and it blocks the sun every so often, I can clearly see the brightness suddenly shooting up and dropping down. I don't think it works with lamps though (turning on my lights didn't make the display brighter), only light from the sun.
It works quite well now that I'm updated to 3.1. It went through various stages of not working or just messing up back on the 3.0 updates. Now it reacts, increases and decreases and the screen is bright enough.
Mine seems broken too. Strange, because this would be the first thing wrong with me Transformer and it doesn't even seem like a common problem.
This and the browser typing lag alone are making me think of selling it.
Okay, mine is definitely broken.
I just tried it by going out in the balcony and then going in the bathroom and shutting the door - nothing happens.
Seriously Asus, what were you doing when you designed and built this thing? My Tranformer is otherwise perfect - no light bleed, no creaks, no pubes under the screen, no issue at all. Except the light sensor... it seems maybe the perfect Transformer doesn't exist.
mine works
Okay, some progress.
Shinning my HD2's bright dual LED's right onto the sensor actually makes the sensor work.
But still, this thing is apparently not calibrated well because going from outside to a totally dark room didn't change the brightness - it doesn't matter if putting two LEDs right onto the sensor makes it work, that's not why it's there.
On my TF, it takes about a minute for the brightness to change when I move from a dark room to the great outdoors.
Give it a little time for the software loop to kick in
Is this any way to calibrate this sensor? It's works horrible!
Shawn_230 said:
Okay, some progress.
Shinning my HD2's bright dual LED's right onto the sensor actually makes the sensor work.
But still, this thing is apparently not calibrated well because going from outside to a totally dark room didn't change the brightness - it doesn't matter if putting two LEDs right onto the sensor makes it work, that's not why it's there.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Do you have a screen protector?
Not to go off topic but I only had keyboard lag when I was using the Asus keyboard Shawn, have you tried the default Android keyboard?
There is an app in the market called androsensor that will tellyou the values for many sensors including the light sensor.
Mine is measured in lux and ranges from 0 to 400 indoors it does not update quickly mine updates every few seconds.
Sent from my Transformer TF101
vladdt said:
Is this any way to calibrate this sensor? It's works horrible!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is a paid program i use and love called lux
Well worth the price imo. It essentially lets you manually adjust the screen brightness for the various light levels over time, remembers these and will automatically put the screen at those levels next time. It alo has some logic too but i cant talk to that.
Sent from my Transformer TF101
It seems to work for me except that it doesn't adjust the levels properly. I can be in a somewhat bright room and the brightness is still at its lowest level, making it difficult to read. However, in broad daylight, the brightness shoots up.
I might try Lux as suggested previously.
lrissman said:
There is a paid program i use and love called lux
Well worth the price imo. It essentially lets you manually adjust the screen brightness for the various light levels over time, remembers these and will automatically put the screen at those levels next time. It alo has some logic too but i cant talk to that.
Sent from my Transformer TF101
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1 for Lux - great app
Sent from my Transformer TF101 using Tapatalkr

Two major issues with the Nexus 5 ambient light sensor

1. The sensor reading often jumps to 30000lx momentarily, (measured using Lux Dash in Debug mode), and so the phone blinds you for while. This happens in a repeatable fashion when you hold the phone at certain angles. Try it yourself.
2. The N5 reads zero lux even in moderate/dim light, while my old N4 still reads around 10 lux. The N4 was much better as you could make a distinction between the dim light and no light at all.
On the new N5 you have to set the zero lux level so it's bright enought for moderate light, which means it's far too bright at night.
Why is the N5 sensor so poor? Or is the kernel? Really, this is pretty basic stuff. Come on Google, we want the autobrightness to work fine without having to download apps to try and fix the most basic settings.
(As per other threads, the N5 stock autobrightness is almost unusable!)
Same here. Only occurs in the kitchen under the spotlights. I've had 2 phones and the same has happened on both using lux.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Happy to see others having this issue as well. I always figured it was a Kitkat bug.
I had some dead pixels on my first N5, so I got a replacement. The replacement is now exhibiting this weird sensor issue (also spiking up to 30,000lux based on device orientation).
I have the same issue on my N5, sudden freak peaks of 15000 lux or more, then suddenly back to normal values of 50-80. Same behavior on stock kernel and Francos Kernel.
Hoping for a quick fix by Google.
Kusie
I'm having the same issue too, but it appears to be under certain lightbulbs that I have this issue. For example in 2 different situations, one I was in a restaurant and another while I was in my bathroom, and my phone would constantly pick up either 0 lux or 30000 lux (depending on the angle of the phone under the light). This is under halogen lighting.
When I get out of the restaurant and under regular lighting and when I'm in my bedroom (LED/CCFL lights), the light sensor would behave normally.
Anyone else have these issues?
Aria807 said:
Anyone else have these issues?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, and it's not really reproduceable for me but it's very annoying and sometimes painful. This screen can get very bright and it's blinded me in the dark when this happens.
Is it the light sensor? Is it LUX? Does this happen without lux installed?
Can the sensor be calibrated or is it just bad hardware? This is a real annoyance. My S4 doesn't read 0 lux unless there is absolutely zero and it never jumps around. Even it's own screen reflecting on my face will cause it to read 1-10. That level of sensitivity is great for setting up lux to go subzero. Maybe the kernel is translating the sensor voltage output incorrectly?
Sent from my Nexus 5 using xda app-developers app
rabaker07 said:
Yes, and it's not really reproduceable for me but it's very annoying and sometimes painful. This screen can get very bright and it's blinded me in the dark when this happens.
Is it the light sensor? Is it LUX? Does this happen without lux installed?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lux is a measurement of brightness.
I thought it was Lux causing it, but I have tried full wipe + reflashing a new rom, and my sensors still go a lil whack. This is flashing new rom + immediately downloading a sensor tool and checking the readings before installing Lux or any other apps.
However, Lux came out with a new version a week or so ago and it seems to have been waiving those spiked readings, so my phone atm isn't acting up super dim to super bright and back.
I still have this issue on 4.2.2.,very annoying. Is this a software issue or bad sensors?
Starts to piss me off so badly I think about sending my N5 back to google.
Happens both on stock auto brightness and yaab.
Help please?
Kusie
Yeah same here, very annoying, have to use Manuel britness very often
I have this same problem too. Using the Lux app debug mode I rotated the phone while in a room lit with incandescent bulbs and one lit with daylight. When rotating the phone I sometimes see a spike of 30000 lx but more importantly the sensor drops to 0 even though there is plenty of ambient light. During daylight I don't see the 30000 lx spikes but I still see the sensor dropping to 0 when there's plenty of ambient light.
I feel like the sensor is too far recessed into the phone and causing a tunnel effect. If the phone is looking at a dark shirt or surface that's a foot away from it, it will register 0 even though there's plenty of ambient light. This seems like a design flaw or a flaw in android's API.
Using the full version of Lux app might be able to fix it since it allows you to use the camera for ambient light detection but I haven't purchased the full app yet so I don't know.
Really wish android would have a solution for this because it's quite irritating.
Are you guys using the Lux app? I haven't had this problem with stock auto brightness.
clocinnorcal said:
Are you guys using the Lux app? I haven't had this problem with stock auto brightness.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
With the stock auto brightness it was too bright in most cases and also in some cases the brightness would spike. Downloaded the free version of lux app in order to try to fix the problem and while it can adjust the brightness to be lower, the problem is that the light sensor gives low readings straight from the api.
I just installed Lux and I can't reproduce it on my Nexus. Mine always behaves correctly in automatic brightness, so I guess it's a hardware problem that only affects some devices?
I jump now in here as i have the same problem unfortunatley. I have no clue if its hardware related or software, but on my HTC One with kitkat running the same rom i dont have such issues s i guess its a HW fault. If anyone finds a solution or something that fixes this mess, would highly appreciate if wwe could keep this thread alive
I hope it's just a kernel issue where it's not translating the sensor output to the OS granularly enough. On my S4, it has to be truly zero light for it to see 0lx. Even in low low light, it's registering a value between 1 and 100. It makes it very easy to distinguish between no light (laying in bed) and low light (driving in the car, movie theater, etc). I hope they fix it because it's rather annoying that we're having this issue.
coolguy949 said:
I hope it's just a kernel issue where it's not translating the sensor output to the OS granularly enough. On my S4, it has to be truly zero light for it to see 0lx. Even in low low light, it's registering a value between 1 and 100. It makes it very easy to distinguish between no light (laying in bed) and low light (driving in the car, movie theater, etc). I hope they fix it because it's rather annoying that we're having this issue.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The next interesting thing is that it happens only in 1 out of 6 rooms at home. I hope I'm not totally crazy but could it be a bad combination between a sort of light bulb and the sensor?? I know this sounds totally stupid but I only can reproduce it with one light bulb. Or it is because that one light bulb is really low dimmed. I have to test that further tomorrow. Only have one dimmable light bulb atm to test so I will dim the others tomorrow that working atm.
noNeedforAsig
n3ocort3x said:
The next interesting thing is that it happens only in 1 out of 6 rooms at home. I hope I'm not totally crazy but could it be a bad combination between a sort of light bulb and the sensor?? I know this sounds totally stupid but I only can reproduce it with one light bulb. Or it is because that one light bulb is really low dimmed. I have to test that further tomorrow. Only have one dimmable light bulb atm to test so I will dim the others tomorrow that working atm.
noNeedforAsig
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I remember reading something weeks ago that the sensor doesn't work well with certain bulbs. I can't seem to locate the thread though.

[Q] Missing sensors in Nexus 5 after install Android 5.0

Hello,
After clean install Android 5.0 on Nexus 5 I have lost all sensors.
Do you have similar problem?
Is there any solution to fix it?
What app are you using? This looks like a bug in an app, than in Android itself.
I had this problem even before installed any apps. In android l developer preview I didn't have sensors also, so after installed final version of lollipop the first thing I made was check sensors. On kitkat everything worked perfect.
Wysłane z mojego Nexus 5 przy użyciu Tapatalka
i don't have light and proximity sensors too...
i did full wipe and flash stock OTA
hope they will fix it soon
Since upgrading to Lollipop my proximity and light sensor also stops working after a few minutes. It works again after a restart, but only for a few minutes.
I have flashed 4.4.4 again and the problem is not present there. After upgrading to 5.0 again the problem came back.
the apps are the issue here gentlemen.
1.On call as you bring your phone to ear, screen turns off?Proximity working
2.Adaptive brightness enable and use the phone on same brightness settings in bright and dim areas, screen brightness intensity change?Light sensor working.
3.Screen rotates views?Accelerometer working.
4.Play asphalt or any other motion requiring game, car turns?Gyro working.
5.Open maps, get pointing direction?compass working.
6.Use pedometer, counter change?step counter working.
gamer.11 said:
the apps are the issue here gentlemen.
1.On call as you bring your phone to ear, screen turns off?Proximity working
2.Adaptive brightness enable and use the phone on same brightness settings in bright and dim areas, screen brightness intensity change?Light sensor working.
3.Screen rotates views?Accelerometer working.
4.Play asphalt or any other motion requiring game, car turns?Gyro working.
5.Open maps, get pointing direction?compass working.
6.Use pedometer, counter change?step counter working.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No sir, it's definitely not the apps in my case. After a restart the light and proximity sensors work as expected, but a few minutes later they stop working. I could confirm this with the Sensor Box app as well as with no's 1&2 in your post.
I noticed it first because my adaptive brightness did not work and the screen did not switch of in call. I only installed Sensor Box to see if the sensors still work, this confirmed that they actually stop working and that it is not a calibration issue because Sensor Box shows no reading from these sensors.
This is definitely an issue with Lollipop because I flashed 4.4.4 again and everything worked fine confirming that it is not hardware, but after once again upgrading to 5.0 the sensors stop working few minutes after the phone starts up.
m4nic4ndroid said:
No sir, it's definitely not the apps in my case. After a restart the light and proximity sensors work as expected, but a few minutes later they stop working. I could confirm this with the Sensor Box app as well as with no's 1&2 in your post.
I noticed it first because my adaptive brightness did not work and the screen did not switch of in call. I only installed Sensor Box to see if the sensors still work, this confirmed that they actually stop working and that it is not a calibration issue because Sensor Box shows no reading from these sensors.
This is definitely an issue with Lollipop because I flashed 4.4.4 again and everything worked fine confirming that it is not hardware, but after once again upgrading to 5.0 the sensors stop working few minutes after the phone starts up.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's interesting, have you tried any other custom roms or kernels based on lollipop? I know that is a long shot or even that best advice but could you, or have you checked on other roms?
SO only your Proximity and light sensor the issue? Or all the other sensors a bust?
gamer.11 said:
That's interesting, have you tried any other custom roms or kernels based on lollipop? I know that is a long shot or even that best advice but could you, or have you checked on other roms?
SO only your Proximity and light sensor the issue? Or all the other sensors a bust?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't tried any other Lollipop ROMs, I thought about it and I might actually give it a go to see if the problem persists on other ROMs as well, but I would prefer to have stock Android running on my phone, so I'm really hoping for a fix from Google. I'm on few other threads about the same issue, so I know there's a lot of people with the same problem. I had this on the dev preview as well.
gamer.11 said:
That's interesting, have you tried any other custom roms or kernels based on lollipop? I know that is a long shot or even that best advice but could you, or have you checked on other roms?
SO only your Proximity and light sensor the issue? Or all the other sensors a bust?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I have tried Code-Blue kernel as I have heard it's a good one, but the problem is still there. I might try a different ROM in the near future.
For me it is only the Light and Proximity sensors, all other sensors work 100%
Light Sensor & Proximity Sensor Error
m4nic4ndroid said:
I have tried Code-Blue kernel as I have heard it's a good one, but the problem is still there. I might try a different ROM in the near future.
For me it is only the Light and Proximity sensors, all other sensors work 100%
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Same Problem For Me As Well, My Light Sensor & Proximity Sensor Arent Working. I have downloaded the Final Image from Google Website for 5.0 hammerhead. But still the problem persists.
Nyk
After I got the Play services (with secure locations) update two days ago my light and proximity sensors are gone too. They will work for a while after reboot, but eventually they die.
All other sensors are working fine and only other updates have been to Skype, SwiftKey and TuneIn Radio.
Edit: I'm on stock OTA, no root and never unlocked the bootloader.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
So uninstalling the play services update resolve the issue? I'm back to KitKat as without light sensor I find uncomfortable to use the phone. Will await the fix before moving to lollipop..
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Free mobile app
"Clean install" using factory images? I did, no issues here.
It seems to be working until I get a phone call, after that the sensors will die.
Have uninstalled the Play services update now and the phone has been up and working 100% for a little more than 4 hours now. Will try to make a phone call to see if it still works after that.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Did you reboot after disabling update?
Sent from my Nexus 5 using XDA Free mobile app
rawimage said:
It seems to be working until I get a phone call, after that the sensors will die.
Have uninstalled the Play services update now and the phone has been up and working 100% for a little more than 4 hours now. Will try to make a phone call to see if it still works after that.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Uninstalling Play Services and Play Store update made no difference here. Problem still persists.
michalnied said:
Hello,
After clean install Android 5.0 on Nexus 5 I have lost all sensors.
Do you have similar problem?
Is there any solution to fix it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi I have the same problems . Sensors are working after restarting my phone random time. Also you can read here
Uninstalling Play services didn't do it for me either. Sensors work for approximately 4-5 hours then they die.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk
Installed Play services update again after a few days and now my phone has been running fine for 50 hours with all sensors working 100%.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

Issue with screen's backlight

Hello everybody!
Recently i bought one Motorola Photon Q and I found one weird problem with my Photon Q.
I cannot regulate the screen's backlight. When it is on 100% it is very bright, but anything below this point (in example 99% or 50%) it goes very dimmed. So, basically I have two levels of backlight. Minimum and maximum. Nothing in the middle.
I tried to regulate it from the recovery mode, but issue stays the same.
Phone already had TWRP and CM 13.
Any ideas what can I do about it?
Regards.
Wow you joined in September 2008 and this is your first post?
Congrats!!
As for the issue, it almost sounds hardware related. Like someone swapped the proximity sensor for the ambient light sensor... If the issue persists in recovery, I'm not sure flashing stock would do you any favors (not that you would want stock, it would just rule out any low-level software issues if you flash thru RSD Lite).
Yes yes, I know. There was nothing I could give from my side. Just usual user.
Changing the sensor? But does it have anything in common, while backlight sensivity is chosen manually?
I'll try to flash it by RSD lite.
Thanks.
MarioK15 said:
Changing the sensor? But does it have anything in common, while backlight sensivity is chosen manually?
I'll try to flash it by RSD lite.
Thanks.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Honestly was just firing off the hip based on you description - it sounds hardware related not software, especially since it persists in recovery...
To rule out software entirely, RSD Lite is the best way IMHO. Good luck.
Assuming it is a hardware issue... I'm not sure replacing that sensor is worth the effort. I guess it depends on your desire (and ability) to get this old PQ working properly
It might be the hardware problem. I installed some application to check sensors, and it does not detect proximity sensor.
I was wondering about dismounting this sensor, but probably it would not help at all.

Am i the only one who has display backlight flickering with my Zenfone 6?

Hi,
i got my Zenfone 6 today, and i really like it, but there is one thing that probably makes me return it...
The display is flickering when it‘s set to really low brightness, i think its the backlight.
I‘m not sure if it's broken or not. So, am i the only one with a flickering display?
Thank you
07713 said:
Hi,
i got my Zenfone 6 today, and i really like it, but there is one thing that probably makes me return it...
The display is flickering when it‘s set to really low brightness, i think its the backlight.
I‘m not sure if it's broken or not. So, am i the only one with a flickering display?
Thank you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I had the same situation yesterday, it was on low brightness too.
But only for a few seconds, for now, everything seems fine, even in low brightness.
With adaptive brightness set on or off?
Do you have the latest firmware version WW-16.1210.1904.133?
It doesn‘t matterif adaptive brightness is on or off, it does it as soon as the display lowers its brightness to the 1st 1/4 of the brightness bar...
Ok. Do you have the latest firmware version WW-16.1210.1904.133?
_jis_ said:
Ok. Do you have the latest firmware version WW-16.1210.1904.133?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, i have the same problem. Received the phone a week ago and trying to find a solution. I am on the last firmware, tried the dev option about overlay, hard reset and still the same. Going to send it back to Asus for a refund...
I wonder if this is software or hardware related. As of now i can't use it at night with low brightness.
It will probably be a problem for a particular phone, I would recommend that you replace it with a new one.
https://swedroid.se/forum/threads/snabba-fragor-snabba-svar-zenfone-6.165775/page-38#post-2443073
Thanks for the feedback. Called Asus this morning to replace it hopefully.
My Zenfone 6 does the same. If I set the adaptive brightness on the low brightness flickering disappears. I think it's a software related problem because others Zenfone have the same behaviour.
Tried it. No matter the settings it flickers. I found a video that match the problem, weird no one noticed : youtu.be/DN1La8AbZsI
Check at 1.16 min, on the right side, it flickers like that, when the luminosity is low. This is what i see on my screen.
Same here. White backgrounds flicker when brightness set to low. Tried disabling HW overlay, but it didn't help. Phone on the latest firmware WW_16.1210.1904.133.
Anybody letting the techs at Asus know about these problems? I would like to hear about a fix before I buy anything.
I am in touch with Asus France, i have to send back the phone for an exchange as they told me it MAY be a hardware problem.
I linked the thread to them if it can help.
Every zenfone I have had (2 and 3) have had this issue.
Skhio said:
I am in touch with Asus France, i have to send back the phone for an exchange as they told me it MAY be a hardware problem.
I linked the thread to them if it can help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think it's a software issue...if you let the brightness working in auto mode the problem disappears.
It is set in auto mode on my device and still the same. With or without doesn't help sadly.
Hmmm is this international version? The U.S is coming next month. Hopefully this get fix before I'm buying it.
Sent from my SM-G970U1 using Tapatalk
Wulff73 said:
I think it's a software issue...if you let the brightness working in auto mode the problem disappears.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mine is flickering when brightness is set to low (about 1/4-th of the brightness slider and down) no matter auto or no auto.
Funny how we here in the US complain that so many phones are released in the EU, or India, or China long before they ever appear here....but in reality it could be that we benefit from this practice so that some of these issues can be resolved by others before we have to deal with them.
jaseman said:
Funny how we here in the US complain that so many phones are released in the EU, or India, or China long before they ever appear here....but in reality it could be that we benefit from this practice so that some of these issues can be resolved by others before we have to deal with them.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I hope that when this phone is released in your country, this issue will be solved definitively via software update. The way I see it, this problem isn't a huge problem, fortunately. Actually the screen flickering occours only if the brightness is set to a very low level (e.g. <20%) but, with this setting, the backlight is too dim as well for use even in a dark room (obviously for my taste). Since I use adaptive brightness with default settings, the minimum value the screen brightness reaches is 34% so I never get the problem....

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