yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Captivate Themes and Apps] RashaMatt:
Blinky 2.4.1 problem - 100% CPU usage

I'm running Blinky 2.4.1 on Serendipity 4.0.1 (with GB's Steam kernel #8) on AT&T Captivate, and I though everything was working great... until I noticed that my phone was running hot when the screen was off.

After some poking around I discovered that whenever BlinkService is running (after it has "triggered" at least once, by invoking its "test settings" function), then whenever my screen is off I am having 100% CPU usage from some system process.

How can I tell? When I turn my screen back on I immediately look at my CPU history in Usage Timelines, where I can see that for the previous span of time that I just had the screen off, there 100% CPU usage (in purple, meaning system processes). The moment I turn the screen back on, the CPU usage goes back to normal.

I captured a couple logcats of the relevant transition periods, if you're interested.

Note: this happens whether Blinky's "Enabled" checkbox is on OR OFF. I have to manually kill BlinkService to get the CPU behavior to stop.

I am also running KTLOService and NoLockService, but I did some testing with them stopped, and I got the same symptoms.

So, sadly, no more Blinky for me, until this is fixed :(

EDIT: logcats attached. The 2nd logcat is with Blinky's "Enabled" checkbox OFF. For both logcats I first did logcat -c, then turned off the screen, waited a few seconds, turned it back on, verified that the CPU had been pegged while the screen was off, then did logcat -d.
[Captivate Themes and Apps] Alexander T.:
new feature suggestion

This post contains wrong information (read the UPD)

Hi,

Since it is possible to control each led independently, which in fact would be the most ideal option, I suggest implementing a feature which allows to visually identify the type of event(s) by setting different led blinking speed or sequence, depending on event(s):

For example:

Missed call: slow blinking rate

New message: high blinking rate

Both events on: one long flash followed by two short.

Hope, this was helpful!

UPD Is is indeed possible to control each LED independently, so, I will suggest better functionality in further post!
[Captivate Themes and Apps] Guardian_Bob:
Have you tried the market version? I do have individual light control working as a test.
[Captivate Themes and Apps] mdn_:
I've tried Blinky 2.4 using FROYO.XJFS2 and Voodoo 5.4.1 and for unknown reason it doesn't work properly.

The first time after install and setup the test went fine. After that any further test (no matter if i'm using the button or performing a test-call) fails.

Sometimes just nothing happens, sometimes the BL is turning on and stays that way.

Everytime i restart the app the configuration is reset.

Wanted config:

All Options and Vibration enabled.

On 0:1.0

Off 0:3.0

For 2:30.0

Delay 0:30.0

For 30:0.0

Config resets to:

All options but Vibration enabled (no matter if i disable Blinky).

On 0:1.0

Off 0:0.100

For 5:0.0

Test for Individual light control behaves like descripted above and en- / disables both lights if working.
[Captivate Themes and Apps] Guardian_Bob:
That's very odd, it is almost like either the settings aren't being saved, or someone is deleting them.

If you haven't already tried this, you might uninstall and reinstall from the market.
[Captivate Themes and Apps] sinichi21:
hi bob just want to ask im confused can the individual light control be activate or that thing is just a test? cause im trying to figure out how will my lights be activated like that
[Captivate Themes and Apps] Guardian_Bob:
For now it is just a test, the pro version (whenever I write it) will use individual light control.
[Captivate Themes and Apps] archat68:
Blinky is working great for the SMS notifications but I do not get any blinking notification or any back light notification on missed call.

Any help?
[Captivate Themes and Apps] Spidious:
If you ever get the pro version out with the Knight Rider scan..I will be in line to buy it !
[Captivate Themes and Apps] sinichi21:
cool i would love see that thanks for the clarification
[Captivate Themes and Apps] distortionist:
I would too!
[Captivate Themes and Apps] Alexander T.:
So, in addition to my previous post I would like to propose better functionality!

Just look at the buttons' icons on the int. version of i9000, and you will most probably notice following:

The left button's icon resembles a "text message" and the right one - "a missed call". I guess, you already know what I mean ;)

In case, individual LED control is possible (in fact, physically it is) I suggest:

Lighting up the left button only, when there is a new message and the right one, if there is a missed call. Pretty simple and nice solution, isn't it?

Please, implement it if you can :)
[Captivate Themes and Apps] Enhanced:
Would love it if you could write the Pro version.

While lighting up each of the 4 keys would be a good way to separate the notification types, the reason I most want individual LED control would be to better see the notifications.

Currently, if I am out in a bright or sunny place, it's tough to see if the touch keys are actually illuminated. I have the most issues while I have my phone mounted in my car and driving around while there is still light outside as it is very difficult to see if the keys are actually lit. If only a single key was illuminated, it would be easier to view that key in comparison with the other 3 keys to easier identify if it is indeed illuminated and I have a notification.

Sometimes I have urges to go back to NoLED because of this even though it is a huge battery drain. If you could write the Pro version it would help a lot.
[Captivate Themes and Apps] crupp:
Is there a way to get BLN pro working with Touchdown? Love this app and would like to have that capability.

Sent from a Serendipity ROM
[Captivate Themes and Apps] halfsoul:
I am speculating that bln pro will allow you to individual LEDs to specific colors. Guardian Bob had said that he can't identify what the notification is, so I think the only way to separate each light is by led color. If this is true, then pro will work for touchdown if you can assign the led color in touchdown
[Captivate Themes and Apps] crupp:
Good speculation. You need to enable email notifications in TD. You do need to slide all colors to the right (white) and works like a charm. Thanks.

Sent from a Serendipity ROM
[Captivate Themes and Apps] sadegh940:
i am using it. its works great:)
[Captivate Themes and Apps] liveify:
Are you still planning on a pro version? I would buy that in a second, individual light control would be worth $5 to me
[Captivate Themes and Apps] Spidious:
Why do you say different colors ?

Mine on the bottom of the phone appear to be just white leds ?
[Captivate Themes and Apps] pkopalek:
On my Cyanogenmod 6.2.0 Fascinate with a BLN Kernel,

Blinky 2.3 SAYS it's probably going to have unexpected behavior (it warns you at the top of the app when it's opened) but it works very well.

Blinky 2.4 just leaves the light solid, but SAYS it's installed and working correctly at the top.

Ironically.

I haven't used the .zip file to flash, and haven't seemed to need to. I didn't know if the Library files in the .zip file are particular to a certain Galaxy S phone and wasn't sure. So I may well flash the 2.3 .zip and see if it still works well.

In other words, I think it's a Fascinate issue, not an Eclair issue.
[Captivate Themes and Apps] eeshuz:
Hi,

Is it possible Blinky can make the BLNs flash while receiving a phone call (phone is ringing)? That's all that I'm missing. Thanks in advance
[Captivate Themes and Apps] Psykar:
I realize this is a bit of a long shot, but the pre-beta CM7 has BLN built in to it's kernel, but the apk here doesn't recognize it, and therefore doesn't work with blink.

What are the chances of detecting CM7's kernel too?
[Captivate Themes and Apps] jman2020:
this is a great app!
[Captivate Themes and Apps] halfsoul:
Guardian Bob,

Can you please let us know if you've decided to abandon this project? Your last post here (quoted above) was Feb 15th, and the last update to Blinky (Market) was Feb 3rd.

No hard feelings if you've moved on, I'd just like to know so I stop checking for updates.
[Captivate Themes and Apps] AaronCompNetSys:
I think scheduling is next on the list, if we get a new release, but until then here is how I do it now with tasker, when I'm asleep. I'm on Fascinate, and a couple features don't work but I use primarily for vibrate feature.

Task: Kill blinky (14)
A1: CPU [ CPU:0 Governor:smartassV2 Min. Frequency:100000 Max. Frequency:400000 ]
A2: Secure Settings [ Configuration:Blinky Disabled ]

Task: Blinky lives! (15)
A1: CPU [ CPU:0 Governor:smartassV2 Min. Frequency:100000 Max. Frequency:800000 ]
A2: Secure Settings [ Configuration:Blinky Enabled ]
A3: Wait [ MS:0 Seconds:5 Minutes:0 Hours:0 Days:0 ]
A4: Kill App [ App:Secure Settings Use Root:On ]
A5: Load App [ App:Blinky Data: Exclude From Recent Apps:Off ]
A6: Wait [ MS:0 Seconds:10 Minutes:0 Hours:0 Days:0 ]
A7: Go Home [ Page:0 ]
A8: Wait [ MS:0 Seconds:2 Minutes:0 Hours:0 Days:0 ]
A9: System Lock
[Captivate Themes and Apps] HyperEscape:
Not working on Nexus S with CyberGR Latest ROM 10.0
[Captivate Themes and Apps] iamcombat:
Yea doesn't seem to work on Perception like stated above.
[Captivate Themes and Apps] neldar:
You both may want to read this post and the following posts in that thread.
[Captivate Themes and Apps] tnt533:
Didn't work on my captivate running cognition 2.3b4.

I installed and activated it by opening the app.
[Captivate Themes and Apps] warri:
[double post sorry]
[Captivate Themes and Apps] warri:
Have you tried writing different Bytes to your Registers to see if you get just one of the LEDs to light up? What byte are you writing to 0x01 to light the LEDs
[Captivate Themes and Apps] Guardian_Bob:
Thank you all, for your feedback, I've been working on refactoring the whole threading mechanism, to not only better handle the cases where the blinking would stop, but to also catch cases where a notification wouldn't turn on the screen. I'm getting close to another release, which will hopefully fix some of these issues.

Good to hear, we'll see if that continues with the new version, but I would expect it to.
[Captivate Themes and Apps] zipo16:
This does work in perception, you need to make sure you enable BLN in the ClockworkMod recovery boot menu.

-advanced ULK features

-BLN options

-Turn BLN On

Reboot Phone..
[Captivate Themes and Apps] Guardian_Bob:
Updated to 1.2.

Internal only changes, nothing visible changed, but it should work better now.
[Captivate Themes and Apps] zipo16:
Working good for me, just need to check the battery usage
[Captivate Themes and Apps] neldar:
I think i have iterated the first 10 register from 0x00 to 0xff with 500ms between each iteration without a result.
[Captivate Themes and Apps] flashman2002:
Most of us know from the first disclaimer that we need to be on a ROM that has BLN. I even stated I had BLN enabled on my phone so it was an issue with the app that not all of us have. Nothing always works on the first go around and that is what our feedback is for. ;) I am going to try 1.2 and see how it goes.

Well I dont know why it is not working for me. BLN turns on when I get a Google Talk message but no flashing. I tried version 1.2 this time and did the same process. I installed the apk via root manager, started the app and exited. Sent a message and no blinking. Rebooted to see if that would do the trick and no blinking and I again tried changing permissions to RW-R-R and that didn't do anything. This was to both of my Captivates. I am at a loss on how others are having no issues so if you have anything you want me to try to see if something is not setup right on my phone let me know.

Well seems like it is working now. Google Talk didn't work, then it worked one time and now it is solid. SMS and Email are working consistently.
[Captivate Themes and Apps] zipo16:
Try disable bln, reboot then reenable. Also see if it works if its plugged into the charger.
[Captivate Themes and Apps] peachpuff:
With 1.2 it partially works, sometimes it'll blink and sometimes it wont with a notification. But if i test it with the bln app it always blinks... strange.
[Captivate Themes and Apps] Guardian_Bob:
So, I should let you guys know how notifications work.

In general, a notification decides if there should be a notification light used. If so, it should turn on the button lights.

Since I don't read the actual notifications on the system, I cannot change the behavior based on the notification type, etc. (There are technical difficulties in trying to read the notifications on the system, to do so would probably require me to rewrite the framework.)

What this means, and what I'm interested in as a result is any case where the lights come on and just stay on, or they blink in a non-regular pattern. In some cases the lights will just turn on for a little while before flashing, this is a result of how the check is scheduled.

In order to preserve most of your battery, only the blinking actually holds a wake lock. This means that when a notification comes in, such as Gmail or Gtalk without lighting up the screen, I have to wait for the CPU to schedule me before I can check to see if there was a notification. This can take up to 30 seconds or possibly more depending on UV settings.

I'm having trouble replicating the case listed above, so if the more information I have, the better I can try to find a resolution. How did the notification come up, any OC/UV settings, was your system loaded at the time, was it plugged in, etc.

Finally, I'm going to attempt to move some of the functionality to native C code to see if that'll fix some of the problems, specifically the notification going away issue listed above. We'll see how that goes.
[Captivate Themes and Apps] slifer315:
I'm running version 1.2 and last night my battery was at 100% before I unplugged it at 1:30 am when I went to sleep. at 7 am I received a message, I woke up and noticed and acknowledged it at 7:30 am and my battery level was at 72%. the system monitor app under history and top apps in an 8 hour period showed blinky at greater than 5% which is the largest value I've ever seen for anything. system processes held the previous record at 3.2%. my normal battery drain over night is around 5% and last night I lost 28%.
[Captivate Themes and Apps] Guardian_Bob:
Okay, thank you for letting me know.

I'm going to re-prioritize things tonight and work on letting users set the aggressiveness vs responsiveness settings, as well as blink time and such. I'm also going to look for a good app to try and monitor the battery usage due to a particular app.

Update:

Trying out power tutor to see what the power usage looks like. I'll go from there.

Update 2:

It appears the wakelock is burning a lot more power than I expected, so I'll be switching that out to another method. I'm also going to look at a modification of the BLN patch to give much better control for apps like blinky.
[Captivate Themes and Apps] iamcombat:
Sometimes after getting a notification and I unlock the screen it will stay black. The only way to get it to show the homescreen is to either pull the battery or hold the power button and pull up the shut down menu then close the menu.
[Captivate Themes and Apps] vietn95:
lol nice ... I wonder if you can do night rider style haha
[Captivate Themes and Apps] flashman2002:
Seems like v1.2 has started working fully for me. Google Talk messages started blinking regularly as well as SMS and Email. No other notifications that I have gotten to report on, except Wordfeud but that never worked with BLN.
[Captivate Themes and Apps] Guardian_Bob:
A Note About Battery Life

So I ran an experiment last night, I put my phone in airplane mode and with a full charge and turned the display off to see how much power Blinky was using when not holding the wakelock.

Turns out, not so much. 2% (it flipped from 1% to 2% while I was trying to take a screen shot).

If you looked at CPU time, (don't have a screen shot) it would look a little high, due to the task checking for a new BLN event every 5 seconds. That said, the CPU time and use percentage as a result are artificially inflated numbers.

So what does this mean? Blinky uses a minimal amount of power when not blinking the lights. I'm going to work on reducing the wakelock to the bare minimum needed and get less usage while blinking done next.

Finally, I'm going to work on a modification of the BLN patch to allow better control and to deal with the fact that sometimes the BLN doesn't work.

Those who aren't seeing the Blinky work, the problem looks to be in the BLN module, due to the way it is required to work. I'm hoping that I can get DG to use my new patch (once created) but I will support both versions of it.
[Captivate Themes and Apps] Guardian_Bob:
A Second Note About Battery Usage

First the bad news:

So I ran a test with the blinking (notification waiting) for an hour and saw the battery drain about 6%, which is unacceptable to me. I'm going to alter the source to only blink X number of times and then stop, leaving the light on (I'm thinking about 5 minutes).

Good news:

I'm still working on it, but it looks like I may be able to provide the advanced functionality without a kernel patch, just a CWM flash. I should have more on this later.

1.4 should be soon, it will fix the battery drain.
[Captivate Themes and Apps] Guardian_Bob:
1.4 is up.

Stopped the blinking after 5 minutes to save battery life.
[Captivate Themes and Apps] netnerd:
only 5 minutes?

is there a option or i can change it to last longer?

if i havnt look at the phone in that 5 minutes, i might missed all those new notifications.
[Captivate Themes and Apps] Guardian_Bob:
The lights stay on after the 5 minutes, they just don't blink.
[Captivate Themes and Apps] Daneshm90:
Possible to make that variable ?

Like i'd like it so it blinks for 1 minute and then enters regular always on mode.
[Captivate Themes and Apps] Guardian_Bob:
Yes it is my intention to give people control over the times, including on time, off time, blinking time, and vibrate every x minutes while a message is waiting.
[Captivate Themes and Apps] BL4zD:
You mean you're going to implement a scheduler or do you mean you're going to let us set the times the blinking turns off?
[Captivate Themes and Apps] Guardian_Bob:
I'm not going to do a scheduler, instead I'm going to let you mess with the actual wait times for on/off.
[Captivate Themes and Apps] BL4zD:
That's too bad...it'd be nice to hook it into calendar events or even nicer would be to have it customizable through setting profiles.
[Captivate Themes and Apps] iamcombat:
My lights are staying on as well after a few minutes.
[Captivate Themes and Apps] flashman2002:
Uhhh, what version are you using? If it is 1.4 that is what it is doing now. Guardian changed the way it works to stay on after 5 minutes.
[Captivate Themes and Apps] Guardian_Bob:
So first the bad news:

No new version today. Sorry guys, there's too much work to do for the next version, which will not be 1.5.

Good News:

The next version is going to be awesome. Special thanks to Reefermattness, for the icon.

I want to leave this here.

View attachment 456135

And for those who want to get an early jump on the next version, attached is a flashable update. While not strictly required, there are some issues that are impossible to resolve without it. This flashable update only installs a new version of the system lights library, for Froyo only. And let me make this clear, this flashable update has no effect on 1.4, flash at your own risk. Removed the flashable version, see the first post.

Special thanks to neldar as my code is based on his work.
[Captivate Themes and Apps] Guardian_Bob:
So here's the thing, neldar has already created a scheduler that should play very nicely with Blinky. It is integrated with his pro version of the BLN Control App.

Now when it comes to software development I have very strong ethics. Since neldar already has done this, I'm not going to steal the idea/feature from him.

So with that explanation, it is my intention to release features that do not directly compete with another developer, especially when it comes to paid applications. The only caveat to this is, if a feature/program is trivially easy and as a result a developer is scamming people, I will make a free version of that. I do not tolerate deception or dishonesty.
[Captivate Themes and Apps] Guardian_Bob:
Another Teaser

I've been locking down the UI piece. I think it is pretty much there now.

There's a lot of work left, parsing input, rewriting the timers to handle the prefs, etc, and making the enhanced BLN stuff work properly.

Oh and testing.

But it is coming.
[Captivate Themes and Apps] Guardian_Bob:
So 2.0 is officially out. I've been playing around with it, it seems to be stable.

First post has the details, but flashing the zip file is strongly recommended.
[Captivate Themes and Apps] flashman2002:
Bob,

What zip file? I read the thread saying you recommend flashing that as well as installing the apk as it can correct some issues that you cant really control...but there is nothing on the page.
[Captivate Themes and Apps] Guardian_Bob:
Yes, it was pulled, because of an issue that came up with Perception 7.

I've now fixed this issue.

And released 2.0.1.
[Captivate Themes and Apps] slifer315:
I'm loving the new settings and it's working perfectly for me; this is some fantastic work, very nice job.
[Captivate Themes and Apps] domin8:
so i deleted 1.4 and put 2.0.1 and the zip on, and now its not flashing at all. just comes on solid and stays on .

EDIT: nevermind, i didnt realize i accidently added a 0 to the first option without noticing it, so it wasnt flashing. it works perfect now that i reset it to default!
[Captivate Themes and Apps] accinfo:
are you able to add a feature where you can disable all those 4 buttons entirely?

I know this defeats the purpose of 'notifying' but that is a must have feature.
[Captivate Themes and Apps] BL4zD:
How does BLN play nicely with Blinky?

Do we have to install both BLN and Blinky?

Also, the feature I was requesting is different from neldar's. He set it up so we can configure when the lights will come on or off. I'm asking for the ability to turn them on/off based on calendar events (no configuration necessary in the app) and/or via the setting profiles app.

It's much better to be able to set those types of options globally. It's a pita to set it in BLN, check the times against one's calendar, and then not be able to set it up with a profile.
[Captivate Themes and Apps] Guardian_Bob:
Yes if you install both, and the BLN app turns off the lights based on a schedule, then turns them on, Blinky will stop blinking and then start based on that schedule.

So I understand the subtlety you're introducing with the calendar (not quite sure what you mean by profiles). It is rather close to neldar's feature, but I'll consider it.

Part of what makes Blinky nice, in my opinion, is that it doesn't require a whole lot of permissions.
[Captivate Themes and Apps] joeshmoe08:
Hey Bob nice job on the blinky. one question though, does leaving the light on longer consume more battery, or does blinking more often consume more battery?

Oh and is it required to instal bln control app with this or is it optional?
[Captivate Themes and Apps] Guardian_Bob:
Blinking requires the CPU to wake up and thus consumes more battery than staying solid. The more often you blink, the more often the CPU has to wake up. That why, by default, it won't keep blink for hours on end.

The BLN Control App is by no means required.
[Captivate Themes and Apps] joeshmoe08:
Thank you very much for the reply. I hope you keep improving this already awesome app!
[Captivate Themes and Apps] pillz424:
Awesome, works great! Thank you!