Remote backlighting not working?

davep wrote:

The hard buttons on the remote are not backlite. The labels will slightly fluoresce in a dark room. When the SmartRemote apk is not running the display should time out and turn off after a few minutes. When SmartRemote is running we set the display brightness to 0 and any movement of the remote should bring it back to 100%.  Because Android does not allow a display to be dimmed to zero it really goes to about 5% brightness.

 

From Allonis Web Page
SmartRemote expands the flexibility of myServer into the palm of your hand. 

• 3.2" 800x480 capacitive touchscreen.
• Backlit buttons for ease of use in dark rooms. <<THIS HERE SAYS THEY ARE>>
• All Buttons are 100% programmable for function within myServer.
• Built in speaker
• Built in Michrophone for Intercom and Voice Recognition (future)
• Light sensor to auto adjust display brightness.
• Motion sensor to wake up the remote.
• Vibration to confirm button pushes.
• Wifi to myServer.  Bluetooth for future features.
• Voice button for future voice activated services.
• Android operating system running Allonis' myUI application.
• Charging base solid 0.3kg for stability.  Includes subtle light ring for dark room use.
  
  Thanks

Sat32 wrote:

davep wrote:

The hard buttons on the remote are not backlite. The labels will slightly fluoresce in a dark room. When the SmartRemote apk is not running the display should time out and turn off after a few minutes. When SmartRemote is running we set the display brightness to 0 and any movement of the remote should bring it back to 100%.  Because Android does not allow a display to be dimmed to zero it really goes to about 5% brightness.


 

From Allonis Web Page
SmartRemote expands the flexibility of myServer into the palm of your hand. 

• 3.2" 800x480 capacitive touchscreen.
• Backlit buttons for ease of use in dark rooms. <<THIS HERE SAYS THEY ARE>>
• All Buttons are 100% programmable for function within myServer.
• Built in speaker
• Built in Michrophone for Intercom and Voice Recognition (future)
• Light sensor to auto adjust display brightness.
• Motion sensor to wake up the remote.
• Vibration to confirm button pushes.
• Wifi to myServer.  Bluetooth for future features.
• Voice button for future voice activated services.
• Android operating system running Allonis' myUI application.
• Charging base solid 0.3kg for stability.  Includes subtle light ring for dark room use.
  
  Thanks

While I was researching the remote IIRC correctly at one point I think I remember David saying somewhere that they were opting to switch from backlighting to fluorescent buttons. Probably for battery reasons.

If this is a screwup on the part of the OEM I'm 100% OK with that as I prefer real backlit keys anyway....provided that the backlight actually works lol. I could chalk that up as a happy accident. Not having any means of seeing the buttons in the dark isn't really sustainable in the long term though. I'd love to know what the plan is here.

It's interesting that they mention it having a light sensor. I assumed that there was no embedded photodiode but maybe it just hasn't been enabled yet. Early days and all that.

I would very much like it if the remote does indeed have haptics. I'm not holding my breath though since it was never mentioned in the kickstarter description and I'm not expecting any hardware features that were not part of the original deal.

While I was messing around today I noticed that if I connect the AndroidTV driver to the smartremote I can send a "sleep" command to the remote to trun off the screen.  If the remote could keep the server up to date with the last time a button/screen/movement happened then the server could always send the sleep command after a given timeout period.

bowlingbeeg wrote:

While I was messing around today I noticed that if I connect the AndroidTV driver to the smartremote I can send a "sleep" command to the remote to trun off the screen.  If the remote could keep the server up to date with the last time a button/screen/movement happened then the server could always send the sleep command after a given timeout period.

You have been diving in!
Yes, the AV|324~SendKey~SLEEP command will put the remote into sleep mode which completely darkens the display.  The only real issue is that the remote won't waken from sleep until the power button is pushed (won't respond if the remote is picked up).  We will add this within the sample templates.
Nice find.  I forgot about that feature.
 

Is the screen supposed to turn on when you pick it up? Because mine does not. It also never goes dark .. well every once and awhile it does but not very often.

bowlingbeeg wrote:

Is the screen supposed to turn on when you pick it up? Because mine does not. It also never goes dark .. well every once and awhile it does but not very often.

The screen goes DIM (never "dark") when it hasn't seen ANY motion or vibrations for a few minutes.

BTW, some of the hardware features did change through the design / manufacturing / testing process.  And as posted, there were multiple versions of the hardware.  The final change was adding IR emitter into the remote itself and upgrading the Android OS version that provided a little better battery life.  Some of the documentation (spread across many forums, websites, Kickstarter description etc) didn't get all updates.
It's always a balancing act of what can be packaged, at what cost, within what timeline to target a certain customer group that needs that feature at a price.