Database Users

Keyboard backlight sensor - buggy?

Hi Guys,
I have been playing with a Hermes for a day now in order to decide on using it or the Wizard. I am aware of the alignment and stylus grip issue, but is the keyboard backlight sensor iffy?
Until I turned off the sensor, I found that the keyboard backlight wouldn't always turn on at all, even with the phone in a completely dark room.
Apart from that, seems a nice phone (other historic issues nothwithstanding) and certainly faster and easier to use than the Wizard.
For info, my serial number starts HT640, which is much later than the others on the wiki (I have added it to the list) so maybe it's 'new an improved'?? We can but hope.

even in a dark room and you pull the keyboard out you still need to press a key on the keyboard before the backlight comes on...

johnk1973 said:
even in a dark room and you pull the keyboard out you still need to press a key on the keyboard before the backlight comes on...
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Click to collapse
Yep, I know that - it doesn't work.

lighting issues
I've taken to holding my thumb completely over the sensor for a second or 2 and beginning to type, this usually activates it when it will not automatically light the pad (even in virtual darkness). Mine does seem a but sporadic, sometimes it works automatically, other times not.

Why not just disable the light sensor?
Settings > Personal > Buttons > Backlight
V

vijay555;1036692 said:
Why not just disable the light sensor?
Settings > Personal > Buttons > Backlight
V
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
umm..if you have to disable features, doesn't that defeat the purpose of having them?

I don't really consider the light sensor a feature, more an option. I think the blue backlight is cool, so like to keep it on all the time when I'm using the keyboard, daylight or no.
However, for the purposes of this thread, removing the potentially buggy sensor from the equation will help narrow down any problems, is it the lights, the phone, or the sensor that causes erratic behaviour.
Works fine for me though.
V

Change keyboard backlight brightness?

Is it possible to one day change the keyboard backlight brightness? Under normal lighting conditions the backlight on the bronze G1 washes out the letters making it extremely difficult to see the keys.
The backlights under the keyboard and the chin buttons seem to be very dim and I would guess that there is a way to adjust the brightness as can be done with the display backlight.
Hopefully someone can look into seeing if it's possible or an official patch is released to raise the brightness. A different color would have been better, too bad the whole "put blue LEDs in every damn consumer product" trend is over, I think blue LEDs would be much more visible.

i haven't had any problems with the brightness, but what really bothers me is that the backlight turns off so damn fast. On my old Dash, the keyboard light was controlled directly by the screen's backlight. If the screen was lit up, so was the keyboard.
I'm getting really tired of hitting the menu button to turn the lights back on without messing anything up.

chefgon said:
I'm getting really tired of hitting the menu button to turn the lights back on without messing anything up.
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Click to collapse
It annoys me too, but tip: nudge the trackball a tiny bit, not enough to move the cursor. You'll get used to it until there is some type of fix.

Backlight for touch-keys

Does anyone know how backlight is suppose to work for Home, Menu, Back and Search keys? Is it suppose to stay on as long as the screen backlight stays on or is it certain amount of time? What triggers them to come on- key press, screen touch, trackpad touch or all of the above? Mine don't seem to follow any rhyme or reason, at least I couldn't trace a pattern. I know that I was messing around with the phone last night in the dark and they would come on and go off as they pleased. Does light sensor have anything to do with it? Please sound off your findings and ideas.
Thanks!

Mine don't seem to follow any rhyme or reason either - it's a bit maddening. And the same goes for the backlight of the physical keyboard (sometimes it comes on, sometimes it doesn't - no telling why), and also the automatic adjustment of brightness (i use the phone for a minute and suddenly it gets super-bright).
Hopefully these are all just bugs that will be fixed with an OTA update, but it is weird and I'm glad to know it's not just my unit since I don't want to replace it (I got a solid hinge - good stuff!).

I think I figured it out. Backlight for touch keys is controlled by light sensor and also has a timer (few seconds), so if it's bright enough outside - they will not even come on. If it's dark - they come on and stay on for certain time then go off untill you press one of them again.
Now, the other thing that I'm noticing is that my haptic feedback is not working when pressing one of those buttons or long-pressing the screen. Anyone else has that problem?

I have used my phone primarily in the dark. All my lights are always on (when the screen is) and the auto-brightness is too bright. If I turn brightness to minimum, the always on lights are way too bright compared to the screen. I really wish the designers had tried to use this phone in the dark (laying in bed) and realized the auto-brightness and lights are too bright in pitch-dark!
Also I am getting real sick of rotation. On my G1 I could disable it completely unless the keyboard was out. I like to lay in bed or on a couch and use my phone sideways, but not rotated. This seems impossible to do on the G2. Disabling rotation doesn't do anything for 3rd party apps or even GMail for that matter. For some reason this was not the case on the G1.
It will be hard to go back to the G1's one-second+ lag after every press and the incredibly slow loading webpages now that I have experienced the G2, but there are too many really annoying problems, so I think it is getting sent back.

if you have your backlight set to automatic... it will cut on only if the room is dark... check your backlight settings

It's an issue with the way android uses the light sensor. It's very poorly coded.

[Q] physical keyboard issues

does anyone else get an issue that the G2's backlight for the physical keyboard and capacative buttons have absolutly no idea when to be on and when to be off. I can be in a fully lit room and have the backlight on for no reason at all. is there any way to fix this? it gets very annoying very quickly.

It's a problem with the light sensor, but I think it can be corrected with software. The sensor seems to reflect differences in brightness really well, but the software tends to set everything to levels appropriate for brighter conditions. This leads to full screen brightness and no key backlighting even under dim interior lighting conditions.

my screen is SUPER Bright regardless of ambient light (in automode) I rely on the manual settings.
and yes I do have the same problem ... even on my second g2.

Same here. My backlight and softkeys go on and off randomly while in bright light and checking the time while waking up briefly during the night is painful because it is always extra bright.
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App

thanks swags. hoping for a software update soon. its really annoying. also is it normal that i get this issue even without auto brightness

[Q] Light Sensor disable

who knows how to turn off the light sensor? should that be always at maximum

Is it that thing that make my screen going dark sometimes and then bright again ?
I thought it was a bug in Android about the screen light management...
I'm very interested in turning it off me too.

I didn't look very hard, but from what I can see, you can't.

Is it that thing that make my screen going dark sometimes and then bright again ?
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Click to collapse
Yes, it does just that hinders and tired eyes!

The above sentence makes absolutely no sense.

sorry,I mean ,that light sensor kills my eyes

Still it makes no sense at all!
N.

Ok guys, we all agree that his english is horrible, but it is understandable that he is saying that the changing / blinking of light, all the time, is not confortable for eyes.
I admit... for once, I understand his words...

huliqan said:
sorry,I mean ,that light sensor kills my eyes
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Turn the brightness down if it is uncomfortable? The reason why it changes automatically is to adjust to the amount of light in a given place. Otherwise, you'd have to constantly change the brightness yourself in order for the screen to be visible in all conditions.

Yes, I think we all know what is that function for, that's not the point.
The problem is that, in the same place with the same light, if, for example, your head make a shadow over or if you put your finger on the little hole up right the phone, the light of the screen will change as if you where in a place darker.
So according how you move the phone or hold it, your eyes will have to accomodate very often and it's very uncomfortable.
Maybe covering permanently that little hole will be the solution... but I would prefer just to turn it off.

Covering it permanently will also permanently place the backlight in the darkest mode. Personally I like this feature, once you know it's there it doesn't give a 'wth is happening'-feeling anymore and I believe it saves battery (no need for full brightness in dark places). Also for me it kinda gives that viewing-on-paper feeling, the device is quite okay in maintaining a balance between minimum visibility and overlighted eye-blasting power
Though yes an off-feature would be welcome sometimes ^_^

I would also Love to Disable this sensor.. More Brightness! MORE more more i tell ya! lol