Database Users

[Q] Controlling key backlight LEDs

Has anyone figured out how to control the backlight on the Home, Menu, etc soft buttons on a rooted Epic?
I am looking in /sys/class/leds/ and there are five directories:
blue/
red/
mmc0::/
mmc1::/
mmc2::/
By changing the content of the brightness file in blue/ and red/ I am able to turn the blue and red notification LEDs on and off; but the mmc* directories don't seem to do anything, and I can't figure out how to control the softkey LEDs.
Code:
# cd /sys/class/leds/mmc0\:\:/
# cat brightness
0
# echo 255 > brightness
# cat brightness
0
# cat /sys/class/leds/device/leds/mmc0\:\:/brightness
1
# echo 0 > /sys/class/leds/device/leds/mmc0\:\:/brightness
# cat /sys/class/leds/device/leds/mmc0\:\:/brightness
1
What I primarily want to do is get those softkey lights to turn off and stay off while I am reading an ebook. This was easy on my Samsung Moment:
Code:
echo 0 > /sys/class/leds/button-backlight/brightness
Any clues?

I have been wanting this since the beginning. The softkey leds seem to be connected to the keyboard backlight. Even if I could just turn off the keyboard backlight entirely (i.e. changing the timeout does not help ebook reading), I would be happy.

Just set it to 3secs then it would turn off fast works for me when reading ebook.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using Tapatalk

Hmmm. The choice between a bright light shining in my face or a bright light flashing in my face? Neither are acceptable.

in fact, i hope it could be on when screen is on, although there is an option "Same as screen timeout", it simple set the timeout the same as screen's, i mean, they just do not sync. when you opened some app keep the screen on, the keys will fade a few moment later, no matter what you've set, that's really frustrating me!

I've been searching for the control file and found this. It looks promising, but its zero length. I was expecting it to contain a value like the blue & red ones.
Code:
/sys/devices/platform/s3c-keypad/brightness

After forgetting about this for a long while, I found it!
/sys/devices/virtual/misc/melfas_touchkey/brightness is the file that controls the softkey backlight on the Epic.
Use
Code:
echo 0 > /sys/devices/virtual/misc/melfas_touchkey/brightness
to turn off the backlight.
Code:
echo 1 > /sys/devices/virtual/misc/melfas_touchkey/brightness
to turn on the backlight.
Code:
chmod 0333 /sys/devices/virtual/misc/melfas_touchkey/brightness
to prevent other apps from changing the backlight's on/off status. And
Code:
chmod 0647 /sys/devices/virtual/misc/melfas_touchkey/brightness
to undo the previous line's lockdown.

Please post questions in General section.

Try out SimpleLEDToggle Plus in the Market. It's 99 cents. It didn't work for me but that's probably because I'm not rooted. There was a comment that it worked on the Epic. It specifically said that you can use it for reading ebooks with the lights off.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App

dennistpm said:
Try out SimpleLEDToggle Plus in the Market. It's 99 cents. It didn't work for me but that's probably because I'm not rooted. There was a comment that it worked on the Epic. It specifically said that you can use it for reading ebooks with the lights off.
Sent from my SPH-D700 using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Big plus if this works...I will check it out.

SimpleLedtoggleplus doesn't work. I lost my buck but I contacted the dev and told him about this thread. 15 minutes it too short. It should be 60 at least

This line does not work under 2.2 rooted,
Code:
echo 0 > /sys/devices/virtual/misc/melfas_touchkey/brightness
The updated line is
Code:
echo 2 > /sys/devices/virtual/misc/melfas_touchkey/brightness
Works for me, your mileage may vary.
The suggested chmod seems to have no impact, for me, nor does 0444 or 0000.
Now to find a way to tie a desktop icon to a shell script... (sure it's easy for you, but I'm a n00b)
Chisight

a way to tie a desktop icon to a shell script

ZenInsight said:
SimpleLedtoggleplus doesn't work. I lost my buck but I contacted the dev and told him about this thread. 15 minutes it too short. It should be 60 at least
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thing is, with android and linux being so free in regards with what you can do, 15 minutes is just under enough time to download the app, install, back up the app data, transfer it to your pc, then request a refund.
Sent from my Epic 4G via Tapatalk

It wouldn't take 15 mins to do that...
Sent from my Nexus S using XDA App

chisight said:
This line does not work under 2.2 rooted,
Code:
echo 0 > /sys/devices/virtual/misc/melfas_touchkey/brightness
The updated line is
Code:
echo 2 > /sys/devices/virtual/misc/melfas_touchkey/brightness
Works for me, your mileage may vary.
The suggested chmod seems to have no impact, for me, nor does 0444 or 0000.
Now to find a way to tie a desktop icon to a shell script... (sure it's easy for you, but I'm a n00b)
Chisight
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Wow!!! Did you actually get the hard key lights to shut off???!

I've been wanting this for about a year now and finally found a solution.
I odin'd EF02Plus rom (gingerbread) yesterday and last night while reading I noticed that the button leds now do not come on when I touch the screen (YES!!!). The leds do come on just fine if you tap a hardware button. Perfect setup for night reading.
Not sure if this is the same in all EF02 based roms or not, but I'm guessing it probably is.

retrobits said:
I've been wanting this for about a year now and finally found a solution.
I odin'd EF02Plus rom (gingerbread) yesterday and last night while reading I noticed that the button leds now do not come on when I touch the screen (YES!!!). The leds do come on just fine if you tap a hardware button. Perfect setup for night reading.
Not sure if this is the same in all EF02 based roms or not, but I'm guessing it probably is.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You are kidding? That's it? I wonder if it's the rom or kernel.

Hey guys,
Not sure if this is still useful to anybody. I'm on EH 17 CM7.1 Kang and I found the values for controlling the brightness of the softkeys and the hardkeys
For the face soft keys (better reading ebooks):
Code:
/sys/devices/virtual/sec/t_key # echo 0 > brightness
For the keyboard keys (to save power either typing or playing emulated games):
Code:
/sys/devices/platform/s3c-keypad # echo 2 > brightness
Hope this helps.

thephawx said:
Hey guys,
Not sure if this is still useful to anybody. I'm on EH 17 CM7.1 Kang and I found the values for controlling the brightness of the softkeys and the hardkeys
For the face soft keys (better reading ebooks):
Code:
/sys/devices/virtual/sec/t_key # echo 0 > brightness
For the keyboard keys (to save power either typing or playing emulated games):
Code:
/sys/devices/platform/s3c-keypad # echo 2 > brightness
Hope this helps.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very cool! Disabling soft key backlight does turn them off and stop them from lighting on screen press in cm7, but pressing a softkey lights them up again. I hope this info can help the screen filter app dev on our epics!

WidgetLocker changed brightness to 0 Please help!

I installed widgetlocker but it changed my brightness down to 0, so when I boot android I cant see my unlock screen or anything because it is pure black but I can hear everything. I cant connect my HD2 phone with droid explorer it just wont find my device, I though I could change my brightness through that. Any help? I cant find WidgetLocker in my android folder either.

Freaknik said:
I installed widgetlocker but it changed my brightness down to 0, so when I boot android I cant see my unlock screen or anything because it is pure black but I can hear everything. I cant connect my HD2 phone with droid explorer it just wont find my device, I though I could change my brightness through that. Any help? I cant find WidgetLocker in my android folder either.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Put you phone near a powered up birght light bulb.. the brightness will go up.. then deactivate automatic brightness..

Connect your Phone with PC ... Install Android SDK.. and access your device using adb.exe
And Try this:
sqlite3 /data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases/settings.db
SQLite version 3.5.9
Enter ".help" for instructions
sqlite> update system set value=255 where name='screen_brightness';
sqlite> .exit
reboot
Let me know if it works for you...

Freaknik said:
I installed widgetlocker but it changed my brightness down to 0, so when I boot android I cant see my unlock screen or anything because it is pure black but I can hear everything. I cant connect my HD2 phone with droid explorer it just wont find my device, I though I could change my brightness through that. Any help? I cant find WidgetLocker in my android folder either.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Same thing happened to me and I freaked out. Well there is an icon that turns the brightness to 0. You just have to remember approximately where it is. It is one icon above the bottom right icon (vibrate/silence icon). So just estimate the location and slide it over to the left. I got lucky because it took me a few tries.

[Fix] Disable auto brightness/Fix auto brightness fuzziness

Hi, after seeing that you have problems with auto brightness, I requested hw_config.sh and this one should fix the problems. One person reported auto brightness is disabled, other person reported that auto brightness became smoother.
1) Unzip
2) Push hw_config.sh to /system/etc
3) chmod 777 /system/etc/hw_config.sh
4) Reboot
Report the result.
Some further tweaks could be applied to completely disable auto-brightness if this isn't working. I'll just need some volunteers.
Best regards

I would like to try, but I don't want to mess around too much.
So my questions are:
1. Is there a way to revert if something is not right? (Other than re-flash the whole thing)
2. Can you clearly say whether it disables auto-brightness or enables it? (I can't find any open under the brightness for "auto". So I wonder why we have sensor for this?)

Cm7 Light Sensor Levels (Small simple guide)

Please go to Settings -> CyanogenMod Settings -> Display -> Automatic Backlight -> Edit Other Levels...
Below is a screenshot of the settings I'm using. This is much easier on the eyes during the night, as I found the stock settings to be too bright. This also improves battery life.
Play around with the other settings in the previous window like Sample Interval ( 1 second) and screen dim level (1).
Like I said this is what has worked best for me. If it is too dark simply increase the numbers as needed.
If this was helpful don't forget to hit the Thanks button! Cheers!

g2tegg said:
Please go to Settings -> CyanogenMod Settings -> Display -> Automatic Backlight -> Edit Other Levels...
Below is a screenshot of the settings I'm using. This is much easier on the eyes during the night, as I found the stock settings to be too bright. This also improves battery life.
Play around with the other settings in the previous window like Sample Interval ( 1 second) and screen dim level (1).
Like I said this is what has worked best for me. If it is too dark simply increase the numbers as needed.
If this was helpful don't forget to hit the Thanks button! Cheers!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I like my screen about as dark as I can get it, before CM I used SuperDim to get my screen dark. I've had my screen dim level set to 6 ever since flashing CM, but never played with those setting cause I wasn't sure how to work them. I set mine exactly like yours. My question is do the "other levels" only kick in if you are using automatic brightness?

WiredPirate said:
I like my screen about as dark as I can get it, before CM I used SuperDim to get my screen dark. I've had my screen dim level set to 6 ever since flashing CM, but never played with those setting cause I wasn't sure how to work them. I set mine exactly like yours. My question is do the "other levels" only kick in if you are using automatic brightness?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
My atrix has the automatic settings selected, then I customized the light levels under CM7. Seems to work smooth as well. That's what bothers me the most with the SG2. Half the time when i turn the screen on its dark for about 10 seconds (and in direct sunlight you can't see anything on the screen) before the phone realizes the light settings and adjusts.
Just play around with the settings. Hold your finger over the light sensor and watch the numbers drop.

Which version of CM are you running? On the most recent stable build Ba2Tf (IIRC) the top two in the second editable column can't be changed from their defalt 24/48 values...?

phobos512 said:
Which version of CM are you running? On the most recent stable build Ba2Tf (IIRC) the top two in the second editable column can't be changed from their defalt 24/48 values...?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You have to change the dim level to 1 before you can set those values that low.

I applied all the settings and my phone screen didnt changed a bit (i am already using lowest screen brightness from display settings) should i reboot or what ?
Edit: Rebooted and no change
Edit 2:Screen dim is working amazingly, all i want is to lower the actual screen brightness, that hurt my eyes when i wake up and start reading sms
Edit 3: just edit the settings and put ur phone to auto brightness, it should work. I was using my phone all the way lowest brightness 24-7 manualy.
P.s: thanks and thanks cm7.

HOWTO: Notification LED for Moto X 2 (2014) using Tasker (Nexus 6 also))

Background:
I previously had an old Nexus i9250 which had an LED and I'm missing that badly, despite the Moto notification.
However, the Moto X 2 (2014) has a LED hidden under the earpiece, but it is normally only used to indicate charging (this is similar to the Nexus 6, but the Moto 2014 LED is just green, the Nexus-6 seems to have a hidden multi-color LED too).
On rooted devices the LED can be turned on by writing a value to a system file:
echo <brighness> >/sys/class/leds/charging/brightness
(<brighness> is some value betweeen 1 and 255, for testing in an adb shell it needs to be issued from su)
The LED can also be activated using the LightFlow app (see thread here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/showpost.php?p=59198021&postcount=22)
Here are instructions for the Tasker app (which allows more flexible control over the LED):
1) Create a Tasker task "Led On If Screen Off"
- Task-Type "Code>Run Shell", set Use-Root to "on", command: echo 64 >/sys/class/leds/charging/brightness
- EDIT: as someone suggested here, alternately (instead of the run.shell command) you can add a Task: Alert>Set-Light>Charging and set slider to 64
- fill in the IF-section: IF %SCREEN equals off
- (the number 64 in the command is the brightness, it can technically run from 1 [dim] to 255 [battery consuming])
2) Create a task named "Led Off"
- Task-Type "Code>Run Shell", set Use-Root to "on", command: echo 0 >/sys/class/leds/charging/brightness
- EDIT: as someone suggested here, alternately (instead of the run.shell command) you can add a Task: Alert>Set-Light>Charging and set slider to 0
3) Create a Profile named "Notify Led On"
- Profile-Type "Event>UI>Notification"
- Owner Application "*" (or any you may like)
- Assign profile to perform task "Led On If Screen Off"
4) Create a Profile named "Notify Click Led Off"
- Profile-Type "Event>UI>Notification Click"
- Assign it to perform task "Led Off"
and/or
5) Create a Profile named "Screen On Led Off"
- Profile-Type "Event>UI>Display>Display On"
- Assign to perform task "Led Off"
Violá ... Tasker will turn on the LED if the display is off and a notification arrives. (Of course other triggers like "State>Battery" can also be linked to the "Led On" task).
Enjoy

Can you say why my echo <brightness> keeps coming back to 0 by itself?

fhreire said:
Can you say why my echo <brightness> keeps coming back to 0 by itself?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It should be something like
echo 255 >/sys/class/leds/charging/brightness
And needs to be running in root or superuser, so make sure the command is set to run as root (and you have Tasker allowed in SuperSU or similar apps).

fhreire said:
I don't have the Tasker app, I tried a cracked one to test but it didn't ask me permission for SuperSu, so I guess it's not working, innit?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Use-Root flag must be set in the task.
Probably su echo 64 >/sys/class/leds/charging/brightness as a command will also work.
Or your cracked version is broken (Tasker is worth the money anyway and you can get a refund from PlayStore within a few hours if you don't like).
Otherwise see the link (in the original post) to the thread using LightFlow for the LED

We can make it blink!
shimodax said:
Here are instructions for the Tasker app (which allows more flexible control over the LED):
1) Create a Tasker task "Led On If Screen Off"
- Task-Type "Code>Run Shell"
- set Use-Root to "on"
- Command: echo 64 >/sys/class/leds/charging/brightness
- fill in the IF-section: IF %SCREEN equals off
- (the number 64 in the command is the brightness, it can technically run from 1 [dim] to 255 [battery consuming])
2) Create a task named "Led Off"
- Task-Type "Code>Run Shell"
- set Use-Root to "on"
- Command: echo 0 >/sys/class/leds/charging/brightness
3) Create a Profile named "Notify Led On"
Task-Type "Event>UI>Notification", Owner Application "*" (or any you may like) and assign it to task "Led On If Screen Off"
4) Create a Profile named "Notify Click Led Off"
Task-Type "Event>UI>Notification Click", and assign it to task "Led Off"
and/or
5) Create a Profile named "Screen On Led Off"
Task-Type "Event>UI>Display>Display On", and assign it to task "Led Off"
Violá ... Tasker will turn on the LED if the display is off and a notification arrives. (Of course other triggers like "State>Battery" can also be linked to the "Led On" task).
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great one! Was looking for some way to turn it on and off.
BTW, you can make it blink softly (like Moto G 2014 and others) by changing the action Led On If Screen Off to the following:
1. Task-Type "Code>Run Shell"
- set Use-Root to "on"
- Command: echo 1 >/sys/class/leds/charging/brightness
- fill in the IF-section: IF %SCREEN equals off
2. Task-Type "Code>Run Shell"
- set Use-Root to "on"
- Command: echo 25 >/sys/class/leds/charging/brightness
- fill in the IF-section: IF %SCREEN equals off
3. Task-Type "Code>Run Shell"
- set Use-Root to "on"
- Command: echo 255 >/sys/class/leds/charging/brightness
- fill in the IF-section: IF %SCREEN equals off
4. Task-Type "Code>Run Shell"
- set Use-Root to "on"
- Command: echo 25 >/sys/class/leds/charging/brightness
- fill in the IF-section: IF %SCREEN equals off
4. Task-Type "Code>Run Shell"
- set Use-Root to "on"
- Command: echo 0 >/sys/class/leds/charging/brightness
- fill in the IF-section: IF %SCREEN equals off
6. Task-Type "Task>Wait"
- 10 seconds (or the desired blinking interval)
7. Task-Type "Task>Goto"
- Type "Action number"
- Action number 1
Then, just add the following to the Led Off task:
- Task-type "Task>Stop"
- Task "Led On If Screen Off"
And it should blink until you tap the notification. My hope is that it will decrease the battery consumption to a minimum level.
Hope it helps!

shimodax said:
The Use-Root flag must be set in the task.
Probably su echo 64 >/sys/class/leds/charging/brightness as a command will also work.
Or your cracked version is broken (Tasker is worth the money anyway and you can get a refund from PlayStore within a few hours if you don't like).
Otherwise see the link (in the original post) to the thread using LightFlow for the LED
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Just bought the app, gonna try that again, thanks.

joaoeder said:
BTW, you can make it blink softly (like Moto G 2014 and others) by changing the action Led On If Screen Off to the following:
...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very cool. Something learned today . Thanks!
joaoeder said:
Then, just add the following to the Led Off task:
- Task-type "Task>Stop"
- Task "Led On If Screen Off"
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Very cool .

I did my own version so it blinks really smooth, with fade-in and fade-out, and repeating every 5 seconds.
To ensure compatibility, install busybox!
Same as @joaoeder, but put this on Led On If Screen Off
1. Task-Type "Code>Run Shell"
- set Use-Root to "on"
- Command: (ensure that you copy everything in a single line. I recommend to copy & paste )
Code:
l=1;while [ $l -ne 32 ] ;do echo $l >/sys/class/leds/charging/brightness; l=`expr $l + 1`;sleep 0.01;done;sleep 0.5;while [ $l -ne 0 ] ;do l=`expr $l - 1`;echo $l >/sys/class/leds/charging/brightness;sleep 0.01;done
- fill in the IF-section: IF %SCREEN equals off
2. Task-Type "Task>Wait"
- 5 seconds (or the desired blinking interval)
3. Task-Type "Task>Goto"
- Type "Action number"
- Action number 1
Now the led will smoothly fade in for 1/3 second, keep on 1/2 second, and fade out for 1/3 second.
No more crappy slow and noticeable brightness steps! It's almost identical to the stock notification of most phones.
I had issues with tasker, I discovered that I had to reboot the phone each time I made changes for applying them, otherwise it just didn't work
If you want the led to be on for more time, change sleep 0.5 to whatever you want (0.5=1/2 second, 1=1second, 2=2 seconds...etc)

No need to use shell, you can use the build in taster function.
It is under Alert > Set Light, from the drop down menu select charging and use the slider to set the brightness of the Led.

I thought it was said the OS couldn't access this light, nice!

Nedle said:
No need to use shell, you can use the build in taster function.
It is under Alert > Set Light, from the drop down menu select charging and use the slider to set the brightness of the Led.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Awesome, didn't see that. Will edit the original post. Thanks!

Nedle said:
No need to use shell, you can use the build in taster function.
It is under Alert > Set Light, from the drop down menu select charging and use the slider to set the brightness of the Led.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Now that's news to me. Nice to see it has a built in way to access the led. Thanks for sharing!

Could someone show how the LED looks?
Thanks.

Can this be applied to the 2013 moto x?

Haven't had any luck with tasker yet, i cant get the prompt for root to show. gonna try lightflow and see if i have any luck with it. Do i need to disable moto display and ambient display?
EDIT: Fiddled with lightflow for a while with no luck either. Finally got tasker to show the prompt for SU but it isnt working either. Can't figure what I am doing wrong.

dabyd64 said:
I did my own version so it blinks really smooth, with fade-in and fade-out, and repeating every 5 seconds.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Great dude!

wasnt able to get it working on moto x 1st gen either. obviously the implementation differs from the one in the moto x 2nd gen, allthough the paths and the triggers are the same. would have been great to get a notification led....
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I can't seem to get this to work on my 2nd Gen Moto X. I can get the tasks to work just fine (turns on/off the LED) but the profiles with the notification and notification click don't work. The light doesn't come on with a notification, with screen on or off, and if I manually turn the light on through the task, I can't get it to turn off with a click on a notification. Any ideas?

akates said:
I can't seem to get this to work on my 2nd Gen Moto X. I can get the tasks to work just fine (turns on/off the LED) but the profiles with the notification and notification click don't work. The light doesn't come on with a notification, with screen on or off, and if I manually turn the light on through the task, I can't get it to turn off with a click on a notification. Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Using moto display? Clicking a notification through moto display isnt registered as notification click unfortunately.
Try setting notification + display state off to turn on the led for notifications.
Good luck and cheers
Sent from my XT1092 using XDA Free mobile app

Guys, I'm having some issues with the led.
First I've rooted my phone and tried to make the led blink using tasker and Stock ROM, but I have no success.
The second time, I've flashed temasek ROM (with some led options like blink duration and speed) but didn' t worked too.
The third time I've tried with tasker and the custom ROM. No success
To sum up my situation I can't make the led blink, it turns on but still on continuosly when the screen is off.
I would like to know if someone made the led blink with success.
Sorry about bad english
Sent from my victara using XDA Free mobile app