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[APP] Extra Dimmer Switch - UPDATE 10-03-10 - disabling/enabling of 'Auto Brightness'

Hi People,
I had a problem, I wanted to read a book and browse web sites on my N1 at night, whilst girlfriend was trying to sleep. The Nexus One even on its dimmest setting is quite bright at night and annoys said gf, so I was looking for a way to get the screen dimmer than stock levels, similar to the night mode functionality.
Turns out the job was far more technical than I first thought, and beyond my capabilities. PM'd Cyan, but as you might expect he seems too busy with other projects to help, no surprise there!
The help came from my Android Fandroid mate Richard over at Geekyouup!
He has kindly created an application that will reduce the brightness of my beloved Nexus one to level 10 (the default minimum is 30) from what ever brightness level you are currently on. Click the icon again, and it will restore your brightness to previous levels.
Unfortunatley, due to Android fail safes, he was unable to get the level below 10, (yet) but its a step better than stock minimum for me.
I have attached the apk for your night time pleasure here.
ALL the work was done by my man Rich Hyndman (@geekyouup)
You can also get the version here:
http://geekyouup.com/dimmer.apk
P.S I love the slightly off balanced light bulb icon Rich!!

very useful
thanks!

Just tried it, works great. I've cursed under my breath about wishing I could lower the brightness.. what a wonderful idea.

Hi thanks for sharing. However it does not work when auto brightness is enabled. Is it possible to suggest to the author to support it as well?
On: Toggle off auto brightness and dim.
Off: Toggle on auto brightness.

Wysie - could do, I'm here. I know about the issue when Auto-brightness is enabled, working on it right now....

ok, version 1.0.2 is attached, now supports Automatic Brightness toggling as per Wysie's suggestion. If Automatic Brightness is on it disables and sets screen dim, second press re-enables Automatic Brightness.
Also available in Android Market and at the web link in dipeshb's post (as a 'Juniour Member' I can't post links)

Downloaded from the market and it works great. Thanks mate.

How can I set parameters for auto-brightness?

If I want to lets say never want the brightness to go below 10% with automatic brightness how do I do this? I want it to play within 10-100% brightness and never let it go to 0%. I am surprised no android phone has such a useful feature built in where we could manually set upper and lower parameters for auto brightness.
I am running stock rooted rom.

Can't with stock ROM as far as i'm aware, however many ROMs have exactly this feature and you can fine tune it as delicate and precisely as you like. I believe most of them have the settings in the Display area in the settings. Excellent feature that should definitely be a part of the stock ROM (simple presets and advanced tuning would be quite awesome for stock).

Harbb said:
Can't with stock ROM as far as i'm aware, however many ROMs have exactly this feature and you can fine tune it as delicate and precisely as you like. I believe most of them have the settings in the Display area in the settings. Excellent feature that should definitely be a part of the stock ROM (simple presets and advanced tuning would be quite awesome for stock).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I can see more people breaking stuff there rather than fixing it. The autobrightness works decently on 4.0.4, only wish it was smoother by default.

My only problem with auto brightness is when it starts up it can take seconds to brighten up. I dont understand why it must start from 0% every single time I am indoors. I think it should wake up on the last setting and then lower it if needed, that would have been much better.
On GB it used to stay at 0% even in a rather well lit room but on ICS it goes to 10% in my room. It's just that the whole waking up at 0% is still really annoying.
Man custom rom I am not sure I am interested in them yet. Is there no app that can do it?

Screen dimming app.

If any of you other users out there feel that the whites on this thing are too awesome for super late at night like I do, I found a app when searching for a f.lux type alternative for android. I have been using this app to help ease the stress on my eye late at night. I dont know about the techical side of what it does, or any of the jargon involved, but it applies a filter of sorts to dim the screen further than what the phone allows. I been using it a lot lately and figure I would share with you guys. If anyone has any recommendations for other similar apps, please share.
Tl:dr
Screen Filter
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.haxor
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

enomele said:
If any of you other users out there feel that the whites on this thing are too awesome for super late at night like I do, I found a app when searching for a f.lux type alternative for android. I have been using this app to help ease the stress on my eye late at night. I dont know about the techical side of what it does, or any of the jargon involved, but it applies a filter of sorts to dim the screen further than what the phone allows. I been using it a lot lately and figure I would share with you guys. If anyone has any recommendations for other similar apps, please share.
Tl:dr
Screen Filter
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.haxor
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Or just turn on "Background Color" in Power Saving Settings.

Or if you want the screen brightness itself to be lower than what most ROMs allow, you can use this app called RootDim. It worked amazing on my xoom, not sure if it works on the SGSIII yet..
It requires root though..

yosterwp said:
Or if you want the screen brightness itself to be lower than what most ROMs allow, you can use this app called RootDim. It worked amazing on my xoom, not sure if it works on the SGSIII yet..
It requires root though..
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Screen filter does the same and doesn't require root. On our AMOLED screens this can save battery.
Also you can turn off those damn capacitive key lights by going to Settings>display>"touch Key light duration"> Always off.

I can confirm that Root dim does work for the SGS3 I use it on my phone.
Current~Samsung Galaxy S3 SynergyRom 1.3 & Imo's Lean Kernel v12 Oc'd @ 1.9ghz
~Acer Iconia A500 Stock
Past~Droid X Gummy ICS 1.2

Lux is an amazing auto brightness app and setting it up for your tastes is incredibly simple.
Go out in the sun and turn brightness up all the way using the app then "link" that setting, go in complete darkness and set it to your taste and link it, then indoor lighting, set it, link it. It then uses just those 3 settings to create a smooth graph of brightness values that are all perfect. You can have as many links as you want but i find the less settings you put in that app the better.
I tried all the suggested ones in here btw.
Sent from my SCH-I535 using xda app-developers app

I've tried and really like Lux (in fact I'm considering purchasing it soon) but I've noticed two issues. First is that sometimes it will not refresh itself and I have to open up the lux dash to get the brightness to change. It doesn't happen often, but it happens often enough to be annoying, and I have it set to automatically.
Also, (and this may simply be an issue with the S3 and not lux itself) but sometimes I will be in a decently lit room and be at 1 lux, while lights out is 0. Not a lot of variance unless it's really bright outside. Have you found anyway to increase the light sensors sensitivity?

noingwhat said:
I've tried and really like Lux (in fact I'm considering purchasing it soon) but I've noticed two issues. First is that sometimes it will not refresh itself and I have to open up the lux dash to get the brightness to change. It doesn't happen often, but it happens often enough to be annoying, and I have it set to automatically.
Also, (and this may simply be an issue with the S3 and not lux itself) but sometimes I will be in a decently lit room and be at 1 lux, while lights out is 0. Not a lot of variance unless it's really bright outside. Have you found anyway to increase the light sensors sensitivity?
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Click to collapse
Try setting it to be always active in the task bar, that prevents it from being killed. Also try setting it to not use raw values for light sensor readings, this gives you a simple scale of 0-10 for readings and total darkness always reads as 0.
Edit: oops reread your post. That's weird that it is reading indoor light at 1. I usually get around 2 or 3. I used to have a screen protector on that covered the light sensor and that put it all over the place. Maybe that is what's causing it?

noingwhat said:
I've tried and really like Lux (in fact I'm considering purchasing it soon) but I've noticed two issues. First is that sometimes it will not refresh itself and I have to open up the lux dash to get the brightness to change. It doesn't happen often, but it happens often enough to be annoying, and I have it set to automatically.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I noticed the same behavior with the free version. In my case, the lowest value the HTC Desire S can reach with its default Android auto brightness is in fact about 15%.
In LUX settings you can configure the "0" value to be lower and "bypass" the freeware limitation (you can't configure sub-zero levels in the free version). This will work when you test it in the dashboard, but during regular use the light level never goes below the 15% limit already set by the OS.
What I did was purchase the full version (to get astronomer mode along with all the settings unlocked) so I was able to leave the 0 level at its default 15% but link some light intensity values to sub-zero percentages. Guess what? It works great! Once you go into a very dark room, the display dims as far as you set it to.
Another problem with the free version was that a few times I unlocked the phone outside in full sunlight and LUX did not increase the brightness. It appeared almost completely black because the light level was at about 15-25% (the same level it would be inside a low lit room).
Again, with the full version I did not notice this problem (I've used the free version for 1 day and the paid version for 1 day but running tests in different light levels inside and outside).
It's like the free version is a bit buggy on purpose, and I remember uninstalling LUX free about 2 months because of this; I was thinking that if the free version does not work OK, I shouldn't buy the full version. Apparently this is not the case (touch wood).
Just for the record, it's on "dynamically adjust".
noingwhat said:
Also, (and this may simply be an issue with the S3 and not lux itself) but sometimes I will be in a decently lit room and be at 1 lux, while lights out is 0. Not a lot of variance unless it's really bright outside. Have you found anyway to increase the light sensors sensitivity?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
If the display is a bit dirty (oily, dusty, etc) around the light sensor, you can try to clean it. If this is not the case, open the dashboard, let it determine the light level or hit "auto" a few times and make sure the reading is correct. Then just slide your finger along the yellow line to find the appropriate brightness level and long press the chain to link. Go to a brighter lit room then go back to the first room and see how LUX behaves. Also lock/unlock the phone a few times and see how it goes.
If you still have problems running LUX, disable it and check the default Android auto brightness to make sure it's not a sensor issue.
LUX also has the possibility to set the response delay under Settings -> Advanced -> Developer Settings (the last to just on the bottom, but for this you would need to buy the full version.

Inginerul said:
If the display is a bit dirty (oily, dusty, etc) around the light sensor, you can try to clean it. If this is not the case, open the dashboard, let it determine the light level or hit "auto" a few times and make sure the reading is correct. Then just slide your finger along the yellow line to find the appropriate brightness level and long press the chain to link. Go to a brighter lit room then go back to the first room and see how LUX behaves. Also lock/unlock the phone a few times and see how it goes.
If you still have problems running LUX, disable it and check the default Android auto brightness to make sure it's not a sensor issue.
LUX also has the possibility to set the response delay under Settings -> Advanced -> Developer Settings (the last to just on the bottom, but for this you would need to buy the full version.
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Click to collapse
Thanks, but I think it is more of an issue of the sensor not being sensitive enough. I'm not sure if this is anything you can change in lux or if it would have to be edited in the kernel (or if it is fault of the hardware) but I just feel like the sensor doesn't go down low enough. As I said, I can get down to 1 or 0 in a decently lit room, and yes I have tried cleaning the screen. It's not like it jumps around or anything so it's not like I would notice anything in default auto brightness, it's just that it doesn't seem to be sensitive enough.

Screen filter is great!! I use as well!!!
Sent from my SCH-I535 using Tapatalk 2

Well for my Desire S, the lowest light level that the sensor can read is 160 lux (raw value). You can try and set LUX to use raw values because this is more accurate in my oppinion.

Another +1 for Screen filter here

Does anyone know how to use "luma" values for automatic adjustment in Lux instead of "lux" values?

noingwhat said:
Does anyone know how to use "luma" values for automatic adjustment in Lux instead of "lux" values?
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Click to collapse
What I have noticed on my phone is that "luma" readings are taken from the front facing camera, while "lux" readings are taken from the ambient light sensor (you can chose which one to use in the settings).
I suppose the front facing camera uses more battery than the light sensor; it also appears to be more sensitive because it can read more light levels.

Inginerul said:
What I have noticed on my phone is that "luma" readings are taken from the front facing camera, while "lux" readings are taken from the ambient light sensor (you can chose which one to use in the settings).
I suppose the front facing camera uses more battery than the light sensor; it also appears to be more sensitive because it can read more light levels.
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I guess so. Thanks! But doesn't that kinda defeat the whole purpose of Lux? Because you can't use automatic mode with the camera(s).... so then what's it good for?

Well even if you don't have an ambient light sensor, you can still use the camera to check the light level when you unlock the phone and let LUX adjust the brightness level. Of course it's not dynamic but it's still better than having the brightness at 50% the whole time or changing brightness levels through a widget..

[Q] Is the Auto-Brightness Functionality wonky on the Nexus5?

Not sure if this is a Nexus5 or Android issue ...
Not sure if this is because I'm moving from an AMOLED to a IPS LCD ...
but I find the Auto-Brightness less of a function and more of a roller coaster ride.
- At home, in a well lit environment, the phone defaults to max brightness, which doesn't seem correct.
- In a dark room, upon wake of the phone, it correctly selects a lower brightness, yet will randomly ping up to max brightness, then settle back down.
The screen on the Nexus5 is absolutely gorgeous, but it just can't seem to select and lock onto the proper brightness level with respect to ambient light.
Is anyone else experiencing auto-brightness wonky-ness? Are there any potential fixes?

Everyone AFAIK suffers from it on nexus 5.
I have a horrible feeling it's a hardware fault, as none of the other Google devices on kitkat have this issue.

yeah the auto brightness seems to be too aggressive, but i'm sure custom roms will have the ability to tweak the auto brightness settings. i think even gravity box has some tweaks for the brightness

If you download Android Sensor Box, you can check the Light sensors. I think it may be bugged with Halogen lighting (correct me if I'm wrong). My home is ~ 18 years old, and we have some bulbs that have not been changed yet (yellow). Sometimes when I use my N5 under those lighting, the sensors go whack and don't register properly picking up 0lx, then spike up to 30000lx. Once I move to areas in the house with newer bulbs, the sensors work normal, picking up the right readings. I'm not sure if it's a rom issue or hardware issue, but my cousin also has a N5 and his worked fine. I tried flashing a new rom and mine still acted up fresh after boot (1st app installed after fresh flash was Android Sensor Box to test).

As a rule I don't use auto brightness. Just get something like lux or install exposed and enable a mod to let you adjust it by sliding your finger across the notification n shade. Easier and faster.
Sent from my Nexus 5 using Tapatalk

I find that autobrightness will auto-turn on, even when i don't want it to.
There is something funky about it, I can either make the phone too dark (using lux) or too bright (using default settings)
I'm still not happy.
Tried Lux, tried adjusting the brightness tables via Gravity Box, used Twilight (to dim at night), no matter what, N5 just wants to be at full brightness all the time!

I had my Nexus 5 in the cinema the other day. The phone was sat in the cup holder by the chair for the most part of an hour when I quickly replied to a text. On turning the screen on it was on full brightness and what's worst is it took around 10 seconds for it to go down. There is definitely something not quite right with it.

Aria807 said:
Sometimes when I use my N5 under those lighting, the sensors go whack and don't register properly picking up 0lx, then spike up to 30000lx. Once I move to areas in the house with newer bulbs, the sensors work normal, picking up the right readings.
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Hi, I have been experiencing this as well, so I attempted to fix this at ROM level. The solution requires Xposed framework, so it works only on rooted devices (related discussion).

Fix adaptive brightness (windows rt/8)

I customized a luminosity curve for my surface rt, just edit the registry keys.
Download extract and run the attached .reg file and confirm the insertion of the Keys, then reboot the system.
Alert to make a backup of the old keys if you want to restore the previous state.
This change is compatible with all windows 8 but I have tested only on the surface.
Adaptive brightness varies proportionally to the user manual brightness, I suggest to manually adjust the brightness bar to about 20%, if you place the bar at 0 the brightness will be minimal with no automatic adaptation.
Appreciated thanks
New version v2
New improved version.
Try it and tell me if it's okay.
In the zip you will find the normal version and one with more brightness in the dark
I suggest to manually adjust the brightness bar to about 25%

So you have a fix, that's great. But to what? You didn't state what the problem is. Neither did you way what you are doing differently over the default values. Why would me, or anybody else for that matter, want do download this?

Amax said:
So you have a fix, that's great. But to what? You didn't state what the problem is. Neither did you way what you are doing differently over the default values. Why would me, or anybody else for that matter, want do download this?
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Click to collapse
In my surface the luminosity curve does not satisfy me.
The display seemed to have only three levels of brightness, setting an average value (ie on the desk in the room in the morning) adaptivity did not fit values ​​for low-light (night) and lots of light, that is to say the brightness in the dark was not a minimum making it annoying for the view and unnecessary consumption of battery, instead with shaded light levels brightness became easily maximum, with again a waste of battery.
This forced me to move often the brightness bar manually, but now with my calibration does not touch more because it adapts automatically to any light condition.
Also the adaptation of brightness occurred after 3 seconds by the change of light, whereas now changes instantly in 0,1 seconds (100ms).

I like it a lot, just what I was looking for.
I use mostly in low light conditions my surface so it is very useful.
Just one remark: it is too sensitive so it is changing screen brightness very quickly even when I just touching the upper part of the screen and making a little shade on the light sensor...
So I think instead of 1 msec. would be better 3 msec.
Would you please and make a 3. version of the settings with 3 msec.?

Alapar said:
I like it a lot, just what I was looking for.
I use mostly in low light conditions my surface so it is very useful.
Just one remark: it is too sensitive so it is changing screen brightness very quickly even when I just touching the upper part of the screen and making a little shade on the light sensor...
So I think instead of 1 msec. would be better 3 msec.
Would you please and make a 3. version of the settings with 3 msec.?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
100ms not 1ms! However, this file will change only the time in 300ms

antys86 said:
100ms not 1ms! However, this file will change only the time in 300ms
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Click to collapse
You are right, 100 ms. I was in a hurry. Thanks for the fast response and update

Your v2 seems to be working fine for me. Before applying it I could really tell when my surface was adjusting the screen, after applying it the transitions seems smoother and less abrupt.
I have been looking for documentation about how all of these things really work and the closest thing i could find was this link http://superuser.com/questions/644538/customize-adaptative-brightness-in-windows-8
but they seem to be using a different registry location than what you are and different registry names
regardless your settings seem to work immediately after restarting the sensor service