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Help How to turn off button lights while in dock?

C

CharlesLewis

Android Enthusiast
When docking my phone (Droid X under GingerBread) at night, I use a night clock program that shows the time in very dim light. All works great except I can't keep the blasted button lights turned off. I've tried a couple of suggestions I've come across -- turning on the main screen before docking, turning the display off after docking and then turning it back on -- and each worked once or twice, but not consistently. I've rebooted and even pulled the battery, but that seems to have no effect.

Does anyone have a solution?
 
Does the X not have the same desktop dock app/clock as the Droid? The one on the Droid has 2 dimmer settings, one is full brightness based on the room light, the other is reduced (hides the notification bar and turns off the lights also), both go to a green time that moves around the screen after 5 minutes and that is REALLY dim.
 
I'm using an app called Night Clock, but it has the same settings. That's what's puzzling me. Could GingerBread be the problem? I used another clock with Froyo that was working fine until the update; I switched to Night Clock because I thought it might work -- and sometimes it does, which is confusing the $%%^& out of me!

mplevy said:
Does the X not have the same desktop dock app/clock as the Droid? The one on the Droid has 2 dimmer settings, one is full brightness based on the room light, the other is reduced (hides the notification bar and turns off the lights also), both go to a green time that moves around the screen after 5 minutes and that is REALLY dim.
Click to expand...
 
Reading through posts in various Forums it seems that GB created a variety of issues with the lights on the hard key buttons. For me, I use the app Gentle Alarm. First, I dock my phone and the app opens up and the hard key buttons turn on. Next, I hit the Night Display option and the display changes to the night display (dark background with dimmed display that you can customize to your liking), but the hard key buttons remain lit. Then I hit the power button and the screen and lights go out. Then, I hit the power button again and only the night display turns on, the hard key button lights remain unlit. It sounds like in your original post that you tried this with you app and sometimes it works, but not consistently. I don't know if the app makes any difference or not, but for me and with Gentle Alarm, this process has worked consistently.
 
Odd, I rooted my OG Droid and installed a "plain" GB ROM (Peter Alfonso's work) on it and the clock behaves just as it did with FROYO, the (in my case) soft key lights turn off when using the dim setting for the clock while in the desktop dock.

Maybe it's a Droid X thing or maybe Peter did something in the kernel to fix this on my phone?
 
I've also noticed, now that I am looking at them, that sometimes the lights are on when I am using an app (not docked) or looking at the home page and sometimes they are off. I can't figure out the pattern or what setting might be in effect.

Has anyone else noticed this type of behavior?
 
Yep, like I said above, it appears GB has created a variety of issues with the lights. Undocked, I've seen erratic behavior on my DX as well. Also, most people believe the lights are a little brighter now than they were before and I agree with that assessment too.
 
After reading a number of posts here and on related threads, I finally found the solution. The Droid X has -- didn't know this -- an automatic setting that turns on or off the lights depending on the surrounding light. I now hold up my phone to the lamp, the lights go off, and I turn off the screen before placing the Droid in the dock. If for any reason the lights are still on, I just hold up the phone inside the dock to the light, and the button lights go off.
 
CharlesLewis said:
After reading a number of posts here and on related threads, I finally found the solution. The Droid X has -- didn't know this -- an automatic setting that turns on or off the lights depending on the surrounding light. I now hold up my phone to the lamp, the lights go off, and I turn off the screen before placing the Droid in the dock. If for any reason the lights are still on, I just hold up the phone inside the dock to the light, and the button lights go off.
Click to expand...


LokiStormbringer has the best solution to turn off these crappy lights!!!! set it to 96.1% filter and all is good to turn off these damn lights.
 
You don't need anything. Put your phone in the dock with it locked. It sometimes takes a couple of tries, but the lights go out after a few seconds.
 
CharlesLewis said:
I'm using an app called Night Clock, but it has the same settings. That's what's puzzling me. Could GingerBread be the problem? I used another clock with Froyo that was working fine until the update; I switched to Night Clock because I thought it might work -- and sometimes it does, which is confusing the $%%^& out of me!
Click to expand...

I use Night Clock as well. Prior to Gingerbread the button lights went out after about 1 minute or so. Now many times they stay on all night long, but sometimes the button lights go out. What I found is that after docking my DX and Night Clock launches, if my room lights are on, then the button lights will time out, if the room lights are off, then the button lights stay on all night. Now what I do is shine a flashlight into the light sensors on the DX until the button lights go out. When I turn off the flashlight, the buttons turn back on but time out after 1 minute. Sounds stupid and is a dumb workaround, but it works consistently.
 
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