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.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
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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Click to collapse
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.
Click to expand...
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...
Click to expand...
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!
Click to expand...
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.
I have an htc Touch HD
used almost all of the wm6.5.x roms and on all of them the same problem.
with autolock function enabled using HD Tweak when the back light is deeming due to small time of touching the screen when tapping again the light want return to default (bright so i can use it).
i must turn off the screen (using the power button) to revert and start using the phone again.
Any one has a solution for this?!
ps: Backlight is on auto adjust mode
Don't use that autolock, it causes the problems that you just stated. Use csdevctrl instead:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=386451
Its a little tricky to figure out, but the autolock on it works perfectly. I can't remember what you have to press to initiate the autolock, but it isn't called autolock, something like lock display after suspend
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
Click to expand...
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.
Right now I am on aokp and it seems like its impossible to turn off the soft key (menu home back search) lights. I've tried apps like screen filter and it does turn the lights off but they turn back on as soon as I press one of the buttons or if I lock and unlock the phone.
They are very annoying when watching a video or reading. Is there any way I can turn them off?
Sent from my SGH-T959V using xda app-developers app
As a workaround, if you're watching video that's stored on the phone you might wanna try MX Player. It's got an option to disable the softkey backlights while you're watching video and it's worked well for me. I forget the name of the option but it's in the settings for the app.
This is a known problem with all of our ICS roms. :/
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mxtech.videoplayer.ad
Thank you for responding. Another work around i found is to use the navigation bar in aokp instead of the physical keys, but this cuts off the keyboard. Doesn't this have to do with the bln support in the kernel? If you guys were to make a version of the roms you guys have without the bln support, would the soft key lights function normally?
I thought it was BLN causing the issue too. I tried reverting the patch and trying out the new kernel bug the bug was still there so it looks like it's something else causing this.
The soft key lights on this device seem to work differently then most other android devices with back light soft keys. I've been trying to figure this out for a while. When exactly does the phone decide to turn them off, and and why can't I turn them off using apps like screen filter, and even on the stock t mobile rom?
Is this a hardware or software issue?
What I know is that the soft key lights in kj6 (gingerbread) roms turn on every time you turn the screen on or touch the screen, and turn off after 3 seconds of inactivity (not touching the screen or pressing any buttons).
But it seems that in some situations the soft keys turn off and stay off, even when touching the screen, which is seemingly random. Why does it do this?
Does anybody know when exactly the soft key lights decide to turn off?
From what I can tell, the Team Acid ICS driver does what it is supposed to do -- turn on and off the lights when the magic number is written to the right sysfs location.
The control of the lights is supposed to happen in the Android world with PowerManager and LightsService. The "problem" is that it seems as though the chip that controls the touchkeys and their backlight have a mind of their own and turn on the lights when you touch them. This gets the Android world's idea of if they are on or not confused, resulting in LightsService not "turning off" the light as it thinks they are already off.
I'm working through a good way to resolve this. Messing with the framework code is not the best as it means that TeamAcid would have their own version, and keeping up with upstream changes would be more difficult. Unfortunately, how it was done in GB is something of a mystery as it isn't clear to me from the Samsung code drop.
https://github.com/teamacid/android_device_samsung_galaxys4gmtd/issues/32
Are the soft key lights on the sgs4g the same as the original us versions of the Samsung galaxy (the vibrant/captivate)? If they have a fix for this (I assume they might because they have a larger development community) , would it work for our device?
I'm looking into if I can find some dev information for the Cypress/Melfas key controller, and possibly the Atmel mXT224 and looking for other devices that use it (Motorola Atrix, for example). If I can disable the "LED on when touched" behavior, things are a lot easier.
i was wondering about this as well... my back button, is messed up and has no sensitivity at all so im trying to disable the whole bar and just use an onscreen nav bar. i know that paranoid as it in their settings but that rom eats up the battery like a mad man ill be down to zero by noon i dont get that problem with CM9 BUT CM9 doesnt have the onscreen Nav Bar
does any one know where i can find more info on adding this nav bar to CM9?
Aokp has it too
V1R3Z said:
my back button, is messed up and has no sensitivity at all
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Click to collapse
You might try Hefe Kernel Of Darkness (second post in that thread) to mainly turn off the touchkey backlight.
I'm curious as to what poor back-button sensitivity problems you are seeing. You can PM to keep the thread clean.