Link to original thread in SGS forum:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=730692
Link to app:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=363696&d=1279643523
madmack said:
I saw the idea posted somewhere previously that instead of getting the capacitive lights on, we really should be putting the phone's AMOLED screen to work ! specially that it doesn't consume any backlight energy when displaying a black screen. So I developed an app that does just that, upon receiving a notification, it will display a black screen with a red dot somewhere in the left top corner. Ok, i really should put these in bullet points..
the application does the following:
1. When your phone receives a notification, it switches the screen on and displays a red dot somewhere in the top left corner. The location of this dot is random every time you receive a new notification. This will guarantee using different LEDs so that the same ones won't be burned out ! The reason why I chose red is because it uses the least amount of energy to display.
2. The app runs as a service, after installing, you'll need to lock the screen once and unlock it for it to activate. After this, the application should run automatically after a reboot.
3. To get rid of the red dot, the only key you can use is the home key. Using the capacitive touch buttons will do nothing, and so as clicking anywhere on the screen. Once your screen turns on, the notifications disappear and will not come up until a new notification sound is received.
I have also logged the touch drivers and saw that although I'm displaying a black screen and setting flags to not respond to touch messages, android is still receiving touch messages when you touch any spot on the screen. This, I imagine, consumes resources! So I disabled the touch drivers when the black screen is active. Pressing on the Home button should reactivate it. If your screen is unresponsive to touch even after the notification screen is dismissed, a simple restart should take care of it. Once you've restarted, you can uninstall the app.
Now the touchscreen drivers were a lot easier to mess around with. The sourcecode given by samsung helped me achieve the activation/deactivation of the screen. Things are not the same with the capacitive buttons. You'll notice that when the black screen is on, if you touch any of the soft buttons, they'll light up (although am suppressing them programatically). Am still analyzing the drivers to see if there is an easy way to disable these drivers too when the notification is on.
One more note, make sure the notification sounds that you choose for your different apps (Calendar, Gmail, Gtalk.. etc) are the default samsung notifications or the ones you placed in /sdcard/sd/media/audio/notifications
Any other sound notifications will simply not trigger the program to display the notification screen.
I just want to let you guys know that this is a beta app. Install it at your own risk.
Enjoy ! Comments and feedback will be appreciated
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Click to collapse
Thanks for the heads up, but after reading the thread I think I'll wait till it's been tweak a bit more.
That's a good idea, but if it's going to flash using the screen, why no take advantage of the fact that it's a SCREEN and flash an icon instead of just a little red dot?
For example, use the same system icons that appear in the notification bar when messages are received / calls missed, etc. And if you're worried about burning out pixels you could make it change location every minute or so.
Just my $.02
that was mentioned in the original thread... I think it is a good idea... I cant wait to see how this grows...
Does this require your GS to be rooted?
gravis86 said:
That's a good idea, but if it's going to flash using the screen, why no take advantage of the fact that it's a SCREEN and flash an icon instead of just a little red dot?
For example, use the same system icons that appear in the notification bar when messages are received / calls missed, etc. And if you're worried about burning out pixels you could make it change location every minute or so.
Just my $.02
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Click to collapse
the idea of a full icon was mentioned, but just like a blinking led, the idea here is to keep the notification using as little power as possible. Not sure if the power usage would be more or less showing one pixel or a whole icon.
Obviously 100+ pixels would use more power than just one but the screen is very power conservative. I think it's at least worth a try to see if it really impacts the battery that much.
papawu said:
Does this require your GS to be rooted?
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Click to collapse
I have it on my phone atm, it's not rooted. Seems to be working fine.
doesnt work if you have No Lock installed too
Umm..i have nolock and it works fine. Try turning it off, then lock and unlock your phone, and turn it on again. Should work.
Sent from my Samsung Vibrant
How do you properly remove the app? It is screwing everything up on my phone.
hah2110 said:
How do you properly remove the app? It is screwing everything up on my phone.
Click to expand...
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Just curious...How is it screwing up your phone?
ultra spikey said:
Just curious...How is it screwing up your phone?
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Click to collapse
It was hurting battery leaving the screen on even though it was just red. I uninstalled it from manage applications and now my screen won't turn on once it is off, I have to pull the battery. Anyone know if doing a clear storage wipes the internal SD card?
+1 for icon notifications
If we can't have a real led, lets look cooler than all the other phones and have little icons of e-mail, sms, and missed calls. It would be nice.
and make them loook purrrrdyyyyyyy iphone-esque
Installed this today and so far so good. Sure it would look better with actual icons but if it saves me from having to unlock my phone all the time to look for new messages then I'm happy.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Not sure why this thread is not getting enough attention when there were so many people begging for a notification app to come out?
Thanks for making the app, will try it out soon. Will give feedback as soon as I get it.
Not working for me at all. Tried default sounds, custom sounds, with puzzle piece, without puzzle piece, etc. Even tried a reboot. Yes, the service is running.
Samsung Vibrant
EDIT: Just worked, but seriously took like 10 minutes before the screen flashed and the red LED started blinking.
I'm having a problem with it as well. I see it running, but it doesn't notify me except for the initial notification. Also it seems to just keep the screen on.
I'll keep playing with it to see off I can figured it out.
Sent from my SGH-T959 using XDA App
Hi, I'm running neutrino rom and I'm trying to find a way for the notification LED to blink even if the screen is on. How can I accomplish this? I've tried lightflow but the LED still only blinks when the screen is off.
I would like this function, since if I have my phone in the dock and the screen has gone to screensaver mode I can't look in the satusbar to see if I have a notification. And since the LED only blinks if the screen is off I have to touch the screen to check and I find that silly to have to do. Sometimes I forget and then hours later I find out a have had missed calls and texts.
t.Lancer said:
Hi, I'm running neutrino rom and I'm trying to find a way for the notification LED to blink even if the screen is on. How can I accomplish this? I've tried lightflow but the LED still only blinks when the screen is off.
I would like this function, since if I have my phone in the dock and the screen has gone to screensaver mode I can't look in the satusbar to see if I have a notification. And since the LED only blinks if the screen is off I have to touch the screen to check and I find that silly to have to do. Sometimes I forget and then hours later I find out a have had missed calls and texts.
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I believe our phone is one of those that doesn't blink led with screen on. I know lightflow warns of this as does my handcent. Don't think its possible unless someone else proves me wrong.
that's strange. if I mess with the LED notifaction settings under Cyanogenmod setting I can test the LED notification while the screen is on. Somehow it must be possible.
t.Lancer said:
that's strange. if I mess with the LED notifaction settings under Cyanogenmod setting I can test the LED notification while the screen is on. Somehow it must be possible.
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Click to collapse
Is that cm7 or 9? I noticed in 7 the settings just aren't there (for me anyway) to use led for anything other than system default. With 9 I noticed led functions totally different like the charging led working (love that!) So maybe its rom dependent.
I'm running Neutrino CM7. the LED notifcationsettigns are definetly there. maybe it is rom dependant. Does the LED work for you if the screen in on running CM9?
t.Lancer said:
I'm running Neutrino CM7. the LED notifcationsettigns are definetly there. maybe it is rom dependant. Does the LED work for you if the screen in on running CM9?
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I honestly haven't had a chance to test that with cm9. I load the rom and test the things that I use most in order, wifi, camera. I don't get passed the camera issue on most. That's a bug I can't live with since I take tons of pics. I will try to remember to test it out next time I flash. Im on rc1 of 7 now getting ready to update to rc2, maybe there will be something there. Where did you find the settings for it in neutrino?
Just upgraded to cm7.2 rc2 and found the screen on led setting. Works great for me. Just wish I could get a charging solid led that goes off at 100% I got spoiled from my flipside I guess but its just so much nicer to not have to turn the screen on to verify full charge. Lightflow didn't work for me.
I cant figure out why my phone keeps blinking its notification light. Any one have an idea why?
Most likely a rogue app acting up.
ok thanks for the response
If I may add to this topic without creating a new one, how come my blinking light for notifications will stop after about a minute or so? I recieved some texts but didn't know it until I manually turned my screen on. So I sent myself an email, and it blinked for a minute or so, then stopped. Is this normal?
i actually think that is suppose to happen. Ever htc phone i have had has a certain duration of the notification light blinking and then it will turn off. the only phone i have ever had it go on until i checked the notification is my old droid. i was apply to on the galaxy nexus, but had to use an app to make it work. Light flow is the app
pfaction said:
If I may add to this topic without creating a new one, how come my blinking light for notifications will stop after about a minute or so? I recieved some texts but didn't know it until I manually turned my screen on. So I sent myself an email, and it blinked for a minute or so, then stopped. Is this normal?
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Click to collapse
It's actually 5 minutes I think, at least on my phone it is. It is my biggest complaint with Sense and why I switched to cyanogenmod on my evo shift. It would be the one reason I would switch to the GS3 if I had to think of a reason since there are nice solutions that use an amoled screen for notifications that will not time out like that. (an app called noLed, doesn't work well unless you use amoled))
Anyway, it must be coded real deep because I've never seen a dev fix it or even hardly mention it and people have complained about it for years.
It really makes the notification light kind of worthless.
There are some apps like light flow that in theory can fix it but lightflow doesn't work for me when my sound is turned on with this phone so it's worthless right now. Missed reminder might be able to help as well but I haven't had a chance to try it.
Unrelated, but does anyone know how to disable the bright green light when battery is charged? lol
I know this was posted in other phone forums, but I decided to throw it out to all the Incredible 4g users specifically...can anyone tell me exactly how the LED is supposed to function? I know where and how to set up exactly when it's supposed to turn on, but how long does it blink? I sometimes think its not working, but now I think that it blinks for awhile and then stops...then starts up again, seemingly at random...and what causes it to stop blinking? On swiping the notification? On opening the notification? Just unlocking your phone and seeing the notification? I've done some tests, but not exhaustive yet...wondering how it's SUPPOSED to work.
aram12 said:
I know this was posted in other phone forums, but I decided to throw it out to all the Incredible 4g users specifically...can anyone tell me exactly how the LED is supposed to function? I know where and how to set up exactly when it's supposed to turn on, but how long does it blink? I sometimes think its not working, but now I think that it blinks for awhile and then stops...then starts up again, seemingly at random...and what causes it to stop blinking? On swiping the notification? On opening the notification? Just unlocking your phone and seeing the notification? I've done some tests, but not exhaustive yet...wondering how it's SUPPOSED to work.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the notification light should blink until you unlock you phone.. once coming out of sleep you will see the notification , whether on the lock screen, the lock screen bubble shortcut, the status bar notification pull down, just as soon as u turn that screen on and come out of sleep, the LED will STOP blinking since it see you have seen the notification since you awoke the phone.
I hope this helps.
there is a chance that the blinking light does stop after awhile, like say 15 min, i cant say for this phone yet, but will post back once find out..
but IMO i don't think it would stop until you awake the phone.
I keep my phone on silent at night because I have a super jealous partner that freaks out if my phone dings or vibrates late at night. This isn't a problem when my screen is turned off, since the notification light comes on, but I use my phone for gaming, reading and watching movies/tv shows so the screen is on quite often and unless my notification bar is visible (which is usually not the case), I have no idea when I get a text/tweet/game notification/etc. So my question is this: Is there a trick or app out there that will make my notification light work even when the screen is turned on?
I'm still running the stock OS that came on the phone (4.3 I believe?) and I'm unrooted, however I'm not opposed to manually upgrading to 5.1 and/or rooting if necessary
Thanks in advance XD
I actually returned the Moto X Play because the LED notification light didn't work at all even though it's present on the phone. Motorola are a bunch of greedy assholes who want you to buy their "smart watch" just to get notifications now apparently, but that's a whole other topic. During my quest for an on-screen notification I found Light Flow, and I'm almost positive you'll find help with that.