N900 as an "alarm" clock, display on all night, charged up at morning
 

Now with my custom brightness and external charger system i use it also at night as a clock via the very cool flip clock :)

Light Level: (Not needed normally)
Custom brightness (my version not simple) allows brightness down to 2, flip clock has a brightness setting but it doesn't work on mine, of course you can just make a shortcut (QBW etc) to set the brightness at a certain level (2-255) at night.
Custom Brightness

Charging and keeping topped up through the night. (Maybe Needed)
Now this is where my charging system comes in, POST #2 will explore means of charging via normal USB charging.
The charger i use now is the cheap-o charger made from parts from DX, it charges with up to 1A, but because of the thin long wire that i use i charges with much less, but more then enough then to charge up through the night
My cheap external charger
My charge plug and more in mugen cover

Flip Clock (it is in the repos)
Attachment 23213

Battery graph, will be updated when charger is upgraded.
Attachment 23243

This post will as usual be edited some times.

Things i need to post:
More info on my charger and setup

Re: N900 as an "alarm" clock, display on all night, charged up at morning
 

Post #2, reserved for USB charging system

Battery Graph for USB charging with flip clock all night
Attachment 23256

NOTE: Need testers here, if the USB charge shuts off after full charge is reached and then drains resulting in 10-30% battery drain when you wake up, then we need someone to make charging kick in again after 5% discharge.

Re: N900 as an "alarm" clock, display on all night, charged up at morning
 

This would be good if you could alter the colours used, I think I would prefer a mid-to-dark grey on black as even at brightness level two I find the display too bright at night.
Happy to test this for you, as my N900 charges by my bed every night.

Re: N900 as an "alarm" clock, display on all night, charged up at morning
 

well there are settings in flip clock (i didn't make it), and if you are using normal/simple brightness then you can set the brightness from flip clock, so no need to install my custom brightness.

install flip clock and play with it, only thing needed here is:
Will when charging via USB (normal charging) will it keep it topped up or will it drain and not charge after full charge (some time at night)

Re: N900 as an "alarm" clock, display on all night, charged up at morning
 

I am looking forward to further updates, this is cool! :)

Re: N900 as an "alarm" clock, display on all night, charged up at morning
 

The N900 without any modification or added software got a setting to keep the display lit while charging.

Re: N900 as an "alarm" clock, display on all night, charged up at morning
 

Yes! This is great! Can we get it off the standard repository? Please???

Re: N900 as an "alarm" clock, display on all night, charged up at morning
 

Yes the flip clock can keep the light on, and set it from 2-255, i haven't tested this since my custom brightness takes over.

-----------------------

I still need testers to confirm if this works with normal charging, the question is still, will it stop charging when full and then drain battery for the next 2-5 hours until you wake up.

Re: N900 as an "alarm" clock, display on all night, charged up at morning
 

Yes, unfortunately it doesn't keep the display lit when full charged. See https://bugs.maemo.org/show_bug.cgi?id=10496

Re: N900 as an "alarm" clock, display on all night, charged up at morning
 

Not sure if this is related, but I used to connect my N900 to a set of speakers and play music throughout the night while charging(used to sleeping with music, couldn't sleep well without it as my desktop died on me so i had to make do with my N900).
Woke up in the morning, phone battery charge at FULL. I hope this info helps though:D

Cheers!
-Ethan

Re: N900 as an "alarm" clock, display on all night, charged up at morning
 

Don't know if it helps, but when I use Sleep analyser at night while charging, xterm gave me 99% charged this morning, concluding it doesnt drain? probably drains only if its program related?

Re: N900 as an "alarm" clock, display on all night, charged up at morning
 

In light of some users confirming that it should keep charge up on normal USB charging, im going to charge via USB, just have to dig out a USB charger....

Even thou i have a strengthen USB i still use my charging system for absolutely minimal USB wear & tear, i use it 1 a week on average.

Re: N900 as an "alarm" clock, display on all night, charged up at morning
 

Something that would be awesome: An adjustable brightness based on the light sensor. :) I often find that when my clock too bright at night, but too dark to see in the morning. It would be great to have the brightness change based on how much ambient light there is, to brighten as the room does.

Re: N900 as an "alarm" clock, display on all night, charged up at morning
 

Locate the sensor system and it could be incorporated in my custom brightness, then we can make a system that actually works........

Re: N900 as an "alarm" clock, display on all night, charged up at morning
 

Just for the record - keeping LiPo battery "topped" (fully charger) all night every night is quite a overkill for a battery lifetime. I suspect at least 50% worse lifetime doing so. Keep in mind, that LiPo's like best to be keep between 40-80%.

If this would be done in a way, than - when reaching certain discharge threshold, like 50% - battery is charged up to 80%, and left in peace, that would be 100% neutral to battery life.

Ho ever, keeping it between 95-100% (like with USB charging) or in constant minimal charge (external charging - because every external charger can't distinguish load used by phone from load accepted by battery during charge process), it is harmful for the battery, on long term. to be honest, it seems that USB charging is even less harmful, than "standby current", used by external charger to keep battery 100%. It was recommended for NiMH/NiCD, but for Li-Ions and derivatives, it's overkill.

Otherwise, very nice idea. I wonder if someone may come up with idea to limit charging (80%) - this way, that would even increase battery life, instead of harming it (more cycles up to 80%, instead of up to 100%)

// Edit

Not directly related, but in light of 1500 mAh Scuds becoming unavailable + no signs of any similar battery, to prepare 3000 mAh dual batteries, I'm really considering charging my battery to 80% all the time, to preserve lifetime/capacity. Where LiPo are used for industrial purposes, they're never charger for more than 80%, because it improves lifetime A LOT (thus, reducing costs).

Re: N900 as an "alarm" clock, display on all night, charged up at morning
 

Yes this is true for LiPo, Li-ion and other lithium battery's, but again in these days with battery's being so "cheap" then it is not like this is going to ruin you, the best thing is if our N900 had the same kind of system as a laptop, then if done properly then it would keep going 2-4 years without problems.

But i will keep doing this to test it out, and down the line do a capacity test on the Dual Scud to see the impact.
Lithium battery's have no problem with being charged often, this is actually better then total drain and then total charge, this is especially true for multi-cell packs (7.2V+), to much discharge here will leave to faster unbalance between the cells, this is something i have experienced some times ;)

But back to the case of having this charge with USB or external, well some of my old battery graph's with USB charging shows that it keeps the battery at 93-96% until disconnected, also note the graph in post #1, it is not even fully charged, when on my external it goes to 4.23V.
Post #2, now has a graph of USB charging, and it is keeping it topped up, so that answers that question.

Re: N900 as an "alarm" clock, display on all night, charged up at morning
 

My own Bedside is designed to be an always-on, LED-style clock for just such a use:

http://forum.meego.com/showthread.php?t=4693

On a fully charged N900, it only went down to 50% when used all night. The next version (should be released this weekend) will have customisable colours and remember whether it was in dimmed mode (sets backlight to lowest and mutes display) when stopping/starting the app.

http://bleb.org/software/maemo/bedsi...enshot-800.png

Re: N900 as an "alarm" clock, display on all night, charged up at morning
 

Just so you know I've been using Flip Clock as a bedside table clock since day one.

I have the colour set to a dull grey, screen brightness set to minimum (no mods) and the N900 is plugged into the mains every single night for about 2 years.

I barely discharge the battery during the day, normal usage would run for about 2-3 days if I didn't charge it and didn't use FlipClock at night (I primarily run 2G, no BT or Wifi and no data connection).

In 2 years the battery charge has barely diminished and also on the charger at night once the battery is fully charged it never turns off the display afterwards (no mods) and this has been consistent through all PR versions (1.1, 1.2 and currently 1.3).

I was worried about what it would do to the display/battery at first then figured it would probably only diminish the lifetime to the point I'd end up changing the phone anyway but they both seem to be fine (touch wood).

Re: N900 as an "alarm" clock, display on all night, charged up at morning
 

where is deb file flip clock ?

Re: N900 as an "alarm" clock, display on all night, charged up at morning
 

How to install this on my n900 ? (step-by-step guide)