Lights

[garyiden]

Can anyone tell me about the lights on the bottom of the Droid (Return, Home, Menu, Seach) icons? They light up but I can't figure out when they do it. It seems random but I'm sure it's not. Help anyone?

 

[droider4life]

I remember thinking the same thing when I got my phone but then I forgot about it.. I will have to pay attention to it for ya...

 

[RW-1]

If auto brightness is on, they will come on when you are in low light situations, then turn off in brighter situations. You may overcome this by setting brightness manually thru your menu, or install the power widget and use that.

 

[garyiden]

RW thanks for your response. I dont have auto bright turned on. The icons light up on their their own. Cant figure out when and why.

 

[hookbill]

I think it's a bug. A very minor one, but a bug never the less. I've been in the dark and those darn lights didn't turn on a time or two. No biggie as far as I'm concerned since it doesn't happen all the time.

 

[billyidle]

A quick fix for that is to toggle Auto-brightness Off and back On again.

 

[garyiden]

Thanks Billy. I'll try that. However, I'm still not certain WHEN those icon buttons should be lighting up? Is it when I touch them? When the phone turns ON? It just seems very random. Thanks again for the input all.

 

[RW-1]

You're welcome.

That would be my answer as well, periodically on my droid, I find my lights do not come on (and I do use AB), since they do work, it is a software issue, and I toggle it off, then on again and everything is fine.

they should come on when you hit unlock, and at power up for a bit.

 

[mbarr69]

A quick fix for that is to toggle Auto-brightness Off and back On again.

I've tried that along with other tests and found that it does not matter if you have Auto brightness on or off. Auto brightness I believe, only controls the brightness of the display screen only and not the soft keys. What matters is the amount of light hitting the top-right corner of your screen. There looks to be a sensor just above and to the left of the red/green notification light.Try this simple test, once with Auto brightness on and once with it off and see what results you get.

***DO NOT OPEN THE SLIDE OUT QWERTY KEYBOARD AT ANYTIME DURING THIS TEST***

WATCH THE VIDEO
[video=youtube;3cGUQl1aQtw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cGUQl1aQtw[/video]

Items needed;
Flash light- or some sort of light source that can focus light.
Dimly lit room

Test procedure;
1. DIM the lights in the room.

2. AUTO BRIGHTNESS ON- Menu>Settings>Sound & Display>Brightness make sure there is a green check mark in the box, then select OK.

3. POWER OFF- Press and hold the power button and select Power Off then select OK to power off your device.

4. POWER ON- Press the power button to power on the device. Remember not to slide open the QWERTY keyboard.

NOTE; I have a security screen that comes up after the boot up of the phone. I can swipe my finger across the screen to unlock the phone without the soft keys turning on.

4. LIGHT UP THE TOP RIGHT CORNER OF THE DISPLAY. Starting from the top right side of the phone, hold a flash light perpendicular and very close to the top right corner of the screen for about 2-3 seconds. What should happen is the screen display will get brighter and the SOFT KEYS SHOULD STAY OFF. At this point if you look on an angle just above and to the left of the red/green notify light you can see the sensor on the display. It will be slightly larger than the indicator light.

5. REMOVE/TURN OFF LIGHT- Turn off or slide the light off and to the right of the display. The display screen should now dim and the soft keys should now light up.

6. REPEAT STEP 4 AND 5- To see the screen get brighter and then dim. And the soft keys will turn on and off.

Repeat all steps except for step 2(Uncheck the Auto brightness box). I see the soft keys acting the same. No change as to weather Auto Brightness is on off.

I remember when I first got the phone, I played a movie and the soft keys were lit but then turned off after a couple of seconds while the movie was playing. Then there was an update for my phone and now the lights do not dim while playing a movie. What I have to do is turn the phone off and turn it back on again. The soft keys are not lit at this time and now I navigate to the Gallery icon and select the movie I want to play. Now the movie is playing and the soft keys are not lit.

Let me know what happens on your phone.

I'm running Firmware 2.0.1

 

[garyiden]

mbarr, thanks. After reading your suggestion (actually before I read all of it), I simply held my finger over the area where the sensor is (who knew there was a sensor there? I couldn't see it) and sure enough , the lights came on. When I removed my finger, lights went out. That must be it! Thanks again.

 

[mbarr69]

mbarr, thanks. After reading your suggestion (actually before I read all of it), I simply held my finger over the area where the sensor is (who knew there was a sensor there? I couldn't see it) and sure enough , the lights came on. When I removed my finger, lights went out. That must be it! Thanks again.

Nice. I just made a video that I'm about to post on YouTube showing that sensor working. I'll post the link in the test post. While filming I noticed two other holes in the screen on the left hand side of the screen. Does anyone know what each of those do?

 

[jbsangel]

on the top left, the one to the right is the proximity sensor. can't remember the other.