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[App] BattMonX (Droid X Battery State Monitor via LED Indicator)

old.blue said:
No worries! Wish all the devs were as easy to work with as you are!
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Thank you very much...I do appreciate that.

My motivation for posting the non-"donate" version first was two-fold: 1) the whole rebuilding the app thing I described above, and 2) if there's a problem (like an unexpected FC [which I've had before :eek:], I figure the larger base of folks with that version will discover and hopefully report any errors more quickly.

I know that sounds a little backwards, but I really got freaked-out the night I had to pull the 2.0 version and quickly re-publish a prior version until I figured-out the FC issue that many were experiencing.

Cheers and I hope you enjoy this new version! :)
 
Downloaded and installed the pay version and deleted the beta. One question. Why is my picture being used as the app's logo? :p
 
So, I uninstalled the free and bought your newer pay version. I see it says you can use icons with lightning bolts? I know it obviously can, since before I uninstalled the free (and apparently had two running at once), the icon had changed on its own to the one with the lightning bolt. Now, with just pay, it won't change even though I have that option on. :confused:

And is it supposed to tell me in the notification top bar off and on just "BattmonX" as if it's reminding me that it's running (or it just reloaded)? It's kind of weird.
 
Sokudo Ningyou said:
So, I uninstalled the free and bought your newer pay version. I see it says you can use icons with lightning bolts? I know it obviously can, since before I uninstalled the free (and apparently had two running at once), the icon had changed on its own to the one with the lightning bolt. Now, with just pay, it won't change even though I have that option on. :confused:

And is it supposed to tell me in the notification top bar off and on just "BattmonX" as if it's reminding me that it's running (or it just reloaded)? It's kind of weird.
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Thank you for your patronage and your feedback...I do appreciate it.

Yeah, I had some weirdness when I tried to run the free and the donate versions simultaneously (especially the older, non-2.6 versions). I did run both the free and donate 2.6 versions at the same (where I believe I addressed all of the package name reference issues) without a problem, but I can believe that you would have seen some wonkiness with two of any prior versions up and running at the same time.

Make sure there's only one version installed and running... If you still have problems, can you turn on logging and send me the log file, please? (scary.alien@gmail.com).

Thanks!
 
mruno said:
same reloading is happening to me. logging is being turned on now...
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Guys, I'm a little flummoxed as to what could be going on...unless its something like an auto-task killer (the log file will show this since I record the process-id in the log; you could also see by watching the app in something like System Panel or some other monitoring tool).

I did put the "BattMonX starting-up..." ticker on the status bar for each time that the service gets started, so if you are seeing it repetitively, then something is going on where either the app is being killed or is dying.

Sometimes, the log file that my app records is not enough to debug what is going on, since it can record things that Android might be doing (and recording)...that's where a logcat utility (I use aLogcat) comes in handy. aLogcat is free (there is a paid version too, which I have since its a great dev tool) and is pretty straightforward to use. You just start the app up, add a filter with the text string you want to capture (i.e., "BattMonX"--be sure to check the "Apply as a regular express?" checkbox). You can save the log to a file and use its Share menu option to email it out.

Anyway, I'll await your guys' log files so we can figure this out.

Thanks and let me know.
 
By the way, here's the instructions for capturing the logcat debugging messages:

A. Download and install the "aLogcat" app (free in the Market)

B. Go ahead and launch aLogcat...then hit the menu key and select "Filter"

C. For the filter value, enter "BattMonX" and check the "Apply as regular expression?" checkbox.

D. After you do that and hit "Okay", press the menu button again and select "More" (lower right hand corner option) and then select "Preferences"

E. When you see the Preferences screen, click the "Level?" setting and make sure its set to "Verbose"

F. You could also set the "Format?" option to "Time", so it will record the time that the log message was written

G. Go ahead and launch BattMonX and recreate the issue (or wait, as the case may be)

H. Next, return the to aLogcat app, press the Menu button, select "Send", select "Gmail" and send me (scary.alien@gmail.com) the log file that it captured

I. You can also save the logat file (which often seems to save/capture more information than the "Send" function). Just hit the "Save" button from the aLogcat menu

I. Lastly, if you have something like Astro File Manager installed, navigate to the /sdcard/alogcat/alogcat-*.txt file that you created in the "Save" above in step I and long-press the filename, select "Send", "Gmail", etc...and send me the saved log file too (sometimes the basic "Send" option in aLogcat does not seem to send the entire filtered session)

Cheers!
 
I downloaded and started running alogcat too, because I have no task killers running. So we'll see what happens after I get home from work.

I do believe I had the older free version running, then I downloaded the pay version, both were running, and then I uninstalled the free. I could be wrong, though; maybe the free did update before I uninstalled it.
 
Sokudo Ningyou said:
I downloaded and started running alogcat too, because I have no task killers running. So we'll see what happens after I get home from work.

I do believe I had the older free version running, then I downloaded the pay version, both were running, and then I uninstalled the free. I could be wrong, though; maybe the free did update before I uninstalled it.
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We'll figure this out...even if I have to build you a special version, lol.

I'm reviewing a log file from another user that reported some similar weirdness today too... I (and the app) are a victim of all of the options I've put into it...lots of stuff to look at ;).

Hopefully, something will reveal itself in one or more of the log files that you folks are kind enough to provide to me.

Thanks again!
 
Sokudo Ningyou said:
Sent, although I don't know if it caught the event...the file itself seems pretty small for having run for two days.
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Thank you Sokudo Ningyou.

I spent a good part of the weekend trying to track this annoying little issue down. I received numerous logs from at least three people that failed to show a clear-cut reason for the app restarting (an admittedly annoying but somewhat harmless event...but an issue that I certainly don't want hanging-around).

I am still unable to re-create the issue on my phone, but am suspicious of the intent-related code that I added to be able to monitor when the status bar notification shade's clear button is pressed so that I can re-light the LED (since it gets cleared via this button).

I have created a test v2.7 version that I have sent-out to four other users that have contacted me. I'm still waiting for feedback from them (I sent it out only a few hours ago). Hopefully, this test version will reveal if that code (that I basically disabled) was/is the cause of the issue.

I'll post back more when I've gotten some feedback.

I would also like to publicly thank Vincent S (not sure if he's a member of these forums or not) with whom I exchanged innumerable logs and emails this weekend. He was exceedingly helpful and patient while trying to debug this quite annoying issue.

Also, big thanks to RFD for the logs and emails, and to everyone that has provided tremendous support and feedback for my "little project" (even Steven :eek: -- okay, especially Steven :)).

Cheers!
 
Sokudo Ningyou said:
Sent, although I don't know if it caught the event...the file itself seems pretty small for having run for two days.
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Oh, sorry...I didn't respond to you regarding the log file size issue... I've seen aLogcat behave like this too--only showing / capturing a small portion or time range of what you would have expected to see. I am regularly in the ddms utility and am amazed at the volume of messages that are produced on the phone. I emailed the dev for aLogcat and it appears that this is not an unusual scenario...there is a feature in the app to cause the app to record to SD on a regular basis, but it will definitely use more system resources.

I did receive a few aLogcat logs from a few others, and they didn't reveal the smoking gun or any other non app-related context (or anything differently than what my app can also log using its own logging facility). So, thanks again for capturing this...let me know if you are interested in the v2.7 version and I'd be happy to send it to you (you might want to wait until I've heard what the others have reported, lol).

Cheers and thanks again!
 
scary alien said:
Oh, sorry...I didn't respond to you regarding the log file size issue... I've seen aLogcat behave like this too--only showing / capturing a small portion or time range of what you would have expected to see. I am regularly in the ddms utility and am amazed at the volume of messages that are produced on the phone. I emailed the dev for aLogcat and it appears that this is not an unusual scenario...there is a feature in the app to cause the app to record to SD on a regular basis, but it will definitely use more system resources.

I did receive a few aLogcat logs from a few others, and they didn't reveal the smoking gun or any other non app-related context (or anything differently than what my app can also log using its own logging facility). So, thanks again for capturing this...let me know if you are interested in the v2.7 version and I'd be happy to send it to you (you might want to wait until I've heard what the others have reported, lol).

Cheers and thanks again!
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I just sent you a second log, which I sent out a few minutes after I saw the app boot up again. So hopefully, whatever the issue is may show up near the end of the log.
 
Sokudo Ningyou said:
I just sent you a second log, which I sent out a few minutes after I saw the app boot up again. So hopefully, whatever the issue is may show up near the end of the log.
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Thank you, I received the log and it does indeed show a new, different process-id, right in the middle of processing....

Its the same as some of the other logs I have received, but I still haven't been able to recreate this on my phone (or apparently in the new versions that I've sent-out--I did have one user that reported that the spontaneous restarts went away, but logs from others running the same version showed they still had the same problem).

Android can (and does) shutdown and auto-restart a service (without any ill-effects), but there doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to why its happening more.

I'm a little suspicious that the issue has been there from day one (i.e., version 1.0) and since I don't seem to see it on my phone, I couldn't take any corrective action. The reason why I think that this is possible is because I think since I added the "BattMonX starting..." banner text in the status bar, you guys are more apt to notice/see the restart than before when you would have simply seen the icon update (or not at all before the app supported the status bar icons).

If someone that is regularly experiencing this issue would be willing to roll-back to v2.5 (I can send you the .apk) and record a log file, that would at least let me know that/if the issue has been there all-along. Let me know (scary.alien@gmail.com).

Cheers!

edit: never mind...I've (finally!) caught it happening on both my Droid X and my Eris. No obvious reason other than Android killing it. My understanding is that this is only supposed to happen for "sticky" services under extreme low memory conditions, which was not the case at the time of the force stops and restarts. More research and testing will be needed. Thanks for everyone's help.
 
Okay guys, this version corrects some of the weird restart issues brought to light in the last version. Sorry for any trouble you might have had...it took me quite a while to debug, re-code, and re-test this.

Thanks again to everyone for the debug logs you submitted and to several of you for working with me to help me figure-out and fix this. You guys are the best (and I wouldn't keep busting my butt on this app without the great support and kind feedback I get from you all ;)).

Cheers and enjoy!

Here's the change log.

Version 2.7 - 22-May-2011:

- revised and improved service start/suspend/shutdown and notification clear handling

- cleanup current settings display and other logged values (especially debugging info)

- lots of minor cleanup and improvements

- turned off debug msg logging by default for fresh installs (option to enable is still present)
 
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