Screen dim instead of power off

The existing solution on android is great, but its something different that I'm suggesting in locus. For one, it dims the screen and after 2-3 sec it powers it off. I'm thinking the screen should be still on, just dimmed. The slider that is available in the top dropdown menu can be frustrating to use when bicycling or running. And really unusable when having a waterproof pouch for the phone (proximity sensor does not work also in pouches, so gestures are not working also).

What I'm proposing is just add another setting to screen on/off settings which would be something like "Screen power when off: N%" whicn corresponds to 0-100% of screen brightness, 0 when screen is really off, and 100% is the current (at the time the function turns on) screen brightness value (which would work great with light sensors).

> but just reduce backlight to your defined value, right

Yes

> Map will still draw map and it's content = almost zero battery save

that is not true, having a brightness level at 20% I almost double the battery time on my Huawei P9 Lite while locus is running and recording

> screen will be a lot darker so I'll see nothing

Thats why I created a high contrast map theme which can be found at locus forum :) (I also have a high contrast dashboard to match)

Independently I've been thinking about very similar idea. My idea is to add additional low energy/brightness mode. In this mode user will be able to define screen brightness and maybe some additional settings, but most important is possibility of setting pre-defined panel. Why it will be useful? Because user can define special, high contrast panels (black on white or white on black) with large fonts, which will be visible while screen brightness will be set to minimal or very close to minimal. It will help to conserve phone battery without loosing most important info (speed, distance, battery level, tracking info) displayed all the time. I've attached image with sample panel - screen back light was set almost to minimal value. I've made some tests and using acceptable screen brightness it consumes about 5..7 % battery per hour. Of course using regular screen/panels requires setting of back light to higher level, this minimal level gives possibility of reading only high-contrast items.

The separate aspect is how to engage this mode. It could be set manually by some option (which can be placed on some toolbar like other options) but very useful will be setting it automatically. For example when option 'Leave screen on' is set, we should be able to define some delay and after this delay some action could be performed - for example 'Set low energy/brightness mode'.

Screen ON to Screen (min %) brighness ON also keeps the touch screen active ! Use case(s) ?

A (workaround) method to keep record functional for those phones with a too agressive power management ?

Or how these stupid too agressive power saving systems becomes totally contraproductive in the end.

I like the dashboard idea because if you are in track recording mode it will drain alot more battery then low display brightness.

If you force your phone to stay online with track recording it makes alot of sence too utilize the already active phone by putting a small amount of current into the display.

I can confirm that it doesn't make any meaningfull differenz if you compare display off with min brightness if your GPS is running because GPS will drain alot more then your display.

Display off make only sense if you don't record tracks.

I switched to track recording since I start to work with barometric messurements and experienced the huge drawback of an allways active but not utilized phone.

I did thougt about a tasker profile which get triggered by a spare hardware button or by time because with track recording it doesn't make any more sence for me to actually turn the screen off because it doesn't save much power anyway to turn the screen off. But for tasker it is a little bit difficould to open and close the dashboard. Emulating inputs will have trouble with touchscreen lock especially when a sweaty touchscreen goes crazy.

I'm not sure why the user 0709 gave such interpretation of my and/or Krzysztof's proposal. It isn't in any way connected to gps/power saving issues - my Locus track saving works even when screen is powered off. My initial idea was to have something similar to simple bike computer with basic parameters with power consumption as small as possible. And I would like to have this feature enabled automatically - without manual setting screen brightness and special panel.

I agree with your usecase, especially if you do already force your screen off phone to stay active with GPS recording. It's painfull for me to see battery draining without any display activity.

And your idea is the best, it will utilize the already active phone and will work with minimum brightness.

Black Background would be great for OLED and we already know that always on OLED solutions will work fine.

White Background would be great for LCD because it's better readable, at least for me if I test small fonts. And I can tell that at least my Z3 Compact LCD doesn't consume a noticeable amount of current.

Would be nice to have this or at least an api to implement this with tasker.

@ Daniel & Krzysztof , I was not commenting your specific use case.

But I saw an opportunity by your dim proposal for a possible temporary workaround solution for that other BIG issue UNTIL hopefully solved.

@ Falco. No no, no definitive solution.

Our developer has probably spent many hours, days, weeks on that issue, at the expense of other interesting ideas.

By reading the forum pse notice the problem for some hardware still keeps unsolved ! (New A update = more new troubles).

Personally I do not need the dim function. Real screen on/off by my young oldtimer (LCD) (A 4.4.2) hardware still a perfect solution.

Info: Energy usage over the last minute in Joule. In house test & minimum brightness: Screen hardly readable in daylight.

LCD max lum: 53.1 J GPS: 26.1 J CPU: 1,4 J Wifi: 0 J 3G: 0 J Audio: 0 J

LCD min lum: 17.9 J GPS: 26.1 J CPU: 1.4 J Wifi: 0 J 3G: 0 J Audio: 0 J

Hi Falco,

just in latest Locus Map version was added support for set "Presets" over API: https://github.com/asamm/locus-api/wiki/Action-tasks-(Broadcasts)

So the solution: set a Preset that only enable wanted dashboard (in presets screen, enable advanced mode in the top toolbar) and activate it over tasker with mentioned API. Should work.

I did expect that you already support it, I was just unable to find the correct api call. Thank you for pointing to presets.

But I do worry about the scope of preset change. Will touchscreen lock be maintained during a preset change, or would it be get reset as well? I guess nobody did try it because without API you can't change preset during touchscreen lock anyway.

http://docs.locusmap.eu/doku.php?id=manual:user_guide:settings:presets

I see that we have a preset settings selection there, thats even better, it doesn't reset everthing it just apply settings which get selected in "preset settings selection"

That is great because I don't have to worry about resetting to much on each screen brightness change button klick.

By the way, this page is still marked as beta on the last line of the documentation.

Yes, this is correct. Only selected list of options is changed, so you may simply create one preset that only turn on the dashboard and no other settings changes.

And "beta" ... probably time to remove it, thanks :)

I will try to use Tasker as you suggest - I didn't know that it is possible. Do you think that using proximity sensor (instead of power button) to change brightness and Locus presets is imaginable?

Sure, but maybe difficoult to use. At least eveything is possible. Would be nice if you could share your proximity setup.