Auto-dimmer possible?

[braj]

Is it possible to make an auto-dimmer for a Palm that would dim the screen after a certain amount of inactivity, without actually powering off the device? I'm thinking when you are downloading something from a web page or typing something but thinking for a few moments and want to save some power but not disconnect from the net. My cell phone does this and it would be nice if my TX did it as well, at least sometimes. So say with activity it would be @ 100% and no activity @ 10%. Dmitry? Pruss? Anyone?

[braj]

Awesome, I wasn't aware of that one! Thanks!

[John Stanley]

Or, you can use Energy Dimmer (former shareware, now freeware).
http://dimmer.79bmedia.com/

[juggernaut#2]

There´s also a (free) pref panel app available with the very same name you gave your thread, i.e. here (http://www.palmgear.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=software.showsoftware&PartnerREF=&siteid=1&prodID=49023)
HandyAid is better, esp. because it allows you to have different sets of application (who gets dimmed how), but shareware.

[braj]

There´s also a (free) pref panel app available with the very same name you gave your thread, i.e. here (http://www.palmgear.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=software.showsoftware&PartnerREF=&siteid=1&prodID=49023)
HandyAid is better, esp. because it allows you to have different sets of application (who gets dimmed how), but shareware.

Thanks guys. I went with the pref pane because I 'd lik eto limit the number of apps in my launcher and this definitely is more of a system setting. I really appreciate the help!

[PinCushionQueen]

To anyone using HandyAid- is there any way to set to what % you want the backlight dimmed to? I really like the idea of being able to set backlight timing parameters for specific groups of apps but need to specify the low end % because I use Dmitry's Brightness fix and HandyAid just takes the backlight to the lowest setting. The lowest setting is too dim when in a brightly lit room - I'd like to be able to specify to dim to say 5% for some apps and 15% for some others. Thanx!!

[juggernaut#2]

No. I have the same problem and tried to solve it (there´s a menu option for "detect dimming method"), but no chance.

Either you switch to AutoDimmer, which allows that, or you keep HandyAid, which allows for some per-app-settings (not only dimming, but power-off as well). To me, the latter is the more important - I really hate my palm going auto-off when watching a movie with TCPMP or reading a wikipedia article...

[pruss]

Do these sorts of things really save battery life in practice?

[PinCushionQueen]

Yes, I do see a definate increase in battery life by dimming my backlight whenever I can. To acheive this I've been using an app that toggles brightness manually, but I really like the idea of a more automated process for certain apps. For example, I need for Docs2Go to dim after a short period of not typing, but I wouldn't want Plucker to dim during autoscrolling.

HandyAid would be a great option if only it let me set the low limit instead of defaulting to the lowest setting possible.

Do you have any additional suggestions or ideas Pruss?

[juggernaut#2]

Well, PCQ, an option would be to discard BrightnessFix, if you´d be using HandyAid extensively. I have thought of that option quite a lot of times, because I do have the same problem of turning on my TX and - under certain light conditions - not even being able to tell if it´s really ON at all.

If the HandyAid sets are figured out and set nicely, one should not be needing BrightnessFix. But I must admit, until now I have been reluctant to change anything there.

[Church Punk]

what i like about handy aid is the display server group, so you can set like per application dimming, which is really convenient when running apps like palmpdf, biblereader, docs2go or even games like ljp :)