[Q] I'd like to learn more about the LED. Who knows stuff about stuff? - Nexus 4 Q&A, Help & Troubleshooting

Hi everyone,
I upgraded from a Nexus S, on which it was common "knowledge" that using the capacitive buttons as notification LEDs, leaving them "on" used less power than having them blink, and either way using them saved a ton of power over waking the phone up constantly to check for missed notifications. I also wasn't worried about them overheating or anything because they're so low-power and on stock Android they're always on if the screen is on anyway.
Now that I'm messing with LightFlow, I'm fascinated by all the ways I can use colours and blink rates to know what's going on, but is there anything I need to be careful of? Does leaving the LED on use a significant amount of power, or is leaving it on a significantly lower power cost than switching your screen on for a second every 20 minutes to see if you missed anything? Do I need to worry about wearing it out if, say, I have a particular colour that's on 8 hours a day (i.e.: charging/fully charged)?
Lastly, and this one's just out of curiosity, do you have a particular logical colour scheme for your notifications? I'm trying to decide between colours based on urgency (i.e.: red = urgent, all the way down to blue = take your time) or trying to get the colour of the LED to match the colour of the app icon. Do you just assign random colours or is there method to your madness?
Thanks for anything you can help me with!

wrong forum

niiiiick said:
Lastly, and this one's just out of curiosity, do you have a particular logical colour scheme for your notifications? I'm trying to decide between colours based on urgency (i.e.: red = urgent, all the way down to blue = take your time) or trying to get the colour of the LED to match the colour of the app icon. Do you just assign random colours or is there method to your madness?
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Not really, I just settled on:
WHITE - SMS
ORANGE - Gmail
GREEN - Missed Call
RED - No Signal (my house is Faraday Cage)
And that's it. Don't really need LED notifications for other apps. Feel like it needs some blue in there though!

for wistemon
munchy_cool said:
wrong forum
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Which one do you suggest? Also if a mod wants to move this, sorry, please do. I thought it was a pretty "Nexus 4 General" question.
TheFiveDots said:
Not really, I just settled on:
WHITE - SMS
ORANGE - Gmail
GREEN - Missed Call
RED - No Signal (my house is Faraday Cage)
And that's it. Don't really need LED notifications for other apps. Feel like it needs some blue in there though!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How about low battery if you really want to get some blue in there?

niiiiick said:
Which one do you suggest? Also if a mod wants to move this, sorry, please do. I thought it was a pretty "Nexus 4 General" question.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Q&A section: http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1909

TheFiveDots said:
Q&A section: http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=1909
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did has following:
Green (flash) - SMS/MMS (matches the icon)
White (flash) - Gmail (mail/letters come on white paper)
Purple (flash) - Facebook (kinda matches the icon color)
Blue (flash) - Google Voice (same as above)
Red (flash) - low battery (red = critical)
Yellow (flash) - Missed call
Orange (flash) - Calender
Pink (flash) - Song Pop (girly color for girly game)
Green (solid) - Fully charged
For the flash I used the custom timing of 1000ms on, 1000ms off.

jakejm79 said:
I did has following:
Green (flash) - SMS/MMS (matches the icon)
White (flash) - Gmail (mail/letters come on white paper)
Purple (flash) - Facebook (kinda matches the icon color)
Blue (flash) - Google Voice (same as above)
Red (flash) - low battery (red = critical)
Yellow (flash) - Missed call
Orange (flash) - Calender
Pink (flash) - Song Pop (girly color for girly game)
Green (solid) - Fully charged
For the flash I used the custom timing of 1000ms on, 1000ms off.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Did you experience any battery issues due to lightflow?

I'm colorblind so I have to keep it simple.
Blue: SMS/MMS
Green: email
White: Facebook/G+
Red: Missed Call/Battery low
I have too much trouble distinguishing the other colors.

I use color code and based on priority from highest to lowest
Yellow = missed call/VM
Orange =vox
Green = IM
Blue = sms
Red = Email
That's it I think. Others I don't care enough about to have a notification on.
Oh. and I haven't noticed a change in battery life with light flow. Although in the past with other devices there were issues that eventually get fixed.

pratopathak said:
Did you experience any battery issues due to lightflow?
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Not for the short while I had it, there are several ROMs out now that have LED customization built in now.

Am I correct to assume there is no LED customisation available for missed calls, charging battery, SMS in the original stock Android version of Nexus 4?

pratopathak said:
Am I correct to assume there is no LED customisation available for missed calls, charging battery, SMS in the original stock Android version of Nexus 4?
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Correct....

galaxys said:
Correct....
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Phew.I thought there was an issue with my Nexus 4 initially! I was a HTC user and all notifications came as default!

Related

I wan't some kind of status LED

I have always had a green status LED om my phones. For me it's even more important today than on older phones because the screen is off and i can't tell if the phone is alive.
The LEDs on xperia is four groups with red, green and blue and their combinations of colors. Is there any program that can affect them? Registery tweak? The dimming would also be cool to have.
There is a little program inside the phone to configure those LEDs.
It can be seen in some of the videos on youtube etc.
Greets !
Within settings there is an app called "Illumination"
Though this only allows you to decide when there is illumination, not the colour, length and such.
Naffets said:
Within settings there is an app called "Illumination"
Though this only allows you to decide when there is illumination, not the colour, length and such.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yep, nothing for status LED either.
[email protected] said:
I have always had a green status LED om my phones. For me it's even more important today than on older phones because the screen is off and i can't tell if the phone is alive.
The LEDs on xperia is four groups with red, green and blue and their combinations of colors. Is there any program that can affect them? Registery tweak? The dimming would also be cool to have.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's important for me too, but I can't see anything.
The excellent XperiaTweak only changes the fixed illumination patterns across the events, and there isn't a network status event.
In addition for me the illumination patterns light on too fast!

[REQ] Flashing Lights

One thing I really liked about the Touch Pro was the little light wheel flashed when you had an incoming text, a missed call, or a voice mail. This was especially useful if I walked away from my phone, and came back.
Now I don't know anything about programming, but I was wondering if it is possible to make the little buttons on the Touch Pro 2 flash in a similar fashion. Like a wave of light across the bar, if you understand what I mean.
Sorry if there is something like this out there. I didn't know what to search for.
why don't you just set the notification led to blink for each of these events. you can set it in the sounds & notification settings.
xnifex said:
why don't you just set the notification led to blink for each of these events. you can set it in the sounds & notification settings.
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Click to collapse
Maybe I'm blind, but I don't see where. On the sounds and notifications, it only has a tab for Sounds and a tab for Notifications. Not trying to sound snarky, but I don't see anything about a light on there.
Like I said, maybe I'm just missing it.
on the notifications tab theres a drop down menu for events. look in that & find which events you want the status led to blink for
That just flashes the little green LED at the top, right?
m4xx0rz said:
That just flashes the little green LED at the top, right?
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Right, sadly the tp2 only flashes one color with notifications/events. Flashes amber when battery is low
Hopefully someone can figure this out in the future
tarroyo said:
Right, sadly the tp2 only flashes one color with notifications/events. Flashes amber when battery is low
Hopefully someone can figure this out in the future
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Click to collapse
Yeah. I hope so too. I liked the little flashing ring of light on the original Touch Pro.

Trackpad Notification Light

I was taking a quick look at the leds in the G2.
When i look at the jogball-backlight in regards to the trackpad light, I am unable to change the color. It retains the following value.
# cat color
color : invalid length​I tried to echo "0 255 255" into that, and still see the same message when I cat it. Any ideas?
Also, I can cat 255 into the brightness with no effect. I see the value when I cat brightness, but the light is still off. Looks like you have to trigger it? When sleeping the display and forcing the notification light, the brightness gets set back to 0 after it's flash.
Also the jogball-backlight directory contains:
- uevent
l- subsystem
l- devices
- power/wakeup
- brightness
- max_brightness
- trigger
- color​
Also, check this out.
#cat trigger
[none] rfkill0 battery-charging-or-full battery-charging battery-full usb-online ac-online mmc0 mmc1 mmc2​
-oldsk00lz
You tried this after soft root, correct?
Hahhahha my mistake nevermind...
Where is the trackball light? Is it next to the earpiece like every other LED light on most HTC phones?
mortal300 said:
Where is the trackball light? Is it next to the earpiece like every other LED light on most HTC phones?
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Click to collapse
It has a touchpad light like the nexus and a battery notify light next the speaker. Currently, the trackpad flashing during an incoming call and the led light by the earpiece flashes during low battery or solid while charging. No flashing anything for notifications such as messages/email/ or reminders which sucks obviously. No apps change this currently without root. I guess this was the concern and the color obviously.
Tweetdeck makes the led flash when new post appear
When I have a new text message, with Chomp, the trackpad flashes intermittently as long as it goes unchecked.
Well that's good news I look a bit harder for 3rd party apps that can make notifications without root and see. Plus, there is a trackpad light app that requires root but let's you change colors and it creates notifications for email/sms/mms/ and reminders.
Have you tried that application yet? Would be interesting to see if it works as the directory structure looks different than what I read about the nexus 1. I was wondering if the 'invalid number' for color was due to no color being available, or just something that we couldn't read/set.
The notification in the earpiece looks to be amber/green versus RGB.
-oldsk00lz
Sent from my T-Mobile G2 using XDA App
The notification in the earpiece also goes red when battery is low along with amber and green so I think its RGB. I miss that led being used for notifications like on the G1. The trackpad glows slowly for notifications and seems to be only if the screen is off.
phesone said:
The notification in the earpiece also goes red when battery is low along with amber and green so I think its RGB. I miss that led being used for notifications like on the G1. The trackpad glows slowly for notifications and seems to be only if the screen is off.
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If you go to /sys/class/leds you will only see amber and green. On my G1 I see red, green, blue. I think the amber is actually used for the red. I think it would be hard to having any blue colors without a blue led setting.
-oldsk00lz
Im assuming none of you guys seen the other two ligths located at the top left of the device on the face? if im not mistaken if you hold it up to the light it shows a purple square bulb below and a blue one above. is the blue one for blutooth? and is the other thing the proximity sensor?
I'm pretty sure both of the other "bulbs" you see are actually both the proximity sensor, on my vibrant there were 3 things, one was the ambient light sensor and the other 2 were the proximity sensors. I guess its an emitter and reciever.
Sent from my Plain Biff Dream using XDA App
Hey, I just got the G2 and I am also gravely missing the LED notifications from the G1. I installed handcent, and have gotten the trackpad outline to blink, but the blinking is so infrequent and limited to white. There must be a way to toggle the charging indicator LED's. I've tried the app "Blinker" with no satisfaction. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
not getting the notifications on gmail, or handcent or anything. This is a deal-breaker for me. I may steal my nexus back from my wife and leave her with the G2 if one of you smart guys cant figure this out!
schwiz said:
not getting the notifications on gmail, or handcent or anything. This is a deal-breaker for me. I may steal my nexus back from my wife and leave her with the G2 if one of you smart guys cant figure this out!
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Click to collapse
That's because the trackpad does the notifications. Not the other lights nor will they ever work for notifications... get the apps that add reminders and you'll be fine. Quit crying...
Lmao @ quit crying ! But really.. Am I the only one who likes the fact that I can see when I have a notification while my phone is charging? I think it was a good idea though to seperate them. Any dittos?
sino8r said:
That's because the trackpad does the notifications. Not the other lights nor will they ever work for notifications... get the apps that add reminders and you'll be fine. Quit crying...
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What is this reminder you are talking about? I don't see any reminder in the sdk. Also, I would be on board with finding alternate apps that use this reminder instead if the Gmail app used it. No notification on gmail blows, I'm sorry!
Also, I heard chomp shows the led notification, but I tried it out and it doesn't how about being a little more constructive and offering alternatives.
schwiz said:
What is this reminder you are talking about? I don't see any reminder in the sdk. Also, I would be on board with finding alternate apps that use this reminder instead if the Gmail app used it. No notification on gmail blows, I'm sorry!
Also, I heard chomp shows the led notification, but I tried it out and it doesn't how about being a little more constructive and offering alternatives.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No its not a built in option. Nor would it be in the sdk... there a few third party apps that add the ability. Here's what I use: gmail notifier/ sms notifier/ and calendar notifier. They are all free and available in the market. They work very well and make up for lack of traditional led. The trackball flashes too only in white and fades on and off slowly.
sino8r said:
No its not a built in option. Nor would it be in the sdk... there a few third party apps that add the ability. Here's what I use: gmail notifier/ sms notifier/ and calendar notifier. They are all free and available in the market. They work very well and make up for lack of traditional led. The trackball flashes too only in white and fades on and off slowly.
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Click to collapse
Thanks! This will have to do for now.
Edit: back to crying... color doesn't work. boooo
schwiz said:
Thanks! This will have to do for now.
Edit: back to crying... color doesn't work. boooo
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Click to collapse
When the N1 came out, all we had was white notifications from the trackball. It took some time but devs eventually figured out how to get diverse colored notifications from the trackball, and from the charge LED.
Relax and be patient, surely the G2 will follow the same path. It just came out.

2nd screen dimming?

One of the nice things about my Note 4 is that the LED notification light will automatically change its brightness based on ambient light levels (I even tweaked this further in the Synapse Kernel app).
Does the top notification LCD on the V20 (and V10) auto aadjust the brightness (in the same manner it would with the primary display)?
My concern is the the top display may be too bright at night if it does not dim automatically.
All I saw in one video is a setting to turn it off at a set time (such as 12am-6am).
I personally am use to the notification LED, as I can see it from a distance, and have it set so different colors represent different alerts (email, txt, Facebook). It would have been nice if the V20 included an LED as well.
I have a note 4 and never noticed that
Yeah, I have the V10 and actually miss having a notification LED.
I always set it up to flash a certain color depending on what the notification was (Green = messages, White = Email, Blue = Facebook, etc) so I could know to not pick up the phone unless it was one of the things I deemed important. It saved me from getting distracted just cuz I "want to see if I'm missing something". I'd love if there were an app that could use the second screen as a big LED for this purpose.
i have the lg v20 and yes the 2nd screen does dim and bright up depending on the sunlight/room light. i have my screen set on auto
biggnaa20 said:
Yeah, I have the V10 and actually miss having a notification LED.
I always set it up to flash a certain color depending on what the notification was (Green = messages, White = Email, Blue = Facebook, etc) so I could know to not pick up the phone unless it was one of the things I deemed important. It saved me from getting distracted just cuz I "want to see if I'm missing something". I'd love if there were an app that could use the second screen as a big LED for this purpose.
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Click to collapse
It dims for sure. WAY too much for me. I can hardly see it in the dark. I have not found a way to change it.

Question about notification light

Hello guys, i have a simple question for you.
I had the impression that the led notification light for missed calls (top of the screen) is blue. I never payed attention. But today i noticed that the missed call notification light is green, like the fb messenger one.
Is this the right color or something is mixed up? Thanks in advance.
Xampos said:
Hello guys, i have a simple question for you.
I had the impression that the led notification light for missed calls (top of the screen) is blue. I never payed attention. But today i noticed that the missed call notification light is green, like the fb messenger one.
Is this the right color or something is mixed up? Thanks in advance.
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Click to collapse
The light on my phone is also different, so I don't think it should be the same color all the time.
Charkatak said:
The light on my phone is also different, so I don't think it should be the same color all the time.
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Click to collapse
There are different color notifications for different apps. For Facebook Messenger is green, for sms is blue etc.
I had the impression that it's also blue for missed calls but i noticed today that is green and i want to know if its the same for the other owners...
I used to like my old Blackberrys bcuz they had apps that let you adjust the LED colors and blink speeds with various apps.
by default its diffrent colors for diffrent apps (most the time). My wife's lights up purple for some game she plays lol. it sucks you cant really customize them through the settings but I've used Light Flow (Play Store) on my S8 and it works perfectly (atleast for me)
Xampos said:
Hello guys, i have a simple question for you.
I had the impression that the led notification light for missed calls (top of the screen) is blue. I never payed attention. But today i noticed that the missed call notification light is green, like the fb messenger one.
Is this the right color or something is mixed up? Thanks in advance.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes. Missed call is green.

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