Binding backlight on/off to a switch?

Hi guys,
I'm hoping I missed something obvious in the manual Is there anyway to turn the backlight on and off with a switch? Or will I have to go into the source code manually and add BACKLIGHT_Brightness(0); to a switch event?

edit:
In case I'm not being clear, I want to be able to switch the backlight on and off with one of the physical switches on my Devo 7e

What are you trying to accomplish?

Sorry if I wasn't clear, I want to be able to switch the backlight on and off with one of the physical switches on my Devo 7e

That's a bit of an odd request. I don't think that's currently possible. You can set it to turn off after a set amount of time, and then it will come back on when you press any of the buttons by the screen..

mikemacwillie wrote: That's a bit of an odd request. I don't think that's currently possible. You can set it to turn off after a set amount of time, and then it will come back on when you press any of the buttons by the screen..

Basically I don't want the backlight on at all when I fly during the day to save my tx battery. Then when I'm flying at night I can just flick it on.

I think the way things are set up right now with a dimmer timer are a bit silly to be honest. If I have the devo on then I'm flying, and if I'm flying then I'm moving the sticks so the backlight will be on constantly anyway if I'm flying. In my mind, it makes more sense to just have a switch to turn it on and off. just my 2c.

I would agree with you. But mine (a 10 and 6S) don't behave that way. Once the dimmer goes off, it stays off no matter what flight controls - sticks, switches, knobs - I change. I have to either touch the screen (on the 6S) or hit the ext/ent/up/down/r/l buttons for the backlight to come back on.

It's a bit annoying at times. When I'm flying, I ignore the screen except for wanting a quick peek at the flight time or flight battery voltage, so going off quick is the right thing to do. But at times doing setup, I'll turn on the channel monitor, and want to check that while I go through the controls, so it needs to stay on until I'm through. A switch of some kind would be nice. But given the limited number of switches on the 6E and 7S, it makes a good compromise.

Maybe two time settings, one for the main screen and one for everything else, or something like that. Of course, a voice reading the values alive at regular intervals or set values would also do nicely .

How does one go about submitting patches to the deviation code base?

Yeah, moving the sticks shouldn't turn the backlight back on. Only the buttons by the screen do on both my Devo 10 and 12S.

To submit a patch, you can do it with a pull request on bitbucket.

I agree. I have a brightness of 1 for my dim to value but I also want to be able to manually turn the backlight off.

Here's how I think it should work:

Exit to main screen. Press EXIT button once more to immediately turn the backlight off and disable dimmer timer. The backlight is now in manual on/off mode. EXIT button toggles backlight between being permanently on or off. Any other button reinstates the backlight auto dimmer timer functionality.

For the Channel monitor and Telemetry monitor screens we could have the same feature activated via L- and R+ instead of EXIT button. ie. Channel monitor: via L- on Channel output screen, and R+ on Stick input screen.

I have submitted a pull request on bitbucket. I hope you like it
bitbucket.org/PhracturedBlue/deviation/p...l-for-devo10-7e/diff

PBR seems to be tied up with other things, so he may not do anything with it for a while.

Can I propose a different approach?

Making other buttons turn the automatic dim function on/off would make the manual mode useless for me. I pretty much only want the manual mode during model setup, when I'm going to be using those controls to do that setup. So turning the automatic dimmer would pretty much always be turned back on.

Rather than trying to integrate manual control into the existing automatic dimming mode, have it be a transmitter option. So you either get the current behavior, or you get one where some action that currently does nothying (EXT on the main page?) toggles the light on and off manually. That would be a lot less confusing, both to use and to implement.

I'm not sure I like it either... I like the exit button on main screen (particularly with dim value set to 1). But L-/R+ in the monitor screens is a bit confusing. I think with practice I could get used to it, but some users will hate it. Also auto-dimmer resuming with any other key press, means manual mode is not really manual.

A 3-position switch would be ideal because then you could have off-on-auto, but the most flexible solution would be to have a "Dimmer switch" setting that toggles between off-on-auto; or a "Dimmer hold" setting in tx config menu that could be assigned to any switch.

On another note:
I have found that all Trims activate the backlight. A trim acting as "virtual switches" is not treated any different.

I think:

1. "virtual switches" should behave like real switches and not activate the backlight
2. Trims should activate the backlight but only when THR=min

Indigo wrote: Trims should activate the backlight but only when THR=min

If you mean the throttle stick, then it'll be wrong for a CP heli in stunt mode. If you mean the throttle output channel, then we already have issues with figuring out what that should be for safe values (I hope to look into this, but I have xmas things ahead of it on the ToHack list). And gliders don't have a throttle output, so I'm not sure what the use that channel for.

UPDATE
A switch can now be configured to manually switch backlight on/off:

Example 1: Throttle activated timer with reset switch GEAR1When THR is moved from min position, timer starts and backlight goes off automatically.
When THR is returned to min position, timer stops and backlight turns on automatically.
When GEAR switch is in ON position, timer is reset and backlight is held on.

Example 2: Using 3 position MIX switch for 3 backlight settings OFF - AUTO - ON

On main screen, the "manual dimmer" function I have moved from Exit button to L/R buttons to be consistent with Channel monitor and Telemetry monitor screens.

Existing function of L/R buttons on main screen has been modified slightly:

L- was "reset all timers", is now "reset all timers not controlled by a resetsrc"
R+ was "start/stop all timers", is now "start/stop all timers not controlled by a src"

The Start/Stop and Reset functions is not something I have added, it is an existing function for Devo10/7e. The only difference is explained above; also you will now get visual feedback from the backlight:

For L- button:
- backlight will toggle between ON/OFF while resetting timers (see above).
For R+ button:
- backlight ON indicates timers have stopped (if any),
- backlight OFF indicates timers started (if any).

When backlight is controlled by a switch it is the same:
- ON indicates timers have stopped and OFF indicates timers have started.
- L/R buttons on main screen will continue to function "as above" and will act as a temporary manual override for the backlight.

If you already use L- button for resetting timers, then use R+ for backlight override unless of course you want to reset timers.

TIP: In "Transmitter config" menu, I suggest configuring "Dimming target" even if "Dimmer time" is then set to OFF. Set it to a lower value than "Backlight" and you will then have 3 backlight levels: on, off and dim.

BTW: In "Auto dimmer" mode, virtual switches will activate the backlight like any other trim switch. I looked into disabling this for virtual switches but found it too difficult and not worth the effort. However, buttons and trims will now only activate backlight when it's not being controlled by a switch.

Update
Configurable backlight switch added to Timers menu (all Devo's and languages supported)
With temporary manual override of backlight using:

R+ button on Devo10/7e
Exit button (short press) on all other Devo's

The backlight control options in Timers menu is self explanatory. For those not interested in testing this firmware, it works like this:

Timer2 - Switch = Backlight Off
Timer4 - Switch = Backlight On

Is there any way to make this more customizable in transmittler config (add a field for configuration).
- backlight on/off switch
- automatic on sticks
- automatic on switches
- automatic on sticks + switches

I opened a new thread for the no/reset DIMMER on sticks movement:: www.deviationtx.com/forum/3-feedback-que...r-when-sticks-active


A possible workaround could be, to configure the "binding backlight to on/off switch" feature to throttle hold RUDD D/R or Gear switch (second safety switch). Is that already working with your current pull request code?

Greetings
Thomas

Any news on dimmer off on sticks? Did any functionality make it into rls 5.0?