yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Android Apps and Games] fifarunnerr:
I'm sorry to say, but Screen Filter does the same, but doesn't require root.
[Android Apps and Games] forceu:
Awesome, thanks for the Advise!
[Android Apps and Games] Frosty666:
Actually, all Screen Filter does is dim the colour of the pixels. This app actually modifies the screen backlight level. E.g. Screen Filter just makes the screen gray-er.

Also, works good on Sony Ericsson Xperia X10, but the backlight completly switches of when set to under 15.
[Android Apps and Games] Tehloy:
Screen filter merely adds a black semi-transparent overlay across the screen, making it look dimmer.

This app adjusts the backlight, which means darker black levels on the screen.
[Android Apps and Games] lownox:
My eyes don't care. +1 Screen Filter

:D
[Android Apps and Games] arpruss:
Your eyes would probably care if you were doing amateur astronomy under a dark sky (which is the primary purpose for SuperDim). Screen Filter doesn't turn down the backlight, and on a lot of devices there is enough backlight leaking through even completely black pixels to damage night vision. You can try this experiment. Turn a backlit device to a completely black screen (maybe view a black jpg) and take it to a completely dark room. Let your eyes dark adapt. The "black" screen will in fact probably be quite grey. (If it's really black, that's probably because you have an OLED device.)

When I do amateur astronomy, I am not infrequently looking to see objects way dimmer than backlit black pixels. :-)
[Android Apps and Games] arpruss:
I'd like to do something about the screen turning completely off issue.

To that end, I need people to do some experiments for me, and I will be very grateful (I'll also give a free full version of Force2SD as compensation for the first couple of experimenters, if you want it--just email me). The first experiment is this. Download SuperDim 1.22, now up in the Market. Press the menu key, and choose "Turn on safe mode" (you can tell safe mode is on, because next time you pull up the menu, it says "Turn off safe mode"). Now, turn brightness down to 10. Does your screen turn off?

I should warn that very low brightness levels can be very low indeed. For instance, if I am outdoors on a sunny day, I have trouble telling the difference between brightness 4 and off. So you need to be in a dark area--I recommend a room without windows and with the lights off.

If the screen does not turn off at 10, turn it down to 5, and then 1. Let me know if it ever turns off.

I am guessing that in safe mode, it doesn't turn off at all.

What safe mode does is it makes very low brightness settings not persist. So if you are in safe mode and leave SuperDim, you lose your low brightness setting.

I'd also appreciate it if people who can normally turn their brightness down to 1 could do some experiments with safe mode. Specifically, I'd like to know if moving the slider to 1 in safe mode has the same effect on screen brightness as moving the slider to 1 in non-safe mode has. (Again, if you're one of the first few experimenters and want a free copy of Force2SD, email me.)

On my Archos 43, brightness 1 is very, very dim, but the screen is still on. And I can't tell the difference between safe mode and non-safe mode, except that in safe mode, the settings don't persist after I leave SuperDim.
[Android Apps and Games] torsrex:
Tried this app on my desire HD.

Great idea, but when I reach 10 and below, the backlight doesn't get lower.

If I use the adb method (don't remember the command), I can set the backlight manually all the way down to 0.

There is no difference with or without safe mode on.
[Android Apps and Games] elmanortega:
inspire 4g with coredroid V7.0 doesnt work
[Android Apps and Games] arpruss:
What happens? And does safe mode work?
[Android Apps and Games] kamranh3:
I agree, doesn't work with Desire HD/Inspire 4G, safe mode only dims the brightness but no lower than normal, and only dims the brightness on the screen, regardless of your settings
[Android Apps and Games] arpruss:
I found a bug. In fact, the bug is such that I have no idea how it was managing to work on my device at all! In any case, I think I fixed it. Try 1.23 (should be in Market or here) and see if it does the job. If not, I have some more ideas.
[Android Apps and Games] torsrex:
Now the "other lights" function works, but the screen backlight still won't dim lower than 10.

Edit: the sliding bar is lagging extremely.
[Android Apps and Games] arpruss:
You do have Safe Mode turned off, right?

Try this from a terminal or adb shell if you can:

su
echo 2 > /sys/class/leds/lcd-brightness/brightness

and see if that will dim the screen lower than 10.
[Android Apps and Games] edxmon:
Does not work on Xperia X8 running Racht's Floyo .30

Moving the slider has no effect

**EDIT** It works if I turn "safe mode" on
[Android Apps and Games] arpruss:
Thanks for the report! Which SuperDim version are you using? Email me if you would be willing to try some tests for me.
[Android Apps and Games] drajax:
Doesn't work on my SGS SL! Both with the safe mode on/off :/ I've been using screen filter for months and it's been fine

☞★sent from my Galaxy SL!!

♪drajax!! ♬♂ツ
[Android Apps and Games] arpruss:
By "doesn't work", do you mean that it doesn't change brightness at all? Or that it crashes?
[Android Apps and Games] arpruss:
I am making some progress on the issue where the slider is moved and no brightness change results. If you're having this problem, try 1.24 TEST3 from here, please. If it solves the problem, let me know. If not, please email me /tmp/superdim.txt , which is its log, if you can.
[Android Apps and Games] frewys:
It says clearly in the prog that it doesn't support OLED screens. Shame though been looking for something like this for a while.. Will probably give screen filter a go..

Thanks.
[Android Apps and Games] arpruss:
I think that Filter will do quite well on OLED screens--that's the method to be used there.

Another possibility--and I could see integrating it into SuperDim--is to use ChainFire3D Pro's custom nightmode to simply lower intensity. Could also be done with CM7's render fx.
[Android Apps and Games] drajax:
Sowy for replying late, the screen does dims by using the slider or the preset buttons, but while exiting the screen turn to original brightness!

☞★sent from my Galaxy SL!!

♪drajax!! ♬♂ツ
[Android Apps and Games] drajax:
☞★sent from my Galaxy SL!!

♪drajax!! ♬♂ツ
[Android Apps and Games] arpruss:
Which version of SuperDim are you using?
[Android Apps and Games] arpruss:
I think I had some kind of glitch in building TEST2, maybe a bug in Eclipse or the build tools, because it's 32K long, while all my other recent releases are 40K long. I uploaded TEST3 which might be better.

Thanks, everybody, for the help.

I should say that SuperDim works very well on my Archos 43, and it's hard to debug things on a plethora of devices I don't have direct access to.
[Android Apps and Games] talt:
Latest Version from Market needs about 1min to display interface.

With 3 previous versions everything was working good.

I'm using HD2 with Hyperdroid CM7 (Gingerbread 2.3.4).
[Android Apps and Games] Saketme:
Tried this on my SGS2 and it is really buggy. Most of the time it takes way too much time to display the interface. Also encounters FC sometimes. I hope you fix this, I like this app :)
[Android Apps and Games] talt:
I've just posted about the same problem... It was not like that until latest version but now app is broken :(

Where can I get previous version until this bug is fixed?
[Android Apps and Games] arpruss:
Previous versions are at http://code.google.com/p/superdim/ .

1.25 works on some devices the previous version didn't work on.

I know exactly the code that causes the hang, but I don't know exactly how to fix it to work properly, especially since it doesn't hang on my device.
[Android Apps and Games] arpruss:
I think 1.26 fixes the hang on startup. Now in Market.

Sorry for the 1.25 hang problem. The issue was that in 1.25 I fixed a problem that made the device not work on the Droid X (and maybe some other devices), but thereby introduced a problem that made it not work on some other devices. I am hoping 1.26 works both on Droid X and the other devices.
[Android Apps and Games] arpruss:
This has been really frustrating. It's tempting to throw in the towel.

I have one group of users for whom the pre-1.25 versions didn't work. I have another group of users for whom 1.25 and 1.26 hang. I don't know if there is overlap between these two groups.

I just posted 1.28, which may help both groups.
[Android Apps and Games] talt:
1.28 works for me. Tnx
[Android Apps and Games] arpruss:
In case anybody is interested, the issue I've been working around is that File.listFiles() is finicky about permissions, and as a result was only showing those subdirectories in /sys/class/leds that it had the right to read. I think that's incorrect behavior. In any case, I first replaced by spawning ls by a root user, but I had some problems with the code that caused the hangs. Then in 1.28, I just replaced it by spawning ls by a normal user, and that worked great.
[Android Apps and Games] sailow:
I don't see a difference from my the lowest stock setting and the program setting.

suggestion: Can you add a white box to the program? Maybe i can see the difference.

EVO 3D
[Android Apps and Games] :
v1.28 works droid x running CM7 nightlies
[Android Apps and Games] scoob8000:
Just wanted to drop in and say thanks! :)
[Android Apps and Games] arpruss:
From all the reports I got for 1.28, I think it works pretty well.

I need testing help with four things for version 1.30. A pre-release (currently 1.30pre2) is at http://code.google.com/p/superdim/downloads/list

1. I added a new feature for 1.30: you can make a home-screen shortcut to one of the three night and two day profiles. (Currently, the nightmode doesn't immediately refresh always, but it does set.)

2. I haven't heard from anybody whether the nightmode support on Cyanogenmod 7 ROMs works. SuperDim should show a "CM Nightmode" button. (But if you have CF3D, it shows "CF3D Nightmode" instead.)

3. There were some early reports of low screen brightness levels turning the screen off entirely. I'd like to get to the bottom of these reports. If you have that issue, I'd like you to try a few things for me:

i. Take your device to a dark closet and make sure the screen is actually off, rather than just very, very dim.

ii. If yes, then set SuperDim to safe mode. Choose "Min". See if the screen turns off or not.

iii. Compare whether brightness settings in safe mode and outside safe mode have the same effect. For instance, go to safe mode, set brightness to 10. Then exit safe mode, set brightness to 10 (move the slider back forth a touch). Does it look the same?

4. Occasionally, SuperDim hasn't been restoring low brightness settings (e.g., <10) after the device is turned off with a power button and turned back on. (This requires Safe Mode to be off. In Safe Mode, it isn't expected to restore.) I'd like to find out if this issue is still there in the 1.30 pre-release.

Thanks everybody for all the help!
[Android Apps and Games] Surfinette:
Hi,

I love the idea of your app, but it's kind of buggy on my system (LCD HTC Desire with rom Miui):

- the screen doesn't dim below 10, ie @ levels 1 to 9 the screen brightness is the same as level 10.

- safe mode doesn't restore the screen to "normal" brightness, but to level 2.

- "autobrightness and quit" doesn't really quit the app (it remains in memory)

Other comments:

- What is the purpose of the "other lights" button (it is quite buggy on my system anyways)?

- I wished the Autobrightness button was directly available on the main screen.

Keep the hard work :)

PS I've tested the latest market version (1.30)

Swyped from my HTC Desire using XDA app
[Android Apps and Games] arpruss:
Thanks for the detailed report!

I am guessing this is because your LCD driver doesn't support lower brightness. SuperDim controls the screen at a lower level than the Android API, but not at a level lower than the LCD driver (if it did that, one would have to have way too many versions of the code for different devices).

If you want to test that SuperDim is basically doing the best it can, pull up a shell (adb shell, or a Terminal) and do:

su
echo 1 > /sys/class/leds/lcd-backlight/brightness

That's the lowest brightness your LCD driver allows. If it's dimmer than SuperDim's level 1, then there is a bug in SuperDim. If it's the same as SuperDim's level 1, there is nothing I can do.

On your device, level 2 is the same as 1-10, right? Safe mode makes the screen come back to a brightness bigger than the "really dim" brightness that SuperDim allows. Except that on your device, the LCD driver doesn't allow for a "really dim" brightness, so there is no difference between safe and unsafe mode. :-(

Well, it "quits" in the way the backbutton quits. One isn't supposed to kill apps on Android. However, I should probably kill the service that watches for the screen turning on when you quit in this way, and currently I don't.

Please, tell me how it's buggy. On my device, there is only one other light, a power LED, and when it's solidly on, it can be nicely controlled. I haven't quite figured out what happens when it is flashing.

If you're at a dark sky location, doing astronomy, a bright green power LED can be a serious problem. However, currently, the "other lights" don't save in profiles (deliberate decision on my part) and don't all work. I can't tell which ones will or will not work on any particular device--I just include all of the LEDs the device claims to have (all the entries in /sys/class/leds).

I'll take that under advisement. It's been hard getting all the buttons to fit on small screens.
[Android Apps and Games] Hagis:
Program is great - that is what i was missing all the time.

I can dim screen on 1 with DEFY and it is just perfect on night.

It would be great if You could make a widget to switch personal keys of brightness (night1, night2...) like common power widgets or ability to control lowest backlight level of autobrightness...

Thank You very very much - one of the most useful applications

Btw:

Im on CM7 2.3.4 Motorola DEFY. Brightness from 10 to 0 is decreasing perfectly: 0 is just black :)

SuperDim 1.28
[Android Apps and Games] arpruss:
I'll take that under advisement. I don't yet know how to make widgets.

Is the idea that I just cycle through the five icons I now have for the shortcuts, plus a generic SuperDim icon for when some other app changes brightness settings?

SuperDim shouldn't allow zero, so I assume you mean that it turns off the screen when you do echo > /sys/class/leds/lcd-backlight/brightness ?

By the way, have you noticed how you can use the device just fine if you turn off the screen backlight in this way, as long as you know where things are on the screen? :-)
[Android Apps and Games] UnitedOceanic:
now this is something i really like

few suggestions:

add - / + buttons, it took me a few attempts till i selected "2" with the slider

keep the keyboard backlight and the button light setting after exit/screen of

i use https://market.android.com/details?id=com.neuron.BacklightOff to keep the keyboard backlight off i would like to replace it with super dim. (screen filter is already gone, thank you :))
[Android Apps and Games] arpruss:
Your wish is my command. See 1.31pre2: http://code.google.com/p/superdim/downloads/list

Email me and we can try to test how to do this. I think it will be best handled as an extension of the lock mode that was added in 1.31pre2 (on the devices on which lock mode works, it prevents other apps from changing brightness; it has no effect on my A43).
[Android Apps and Games] arpruss:
I need some people to test the lock mode, which locks the brightness so other apps can't change it. It's in 1.31pre1.

I have one report that after turning off a Nook with lock mode active, the Nook refuses to turn on (and presumably needs a reboot; SuperDim does NOT automatically start after boot, so that should be OK). I'd like to get more data relevant to this report, and I would especially be interested in hearing from users with nooks who know how to use adb.
[Android Apps and Games] lexluthor:
I've been using Screen Filter, but wanted to try this. I don't really like how screen filter makes the screen washed out, as much as it does dim.

This seems to work fine on my Droid X to dim the screen.

How do I quickly restore auto brightness?

If I do menu->set auto brightness and exit, it doesn't restore auto-brightness. My phone does show that auto brightness is back on, but the screen is still dimmed.

Also, Any way to make a shortcut or widget toggle that will quickly set the brightness to a predefined level and then when clicked again will restore your brightness to the state it was in prior to using SuperDim (or just back to auto-brightness) at least.

At a minimum, maybe move the set auto brightness and exit option (once it works right) out of the menu button and right onto the main screen?
[Android Apps and Games] arpruss:
Yes, it simply draws darker pixels. But if you don't adjust the backlight to a low level, the even comletely black (000000) pixels will be gray if you're sitting in a dark room. Moreover, Screen Filter will decrease screen contrast, reducing the dynamic range of the colors.

Are you using the lock mode? I think I have a bug where I don't turn off the lock when auto brightness is restored.

There is already an auto-brightness widget in SuperDim.
[Android Apps and Games] lexluthor:
Didn't notice the widget.

What do you mean by lock mode? Do you mean safe mode?

How should I be using it, if I want to set a custom brightness by clicking the widget and then back to auto brightness by clicking the widget again.

That's really what I want.

EDIT: Where's the widget? I have SuperDim installed (on internal memory), but I don't see a SuperDim widget in my list of widgets.
[Android Apps and Games] arpruss:
Lock mode came in in 1.31pre1. If you are using 1.30 or earlier, you should be OK.

Is the auto-brightness restore working for other people? I really have no way of testing it as my device doesn't do auto-brightness.

No, currently you need a separate widget for auto-brightness and a separate widget for custom brightness.

Are you using the latest Market version?
[Android Apps and Games] arpruss:
Oh, wait, it's not a widget. My mistake. It's a launcher shortcut.

I don't like widgets--they stay around in memory and use up CPU time.
[Android Apps and Games] FrEcP:
Hey gr8 work guy - using the launcher shortcuts is excelent ;)

1. Could u also add some launcher shortcuts for switching between profiles? (atm u got one shortcut for each profile)

but some +/- would be great like: if u are on night3 -> profile+ -> day1

2. Another idea (wich sadly would take a service, but imho would be nice) is having a "manual autobrightnes function" for devices without lightsensor (switching by daytime)

3. could u add a field for setting the min value manualy (so the slider can go beneath that value - should be easy just setting the slider border value to the text value) - so in my case I would type in 8 as min and I never will turn of my device screen accidentialy anymore - so anyone can figure out min value for his/her device with slider and then set it to.

regards

FrEcP

Device: Archos 101 - working till brightnes lvl 8 (including)
[Android Apps and Games] arpruss:
Can do.

I think this might not be that useful. Surely, which brightness you want depends on which room of a building you're in, how close to a window you are, what lights are on, etc.

Good idea.

I do, however, have three questions for you:

1. If you go below 8, does the touch screen continue to respond?

2. Are you sure the screen is off below 8? Have you tried taking it to a completely dark room (to see if the backlight is on, but at a very low value)? Have you tried putting it in direct sunlight (to see if the LCD is on, but the backlight off)?

3. If you turn on Safe Mode, and set the brightness to minimum, what happens?
[Android Apps and Games] maramos:
Thanks for making such an awesome app. Everything else seems to be limited to a minimum of 20/255 brightness on my Photon but the screen is really quite bright and 5/255 seems to be a good usable indoor level. Right now I have a widget that launches a folder with Night1/Day1/Day2 shortcuts in it but it would be amazing if this app had a shortcut that could toggle between modes.
[Android Apps and Games] arpruss:
I could make one that cycles through all five. Would that be enough?
[Android Apps and Games] maramos:
That would be awesome.
[Android Apps and Games] arpruss:
1.31pre3 might do it. But it's completely untested.

http://code.google.com/p/superdim/downloads/list
[Android Apps and Games] arpruss:
Some people wanted me to add a feature to set the minimum brightness. That's useful for folks whose display turns off below some value (e.g., 10) as well as for folks whose display doesn't change below some value. I added this to the menu for pre 4.

I also spaced out the display--my fingers sometimes hit the slider instead of the -/+ keys.

http://code.google.com/p/superdim/downloads/list
[Android Apps and Games] maramos:
The switching seems to work well. The one issue I'm having is that sometimes the brightness will reset to 20 if I have it set to 10. If i put the lock on I don't have an issue but obviously after I hit the switching shortcut the lock is removed so whenever I set it to the lowest brightness I must go back into the app and check the lock again.
[Android Apps and Games] arpruss:
I posted 1.50 in the Market. Changes since 1.30:

- added a shortcut to cycle through the five settings

- added a lock mode (Nook warning: device may not wake from sleep with this--you may need a reboot)

- while in SuperDim, you can adjust the brightness with the volume up/down buttons, the dpad and the Nook buttons

- added on-screen plus and minus buttons

- added menu option to set the minimum allowed brightness (useful for devices where the screen turns off below some value or the brightness stops changing)

- bug fixes
[Android Apps and Games] bongd:
Thanks, man. This app rocks. Now I can fiddle around in bed with my phone while my wife's sleeping LOL
[Android Apps and Games] :
I love this app! Best. Battery. Saver. Ever.:D

Any chance of a "set on boot" option?
[Android Apps and Games] arpruss:
I feel uncomfortable with that, because I want users to be always able to get out of bad settings by rebooting. It would be unfortunate if a user with a device that turns off the screen below 10/255 were to turn on this setting and then reboot and not know what to do. (And I really wouldn't know what to advise at that point.)

By the way, I use SuperDim together with my in-development DoublePower app ( http://xdaforums.com/showthread.php?t=1255391 ). This lets me launch SuperDim at any time by double-clicking the device's power button.
[Android Apps and Games] lexluthor:
It's not working correctly on my Droid X (2.3).

I've assigned a value of 2 to night1.

Safe Mode On

If I'm in the app and hit night1, the screen dims. I then hit menu->auto brightness and exit and my screen goes back to auto. If I then click the night1 shortcut, the screen blanks quickly, but no change in brightness, but if I check my system brightness, it's no longer on auto, and the slider is all of the way over to the left.

If I then click the Auto Bright shortcut and check my system brightness, it's back on auto.

Safe Mode Off

If I'm in the app and hit night1, the screen dims. I then hit menu->auto brightness and exit my screen remains dim, but system indicates it's set to auto brightness. The only way to get it bright again is to go to system brightness, move the slider a little and re-check auto-brightness.

In this mode, if I click the night1 shortcut, my screen does dim, but if I click the auto brightness shortcut, nothing happens to the brights, but the system indicates auto brightness.

It's really unusable for me the way it is. Any ideas?