# CM4DX Auto-brightness Settings



## gpaulu

There is lots of information on the internet about cm brightness settings, so I'm not going to go into depth on all of them. This post is about my experiences with dx specific things. (Note: Auto brightness doesn't work in the beta. I can't remember which nightly got the patch.)

First, a quick explanation of what makes the cm auto brightness special:
On the front of your dx, there is what's called an ambient light sensor. This is used to measure the light shinning on the front of your device. On stock moto, the light sensor reports an intensity and there are about 4 different brightnesses that the system chooses based on the current value.

CM is a little different. CM takes the values and averages them over a period of time. ("Window length" in settings). Why is this awesome? Have you ever been in a place where the system keeps jumping back and forth between two different brightness levels? This can be extremely annoying! Averaging the values can help deal with this. Are there any disadvantages? Unfortunately, yes. The system react more slowly to sudden changes in light. Lucky for us, Team Douche thought about this and there are things we can to fix this. Setting the "Reset threshold" will let the system react quickly to massive changes in light.

DX Specific:
If you are like me, using your stock DX in the dark is like letting loose 1000 suns directly into your eyes. Well, fear the dark no longer! CM can help. Check "Use custom." Then, set "Screen dim level" to 2. (Note: In Nightly9, a value of 1 appears to turn the backlight completely off. Not recommended.) Next, tap "Edit other levels..." Here's my settings:










Note: In the left most column, the fourth level says "50." Change this to "65" for best results.

As you can see, the lowest setting is now 2 instead of the moto stock 20. YAY! I bet you wondering, "gpaulu, why do you have two levels with the same brightness value?" Don't worry, I'll get to that. :wink2:

Unfortunately, moto kind of screwed us on brightness reporting on the low end. The lowest reported value is 10. The next one up from that is 100. This sucks for indoors because the true level in my house is around 60 or so. This means that the sensor reports 10 and the brightness level is at 2 while the lights are on. :androidsad:
I found 3 different solutions to this problem. I will tell you the first two and why they suck. Then I shall wow you with my genius!

1) Set bottom brightness level to 20 and use manual brightness widget when the lights are out. *slap* This is a writeup about AUTO BRIGHTNESS, you fool! 
2) Don't check "Allow light decrease." This means that the brightness level won't decrease until you turn off the screen. Acceptable solution, but it kind of sucks. 
3) Use the settings in my screen shot, then check "Allow light decrease" and set "Decrease hysteresis" to 70% or higher. (I like 90%). Now, if your sensor level ever gets above 10, the brightness will never go back down to 2 until you turn the screen off again. Notice how in my screen shot, the sensor is at 10 and the brightness level is 25. :grin3:

tl;dr;

check "Enabled"
"Reset threshold" 1000lux
check "Use Custom"
<EDIT>
"Screen dim level" 2
Select "Edit other levels" menu. Select "Set number of levels" and change it to 8.
</EDIT>
Use screen shot^. Change 50 in left column to 65.
check "Allow light decrease"
"Decrease hysteresis" 90%

Hope that helps! Let me know if you make any improvements. :android-smile:

<EDIT>
Night mode is awesome for the dark, too! Use the FX widget.
</EDIT>


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## SyNiK4L

wait the picture didnt show up...with ur edits...so what do u mean when u say change 50 in the left column to 65?


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## BrentBlend

Enable and use custom both checked
window length: 30 s
reset threshold: 1000 lux
sample interval: 1 s
screen dim level: 2

Other Levels
Lower Upper Screen Buttons
0--------10---------2----- 0
11-------14--------25-----255
15-------64--------25-----255
65------100--------50-----255
101-----2999-------96-----0
3000----5999------208-----0
6000----7999------246-----0
8000----e ---------255-----0

Allow light decrease checked
Decrease hysteresis: 90%

Everything look good?
(besides the arrangement of my graph hahaha)


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## gpaulu

BrentBlend said:


> Enable and use custom both checked
> window length: 30 s
> reset threshold: 1000 lux
> sample interval: 1 s
> screen dim level: 2
> 
> Other Levels
> Lower Upper Screen Buttons
> 0--------10---------2----- 0
> 11-------14--------25-----255
> 15-------64--------25-----255
> 65-------100-------50-----255
> 101-----2999------96-----0
> 3000---5999------208----0
> 6000---7999------246----0
> 8000----e---------255----0
> 
> Allow light decrease checked
> Decrease hysteresis: 90%
> 
> Everything look good?


Yep :android-smile: thanks.


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## BrentBlend

gpaulu said:


> Yep :android-smile: thanks.


 Np, just wanted to check to see if i did it right, hopefully that'll help other people that are going to try this too


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## gskellig

Looks great so far! Can't wait to see the battery savings. Btw nightly13 is the same as nightly9, brightness "1" is actually "0".

Also... where did you get your theme!?


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## gpaulu

gskellig said:


> Looks great so far! Can't wait to see the battery savings. Btw nightly13 is the same as nightly9, brightness "1" is actually "0".
> 
> Also... where did you get your theme!?


Theme is Honey Bread from the market. Use the Theme Chooser app that comes with CM. Reboot and done.

http://market.android.com/details?id=com.gfxandroid.honeybreadtheme


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## OnMy2ndGP

Awesome! I'm glad you took the time to explain these settings as well.


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## SuperChargedJ

These are great settings. Thanks for posting.


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## Slowcaddy

Really loving the settings. thanx a lot


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## xmike

These settings make the screen too dark for me. Which of the numbers should I adjust to make it brighter?


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## sic0048

The third column labeled "screen". 2 is the min value and 255 is the max value.


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## sic0048

I loaded these setting and now when I first turn on my screen it starts bright, then dims and then brightens again. Before changing the settings I didn't get the dimming of the screen when I first turned it on. It is pretty annoying. Any suggestions on how to fix it or what setting might be incorrect?

Thanks,


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## marciz34

i cant get the settings to save....

EDIT: i lied, needed to reboot! oops!

THANKS LOVE THESE SETTINGS!


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## BrentBlend

marciz34 said:


> i cant get the settings to save....


are you hitting save&apply?


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## marciz34

BrentBlend said:


> are you hitting save&apply?


yeah i did but reboot fixed it. thanks, sorry


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## OnMy2ndGP

@ gpaulu

You may want to include in the OP this:
Select Edit other levels menu. Select Set number of levels and change it to 8.

As you explained the stock setting uses 4 levels but some folks may not know how to add the extra levels.

DX on CM7 via Tapatalk


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## jbrock98

i set mine up exactly like ur pic(except i put 65 where u have 50 in the left column) but under sensor (filter/raw) where it says screen mine says disabled and urs says 25 what did i miss


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## gpaulu

jbrock98 said:


> i set mine up exactly like ur pic(except i put 65 where u have 50 in the left column) but under sensor (filter/raw) where it says screen mine says disabled and urs says 25 what did i miss


Do you have autobrightness turned on? Try checking the regular android brightness settings.



OnMy2ndGP said:


> @ gpaulu
> 
> You may want to include in the OP this:
> Select Edit other levels menu. Select Set number of levels and change it to 8.
> 
> As you explained the stock setting uses 4 levels but some folks may not know hire to add the extra levels.
> 
> DX on CM7 via Tapatalk


I'll do that, thanks.


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## gpaulu

sic0048 said:


> I loaded these setting and now when I first turn on my screen it starts bright, then dims and then brightens again. Before changing the settings I didn't get the dimming of the screen when I first turned it on. It is pretty annoying. Any suggestions on how to fix it or what setting might be incorrect?
> 
> Thanks,


This happens to me, too. I'm not sure why, but I'm looking into it.


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## jbrock98

auto brightness worked...man the second i clicked it the screen went dark but its doable, hopefully this will save battery as it has been draining at the same pace no matter how little im on my phone ...question tho the brightness toggle on the power widget clicking that i noticed turned auto-brightness back off after i chose it in display settings is that something i'm not to mess with now that i've tweaked these advanced lighting settings?


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## gpaulu

jbrock98 said:


> auto brightness worked...man the second i clicked it the screen went dark but its doable, hopefully this will save battery as it has been draining at the same pace no matter how little im on my phone ...question tho the brightness toggle on the power widget clicking that i noticed turned auto-brightness back off after i chose it in display settings is that something i'm not to mess with now that i've tweaked these advanced lighting settings?


If the first setting of 2 is too dim for you, you can raise it. Stock is 20 at the lowest, but I prefer 2 so that I can use it in the dark. If you really don't like having the lowest being 2, set it to higher and then when you are in the dark you can just hit the power widget to go down to 2. The power widget should cycle low->medium->high->auto. I think there are settings for it, though, so you might want to take a look at those.


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## Guest

Thanks for the settings OP. They work great, and I'm loving not burning out my eyes in the dark. At first, 2 seemed extremely dim, but I've been getting used to it.


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## SyNiK4L

love it thx man


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## SyNiK4L

BrentBlend said:


> Enable and use custom both checked
> window length: 30 s
> reset threshold: 1000 lux
> sample interval: 1 s
> screen dim level: 2
> 
> Other Levels
> Lower Upper Screen Buttons
> 0--------10---------2----- 0
> 11-------14--------25-----255
> 15-------64--------25-----255
> 65------100--------50-----255
> 101-----2999-------96-----0
> 3000----5999------208-----0
> 6000----7999------246-----0
> 8000----e ---------255-----0
> 
> Allow light decrease checked
> Decrease hysteresis: 90%
> 
> Everything look good?
> (besides the arrangement of my graph hahaha)


o and btw...ur graph alignment SUCKS!!! lol jussss playinnnn


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## sic0048

gpaulu said:


> Do you have autobrightness turned on? Try checking the regular android brightness settings.


That's what it was. I didn't realize that the CM setting didn't override the stock setting, so both were turned on.


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## BrentBlend

SyNiK4L said:


> o and btw...ur graph alignment SUCKS!!! lol jussss playinnnn


b-b-b-but 
xD bahaha


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## xmike

The posted settings were too dark for me, so I set the screen levels at 65, 85, 100, 130, 150, 208, 246, 255, and I'm liking it so far. Thanks for the post.


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## jbrock98

I'm getting used to having 2 set especially when I was on my phone in the theater lol & looking at my screen now without my retinas burning is a huge plus....I believe it helped my battery life out significantly but I'll need full day just to verify without this post I'd never have tweaked these settings thanks a ton

"Its not who we are underneath but what we do that defines us"


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## keef

This really helped a lot! I'm going to mess around with your settings, and in a few days hopefully post up some other profiles for different circumstances.


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## gskellig

After a day of your settings, I tweaked the settings a little. I prefer as much battery savings as possible, mostly on the lower end (screen brightness on extremely low values is fairly visible even in medium-low light). Still fine tuning, when I'm done maybe I'll post what I found. Thanks for teaching me how to use that setting though. When I was playing around with CM7 for the first time I was completely overwhelmed by it.


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## kevmueller

Great post on how to do this. I tried it yesterday and some of the settings were off for me personally, but what I have found myself doing is if the screen seems to dark, or bright in a setting going in and looking at what setting that is to adjust it for my taste. I also had to add another grouping, I have 0-5 ,6-14, 15-29 and 30-64. I was finding that when the screen was at a 10 setting that it was not bright enough for me, but at a 5 setting if I upped the setting for 10 it would be too bright.

It was great to have a starting point to understand how to do this, now it can just be tweeked.


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## rdoanecu

These settings are great. However, it is taking too long for the screen to brighten up when I hit the power/home button to bring up the lock screen. Is there a value I can change to make it adjust brightness faster? Thanks!


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## gpaulu

rdoane said:


> These settings are great. However, it is taking too long for the screen to brighten up when I hit the power/home button to bring up the lock screen. Is there a value I can change to make it adjust brightness faster? Thanks!


It just takes a while to get it's first sample once the screen is turned on. :-\ The only solution would be to raise the brightness of the lowest level. This annoys me too. Hopefully it is something that will improve with newer versions of CM. Changing the sample interval to .5 _might_ help a little.


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## supercell

These settings turned off my button lights. I changed 11 to 10 (in the first column) and it fixed the problem. Also, is there any way to edit the upper levels? My third row shows 15---64---25---255


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## Guest

supercell said:


> These settings turned off my button lights. I changed 11 to 10 (in the first column) and it fixed the problem. Also, is there any way to edit the upper levels? My third row shows 15---64---25---255


After you mentioned the buttons not working, I took off my Otterbox to see if I was experiencing the same thing. They also are turned off on mine. I like them turned off though since it's a waste of battery when you have an Otterbox (rubber covers the buttons).


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## gpaulu

supercell said:


> These settings turned off my button lights. I changed 11 to 10 (in the first column) and it fixed the problem. Also, is there any way to edit the upper levels? My third row shows 15---64---25---255


The right most column is for the button lights.


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## Guest

gpaulu said:


> The right most column is for the button lights.


Oh, good to know! Just switched all of mine to zero to turn the button lights off completely. Thanks for the info! I should have figured since that column is labeled buttons, lol.


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## Flipfreak

Am i the only one that is having force close issues? Everytime i click "Edit other levels" it tells me that Cyanogenmod settings have stopped unexpectedly. Anyone know a way around this?


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## gpaulu

Flipfreak said:


> Am i the only one that is having force close issues? Everytime i click "Edit other levels" it tells me that Cyanogenmod settings have stopped unexpectedly. Anyone know a way around this?


This was a problem until nightly 4 I think. It doesn't work on the beta.


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## Flipfreak

gpaulu said:


> This was a problem until nightly 4 I think. It doesn't work on the beta.


I was on 16 and it didn't work, then wiped and went to 17 and it still doesn't work.


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## Guest

Flipfreak said:


> I was on 16 and it didn't work, then wiped and went to 17 and it still doesn't work.


That's strange. When you wiped, did you SBF or just do a simple wipe? I'd try SBFing back to .340 and then going back to the latest nightly. It honestly sounds like something in the framework for the display settings is corrupted or something. You shouldn't be having any FC issues changing the levels.


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## yoyoche

gpaulu
Thank you for this. Never had auto brightness.
One of the best fixes.


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## Lopedog

gpaulu said:


> There is lots of information on the internet about cm brightness settings, so I'm not going to go into depth on all of them. This post is about my experiences with dx specific things. (Note: Auto brightness doesn't work in the beta. I can't remember which nightly got the patch.)
> 
> First, a quick explanation of what makes the cm auto brightness special:
> On the front of your dx, there is what's called an ambient light sensor. This is used to measure the light shinning on the front of your device. On stock moto, the light sensor reports an intensity and there are about 4 different brightnesses that the system chooses based on the current value.
> 
> CM is a little different. CM takes the values and averages them over a period of time. ("Window length" in settings). Why is this awesome? Have you ever been in a place where the system keeps jumping back and forth between two different brightness levels? This can be extremely annoying! Averaging the values can help deal with this. Are there any disadvantages? Unfortunately, yes. The system react more slowly to sudden changes in light. Lucky for us, Team Douche thought about this and there are things we can to fix this. Setting the "Reset threshold" will let the system react quickly to massive changes in light.
> 
> DX Specific:
> If you are like me, using your stock DX in the dark is like letting loose 1000 suns directly into your eyes. Well, fear the dark no longer! CM can help. Check "Use custom." Then, set "Screen dim level" to 2. (Note: In Nightly9, a value of 1 appears to turn the backlight completely off. Not recommended.) Next, tap "Edit other levels..." Here's my settings:
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> Note: In the left most column, the fourth level says "50." Change this to "65" for best results.
> 
> As you can see, the lowest setting is now 2 instead of the moto stock 20. YAY! I bet you wondering, "gpaulu, why do you have two levels with the same brightness value?" Don't worry, I'll get to that. :wink2:
> 
> Unfortunately, moto kind of screwed us on brightness reporting on the low end. The lowest reported value is 10. The next one up from that is 100. This sucks for indoors because the true level in my house is around 60 or so. This means that the sensor reports 10 and the brightness level is at 2 while the lights are on. :androidsad:
> I found 3 different solutions to this problem. I will tell you the first two and why they suck. Then I shall wow you with my genius!
> 
> 1) Set bottom brightness level to 20 and use manual brightness widget when the lights are out. *slap* This is a writeup about AUTO BRIGHTNESS, you fool!
> 2) Don't check "Allow light decrease." This means that the brightness level won't decrease until you turn off the screen. Acceptable solution, but it kind of sucks.
> 3) Use the settings in my screen shot, then check "Allow light decrease" and set "Decrease hysteresis" to 70% or higher. (I like 90%). Now, if your sensor level ever gets above 10, the brightness will never go back down to 2 until you turn the screen off again. Notice how in my screen shot, the sensor is at 10 and the brightness level is 25. :grin3:
> 
> tl;dr;
> 
> check "Enabled"
> "Reset threshold" 1000lux
> check "Use Custom"
> <EDIT>
> "Screen dim level" 2
> Select "Edit other levels" menu. Select "Set number of levels" and change it to 8.
> </EDIT>
> Use screen shot^. Change 50 in left column to 65.
> check "Allow light decrease"
> "Decrease hysteresis" 90%
> 
> Hope that helps! Let me know if you make any improvements. :android-smile:
> 
> <EDIT>
> Night mode is awesome for the dark, too! Use the FX widget.
> </EDIT>


After applying the following settings and unchecking auto brightness my screen setting says disabled where your says 25. Am i doing something wrong?


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## yoyoche

You want to check auto brightness in display settings to enable adjustments in cyanogen settings


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## Lopedog

yoyoche said:


> You want to check auto brightness in display settings to enable adjustments in cyanogen settings


Thanks that worked I misread the post earlier I thought it said to turn it off. :_con:


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## Morphinity

I tried these settings, and I'm not sure about anyone else, but the screen is REALLY dim. Like almost unusable. Maybe it's me just being used to a brighter screen, but does anyone else share these feelings?


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## pizzlewizzle

Morphinity said:


> I tried these settings, and I'm not sure about anyone else, but the screen is REALLY dim. Like almost unusable. Maybe it's me just being used to a brighter screen, but does anyone else share these feelings?


i agree it is very dim when the lights are off but just remember this is the OP's personal settings you may have to tweak a little to get what you like...


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## Morphinity

Right. Also, it's kind of sporadic. Sometimes I would turn the phone on and it would be very dim and it would stay that way. Sometimes I would turn the phone on and it would be bright and it would stay that way. And sometimes I would turn the phone on and it would start at one brightness, but change as time went by.

Very strange. I guess I have to work with it.


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## pizzlewizzle

i just started messing around with it dismorning its pretty cool....i'm guessing the light sensor is around where the ear piece is. If you put your phone under light the screen gets brighter and if you slip your hand over the upper half of the phone it dims. If your phone is to dark change the 1st value for screen from 2 to 5 or however bright you want it... besides that you may just want to mess around with some other values... for screen and button values 255 is 100% brightness and 0 is off or 0% brightness


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## antintyty

how do you get to these settings?


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## Guest

antintyty said:


> how do you get to these settings?


Settings>CyanogenMod settings>Display>Automatic backlight

Once you get there, you'll be able to edit all of the settings mentioned in the original post. Be sure to change the amount of light levels to 8 and simply adjust the values to the onee shown in the picture. Also, the fourth value in the leftmost column should be a 65 instead of a 50 (picture shows a 50, but the instructions specify 65). Hope that helps!


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## unchoney

Thank you kind sir! Display dropped from 40% to 18%! Now my go sms is the battery hog!


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## Crimsongost

This is just one more reason i love my DX+cm7!


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## johnjutrasii

For extra savings you can make all of the numbers in the right most column to zero and will shut the lights off on the bottom buttons all the time.

Sent from my Droid X running the cm4dx nightlies!


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## Lurch81

Is there a reason the buttons are only one brightness? I tried 1-255 and they are always the same brightness like even 1 is full brightness am I doing something wrong

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk


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## bobAbooey

Thanks:smile3:


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## berto1014

Lurch81 said:


> Is there a reason the buttons are only one brightness? I tried 1-255 and they are always the same brightness like even 1 is full brightness am I doing something wrong
> 
> Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk


Agreed buttons don't seem to work. First time I tried this the buttons actually became dimmer, now they seem to be stuck on one setting, no matter what the number is. Perhaps a CM bug?


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## wurgy

Anything and everything on the quest for more battery. If we do the nightlies daily...heh, do you need to redo this each time you flash. Just set mine up today and gonna see how it does tomorrow. Thanks again man!


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## Guest

wurgy said:


> Anything and everything on the quest for more battery. If we do the nightlies daily...heh, do you need to redo this each time you flash. Just set mine up today and gonna see how it does tomorrow. Thanks again man!


Nope! They'll stick just fine when you flash the next nightly.


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## Lurch81

berto1014 said:


> Agreed buttons don't seem to work. First time I tried this the buttons actually became dimmer, now they seem to be stuck on one setting, no matter what the number is. Perhaps a CM bug?


Agree probably a bug

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk


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## Money Mike

Is there a way to make the auto adjust more sensitive? If I go out in direct sun light it takes a couple times turning the screen on and off to get the brightness to turn up.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk


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## Hardiw1

DitThese setting are not surviving the nightlies, correct? Just have to go and re-enter after flashing a new nightly?

Edit: just saw the post on the previous page.


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## Lurch81

Hardiw1 said:


> These setting are not surviving the nightlies, correct? Just have to go and re-enter after flashing a new nightly?


No I think they stay unless you wipe

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk


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## JagoX

Ok could use some help here...would love to try out these changes however how do you change the values in the "Upper" column?

Pardon my n00bness with this tweak...never messed with the light sensor levels before so I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong or not. :androidwink:


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## abqnm

JagoX said:


> Ok could use some help here...would love to try out these changes however how do you change the values in the "Upper" column?
> 
> Pardon my n00bness with this tweak...never messed with the light sensor levels before so I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong or not. :androidwink:


When you change the lower column, the upper is set automatically for the line above. Just enter the lowers and you will see the uppers filled in for you.


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## Wuffpack99

After testing this all day today, I guess I'm on the fence about these settings. I'm not sure if it's the settings or the phone's ambient light sensor actually, but it seems to run flat through a whole set of conditions and then spike in direct bright sunlight. Inside a house during the day, it's showing a sensor reading of 60/100. Inside a car on a sunny day - 75/100. Setting the same value for both of these situations makes the phone too dim in the car or too bright inside. Even outside in the shade it running a max of 100/100. But as soon as it goes into direct sunlight, it spikes to 4k+ - there just doesn't seem to be much in between.


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## blueman

Thanks for the write up. I was wondering how we controlled brightness settings in CM7. New to cyanogenmod, so it's all a learning curve. For myself I find your settings pretty useful. I will probably tweak my settings a bit though as it feels like it's too bright at times. That is probably just my own preference, so thanks for supplying the head start.

I would like to get an app that showed the detected lux at any given time using the on board sensor. Anyone seen or heard of such a thing. I will do a search and see what I come up with. Would be nice to get a feel of what the phone is detecting in my normal travels.

I can say this...I wish I would have read about not setting the display to 1...I assumed this would give you some sort of display as it is not 0 but I was sadly mistaken. That mistake could probably have been fixed by wiping data/cache or something but I was on the verge of flashing a new nightly anyway so I just cut my losses and started over. Live and learn...


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## Flying_Hellfish

Did anyone see more battery consumption with this turned on? As soon as I enabled auto brightness my battery was dropping like a stone. I left it for 2 days thinking it was something I was doing. Today I disabled it and there was a distinct increase in battery life as soon as it was disabled. Look at the screenshot, where the graph levels out is where I disabled auto brightness.


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## kevmueller

Flying_Hellfish said:


> Did anyone see more battery consumption with this turned on? As soon as I enabled auto brightness my battery was dropping like a stone. I left it for 2 days thinking it was something I was doing. Today I disabled it and there was a distinct increase in battery life as soon as it was disabled. Look at the screenshot, where the graph levels out is where I disabled auto brightness.


I will say yes and no. On days that I am using my phone inside all day my battery seems to be running the same, maybe a touch better. However on days that I am outside using my phone my battery life is not as good. However I can see my screen A LOT better. I have also found that I am getting better battery life than having the screen set at 15% and then going to MAX when I am outside and need to see my phone. I have been tweaking my phone, but it seems to get similar battery life and I don't have to worry about seeing my screen in any setting.


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## Flying_Hellfish

kevmueller said:


> I will say yes and no. On days that I am using my phone inside all day my battery seems to be running the same, maybe a touch better. However on days that I am outside using my phone my battery life is not as good. However I can see my screen A LOT better. I have also found that I am getting better battery life than having the screen set at 15% and then going to MAX when I am outside and need to see my phone. I have been tweaking my phone, but it seems to get similar battery life and I don't have to worry about seeing my screen in any setting.


Thanks for the reply. I've gone back to SwitchPro with a 30-100 manual setting for now. I'd like to have the time to tweak the AB settings but I probably won't have that until this weekend.


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## serx7

Morphinity said:


> Right. Also, it's kind of sporadic. Sometimes I would turn the phone on and it would be very dim and it would stay that way. Sometimes I would turn the phone on and it would be bright and it would stay that way. And sometimes I would turn the phone on and it would start at one brightness, but change as time went by.
> 
> Very strange. I guess I have to work with it.


I've seen the same thing a few times in the past few days. A reboot 'fixed' the problem, but it would happen again eventually.  Seems to happen on CM7 as well as SSX 2.0

What I've noticed is that if I repeat the following steps several times, I'll eventually run into the scenario in which the light sensor's RAW value gets 'stuck' at whatever value the sensor read initially, and won't budge no matter how much or how little light is being presented to the light sensor. In my case (office lighting), the light sensor reads a RAW value of 100 (with 10, 3600 and 8600 being the other RAW values it will change to).

Automatic backlight -> Light sensor filter is Enabled, Window length 10 sec, Reset threshold Disabled, Sample interval 1 sec, Use Custom checkbox checked, Screen dim level 20 (default)

Steps:
1 - After reboot, wait ~10-15 sec, then unlock screen (rotary lock screen in effect)
2 - Go to the "Edit other levels" screen in CyanogenMod settings -> Display -> Automatic backlight 
3- View Sensor (filtered/raw), which in my case starts off at 100/100
4- Cover sensor w/ finger, Raw changes to 10
5- Remove finger from sensor, Raw changes back to 100
6- Power button -> Reboot (normal reboot)

After several repeats of the above steps (sometimes 2-3 times, sometimes > 5-6 times), the Raw value will get stuck at 100, won't change to 10 when I cover it completely w/ my finger, and won't increase when held right up against my (quite) bright office lamp.

I SBF'd back to Froyo and went back to CM7 (also SSX 2.0), did clean re-installs of the same handful of apps I've always had installed, but still see the above behavior. Kinda weird...


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## Jiibus

Just want to give this helpful guide a bump so others may see it.


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## Morphinity

How well does this work for everyone on the newest nightlies? I'm on 35 currently and it's really squirrely in terms of certain levels of brightness in various light conditions. It's really hit or miss - as if the sensor isn't sensing the light conditions.

I guess what I'm having trouble with is the consistency of brightness.


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## Guest

Morphinity said:


> How well does this work for everyone on the newest nightlies? I'm on 35 currently and it's really squirrely in terms of certain levels of brightness in various light conditions. It's really hit or miss - as if the sensor isn't sensing the light conditions.
> 
> I guess what I'm having trouble with is the consistency of brightness.


I had that problem as well when I was on CM7. It's almost like the sensor is sticking and not reading the light level correctly. The non-advanced auto brightness worked perfectly fine, but the advanced auto brightness settings made it "stick" from time to time. It didn't happen regularly, so I just turned the screen off and back on when it got stuck on one brightness level.


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## abqnm

Morphinity said:


> How well does this work for everyone on the newest nightlies? I'm on 35 currently and it's really squirrely in terms of certain levels of brightness in various light conditions. It's really hit or miss - as if the sensor isn't sensing the light conditions.
> 
> I guess what I'm having trouble with is the consistency of brightness.


I have been running 35 all day with no issues with the advanced brightness. The only time I had issues was when I tried Liquid... That ROM there was something wrong with how the averages were calculated in certain situations that would cause erratic changes, but CM7 has been consistent for me.


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## Flipfreak

Bump.

Do these settings work just as well with MIUI?


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## razorloves

"Flipfreak said:


> Bump.
> 
> Do these settings work just as well with MIUI?


Yea, they should. Miui is built on top of cm4dx, so you should get the same results.


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## JagoX

abqnm said:


> When you change the lower column, the upper is set automatically for the line above. Just enter the lowers and you will see the uppers filled in for you.


Ah gotcha. I'll give that a shot and see if I notice some improvements. I'm on MIUI at the moment so well see if I see any improvements.


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## gpaulu

To the people who find these settings too dim, leave the "Screen dim level" at '2' and in the "Edit other levels..." menu, change the '2' to a higher number. Then, you can use the display notification power widget to switch to the dim level ('2') when you are in really dark places.


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## ram130

Works ok on MIUI..


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## entheos

My filter is still at 100 and pages at 50... all other settings are correct...What am I doing wrong?


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## entheos

Let me rephrase the sensor is 100/100 and pages shows 50...What am I doing wrong?


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## gpaulu

entheos said:


> Let me rephrase the sensor is 100/100 and pages shows 50...What am I doing wrong?


I don't think I know what you mean by "pages shows 50"


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## entheos

I'm sorry...screen says 50.


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## gpaulu

100 is the intensity of the ambient light. 50 is the brightness level of the screen.


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## entheos

Ok...so I am fine?....
Your sensor says 10/10...mine 100/100...and your screen says 25 while mine says 50...


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## abqnm

"entheos said:


> Ok...so I am fine?....
> Your sensor says 10/10...mine 100/100...and your screen says 25 while mine says 50...


Those numbers will vary based on light. The 10/10 or 100/100 is the current sensor reading with the calculations applied and the raw sensor level at the current moment. These will vary. The level 25 or 50 is the brightness your screen is actually at. If you go to a dark location you should see 10/10 and whatever your lowest screen brightness setting is.


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## entheos

Thank you very much...that was a great explanation...I appreciate it...and must report my battery life is much improved.


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## Tone_Capone

Flying_Hellfish said:


> Thanks for the reply. I've gone back to SwitchPro with a 30-100 manual setting for now. I'd like to have the time to tweak the AB settings but I probably won't have that until this weekend.


Why are you using switchpro anymore when cm7 has a built in power widget in the notification bar?

Seems like a waste of cpu to me...


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## entheos

Flying_Hellfish said:


> Did anyone see more battery consumption with this turned on? As soon as I enabled auto brightness my battery was dropping like a stone. I left it for 2 days thinking it was something I was doing. Today I disabled it and there was a distinct increase in battery life as soon as it was disabled. Look at the screenshot, where the graph levels out is where I disabled auto brightness.


Yes been happening to me as well


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## jefte

Tone_Capone said:


> Why are you using switchpro anymore when cm7 has a built in power widget in the notification bar?
> 
> Seems like a waste of cpu to me...


There are a few actions available in switchpro that are not available in the cm7 notification bar. Auto Rotate, Screen Always On, Mount/Unmount storage, USB tether... etc.

Most notably for me, is the "Battery Indicator" in switchpro. It's small, displays the percentage and when tapped opens up the android battery usage screen. Quite helpful. I also frequently use the "Reload Media" switch to make the gallery update with the most recently added photos and images I download. It sure beats unmounting/remounting the sdcard just to force a media scan.

I use both the cm7 power bar and switchpro, as the cm7 bar is available from within any app - so I can avoid going back to my home screen just to turn something on/off. Best of both worlds and switchpro doesn't incur very much overhead.


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## dacp283

entheos said:


> Yes been happening to me as well


Of course turning auto brightness off improves battery. Think about it. You now don't have the light sensor needing to work and it doesn't ever crank the brightness all the way unless you physically do it yourself. BUT it really isn't a lot unless you are constantly going from light to dark and the phone keeps having to adjust and process.

From my CM7 X


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