Note: This is not a bug thread, if you have general backlight issues, post those in the thread Metickone refers to below. Keep this thread for talking about custom auto backlight settings.
So I've been playing with the CM7 Automatic Backlight settings in the CM Settings menu on my D2. I'm a beginner w/this, so feel free to correct/expand on my comments below if you're interested in this as well...I'm here to learn.
So...as far as I can tell from some limited reading and experimenting this evening...
The Automatic Backlight settings (CyanogenMod settings>Display>Automatic Backlight) allow you to customize how your phone reacts to changes in ambient light measured by the phone. You can control how many light level ranges you want to monitor, and how bright you want the screen, keys, and keyboard buttons to be at each range. Of course you have to enable Automatic Backlight in the normal Android settings first (Display>Brightness).
It looks like this below (this is screen shot of the current setup I'm using). At the top you can see the current sensor readings that the phone is registering, and the screen and button settings.
In table in the rest of the screen, the first two columns in each row represent individual light level ranges (lower numbers = less light, higher numbers = brighter light), and the last three columns represent the brightness setting that will be applied to your screen, haptic buttons, and physical keyboard when that range of light is measured by the phone's sensor. Phones w/out physical keyboards lack that third column, obviously.
The range is 0 (off) to 255, but I read a post or two in my searches noting that setting the screen value to 255 caused issues, so I'm maxing at 254 to be safe (may not actually be an issue, but just in case...) The last row of my settings is cut off in the screenshot - it is 3000 to infinity.
The default Automatic Brightness settings in the CM Display settings for the CM4D2 builds are below:
As you can tell, I've been experimenting, and have added levels and changed brightness settings across the range of levels. You really have pretty much complete flexibility to design whatever backlighting plan you want.
In googling around on this I've found a number of different approaches and preferences, and it really is something that is very subjective - enough light for one person at a particular ambient light level is too much for another, and vice versa.
To enable custom levels you have to select CyanogenMod settings>Display>Automatic Brightness>Use Custom, and then select Edit other levels... to edit the levels and brightness settings. Also select "Allow light decrease to allow brightness to reduce when ambient light is reduced.
You can use the "Sensor (Filtered/Raw)" readings are real-time readings you can use to view what the phone's light sensor is current reading. When on the custom settings screen (and this may not be enabled until you add some custom settings, not sure) the you can use the sensor to see how the light levels around you are measured by the phone.
There are a number of other settings, including applying a moving average filter to light sensor data so that autobrightness doesn't keep jerking your light levels around (and you can set the window length as well). You can also set the light change threshold which resets your filter and how frequently you want to sample the ambient light level. Just a bunch of cool options, in techi-speak.
My other settings:
Window length: 10s
Reset Threshold: 400 lux
Sample interval: 1s
Allow light decrease: Checked
Decrease hysteresis: 50% (default - not sure what this does...)
Not necessarily recommending my settings, I've only played with them at home, really want to have a nice sunny day outside to see how it manages going from indoor to to outdoors, but here at home I've experimented going from dark to well lit rooms and the screen brightens up nicely and dims appropriately.
So if you're interested, let me know what I'm missing, have misunderstood, etc. The more the merrier...
Again - if you have general autobrightness bugs/issues w/the default CM4D2 ROM setup, you can post those issues in this other autobrightness bug thread: http://rootzwiki.com/showthread.php?735-CM7-Auto-brightness
So I've been playing with the CM7 Automatic Backlight settings in the CM Settings menu on my D2. I'm a beginner w/this, so feel free to correct/expand on my comments below if you're interested in this as well...I'm here to learn.
So...as far as I can tell from some limited reading and experimenting this evening...
The Automatic Backlight settings (CyanogenMod settings>Display>Automatic Backlight) allow you to customize how your phone reacts to changes in ambient light measured by the phone. You can control how many light level ranges you want to monitor, and how bright you want the screen, keys, and keyboard buttons to be at each range. Of course you have to enable Automatic Backlight in the normal Android settings first (Display>Brightness).
It looks like this below (this is screen shot of the current setup I'm using). At the top you can see the current sensor readings that the phone is registering, and the screen and button settings.
In table in the rest of the screen, the first two columns in each row represent individual light level ranges (lower numbers = less light, higher numbers = brighter light), and the last three columns represent the brightness setting that will be applied to your screen, haptic buttons, and physical keyboard when that range of light is measured by the phone's sensor. Phones w/out physical keyboards lack that third column, obviously.
The range is 0 (off) to 255, but I read a post or two in my searches noting that setting the screen value to 255 caused issues, so I'm maxing at 254 to be safe (may not actually be an issue, but just in case...) The last row of my settings is cut off in the screenshot - it is 3000 to infinity.
The default Automatic Brightness settings in the CM Display settings for the CM4D2 builds are below:
As you can tell, I've been experimenting, and have added levels and changed brightness settings across the range of levels. You really have pretty much complete flexibility to design whatever backlighting plan you want.
In googling around on this I've found a number of different approaches and preferences, and it really is something that is very subjective - enough light for one person at a particular ambient light level is too much for another, and vice versa.
To enable custom levels you have to select CyanogenMod settings>Display>Automatic Brightness>Use Custom, and then select Edit other levels... to edit the levels and brightness settings. Also select "Allow light decrease to allow brightness to reduce when ambient light is reduced.
You can use the "Sensor (Filtered/Raw)" readings are real-time readings you can use to view what the phone's light sensor is current reading. When on the custom settings screen (and this may not be enabled until you add some custom settings, not sure) the you can use the sensor to see how the light levels around you are measured by the phone.
There are a number of other settings, including applying a moving average filter to light sensor data so that autobrightness doesn't keep jerking your light levels around (and you can set the window length as well). You can also set the light change threshold which resets your filter and how frequently you want to sample the ambient light level. Just a bunch of cool options, in techi-speak.
My other settings:
Window length: 10s
Reset Threshold: 400 lux
Sample interval: 1s
Allow light decrease: Checked
Decrease hysteresis: 50% (default - not sure what this does...)
Not necessarily recommending my settings, I've only played with them at home, really want to have a nice sunny day outside to see how it manages going from indoor to to outdoors, but here at home I've experimented going from dark to well lit rooms and the screen brightens up nicely and dims appropriately.
So if you're interested, let me know what I'm missing, have misunderstood, etc. The more the merrier...
Again - if you have general autobrightness bugs/issues w/the default CM4D2 ROM setup, you can post those issues in this other autobrightness bug thread: http://rootzwiki.com/showthread.php?735-CM7-Auto-brightness