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[App] BattMonX (Droid X Battery State Monitor via LED Indicator)

Outlaw,

View attachment 14539 (MD5sum: 260f6aceb40fa78f39e902373a17a8c0)

Enjoy!

:eek: :D ;) :)


Bummer, after I download the apk I long press on it and hit open but then a message come up saying 'no application can be found to open this file'... do I have to go in and change it from an apk to something else? I'm running Apex 1.3.1 if that matters?

I'm dying to run it, I know it's probably hilarious!!! lol
 
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Bummer, after I download the apk I long press on it and hit open but then a message come up saying 'no application can be found to open this file'... do I have to go in and change it from an apk to something else? I'm running Apex 1.3.1 if that matters?

I'm dying to run it, I know it's probably hilarious!!! lol

The suspense is killing you, lol!

I've had the same problem before... You could use Opera Mini browser to download it or you could try this to make it work in the stock browser (courtesy of DoubleEagle in this thread http://androidforums.com/droid-x-all-things-root/210150-issue-installing-apk-files.html):

well i had the same problem downloading 928 blackglass, there not much discussion on it but I stumbled across somewhere here or another forum about downloading astro manager. Then open astro manager, hit the menu hard key,hit more button lower right corner,then hit preferences,scroll down to enable browser download and check it. Back all the way out and then try downloading just like you would from browser, it worked for me! Then after I downloaded 928 I just went back and unchecked it, really don't know why just did.

Good luck! ;)
 
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Using latest update. Couldn't get the charging light to go out after unplugging from a car charger. Didn't have this problem with an AC charger. Strange.

Mine is set for 10 seconds. Only saw the LED failure to extinguish with car charger.

rfdesq,

I saw a similar behavior last night and this morning while testing. When I unplugged from the USB cable, the red charging light indication stayed on (i.e., did not switch-over to the discharging color). Note: I had the phone's screen turned off during this time.

When I tested it this morning, I had my polling-interval set to 60 seconds and the LED stayed red for almost 3 minutes before turning to the discharging color (I have mine set to blue).

From viewing the logcat entries, the app's service was not even active during that 3 minute time span before it finally changed to the discharging color. In other words, Android itself was probably scaling everything (i.e., all app processing) down/back as part of its battery conservation philosophy. This is actually not bad or entirely unexpected--in fact, its probably a testament to how well Android is written and the battery management algorithm employed for the Droid X.

I believe that if you would have waited longer and/or turned the phone back on (i.e., woken things up), the app's service would have been revived and things would have resumed processing as normal.

Cheers and I hope that explains things.

By the way, I'm working on yet another little early Christmas present for everyone re. this app: I believe I have the app working to allow for SMS text notifications to come in while the app is running/active. :eek: :D ;) :cool:

Stay tuned.
 
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Okay guys,

Now I'm really satisfied with the app: version 1.6 now works with SMS text notifications!

So now, you should be able to run the app all of the time and still get notified when a text message comes in.

The timeliness of the seeing the SMS notification is still dependent on the polling interval you are using, but app steps aside when the SMS notification comes in and then resumes when its been acknowledged (by reading the text) or cleared (by the notification pull-down's Clear button).

Please note that the app doesn't actually control the color or blinking status of the SMS text notification, my app just allows it to come in and been seen--so I cannot change its color or behavior (sorry).

I also added the option / ability to make the LEDs blink (or stay on like before) for the charging / discharging / charged state like the functionality I added for the low-battery condition in v1.4.

Anyway, I hope everyone has a safe and happy holiday!

Enjoy the app and its recent changes--I very much appreciate everyone's feedback and support!
 
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isn't there a way to get your app to change the led when the power connected/disconnected states change instead of totally relying on polling?

Not sure...I just recently saw those broadcast actions when researching the SMS text issue.

I am looking at these events to see if it would "fit" for all of the apps behaviors (for example, monitoring for "full / charged" and/or low-battery condition would not necessarily be covered with these system-generated events).

I was also considering using the "screen off" broadcast action to quiesce my app, but based on my testing earlier this morning it doesn't sound like I need to do that, lol.

Thank you again for the ideas and feedback...I will certainly consider everything.

Cheers!
 
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installed and running
this is a great app
thank scary

You are most welcome!

By the way, can you confirm that the app works okay on your D1? I did have one person comment that it worked on the original Droid but I don't know if it was a custom ROM or not.

I only have access to my X and my son's D2 Global...

Thanks!
 
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You are most welcome!

By the way, can you confirm that the app works okay on your D1? I did have one person comment that it worked on the original Droid but I don't know if it was a custom ROM or not.

I only have access to my X and my son's D2 Global...

Thanks!

I'll install it tonight and test it out
It is rooted with Pete's stock rooted ROM, so for all intents and purposes, I would consider it stock.
I'll report back with my results
 
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rfdesq,

I saw a similar behavior last night and this morning while testing.

I believe that if you would have waited longer and/or turned the phone back on (i.e., woken things up), the app's service would have been revived and things would have resumed processing as normal.

Cheers and I hope that explains things.
Thanks. Just an FYI I did wake up the DX and the LED didn't extinguish. I've installed 1.6 and I'll let you know if I see the bug again.
 
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Tried it out on my D1
Seems to work fine
Due to the limitations of the D1, there is no yellow.
Yellow appears as orange
The dark shades of color illuminate the same as the regular colors
Otherwise, it works great
I'll play with it a little more to see if I notice anything else

Thank you for that!

I also just realized /remembered a little bit ago that my Dad has a D1...he's trying it out now...haven't heard back from him yet...

Cheers!
 
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What is the power draw?

Excellent question!

As far as I can tell, very little. I run the app 24x7 (for obvious reasons, lol) and when I check on it in System Panel, its not usually on the first screen of apps listed and the CPU usage time is pretty low.

For example, since I last re-launched it (with a polling interval of 60 seconds), System Panel is reporting a Total CPU Time of 5s (presumably 5 seconds) with a Time Since Start of 4h 45m 50s with an Average Consumption of 0.0% (not too shabby ;)).

I'll try to gather-up some of these stats in a more organized and structured way and published them in the OP.

As far as analyzing and evaluating these stats, you'd really have to have something to compare it to and I'm not exactly sure what (which app) would be meaningful and relevant. I've done enough system performance analysis and capacity planning in jobs at work to know that its easy to represent statistics in anyway that fits your needs (or the boss's needs ;)), so I'll just try to post the raw data and let everyone form their own opinion. :)

But suffice to say that I am very comfortable with the app and its usage of system resources (its actually a very lightweight app in terms of what it does CPU-wise and its memory footprint is very small)--I would not run it on my phone or recommend it to anyone if I thought otherwise.

Thank you again for bringing-up a very relevant point.

Cheers!
 
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version 1.7 changes include
:

- added strategy to auto-recover from Android auto-killing the app's service; should make the app much more stable and without unwanted shutdowns

- replaced multiple menu settings w/standard Settings/Preferences menu item

- dynamically determine battery status directory (I did this to see if the app would work on more phones (with mixed success); should allow for users that don't see that the app was written for the Droid X to at least see if it will work on their phone (does not appear to work on a stock HTC Evo 4G, HTC Droid Eris)

- re-instituted screen lock to portrait mode to prevent orientation change from causing FCs

- fixed integer parsing issue causing some reported crashes (probably just experienced by non-Droid X phones)

- added option for 3 minute polling-interval

- added larger range for low-battery percentage threshold

- fixed issue where LED would not blink when charging

FYI, I've also done a little bit of benchmarking (monitoring the app via System Panel) as far as CPU resources go: the app will use less than 20 seconds of CPU per 24 hour period with a 60-second monitoring cycle. Hard to find something similar to make comparisons, but this really isn't a lot of CPU time (compare it to other apps that you've been using).

I've got a few ideas to make the app even more CPU-friendly and more responsive when SMS texts come in...stay tuned!

Anyway, if you have any issues, comments, questions, etc., please contact me at scary.alien@gmail.com.

Cheers and have a great New Year!
 
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Nice update! The options are a lot cleaner now. Is there an on/off for discharging?

Thank you very much, I appreciate it! Yeah, the options were not easy to figure-out and implement (I understand how to now, lol...).

You can set the LED "color" for the discharging state to "off", if that's what you mean...(and I suppose I actually should move the "off" "color" to the action menu...still thinking about that).

I've also been comptemplating making a "snooze" button or toggle to turn off the LED for those that don't want the LED on at certain times. I also plan on adding features to allow for a simple schedule for the LED actions so that you could set a time range for when you want the LED actions to take place or not.

Thanks again for the feedback and let me know what you think or if you have any other ideas or questions.

Cheers!
 
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All,

I've just published version 1.8 to the Market... This version has some nice new features and improvements. Change log for 1.8 includes:

- supported new experimental features:

* ability to keep LED on while the screen is on (root only)

* support white LED color
[only works in conjunction with the root-only "LED is Always ON" experimental feature]

- updated w/better strategy for dynamically locating battery state and LED notification files to TRY to support non-Motorola Droid phones

- added 'Suspend' feature to screen to turn off LED and pause battery status monitoring until resumed (un-checked)

- added strategy to make app more timely/responsive to SMS text notifications and preference/setting changes

- fixed set-on-boot and charging-color preference mis-match and other minor preference/settings issues (this was causing a few folks issues...if you still have an issue, try an un-install and fresh re-install--this will clear-out the saved preferences)

- supported amber LED color in addition to the original red/green/blue LED colors
(provided your LED firmware supports it)

Anyway, this version should be much more stable and responsive than the prior versions (although v1.7 was pretty solid ;)).

Enjoy, and please visit https://sites.google.com/site/scaryalienware/battmonx for full details and screen shots. Shoot me an email at scary.alien@gmail.com for any issues, comments, questions, etc.

Cheers!
 
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Just downed your latest v1.8. All functions work as you have stated above. My DX is rooted and running the DarkSlide v4.2 ROM for the record. Also, the experimental feature works fine.

I'm going to sbf my DX tomorrow back to stock 340 then re-root and install the Liberty ROM and try out your app. Thank you, scary!

Thank you very much for your feedback and usage! I myself just love having the LED on (both when the screen is off and when its on) just because it didn't come that way from VZW or Moto :D (I use the blue, light blue, or violet for my discharging color--looks cool when its off).

Cheers!
 
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