[Captivate Themes and Apps] Guardian_Bob:
2.4 is now on the market

So let's start off with what is BLN and what is Blinky.

neldar made a kernel patch a few months ago to make it so that notifications light up the LEDs under the soft buttons when you have a waiting notification (and the screen is off.) This is known as backlight notification or BLN for short. Blinky is an enhancement application to that patch to make the LEDs blink and your phone vibrate to remind you. The blinking tends to catch the eye a whole lot more than simply solid lights.

No longer calling this beta, the install method is new but the source seems to be solid. As noted below, this requires that your kernel support BLN already.

Enhanced BLN is for Froyo only. Sorry Eclair users, I just don't have the correct build environment for you.

As of 2.1.1 Enhanced BLN should work for Eclair as well. This is currently untested.

So I haven't done the work yet to see if there's any affect on battery life, in fact there probably is a tiny bit more usage with this.

Battery usage tests: https://sites.google.com/site/sgsblinky/battery-usage

After you install it/upgrade it, you should run the program once to start the service. After that it will start automatically upon boot.

Expected behavior:

When you get a notification that would light up the button lights, they will now blink. 1 second on, 1 second off. With 1.4 and later, after 5 minutes the BLN is left steady on to conserve battery.

With 2.0, you can now set all the times, time on, time off, etc. With this power, you now control how much juice Blinky uses. It also makes you responsible if it uses too much power.

2.0.3 is completely flashable. You must uninstall 2.0.2 first.

Yes, this means fade in/out is possible but not implemented yet. No, I cannot control each button, the interface doesn't appear to allow that level of control.

Feature suggestions are welcomed.

Features I'm already thinking about/working on:

Special charging behavior.

Flashing via CWM the blinky-lights.zip is strongly recommend in addition to installing the APK. It fixes some bugs that I just can't fix otherwise.

For 2.0.3 flashing via CWM is required.

Eclair users installing for the first time, use the blinky-lights-2.1.2.zip.

2.3 adds in the ability to write the library without using CWM. It requires root to do this, and must reboot immediately after. While the risk is low this may not be safe in some cases. In addition, some ROMs then replace my lib on boot, making it useless. That said, flashing from CWM has the same inherent risk and set of problems. Both versions are here.

2.1.2 is an upgrade to 2.1.

2.1 is an upgrade to 2.0.3. The library didn't change, so you can upgrade from 2.0.3 (only) to 2.1 without flashing. (Use the Blinky_v2.1.apk to upgrade.)

If you're installing for the first time or upgrading from a version before 2.0.3, simply flash the blinky-lights-2.1-1.zip and you'll get the library and the APK.

If you like my work, consider donating to my beer fund. ;)

Change log:

V2.3: Added version number to the title, added option to turn off Blinking when the blink time expires, added button to replace the library (requires root) and reboot, made test button work with stubborn devices (requires root on those device only). Better library detection, for those flashing kernels. Removed notification. Test button turns the screen off.

V2.1.2: Eclair fixes, added an option to enable BLN on startup.

V2.1.1: Added a checkbox to handle if BLN is disabled/enabled. Added a few extra error messages to help people out. Added Eclair support (untested at this time).

V2.1: Updated UI, Minutes, seconds, milliseconds. Changed the vibrate time to 750 ms. Added a stop vibrating after a specific amount of time option.

V2.0.3: Completely flashable (includes apk). Changed directories to handle Samsung Froyo insanity.

V2.0.2: Upped the limit on the number of digits in the number of milliseconds to blink option.

V2.0.1: Workaround for missing /tmp in some systems (due to Voodoo)

V2.0: Added UI, Icon, Enhanced BLN

V1.4: internal refactoring and added a stop to the blinking after 5 minutes to save battery

V1.3: rewrote the blinking thread to avoid holding a wakelock. Should be easier on the battery. Will test this today.

V1.2: rewrote the threading interface. - Keep an eye on battery usage.

V1.1: initial release.

Known Issues:

If a notification goes away (such as Gmail was read online, but you had a waiting notification for it) the lights keep blinking. - Flash the updated bln to fix.

Need to uninstall 2.0.2 to install 2.0.3

Report of the library being replaced with the original version on boot, meaning enhanced mode is impossible.

Documentation post needs to be updated.

Rom maintainers:

Feel free to include my lights.s5pc110.so, it is fully compatible with the one neldar released. Contact me with any question including upcoming development.

Special thanks to:

neldar for the base level code I'm using

Reefermattness for the icon

My beta testers

s44 for Eclair testing