Re: Flip clock pre pre pre pre release
 

Just tried this out today, pretty neat! Love the glowing version. Say, since I haven't kept up with all 52 pages sorry if this has been asked but, for the alarm clock -- will this app keep the N800 on for as long as the alarm needs it on, or will it shut itself off?

Re: Flip clock pre pre pre pre release
 

Thank you for testing it out; is always a pleasure to check new people reactions :)
You are not the only one: I lost track of the thread many times :rolleyes: ... Since a couple of versions ago the clock should use the original nokia alarm demon that trig the alarm even when the flipclock is not running and 'wake up' the sleeping tablets.
Ill probbaly have a bit more of spare time (well, a lot more) to dedicate to this lost sheep and try to help out a bit jolouis

Re: Flip clock pre pre pre pre release
 

Well I'm embarrased to admit that alarms do work. It was user error - somehow I had the wrong date set while I was checking so when I set the alarm for two minutes ahead it was actually a couple of days and two minutes!! Duh!

So now I know they work I was able to prove both the stock sound and one of the mp3's on my external card. So right now everything seems to be working. I'll do some more extensive tests and see how it works out.

I hope I haven't caused you grief in trying to find a non existant problem!

Re: Flip clock pre pre pre pre release
 

Wow, didn't find this application until tonight.... It looks amazing.
It's right now 12:54am....I have turned on the night-light and set the alarm to go off at 7:45am.

Goodnight...and thanks.

EDIT/UPDATE:
When I woke up..it wasn't due to the alarm clock as the battery in my N810 had run out. It was mostly my fault as I forgot to plug it into the charger, which I do most evenings.

Does the Flip Clock eat up a lot of battery running - AND if so...isn't there a dimming application (can not remember its name) where one have more options for how to dim the screen that may help?

Re: Flip clock pre pre pre pre release
 

From what I've found, Flip Clock takes at most 10% of the battery over the night. That's also assuming that Insomniac Mode is turned off. If its on (turn on and off by pressing the Back button on the N810 face) then your battery will definitely drain due to the screen staying on all night.

Re: Flip clock pre pre pre pre release
 

What I like is that on battery power my display is set to blank out completly after 5 min, but when running Flip Clock is dims to a readable low level.

Re: Flip clock pre pre pre pre release
 

I take the night time as an opportunity to charge the N810, which means that I can run flip clock every night and still have a full charge in the morning.

Re: Flip clock pre pre pre pre release
 

I'm having the same problem.

Re: Flip clock pre pre pre pre release
 

Grab the black bar at the bottom of the screen and drag it up. Everything should work in the new settings screen that appears.

Re: Flip clock pre pre pre pre release
 

Oh, yeah. Grab the down arrow and drag it up. Why didn't I think of that? :rolleyes: Yes, I know - work in progress - and thankful for it.

Now - is the screen with the neat battery meter still in this version?

Re: Flip clock pre pre pre pre release
 

Just wanted to say thanks for a beautiful app.

First reactions:
1) Wow, beautiful screen.
2) Love the insomniac mode.
3) Too bad the night light mode's blue, I'd rather it be red.
4) How come I can't set the alarm? Oh well, I guess that's a future version. It is early beta after all.
5) Oh, there's a forum topic...
6) Aha! Drag up the bar at the bottom for the settings page.
7) Wow, RED! Yay - so purdy :)
8) I can set the alarm too :)

Okay, now I have to move my charging station to my bedside and ditch the old buzzer.

Again, thanks for a great app. It could use a little note somewhere about the settings page (it kind of feels like an insider secret - but obvious when you see the pointers, once you know), but the app is great overall.

Maybe you could have the bottom of the screen, where "Alarm Set" is written, act as a help button. Hit that and a little help message comes up telling us lazy clueless people what to do... Maybe a little floating window that fades out after a few seconds. Or, better yet, just have pressing the little triangle/pointer bring up the next page. I did try hitting that whilst experimenting, just never thought to drag. I guess my head's still locked in desktop mode.

Not complaining, just providing user feedback. I was happy and using it even without the settings page. Now I'm real happy with it :)

David...

Re: Flip clock pre pre pre pre release
 

thank you for spending some time testing it and leaving a comment here :)
I know switching to the config screen and to the windowed mode is

Anyway, Im wasting my summer free time playing with 'C' +SDL (moving from the original python+pygame). Seem there are chances to have a stripped down lightwave C version.
update:
the C conversion seem a bit simpler than I tought: Ill see if I can port all the original functions of the python version.
Meanwhile if someone want give a try and Ill post here the progresses:
https://garage.maemo.org/frs/downloa...ck-c-sdl.3.tar
https://garage.maemo.org/frs/downloa...lock-c-sdl.jpg
the clock now use the SDL + SDL_Image for the PNGs, full screen and have no hildon integration (I think should work on the actual, past and future tablets.

Re: Flip clock pre pre pre pre release
 

Ciroip - one suggestion to you as a user - and I have provided feedback earlier to you also and kudos .....

While your playing around with C / SDL / Pygame etc is very good and that sure helps, as a selfish user, I would like to see you use your time and skills to creating new apps and not remake Flipclock too much again - as that already fulfills most of the purposes for most of the users.
(remember when I amongst others nixed your Nixie look theme :) )

What I see lacking in many other apps is a good design concept like your Flip clock has and good integration and mobile usage thoughts going into it.

This is the single most important factor I believe in why Flip clock was so popular - there are quite a few alarm clocks and alarm clocks by itself is nothing to rave about - but Flip clock was different because of its well designed interface and usage and well thought our design and integration of LED, screen, power usage etc.

So as a user who cant do anything by himself, I would rather goad you guys along to put your skills to some more useful application designing.

Just my appreciation and motivation to push you to more fruitful purposes.
Please don't take it any other way.

Re: Flip clock pre pre pre pre release
 

I just wanted to say kudos to you for developing an app that I consider essential for my tablet. I use it every day.

One small request: I find that in the settings, the colour of the AM/PM Alarm Off/On (the yellow colour) is hard to see. Maybe make it a tad darker?

Do you have a paypal donation button/link/address by the way?

Re: Flip clock pre pre pre pre release
 

I also really appreciate this application. It is useful, has great style, and shows off the device beautifully. And I agree with nilchak that it would be great to see more applications from this talented author. It's good to know when to declare something finished and move on.

I would only hope that if Flip Clock were declared finished, the user interface would be touched up and non-functioning screens/controls removed, so that any new user (such as myself, this week) would get the same sense of a polished product from the user interface as we do now from the graphics and operation.

Again, I say this with appreciation, and in an attempt to share some of the perspective of a long career in software development.

Re: Flip clock pre pre pre pre release
 

Also, the "Sound" and "Clock Mode" windows.

Re: Flip clock pre pre pre pre release
 

Ciro that C port looks awesome buddy, you got some source code kicking around somewhere that you feel like sharing or putting up on the SVN? I'm pretty comfortable with C, just never done any graphics work with it but I'm sure SDL can't be that difficult, just watch the memory management!

I was working on rebuilding some features of the Python version to add some extra cool stuff like theme-ing/etc but for the amount of work I've been putting into it and the lack of free time lately I don't think it's really worth the effort as most everyone seems pretty happy with the way the app is right now, so I'm going to abandon that concept and just go back to completing the tweaking of the app to make it "polished" and finally get to doing some of those things that should have been done a while ago (cleaning up the "Window mode", etc). Once that's done if you've got some C code in the works I can give you a hand with rolling all of the current Python-driven features into it (shouldn't be too hard, just needs a bit of time).

Anyone who's looking for tweaks in images/etc by the way, just remember that all of the graphics in Flip are just regular PNG files, so you can open them up and tweak them as your heart desires. The switches are all located in /usr/share/flipclock/.

Re: Flip clock pre pre pre pre release
 

Ah-ha! Photoshop here I come!

Re: Flip clock pre pre pre pre release
 

wow, too much love to manage :)
yeah, I get your point but the clock is like my 'hello world' and let me test all the features I plane to use in other projects.
I need to write some functions to easily manage some interface elements before approaching other projects :)
well, from my point of view is really easier to start from scratch and not be limited by bloated frameworks.

lol, just consider this like the boring part of the trip: I just have to pass trough this :).
au contraire, know that someone still care about the tablet apps bust my a** to work a bit :)

Re: Flip clock pre pre pre pre release
 

I'm going to try to figure out how to get Nixie tubes back into flipclock! After all, I should just have to swap in the images in the data directory from this release, right?

Re: Flip clock pre pre pre pre release
 

Changing the colour on the settings options made it much easier for me to see them.
Thanks for the heads-up on where those files were stored.

"All" I did was (please don't laugh):
a) Run emelfm2 as root from xterminal

b) Browse to the folder mentioned above and copy the image files I wanted to change over to a working directory on my internal memory card (so I had the original ones should I mess something up). FINDING what image files I wanted to change required me to go through them one by one (viewing them through emelfm2.

c) Emailing the images to me (still haven't set up tablet-to-PC file transfer..sigh..)

d) Opening the images in photoshop and do a colour-replacement

e) Emailing them again

f) From modest mail saving them to a working directory

g) with emelfm2 copying them from my working directory to the flipclock directory.

Ta-da!

Attached below is a screenshot with just the AM/PM setting changed to a darker colour.

Re: Flip clock pre pre pre pre release
 

Aha - the Nixie fans are back in droves ... :D

Now that the "to put a phone or not to put a phone" into Maemo debate has died down (very dull it is without a fight going on), can we start this new one ...

To 'Nixie' or not to 'Nixie' ?

I guess now that the user modifications are possible on Flip-clock we don't need to oppose each other - to each his own mods - as Silvermountain just did.

Re: Flip clock pre pre pre pre release
 

Boy some "Hello World" app you did dude ... <thumbs up>

Re: Flip clock pre pre pre pre release
 

lol, I suppose is a bit too late for that but thank you anyway :)
I dont know about talented but I always had an alternative chaotic approach that never really matched the marketing rules :D

Anyway I am always open for job offers:rolleyes:

Re: Flip clock pre pre pre pre release
 

Well done!
The mail trick is a nice workaround but a more comfortable way to share files with the tablet could be to use an SSH conection. Install the ssh server on the tablet and then use an ssh client on the PC (Under windows u can use WinSCP).

If you (or anyone outthere) plan more drastic pimps/mods I can upload somewhere the 'source' original vector Xara files (.xar)

Re: Flip clock pre pre pre pre release
 

That should do the trick: I think to remember that the positioning changed a bit: in case you can try to change the coords in ci_init (if I correctly recall the coords for ore_decine, ore_unita, minuti_decine and minuti_unita... ore=hours and minuti=minuts...)

You want probably change the 'fondo.png' too to make the background match the nixie style: I should still have some original XARA vector files if you are brave enough to try to learn a new (great) graphic program

Re: Flip clock pre pre pre pre release
 

It's funny how this idea of "modding" just came up, considering that it's been possible using the same technique since the first major release of the app...

There's also a slew of other things you can play around with if you're feeling adventurous and want to "tweak" things further to suit your needs. For example, if you're not happy with the available "night" colours, you can always change them or add your own: just go to ci_init.py (/usr/lib/python2.5/site-packages/flipclock/ci_init.py), and around line 227 there's an arrray called moods:

the "nightColor" property is an rgb set that determines the colour of the clock display in "night mode".

Maybe throw them up on the SVN/garage page as part of a "Developer" section? Any C code that you've done for the other version of the clock could also go in there... just an idea?

Re: Flip clock pre pre pre pre release
 

lol, really a digital clock is really basic: is just put up some graphics on the screen and the 'developing' dont need any tool: everything happen on the tablet (pythons are simple interpreted txt file and the GCC for the C compiling run directly from on the tablet :)

Re: Flip clock pre pre pre pre release
 

Just some tweaking in Gimp... A bit closer to what I was thinking of...


EDIT:

ciroip: is there any way to convert your vector images to CorelDraw? That's the vector program that I use....

Re: Flip clock pre pre pre pre release
 

must be the summer :D

mh, yes, I completely forgot about the svn...Ill see if I can catch up that part too...
You were right, the SDL under C is nothing special (memory managment? it is something edible?)
Like usual Im always ashame of the 'code': Im still exploring the C peculiarities; Ill see if I can find the time to clean a bit the code this evening (gmt-5) and post it somewhere.

The tablet is revealing itself once again a pretty straighforward development platform (know OS on know hardware). if I were a teacher I would use it in a class.
Since the code is so basic maybe I/someone could made a tutorialish wikipage (being C/SDL/FULLSCREEN is pretty platform indipendent)

Re: Flip clock pre pre pre pre release
 

wow: that look cool :)
sure you can import something someway in Corel (probably the svg have an enough advanced tranparencies/fadings/fills/lines features to be used like bridge format).
Anyway I keep pushing xara because:
1. Is made in Europe (UK)
2. Is small (50 mb)
3. is cheap (90 bucks)
4. they let you try the program for 30 days
http://xara.com/us/downloads/xtreme/
5. Is faster and more powerfull than anything I ever used
6. great antialising routines
7. They gave away the sources for a linux version
8. I hate Corel, AI and FH

Anyway thinking about now the file is probably a great mess :D
Ill give a look this evening and upload something if is not too crumpled

Re: Flip clock pre pre pre pre release
 

IMO the nixie tube digits could be brighter than the images above.

Here's a good picture from a web page:

http://pictures.retrossance.com/nixietube/nixie01.jpg

Here's an image from the Wikipedia article:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi.../4f/Nixie2.gif

Re: Flip clock pre pre pre pre release
 

Yes, I agree that the nixie tubes don't look quite right (not bright enough, too yellow), that's why I tried to tweak the colours in Gimp. But I couldn't make the numbers brighter without also making the other elements brighter... We'll see what I can do if I can get the vector files...

Re: Flip clock pre pre pre pre release
 

You can adjust just a certain area and/or colour. Not sure how bright you want it but here's an example:
(original image to the left)

EDIT: (Ooops...noticed you said it was too yellow..here's a more orangy one added at the end :) :-)

Re: Flip clock pre pre pre pre release
 

That could be taken a bit further - see below.

But the grid and other numbers are still too prominent.

How about just taking the image from Wikipedia? It is licensed for use as long as it is credited. I kind of like the end-on look - it doesn't hit you over the head that it is a tube.

Re: Flip clock pre pre pre pre release
 

The problem is that the lit element should be much brighter than the unlit elements and the hex grid. I think I'll wait until ciroip has a chance to dig out his vector images, or maybe he'll have another go at modding the tubes himself...

For reference, here's one of ciroip's original images:

http://talk.maemo.org/attachment.php...1&d=1248281445

and here's my modified version (of a different number, obviously):

http://talk.maemo.org/attachment.php...1&d=1248291739

I think making the glowing element any brighter will require adjusting other elements in the image, or maybe carefully tracing around the glowing element or something... quite a bit of work...

Re: Flip clock pre pre pre pre release
 

It's all very steampunk :)

Makes me wish my computer looked like this. :)

Re: Flip clock pre pre pre pre release
 

https://garage.maemo.org/frs/downloa...ixie_1.0.0.xar

https://garage.maemo.org/frs/downloa.../nixietest.svg

https://garage.maemo.org/frs/downloa...6421/nixie.png

Re: Flip clock pre pre pre pre release
 

Well, anyway, I've made a basic "Nixie Clock" skin for Flip Clock, using tweaked versions of ciroip's graphics. These are graphics files for version 0.2.1, other versions might have differently named graphics.

Untar the nixies.tar file into your /usr/share/flipclock folder. Make a backup of that folder first!

Notes:

• I just use the no-number version of the nixie tube (null.png) for all three frames of the flip animation. The problem is that there doesn't seem to be any transparency for the animation, so there's a weird flicker when the numbers change. I probably need to make a version of the no-number tube that has the background included. Sigh.
• If you are using the 12 hour clock, I use an awful nixie tube letter P in the tens column to punish you. This probably looks even weirder at around 10pm. Anyone got an actually good idea?
• If you want my source image, here it is: nixie-full.xcf I used Inkscape to break up the svg that ciroip gave us, then I used Gimp to rebuild it into a multi-layer picture. All the numbers are there, you just have to make their layer visible.

Screenshot:
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2525/...235c5d02_o.png

Re: Flip clock pre pre pre pre release
 

That looks frikkn awesome!

Hm, maybe it would be possible to create a small script that copied the original files to another set-name and have another script that would 'toggle' what digit-setup to used by basically doing a mass-rename of the involved files.
Could potentially be extended with a frontend to 'pick' what set should be used for the clock :)

If only I knew Linux or Python :(

Oh, and I'm one of those 12-hour users.