asked 2014-03-09 12:54:36 +0300
On the N9 and the N900 the LED was configured to 'breathe', it dimmed off and then slowly came back 'up'. The Jolla just flashes. I find this behaviour quite disturbing as it just keeps blinking at the corner of my eye, while the N9 and N900 just were breathing which I didn't experience as disturbing.
Is there a way (probably by editing the mce.ini file) to make the Jolla behave like its predecessors?
answered 2014-03-16 11:30:24 +0300
The difference is in hw: N900 could do the led breathing without involving the cpu, but Jolla phone can only do a static color with tunable brightness or blink full intensity colors, i.e. doing N900 style breathing in Jolla would require cpu activity - which would reduce the standby time considerably.
"reduce the standby time considerably", wow, can you say Hyperbole!
dsilveira ( 2014-03-17 00:11:07 +0300 )@dsilveira: YMMV, but to me more than doubling the power consumption (because the cpu can't be suspended) is "considerable".
Anyways, when the device is on charger it is not that big a deal. So I made some prototyping where sw breathing can enabled if device on charger or battery level > N%. Looks calmer, but no promises yet.
spiiroin ( 2014-03-17 11:35:31 +0300 )I don't get it, Right now, as it is, you need to wake up the cpu to blink the LED, am I wrong? The only difference is that you'd have the cpu wake up for a little bit longer, and then go right back to sleep. If I'm wrong, than I misunderstood you're answer and I'm sorry.
dsilveira ( 2014-03-17 20:36:01 +0300 )Maybe it was a bit unclear, I'll try to rephrase: N900 has controller that can do all kinds of fancy stuff without involving the cpu; Jolla has pwm controller that can do static color or blink "fully off - fully on" without involving the cpu. As long as we only show static color or blink -> the phone can be fully suspended. But making soft transitions needs frequent timer wakeups -> the phone must stay in early suspend (display, touch panel, etc are powered off, but cpu is still running).
spiiroin ( 2014-03-18 09:18:51 +0300 )wow, if that's true, what a pitty, I was hoping for more positive surprises from Jolla, I just keep getting the negative ones :P
dsilveira ( 2014-03-18 19:14:58 +0300 )answered 2014-03-09 13:16:37 +0300
Looks like a duplicate of: https://together.jolla.com/question/4235/led-beacon-breathing-led/ Better cast your vote and comment there. Also there is an explanation how to edit /etc/mce/20hybris-led.ini file here: https://together.jolla.com/question/11328/howto-change-notification-led-pattern/ Check this and you can experiment:
Patterns used for the hybris hardware; Please prefix pattern names
with Pattern to avoid name space clashes
[0] Priority (0 - highest, 255 - lowest)
[1] ScreenOn
0 only show pattern when the display is off
1 show pattern even when the display is on
2 only show pattern when the display is off, including acting dead
3 show pattern even when the display is on, including acting dead
4 only show pattern if the display is off, or if in acting dead
5 always show pattern, even if LED disabled
6 Like 0, but automatically disable after display on
[2] Timeout in seconds before pattern is disabled, 0 for infinite
[3] OnPeriod in milliseconds
[4] OffPeriod in milliseconds
[5] RGB24 as hexadecimal number
Note: If blinking is enabled, only full intensity colors are applicable
i.e. red, green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan or white should be used.
EDIT: when investigating more - N900 LED patterns control has more fine tuning options one can use. E.g. configurable "max brightness" and "Increment or decrement the channel brightness over a period of time (xx) and a number of steps (yy)" which can give you exactly the "breathing" effect you seek. So might be currently on Jolla this is not possible.
That's not a duplicate. I think you misinterpreted my question.
I mean that the LED 'breathes' at any notification. So not to find the phone, but just to see there's a notification.
Remember the N9? It breathes to let you know you've got a notification. The Jolla flashes to let you know that.
Timo ( 2014-03-09 13:22:38 +0300 )Your idea is to make the LED gradually increase its brightness to max and then slowly fade away? I think this can be "faked" by varying ON and OFF periods in /etc/mce/20hybris-led.in. Some more info in answer above due to limited num of characters in comment.
zlatko ( 2014-03-09 13:51:10 +0300 )Mm, that doesn't really seem to work. You can indeed change the interval times but it still just flashes and it does not breathe like it should. I will further compare this mce with the N900's, but it seems like it should have some exra module or something to let it behave as I want it to.
Timo ( 2014-03-09 14:19:23 +0300 )Yes, you are correct - see the addition to my answer above. N900 has a control over the max brightness and the time needed and number of steps to get to max brightness and back to black.
zlatko ( 2014-03-09 14:21:50 +0300 )I see. That's a pity... Well, maybe Jolla will implement it later.
Timo ( 2014-03-09 14:24:01 +0300 )answered 2014-04-28 14:14:01 +0300
I really see no reasons
Just simple example of custom breating script: http://paste.ubuntu.com/7351733/
That script will freeze the moment we suspend the device - leaving the led at whatever color it happened to be at.
The point still is: If we suspend, we can only blink or show static color. if we keep the cpu on, we can do anything - at the cost of extra battery drain. And, there will be breathing led patterns at some point, but due to battery drain it needs to be something users opt in.
spiiroin ( 2014-04-28 15:35:08 +0300 )I know, just to let everybody know about no limits in HW. The stop-factor is cpu/ battery usage.
coderus ( 2014-04-28 15:38:57 +0300 )...which is hardware :-) It is reasobable though to have this minor limitation... or better to say inflexibility. I even think simple blinking is cool. and it catches my attention faster. This is why it´s there after all.
Macilaci457 ( 2014-04-28 21:29:32 +0300 )Asked: 2014-03-09 12:54:36 +0300
Seen: 1,356 times
Last updated: Apr 28 '14
Spiiron has already answered that the hardware might not be compatible but it might not be legally possible. Apple have a patent on breathing LEDs.
http://www.google.com/patents/US6658577
aegis ( 2014-03-16 12:06:23 +0300 )lol. If the hardware allows it, it's a matter of software, and if it's a matter of software is totally possible for 2 reasons:
dsilveira ( 2014-03-17 00:08:38 +0300 )Software Patents are illegal in Europe
Even if Jolla would be unwilling to do it, we, as hackers, absolutely do not need to care about patents regarding our hacks!
Software patents aren't illegal in Europe. They're more difficult to obtain but not illegal. The huge court cases between Apple, Samsung, Motorola and Nokia in Europe are testament to that. But in any case if Jolla want to sell their software outside Europe, they're still going to have to watch for patented software/features.
aegis ( 2014-03-17 02:18:22 +0300 )sorry @aegis, but if you actually read the legislation, you'd see that they are in fact illegal, I know this, because I fought to keep it this way, when the americans tried to force us to implement them trough the TRIPS treaty.
Anyway, you're not completely wrong, the European Patent Court, does indeed grant these illegal patents, but only because they purposefully misinterpret the legislation, because they make a lot of money doing it, while hoping(lobying) for a change in the wrong direction
dsilveira ( 2014-03-17 20:41:39 +0300 )so you see we should not care for software patents at all, not only because they are illegal, but also because they are unethical (they're infact trying to patent algorithms, and algorithms are ideas, and I'm sure everyone here will agree that patenting ideas should not ever happen. Can you imagine being thrown in jail because of some thought you had? Well that's were this is headed, If we don't do something about it, starting with ignoring these idiots)
dsilveira ( 2014-03-17 20:45:47 +0300 )