Flashlight 0.2-0

Allows you to use flash LEDs as a flashlight. The camera flash LEDs can be used as a flashlight. To switch the flashlight on or off, open the lens cover, tap on the status area to open status menu and tap on Flashlight applet. Flashlight applet is visible only if the lens cover is open! Do not point the flashlight at anyone's eye.
Section:
user/desktop
Maintainers:
Size:
15460 bytes
MD5sum:
06824dd09b541c71bcfc926642ddca58
Status:
Old version cleaned by repository management
QA Quarantine ends:
ENDED 2009-12-31 22:52
TesterKarmaTimestamp
joe user (3)
2010-02-07 23:51 UTC
Marcus Wemdmueller (3)
2010-01-28 13:35 UTC
Kimitake . (260)
2010-01-09 07:02 UTC
Max Mikh (192)
2010-01-05 22:20 UTC
Emanuele Cassioli (Tester) (986)
2010-01-04 20:58 UTC
Theofilos Hatziaristeras (190)
2010-01-04 12:14 UTC
Niko Hämäläinen (43)
2009-12-31 01:20 UTC
Pauli Virtanen (180)
2009-12-30 01:17 UTC
Valério Valério (Tester) (1443)
2009-12-29 18:11 UTC
Bod LeSving (10)
2009-12-28 22:10 UTC
Tuomo Tanskanen (340)
2009-12-28 11:53 UTC
Faheem Pervez (2151)
2009-12-24 12:16 UTC
Cayden M (62)
2009-12-24 03:15 UTC
Jesus Pulido (187)
2009-12-24 01:34 UTC
Olli Lehto (16)
2009-12-23 23:00 UTC
Manuel Kimmerle (50)
2009-12-23 21:35 UTC
Jeff Moe (486)
2009-12-23 20:30 UTC
Sascha Makela (373)
2009-12-23 13:57 UTC
Marat Fayzullin (1594)
2009-12-23 12:27 UTC
William Su (74)
2009-12-23 08:19 UTC
Nick A (43)
2009-12-23 03:15 UTC
Venomrush . (Tester) (721)
2009-12-23 00:48 UTC
Tomasz Dominikowski (Tester) (596)
2009-12-23 00:21 UTC
Frederik Niedernolte (75)
2009-12-22 23:32 UTC
Giang Phan (15)
2009-12-22 22:23 UTC
Attila Csipa (Tester) (1430)
2009-12-22 17:25 UTC
Bartosz Taudul (84)
2009-12-22 17:15 UTC
Bjoern Olausson (205)
2009-12-22 16:41 UTC
Mikko Vartiainen (Tester) (2221)
2009-12-22 16:20 UTC
Claus Feichtinger (312)
2009-12-22 14:13 UTC
Mustali Dalal (Tester) (996)
2009-12-21 23:57 UTC

Package events

Event typeUserTimestamp
Old version cleaned by repository managementSystem2010-04-07 12:59 UTC
Promotion has been cancelledRoman Moravcik2010-01-10 20:44 UTC
Package is in testingSystem2009-12-21 22:52 UTC

Comments:

1 2 3 4 5 6 next »
Kimitake .
Karma: 260

I just tried 0.3-0 and the camera app does work even if using the flashlight app. But once used the flashlight app, the flashlight app does not work (it just flashes the light).

In addition, after flashed the light (by the flashlight app), and then launch the camera app, the light flashes again.

I hope 0.3-1 will be fixed some of them, but it gets build error now :)

2010-01-09 07:25 UTC
Roman Moravcik
Karma: 614

Could you please someone try version flashlight-applet_0.3-0 from extras-devel repository?

I hope I was able to fix problem with camera application.

2010-01-07 16:39 UTC
Emanuele Cassioli
Karma: 986

If there wasn't any bug with the camera, that would be a thumbs up... However, very nice app, keep going

2010-01-04 22:10 UTC

Nice and useful app but the prob with camera conflict is important. Thumbs down. Keep going the good work;)

2010-01-04 12:15 UTC

Neat app, but since camera doesn't work after using this.

How ever, there is a way around this. When the flashlight is turned on, it should first cleanly close the camera application (i.e kill the camera process) and warn the user that flashlight and camera can not be used at the same time.

You can't keep track of the camera being turned on while flashlight is on without constantly checking if it is on, so after the disclaimer, it is the end-user who chooses whether those two apps should be on at the same time.

2009-12-31 01:34 UTC
Pauli Virtanen
Karma: 180

Very neat app, and would be quite useful to have. However, because of the conflict with the camera, thumbs down for the moment -- this is not something an end-user should have to deal with.

"Simple" solutions could be just to shut down the flashlight when the camera is active, or block the camera while the light is on. I'm not sure how simple these are to implement, though.

2009-12-30 01:16 UTC
Valério Valério
Karma: 1443

After using the applet the camera application fails to take pictures until a system reboot, this is a major blocker, since the application breaks a system component.

Tested with 51.1.

2009-12-29 18:17 UTC
Bod LeSving
Karma: 10

Way tooconfusing needing to open the camera lid and then turn off camera.

2009-12-28 22:12 UTC
Tuomo Tanskanen
Karma: 340

Due issues with camera (already explained in detail by others), thumb down. Its just not reasonable for end-user to have camera broken, despite whose app actually has the bug.

2009-12-28 11:47 UTC
Mikko Vartiainen
Karma: 2221

in my opinion "breaking" of the camera bug is one of the reasons why extras-testing process exists. It will cause problems with end users, thinking that the camera is broken.

Like Robbie below suggested, maybe it's possible turn of flashlight when camera is launched. Real bug might be in camera app itself, so maybe it's good to wait and see if the exists in PR 1.1 firmware too.

2009-12-23 13:40 UTC
Robbie Newman
Karma: 7

apologies for multiple posts. internet stopped working.

2009-12-23 03:44 UTC
Robbie Newman
Karma: 7

App is properly optified.

Issues I have found during testing:-

  • Leave the flashlight on and launch the camera app. Take a picture with or without flash results in the camera app crashing and not working until after a reboot. The flashlight app remains on although the flashlight is off. Can you somehow make the flashlight app turn off when the camera app is started? this may stop it from crashing.

The camera app works fine if you turn the flashlight off before taking a picture.

2009-12-23 03:32 UTC
Robbie Newman
Karma: 7

App is properly optified.

Issues I have found during testing:-

  • Leave the flashlight on and launch the camera app. Take a picture with or without flash results in the camera app crashing and not working until after a reboot. The flashlight app remains on although the flashlight is off. Can you somehow make the flashlight app turn off when the camera app is started? this may stop it from crashing.

The camera app works fine if you turn the flashlight off before taking a picture.

2009-12-23 03:27 UTC
Robbie Newman
Karma: 7

App is properly optified.

Issues I have found during testing:-

  • Leave the flashlight on and launch the camera app. Take a picture with or without flash results in the camera app crashing and not working until after a reboot. The flashlight app remains on although the flashlight is off. Can you somehow make the flashlight app turn off when the camera app is started? this may stop it from crashing.

The camera app works fine if you turn the flashlight off before taking a picture.

2009-12-23 03:23 UTC
Nick A
Karma: 43

Great app, really enjoying it, helped a lot when opening my friend's ps3 today (yellow light of death) and it was fairly dark. Thanks for creating it.

One thing I agree with is Mustali above me. It should always be visible, and then when you click it, it says open cover. That way I do not need to basically open the camera app and close it each time I want to use it (assuming you can program that out).

2009-12-23 03:23 UTC
Bjoern Olausson
Karma: 205

Works for me and was already very helpful!

Just one thing.

I check your package with "dpgk -L" and noticed, that your were already using /opt/maemo/*.

I had a rather long discussion on IRC about optification that more or less suggested to put everything in /opt and/or /opt/maemo/{usr,bin,share} and if required link stuff into the root FS (really only if required), so you might consider to but the curren stuff in / to /opt/ and link it in.

Anyway, in the current state the applet is working, no bugs (at least I couldn't trigger one), optified (as far as recommended up to now) --> Thumb up!

Ah, one thing might be really interesting: Is it really safe for the LEDs in torch mode? You might want to check back with a Nokia dev.

Thanks for this nice and damn useful applet! Just love it!

Cheers Bjoern

2009-12-22 16:39 UTC
Roman Moravcik
Karma: 614

@Mikko: Yes, you are right, but I think this is problem of camera application. I think I will be able to reproduce this problem also with vlc or some other application directly accessing v4l device.

2009-12-22 16:36 UTC
Mikko Vartiainen
Karma: 2221

Camera application doesn't work after taking a picture (with flash) when flashlight is on. Camera application crashes when taking the picture and crashes on startup even after turning flashlight off and closing the lens cover.

2009-12-22 16:19 UTC
Claus Feichtinger
Karma: 312

works well for me.

just put the info that the status applet is only shown when the cover is open into the package description, it's not really obvious.

took me a few moments to figure that out :)

2009-12-22 14:17 UTC
Roman Moravcik
Karma: 614

@Mustali: I will update package description to let user know, that they need to open lens cover in other to see applet in status menu.

@Venomrush: Applet is designed to be visible only when lens cover is open. If you see applet also when cover is closed, could you please check output from this command: hal-device /org/freedesktop/Hal/devices/platform_cam_shutter

@Mikko: I can't guarantee you nothing, but from what I found it could be safe. LEDs are connected to Flash/Torch LED driver ADP1653 from Analog Devices. Datasheet is here: http://www.analog.com/static/imported-files/data_sheets/ADP1653.pdf

ADP1653 can work in "flash" or "torch" mode (flashlight-applet is using "torch" mode). Max. possible intensity supported by ADP1653 in "torch" mode is 11, but for N900 it was limited to 1 (~50mA) (by Nokia's kernel developers). For example, this is the reason, why I can't control intensity, but only just turn it on/off.

2009-12-22 13:08 UTC
Mikko Vartiainen
Karma: 2221

Are you sure that continuous usage of flash LEDs doesn't damage them?

2009-12-22 11:18 UTC
Venomrush .
Karma: 721

Installed Flashlight but could not see it on status bar right after installation. It randomly shows up at one point, I used it for abit and disappeared again. Reboot did not help.

2009-12-22 01:03 UTC
Mustali Dalal
Karma: 996
  • The instructions in the description need to point out that the lens cover needs to be opened first in order for the icon to appear. I rebooted because I couldn't see the icon.
  • It could be that the flashlight icon always stays visible. clicking it when the lens-cover is closed could display a banner indicating 'open lens cover'
    Thanks
2009-12-21 23:55 UTC
1 2 3 4 5 6 next »

Comments:

You must be logged in to make comments.