Re: [Announce] Lanterne - an all-purpose flashlight app
 

Hey, a question for fans of the status menu. :) It looks like I could get Lanterne into the status menu, but only by turning it into a widget. Which can certainly be done; but is there value in doing so?

Most status menu widgets have very limited configuration options; you press the menu item, fill out a dialog box (if that is even necessary), and go on with your business. Parts of Lanterne would fit into this paradigm (Torch toggle, SOS, continuous pulse), but some things (such as the Morse code page) wouldn't fit. I don't think you want a status menu item keeping a window open and blocking everything behind it...

I guess, the question here would be what you folks would find more useful. The current app has many features, at the expense of being rather complex to use. A stripped-down version of Lanterne would work much better as an easy-to-use widget (with the flexibility of being usable wherever you can use a widget), at the cost of losing some of the more complicated features... What do you think? Thanks!

Re: [Announce] Lanterne - an all-purpose flashlight app
 

I am happy with Lanterne as is TBH.

Re: [Announce] Lanterne - an all-purpose flashlight app
 

+1

At first I read the request as a power menu entry, like the Phone app. That might be easier but I am not convinced Lanterne is really a power menu material. I agree with sixwheeled that it is fine as it is. Nothing stops you from adding it to Quick Launch if you desperately want to see it in status menu (not that I use Quick Launch either; tried it but did not find much use for it so I took it off).

Re: [Announce] Lanterne - an all-purpose flashlight app
 

Power menu entry can be a bit of a pain and needs testing properly before release.
If the xml file is slightly wrong you can end up in a bootloop.

There are multiple ways to launch lanterne so why add a power key or status menu option?

As mentioned before I use Lens Launcher. I will probably remove flashlight soon TBH as Lanterne has replaced it with it's functionality.

Re: [Announce] Lanterne - an all-purpose flashlight app
 

Corpernicus, can you also add something like a 'smooth' light?
so it will be bright very smooth, and goes back off very smooth, just like when you charge the N900 (the smooth orange led flashing)

you can add the speed of the smoothness (how fast the smoothness has to be from 0 to 1), duration of light on, and duraion of the pause.

(Maybe you can add a toggle for 'smooth' in the strobe options, and once you've checked the box, the 'smoothness' toggle will be activated and you can change the value of it... it's just an idea...)

another thing I want is, an 'on/off' button for the strobe instead of holding the button.

oh yeah, and a harmattan port please! :D

Re: [Announce] Lanterne - an all-purpose flashlight app
 

I think that keeping Lanterne as it is + adding and optional (2nd package) widget, that would just run torch/strobe mode using main Lanterne application settings, would be best of both world.

Of course, widget would depend on main Lanterne package.

/Estel

Re: [Announce] Lanterne - an all-purpose flashlight app
 

Ah, unfortunately, I don't think so; at least not with the white LEDs. I could do that with the red LED, but even with that one we've only got seven levels of brightness, so I don't know just how smooth it would look...

Well, if I could determine an absolute safe level of strobing, I'd do that. Right now, I don't want the strobe to be continuously on, as running the flash LEDs at high power continuously can damage them...

Well, hmm. I don't have an N9 myself to test against, and I've never tried to produce N9 code before, but changing targets from Maemo to Harmattan in the Qt SDK takes nothing more than flipping a switch. Other than the camera cover, I suspect the flash hardware on the N9 is similar. I suppose I could give it a shot, if there is interest...

Re: [Announce] Lanterne - an all-purpose flashlight app
 

Yeah, actually, I think that is technically doable. :) I'm not entirely sure it would necessarily be the best choice, though; it seems a tad cumbersome to have two different executables with different interfaces, both in terms of user experience as well as in terms of maintenance. Let me think about it... :)

Re: [Announce] Lanterne - an all-purpose flashlight app
 

A quick update: Lanterne 0.5.2 is now on the way up, the only change being that the Strobe window timing parameters are now a "Strobe Period" and a "Duty Cycle". The discussion earlier today about duty cycles just made sense to me, and I think it's ultimately an easier way to manage strobing the LEDs. So, now, you define how long you want each strobe to last, and then the percentage of time during each strobe that the LED will be turned on.

To start with, I'm limiting the maximum duty cycle to 25%. I'm hoping I can find more data somewhere, to better determine the safest duty cycle values...

Re: [Announce] Lanterne - an all-purpose flashlight app
 

If you want to be really fancy, you can make the duty cycle limit a function of brightness: 23% at 215mA, 15% at 320mA, and anything in between (to make the max average current 50mA). Then the strobe might be left continuously on without a fear of damaging the LED.

Edit: ...or just make 15% the hard limit :)