MyTouch Trackball questions and ideas
Alright, I hope i don't sound like an a$$hole, but I, for one, am SICK and TIRED of my MyTouch not making use of the THREE (R,B,G to make white, correct?) LED's under it's trackball. Now i have a few questions,
1. Why hasn't it CM included trackball lighting/changing colors in his ROM? If it was done for the N1, how hard would it be to do it on the MyTouch?
2. HOW was it done for the Nexus? I noticed that "Trackball Alert Pro" just changed the LED color (top of phone, in the ear speaker slot), therefore, shouldn't it be as simple as to "tell" the app to use the MyTouch's trackball instead of the Nexus' trackball?
Now, the lights on some Motorola's (the Razr series, the Z3, V360), (the BT LED's, charging LED's, flashlights, etc.) were controlled by FLP files (basically .txt files) that you could edit manually or an FLP editor, so HOW is the Nexus' trackball light controlled? Is it a script, file, is it the kernel? Couldn't the same concept be applied to the MyTouch?
Also, i remember on the T-Mobile forums, a user called "BreakTheCycle2" (here's on XDA too, i think), developed a "script" to change the trackball light colors, and i sent him a PM, but he never replied.
Now, PLEASE don't be hatin' (lol), but I'm a n00b and these are just IDEAS that are running through my head.
A white led is a white led, I strongly doubt there is any way to get primary colors out of it.
N1 trackball's led is a multicolor led, it's just different.
Do you really think someone would put three leds to mimic the action of one?
I've seen a picture of a MyTouch motherboard, there are three LEDs under the trackball.
Sent from my MyTouch 1.2 using the XDA app
jdyates said:
Alright, I hope i don't sound like an a$$hole, but I, for one, am SICK and TIRED of my MyTouch not making use of the THREE (R,B,G to make white, correct?) LED's under it's trackball. Now i have a few questions,
1. Why hasn't it CM included trackball lighting/changing colors in his ROM? If it was done for the N1, how hard would it be to do it on the MyTouch?
2. HOW was it done for the Nexus? I noticed that "Trackball Alert Pro" just changed the LED color (top of phone, in the ear speaker slot), therefore, shouldn't it be as simple as to "tell" the app to use the MyTouch's trackball instead of the Nexus' trackball?
Now, the lights on some Motorola's (the Razr series, the Z3, V360), (the BT LED's, charging LED's, flashlights, etc.) were controlled by FLP files (basically .txt files) that you could edit manually or an FLP editor, so HOW is the Nexus' trackball light controlled? Is it a script, file, is it the kernel? Couldn't the same concept be applied to the MyTouch?
Also, i remember on the T-Mobile forums, a user called "BreakTheCycle2" (here's on XDA too, i think), developed a "script" to change the trackball light colors, and i sent him a PM, but he never replied.
Now, PLEASE don't be hatin' (lol), but I'm a n00b and these are just IDEAS that are running through my head.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This is barely related to development. I am hoping that you are looking to develop a resolution to getting multiple colors. But if this is just a thread to complain about the lack thereof then I'll move it. Please explain what you are hoping to accomplish for posting this in a section dedication to the advancement of our devices other than complaining about the lack of because that could have been posted in General.
On another note since I haven't seen the three led's that you've mentioned I cannot speculate on whether this is or not a possibility. Ask yourself this... have you ever seen a color other than white on your trackball? So I'm inclined to say that it's not without modification of the hardware... yet I've been wrong before. But the MT3G has been out for a long time and it's popped in everyone's mind at least once. I'm sure that someone has looked into it and if the possibility was there we would be using it by now. Kind of like the getting bluetooth to work issue for Sapphire 32b Hero rom's. Until recently it was considered impossible. Yet it was discovered that you only need the 32A radio and kernel (compatible rom) to make it work. It took time, research, trial/error, patience and a few bricked phones to make such progress. This was for functionality. What you're wanting is only cosmetic. Not a real high priority.
here ya go ..............see post #12
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=709107&page=2
Ma5t3r89 said:
A white led is a white led, I strongly doubt there is any way to get primary colors out of it.
N1 trackball's led is a multicolor led, it's just different.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well mines is orange and I literally mean orange whether it's lit up or not.
manufacturer's defect I guess.
Yours is orange because the thin film they use to protect the board from dust in that area is orange and it probably wasnt placed properly and its covering one of your led's or touching the trackball. Which also means different color trackball led's are very possible. If we can code the led's to work seperately from each other then we can have multiple color led's if we use a different color film on each of them!!!!!! If we cant seperate them then pick a color film u want and place it over the led's and there ya go. I will try to replicate yours tonight and try the one color led as mentioned above
Sent from my HTC Magic using XDA App
HOW TO>change trackball colors
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=7857742#post7857742
Me and shawn1224 may have accidentaly uncoverd the age old mytouch mystery. I am posting this here because I am not a developer and we need a dev. to try and seperate the 3 led's under the trackball from each other for seperate use. Below is a cut from the thread posted above. I will post an in depth later tonight of how to change the color under the trackball as described below but we still need a dev for the coding if possible of the led's. Thanks
Yours is orange because the thin film they use to protect the board from dust in that area is orange and it probably wasnt placed properly and its covering one of your led's or touching the trackball. Which also means different color trackball led's are very possible. If we can code the led's to work seperately from each other then we can have multiple color led's if we use a different color film on each of them!!!!!! If we cant seperate them then pick a color film u want and place it over the led's and there ya go. I will try to replicate yours tonight and try the one color led as mentioned above
ok finished and it works great. Bought red transparent film, removed trackball, placed film under trackball, replaced trackball...........bam done
heres a video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcUfIx6L5ns
I went ahead and researched the led by the ear speaker. It is 1 l.e.d with 3 diodes inside of it. Each diode is a different color. The varying colors come from changing the amount of power sent to each diode. Pretty much just like mixing paint in a bucket. Giving a diode more power will increase the color emitted. Lower power to another diode to change the end color of 3 combined l.e.d.'s and still equal the same amount of light emitted by all 3.
Ex.
Red diode wattage=.3333333 of 1
Green diode wattage = .3333333 of 1
Blue diode wattage=.3333333 of 1
1 being the total light emitted/or power sent to whole l.e.d. lower one and raise another but always equal to the max amount of power the led can handle.
Or just buy a new trackball - I got myself a red one.
Binary100100 said:
This is barely related to development. I am hoping that you are looking to develop a resolution to getting multiple colors. But if this is just a thread to complain about the lack thereof then I'll move it. Please explain what you are hoping to accomplish for posting this in a section dedication to the advancement of our devices other than complaining about the lack of because that could have been posted in General.
On another note since I haven't seen the three led's that you've mentioned I cannot speculate on whether this is or not a possibility. Ask yourself this... have you ever seen a color other than white on your trackball? So I'm inclined to say that it's not without modification of the hardware... yet I've been wrong before. But the MT3G has been out for a long time and it's popped in everyone's mind at least once. I'm sure that someone has looked into it and if the possibility was there we would be using it by now. Kind of like the getting bluetooth to work issue for Sapphire 32b Hero rom's. Until recently it was considered impossible. Yet it was discovered that you only need the 32A radio and kernel (compatible rom) to make it work. It took time, research, trial/error, patience and a few bricked phones to make such progress. This was for functionality. What you're wanting is only cosmetic. Not a real high priority.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What i should have mentioned in my first post, is that i would like this to be the end-all, be-all MT trackball thread, and what i meant by starting it, is if ANYONE has any ideas or apps to test, i would be happy to test them. And contrary to your post, it WOULD be very functional, because Cyanogen doesn't have trackball lighting for notification like the stock ROM does, and it would REALLY help in my eyes. Imagine yourself in MY position. I usually have my phone in my lap during school, and i hardly ever see my notification LED blink when i have a (maybe) important message waiting. I mean, the trackball LEDs are SO much brighter, it would catch my attention immediately, and I'm sure people other than me (maybe even yourself, sir) can agree.
chrisgto4 said:
here ya go ..............see post #12
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=709107&page=2
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thats where i saw the MT MoBo pic .
eyegor said:
Or just buy a new trackball - I got myself a red one.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I (and hopefully other people other than me, apparently i could use some support) would like a free alternative to the trackball color, as well as i NEED insurance/warranty on my phone, because i simply don't have the money for a new phone if i break it while taking it apart.
Also, you guys seem very focused on color, that is just a MINOR thing to me, i want to be able to set different lighting patterns, how long it blinks, the interval for waiting notifications, i personally don;t care if its white, red, orange, purple or PINK for god's sake.
THE ONLY WAY KNOWN TO MANKIND (i think)
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=766016
Like i said, i want it to be software related, in other words, if i f*ck something up, i want to simply be able to wipe, and re-flash .
Sent from my MyTouch 1.2 using the XDA app
The thing about CM not having the same trackball notification is due to it (the glowing/flashing/breathing) being HTC framework.
If HTC can set light patterns and make them trigger on certain events, so can we.
chrisgto4 said:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=7857742#post7857742
Me and shawn1224 may have accidentaly uncoverd the age old mytouch mystery. I am posting this here because I am not a developer and we need a dev. to try and seperate the 3 led's under the trackball from each other for seperate use. Below is a cut from the thread posted above. I will post an in depth later tonight of how to change the color under the trackball as described below but we still need a dev for the coding if possible of the led's. Thanks
Yours is orange because the thin film they use to protect the board from dust in that area is orange and it probably wasnt placed properly and its covering one of your led's or touching the trackball. Which also means different color trackball led's are very possible. If we can code the led's to work seperately from each other then we can have multiple color led's if we use a different color film on each of them!!!!!! If we cant seperate them then pick a color film u want and place it over the led's and there ya go. I will try to replicate yours tonight and try the one color led as mentioned above
ok finished and it works great. Bought red transparent film, removed trackball, placed film under trackball, replaced trackball...........bam done
heres a video
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcUfIx6L5ns
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think that the whole point of his thread was to change the LED color from the settings... not by removing the trackball and replacing the colored film beneath it. I'm all about development for this... but we don't need two threads about it. Let's pick one and I'll combine the other one with it.
not a problem. I just posted in here so a dev could answer the question about splitting the 3 led's up. Im not sure if they are all on the same circuit or can be flashed seperately. I know we will never get anything but white out of them. I guess keep this one open cuz the other one isnt gonna get anything accomplished. thanks binary
eyegor said:
The thing about CM not having the same trackball notification is due to it (the glowing/flashing/breathing) being HTC framework.
If HTC can set light patterns and make them trigger on certain events, so can we.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Exactly.
Sent from my MyTouch 1.2 using the XDA app
call me crazy but i thought atleast a cpl ppl would jump on this. Theres been a billion complaints and post's about the damn trackball led. This can be done in under 10 minutes by pretty much anyone. I would say u have a 50% more chance of bricking your phone doing other things, than u do by doing hardware damage doing this. Grow some balls ppl
Sent from my HTC Magic using XDA App
I'm merging two posts into one here and keeping it in DEVELOPMENT.
It's better than having to decide on which one to move to General.
Thanks a ton, Binary...so anybody have any ideas SOFTWARE-wise? Maybe taking "HeroLED" or "Trackball Alert Pro" apart and "pointing" it to the MyTouch trackball? How would we go about doing something like that, maybe talking to the dev of TAP?
Sent from my MyTouch 1.2 using the XDA app
I just got my fascinate yesterday and I'm loving it. However, I did find the lack of persistent backlighting on the touch sensitive buttons to be an issue at night.
I saw these glowing stickers for a keyboard on thinkgeek was thinking if we could use something similar for the fascinate.
Any ideas/suggestions/comments/potential drawbacks?
I'd imagine they would hamper the capacitive buttons from functioning.
If I am not mistaken I believe the glowing effect generally comes from reflecting the light from your monitor. I don't believe this would work the same on the phone....if you were in fact using it in a dark room.
Only a theory.
mailaliasgar said:
I just got my fascinate yesterday and I'm loving it. However, I did find the lack of persistent backlighting on the touch sensitive buttons to be an issue at night.
I saw these glowing stickers for a keyboard on thinkgeek was thinking if we could use something similar for the fascinate.
Any ideas/suggestions/comments/potential drawbacks?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
After short while I just knew where those soft keys were by instinct
Sent from my 1.2Ghz voodoo fascinate
Also, there's a one click root method out for the fascinate now and a root app that with let you control how long the backlight stays on. I'd just do that, IMO.
Sent from my stupidfast, blackhole fascinate
The Nexus is going to have a 4.6" with no capacitive buttons. Realistically you end up with about 4.3" of working screen space. ICS is designed with this type of device in mind.
What happens when ICS is ported to devices with capacitive buttons like the Bionic, GS2 and Photon? I presume ICS will be programmed to use the capacitive buttons, correct and eliminate the digital selections. Otherwise, we lose .3" of screen space on our devices and have a row of useless capacitive buttons. Anyone with info on this?
It will be just like what it is now but when there are no buttons you get the buttons
If you check up on the ics port
That came out yesterday or the day b4. You will see that there are no capacitive buttons. Also its been confirmed that ics WILL come out for g..b Devices..... so we're ok when the update or rom comes out
Sent from my Nexus S 4G using XDA Premium App
See here:
I was thinking that they might be considering something along the lines of what the ICS Launcher is like....you get the softkeys or whatever when on the homescreen and a few menus but that's it....once you navigate away they are gone.
You can see what I am talking about here to get an fairly good idea of what ICS is or at least could be like on your device.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=18664302#post18664302
This is only a launcher and not a ROM or the actual ICS...for any newbs out there.
with ICS on a button'd device
menu=menu
home=home
back=back
search=search
home longpress = multitask.
software buttons will not display.
DirkGently said:
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Is that real? It seems a bit odd that the kernel version is still 2.x when ICS (of the Galaxy Nexus) is 3.x.
Theonew said:
Is that real? It seems a bit odd that the kernel version is still 2.x when ICS (of the Galaxy Nexus) is 3.x.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Both the N1 and NS have the SDK ports being worked on:
http://androidcommunity.com/ice-cream-sandwich-sdk-port-running-on-the-nexus-one-video-20111021/
So this is how the buttons will be configured for older devices.
Google have said that the Source code will be released "soon", which is the word they always use and usually means sometime between now and months from now. Hopefully it won't be a long wait and then we'll have some proper ROMs, like CM9 to play with.
DirkGently said:
Both the N1 and NS have the SDK ports being worked on:
http://androidcommunity.com/ice-cream-sandwich-sdk-port-running-on-the-nexus-one-video-20111021/
So this is how the buttons will be configured for older devices.
Google have said that the Source code will be released "soon", which is the word they always use and usually means sometime between now and months from now. Hopefully it won't be a long wait and then we'll have some proper ROMs, like CM9 to play with.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I completely agree with this google soon could mean 1 month or 2 , and the nexus s getting 4.0 after that galaxy nexus been released kind of sucks I still got my nexus s (only because I want ICS) and I wish it would be released before or something
Sent from my iPhone 4S
mtmerrick said:
with ICS on a button'd device
menu=menu
home=home
back=back
search=search
home longpress = multitask.
software buttons will not display.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
This. I'm pretty sure they'll have an option to either turn it off, or not have it at all on a capacitive button device
Looking forward to these changes. Now, just see how long it takes to come to the bionic.
If the phone already has hardware buttons, the virtual buttons won't be enabled. As simple as that.
Personally I'd rather have the capacitative buttons and more screen space! Moving the buttons on-screen is a move toward the iOS style, which I think has too many buttons cluttering the display.
Barry Fruitman
Comet Apps
BarryF said:
Personally I'd rather have the capacitative buttons and more screen space! Moving the buttons on-screen is a move toward the iOS style, which I think has too many buttons cluttering the display.
Barry Fruitman
Comet Apps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Every one is entitled to their opinion, but for me I see it as a very good decision. Google must have too or they would not have put it in ICS.
I think not requiring devices to have capacitive buttons will hopefully lower the cost of devices some cause OEM's will not have to put them on their new devices. Also it will hopefully extend the life of a device seeing as their is no non needed external hardware buttons to worry about them malfunctioning.
I personally have a Acer Iconia A500 tablet and I love the virtual buttons at the bottom in Honeycomb. You get better response times from the onscreen keys then with hardware keys, or at least that is what I have noticed when using my tablet and my HTC Sensation side beside. Also I am sure sense this is the initial implementation of this on all Android devices that it will get more development to this feature. And who knows you might even be able to hide and summon the keys at will some how either now or in the future. Of course from what i have seen the older devices with capacitive buttons will still use those buttons and not have the virtual buttons on screen, unless there may be a need for them by certain apps. So unless you upgrade to a Android 4.0 native device, the virtual buttons will not really effect you right now.
BarryF said:
Personally I'd rather have the capacitative buttons and more screen space! Moving the buttons on-screen is a move toward the iOS style, which I think has too many buttons cluttering the display.
Barry Fruitman
Comet Apps
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
But you do have more screen space!
Unfortunately, you're looking at this all wrong. You have a 4.6" screen, 4.3" with the buttons. That means that when you need it—videos, gaming, etc.—you have 4.6"; when you have the buttons, you're down to 4.3". If you were to have capacitive buttons, realistically, you'd have them on the bottom accompanied by 4.3" of screen. And when you're gaming, watching videos, or using any other full-screen app... you'll still only ever have 4.3" of screen.
This is not bad. This is not "cluttering" the screen with buttons. This is maximizing the usability of each and every physical inch of your phone. You're not losing screen real-esate, you're losing the capacitive buttons and adding more screen.
And the best part? Phones will start looking a lot better. Losing those icons on the bottom makes for a much cleaner design. The future is here, and I'm liking it.
Dripz167 said:
This. I'm pretty sure they'll have an option to either turn it off, or not have it at all on a capacitive button device
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
agreed, Devs will come up with a solution