Database Users

Backlight switches off when using TomTom ?

My MDA Compact works beautifully with a BT GPS and TomTom 3....... except I have to keep touching the screen to keep it lit
Is there a way to stop this happening - actually is this normal or is mine broke !!??

You need to ensure the back light is not set to switch off after a certain amount of inactivity (yes, although tomtom is 'on' your pocket pc will not agree and will turn the back light off to save battery).
The solution really is to ensure your pocket pc is getting power.......

It's normal. I use Mbipocket (ebook reader), and even having the text scrolling up the screen won't stop the backlight turning off.

Dang !
How do you read your ebooks - by pressing the screen every few minutes ?
Something this obvious and they haven't fixed it !!
A simple tick box in the options menu isn't asking too much ??
So I guess the only way around it is to go into the backlight options and set it too stay on for 1 hour before turning off ...... wait, the maximum is only 5 minutes ..... I love Microsoft

????
very simple, watch under backlight, there you can adjust your settings...
the best is to buy a chargecable..and plug it in..
you mda will now charge , and navigate at the same time...
8)
have fun

Aitch said:
Dang !
How do you read your ebooks - by pressing the screen every few minutes ?
Something this obvious and they haven't fixed it !!
A simple tick box in the options menu isn't asking too much ??
So I guess the only way around it is to go into the backlight options and set it too stay on for 1 hour before turning off ...... wait, the maximum is only 5 minutes ..... I love Microsoft
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
By tapping the screen every few minutes. Which as most of my ebook reading in dduring a 30 minute train journey to and from work, isn't much of a problem. And I've just realised that unticking the "turn off backlight" box means that it doesn't get turned off.

use TomTom4, the screen doesn't go off with that version
also BT is automaticly activated when starting TT4 when it was disabled in the systemtray.
TT4 r0x0r

Sweet !
TomTom 5 will be released in May - hopefully it will have those features included

tCC said:
use TomTom4, the screen doesn't go off with that version
also BT is automaticly activated when starting TT4 when it was disabled in the systemtray.
TT4 r0x0r
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Strange, TomTom upgrades from TT3 to TT5 (in may) and skipped 4...
You are really sure you have a TT4 ???
Did i miss something?
Thomas

Hell Yeah !!
TT 5 is coming for sure !
Checkout it out - http://www.pocketgps.co.uk/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=17753

turn off completely

Hello,
usually with newer PDAs - that originally come with WM5/6 - you can turn them off completely (makes sense during the night for example).
Is this possible with BlueAngel - upgraded with WM5/6 (Helmi) somehow ?
thank you.

no you cant turn them off 100%
windows mobile was made to keep running
no matter what to keep the clock running
to keep notifications being able to start and play their alarm
and to turn on to let calls come in

incubus72 said:
Hello,
usually with newer PDAs - that originally come with WM5/6 - you can turn them off completely (makes sense during the night for example).
Is this possible with BlueAngel - upgraded with WM5/6 (Helmi) somehow ?
thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It makes sense to stop PDA completely if you are using it just for word, excel or as a music player, but if you are using it as a phone, clock and alarm unit, instant emails, then you cant turn it off completely though it can go to Power Save mode.

Turn down the volume, turn on flightmode and put into standby. Of course, alerts and notifications can still occur (That's the point!) but they won't bother you.
There's no actual need to turn it off completely.

hello,
i would like to turn off completely since
- every time when a notification comes up - the screen turns on - and sometimes it happens that i hit the screen or a button in the pocket ...
- i'd like to save battery
but i guess that's not pissible ?
thank you.

Yes, it is possible, but not the way you would like it: Take the battery out for a second, and then put it back. Device won't turn itself on. So far this is the only method. This device was never meant to be used with WM5/6, that's why it does not support many of the required features of this OS.

Hello,
i like the idea with the akku. but one more thing: what about the internal backup- akku ?
when i take the (normal) akku out - and put it back in - does the device run on the backup-battery until i turn the device on - or does it recognize immediately the (normal) akku is there, and uses it ?
you know, or do i have to try ?
thank you very much.
andreas

Take the battery out to save battery life - you'll lose some settings (namely the clock) but nothing major. Though the standby life is good.
Also, lock the device and tell it not to allow any other button pushed when locked. Should do the trick

incubus72 said:
hello,
i would like to turn off completely since
- every time when a notification comes up - the screen turns on - and sometimes it happens that i hit the screen or a button in the pocket ...
- i'd like to save battery
but i guess that's not pissible ?
thank you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
As others said - turn all radio off in the comm manager. then just lock the screen (on to today screen, tap on "Device unlocked"). Now, even if the device comes on, there's no problem. And battery consumption is minimal, I think. Oh, and change "Start-Settings-Buttons-Lock" to "Lock all buttons expect power button".
Stefan

Power control of the Vogue

Maybe this shows that I am a noob, but here it goes.
I want to save my battary power when running the GPS, but all the power saveing settings turn the phone onto standby, thus loosing GPS lock (and when I am using my better bluetooth GPS, it locks out the bluetooth and I have to re-boot). Is there some why to just turn of the screen? Is that "an app for that"? I am currently trying out SVM Power Manager, but you can not set it to turn the screen off in 2 minites or whatever. To use it how I need, I would have to turn off the OS's power saver, and always manualy turn off the screen using SVM Power Manager. All the power manager apps I have seen work like that.
Help!

you will probably have to buy an extended battery man. i think even real android phones batteries drain pretty quick from what i hear.

Did some testing. It seems that the battery will last for about 5h with the screen of (using SVM Power Manager to turn it off), and the GPS running (GPSed running it).
Understood that the battery is just under powered, but I was wondering if there was a way to make the screen automaticaly turn off after X amount of time, but not have the phone go into standby.
I also bought one of those battery powered battery chargers (battery extender). But the one I got turned out to have only 500mAh (compared with 1100mAh in the phone battery), so it turned out to only help a bit. Maybe I will try to make one with a voltage regulator and a rechargable 9V battery

I think one of the pmsleepmodes may support this (in default.txt) Try 2 or 3. It seems like one of these didnt do a full power collapse, but did turn the screen off.

katmandu421: I am not familiar with this stuff. Can you give me a bit of a more detailed explination?
Is this a built in windows mobile funciton. Can I access this in the registry?

I love it how most of us would assume he's talking Android. Yes in android, editing your default.txt to sleep mode 0 would turn off the screen, but not sleep the system. 1,2, or 3 would allow the different system board types used in various Vogues to go to sleep.
WinMo however is a different story. The GPS in the Vogue is a low power chip, but from everything I can gather is requires the system to stay fully awake. If you find an app that allows you to turn off your screen, post back but I don't believe there is much hope to that. Windows seems to think that when the lights go out, it's sleepy time.
Also, the radio on the Vogue doesn't sleep, and it's use to wake up the phone i.e. incoming calls. The GPS is part of the radio so if there is a way to keep the system board awake, in theory it should work.

SVM Power Manager will turn off the screen while keeping everything awake, but it is not automatic. I have maped the camera button to this program, so it is not a huge hassle, but I realy would like to have it automatic.
Will consider installing Android.

Titus_Andronicus said:
SVM Power Manager will turn off the screen while keeping everything awake, but it is not automatic. I have maped the camera button to this program, so it is not a huge hassle, but I realy would like to have it automatic.
Will consider installing Android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did anyone ever figure out how to do this? I'm trying to figure this out as well. After finally getting GPS to work, now I'd like to be able to use some apps that need to run when in standby.

mnations said:
Did anyone ever figure out how to do this? I'm trying to figure this out as well. After finally getting GPS to work, now I'd like to be able to use some apps that need to run when in standby.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Check on Dev&Hacking. An app just came out today that does exactly what you are asking for here.
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=707458
Enjoy

egzthunder1 said:
Check on Dev&Hacking. An app just came out today that does exactly what you are asking for here.
Enjoy
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks! That looks like a handy app.
An update (in case anyone hits this thread later)...I made this one change which seemed to clear up all of the problems (found elsewhere but can't post outside link yet.)
[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Comm\ConnMgr\Providers\{7C4B7A3 8-5FF7-4bc1-80F6-5DA7870BB1AA}\Connections\Phone as Modem]
"Enabled"=dword:00000000"
Now this is in conjunction with QuickGPS and all the other fiddling I've done, so I don't if this alone is responsible.
However, when running Google Maps or other GPS applications I get a lock within 5-15 secs. Also, when coming back from standby it's able to re-lock in the same amount of time. This normally required a soft restart before.
For apps that track your routes, such as SportyPal which I've been using for mapping my bike rides, they can keep a lock even in standby mode. I'm not sure if the app itself is able to hold a lock or if QuickGPS may be helping it. Either way it works.

Is it possible to lock the device without turning off the screen?

I have noticed that when you lock this device, the screen stays on for a couple of seconds, but it turns off after that.
Is there a way of keeping it on?
Thanks

Hello,
Programmatically it is possible, just need to call SystemIdleTimerReset() on particular duration of time say 15/30 sec it will never let you device go to sleep mode(backlight off).
Thanks
Arpit Pradhan

Thanks for your reply.
I think I already tried that but I cannot confirm it.
Anyway, I found a workaround. The reason that I wanted this was because of the GPS. I have found out that if I use the GPS intermediate driver, the GPS will stay on when turning off the screen.
Cheers.

Try this little tool "Keylock" and turn off the display-timeout in the WinMo settings:
http://maniac.fschreiner.de/component/option,com_docman/task,cat_view/gid,13/Itemid,3/
I think this should work.

bieza said:
Try this little tool "Keylock" and turn off the display-timeout in the WinMo settings:
http://maniac.fschreiner.de/component/option,com_docman/task,cat_view/gid,13/Itemid,3/
I think this should work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks. I tried it but still turns off the dispaly.

Problem with GPS and unattended mode

Hi
I'm developing a GPS application (http://www.marathon-mobile.net/Download/DownloadLatestVersion), its working fine on most phone but I'm having some problems with HTC HD2.
The problem is that the GPS doesn't seem work when the phone is locked.
I have set the following:
PowerPolicyNotify(CoreDll.PPN_UNATTENDEDMODE, true)
SetPowerRequirement("gpd0:", CedevicePowerStateState.D0, POWER_NAME | POWER_FORCE, null, 0);
I'm also calling SystemIdleTimerReset(); every 100 ms.
This seems to work for all other devices (I havent received any complaints about them), but no the HTC HD2. Have anyone else experienced problems with HD2, do I have to set any other Power Policies for this device?
//Johan

I think another app got the same problem as well. I run the wmTorrent on my HD2 and when the screen's locked the WiFi shows reconnection when I unlock it. It seems to be some sort of power saving feature that's cutting off everything when it's idle (including GPS). I take it you're requesting GPS data via Windows API.
Nice app by the way, saw it on the marketplace and was gonna place an order. I'll wait till it's fully supported on HD. Let us know pls.

I see.. Thats maybe why I can not get TrackMe to work..

Sounds to me like some kind of power saving design. After all the HD2 haven't exactly got the biggest battery in the world.
Sorry guys, that comment doesn't really help solve you problem I know.
But it would be interesting to know if this is a Microsoft / HTC design 'feature'...Maybe it's worth checking with Acer Neotouch / Omnia II user?
Or does this issue exist on any other WM6.5 handset?

I have installed OziExplorerCE GPS Mapping and Real Time Tracking Software, and it has an option to turn the display off whilst leaving the GPS functioning, pressing the <end> button will turn the display back on as per normal.
This is definitely different to pressing the <end> button to suspend the device as if I do this then Ozi also wakes up with a reconnecting to GPS message.
I have tried this with both TomTom and Oziexplorer running, and as long as I use Ozi's own display off option, both programs keep running and tracking movements.
So it seems that it is possible to do what you wish.

abucas said:
I have installed OziExplorerCE GPS Mapping and Real Time Tracking Software, and it has an option to turn the display off whilst leaving the GPS functioning, pressing the <end> button will turn the display back on as per normal.
This is definitely different to pressing the <end> button to suspend the device as if I do this then Ozi also wakes up with a reconnecting to GPS message.
I have tried this with both TomTom and Oziexplorer running, and as long as I use Ozi's own display off option, both programs keep running and tracking movements.
So it seems that it is possible to do what you wish.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sounds like they use SetSystemPowerState(null, POWER_STATE_IDLE, POWER_FORCE); in combination with multiple calls to SystemIdleTimerReset(); This could be a solution. Unfortunately it keeps the entire device in on, so it'll consume more power than just keeping the GPS on. I've currently sent a version to a tester with this enabled, so we'll see if it works.
I'm still interested in a solution using unattended mode if its possible. It could be as easy as setting another power requirement, if so we just need to find it.
Thanks for all the replies .

Good to find that, I will need that for SciLor's GrooveMobile