Registered: Feb 2003
Location:
Posts: 25

will this double Prism batt life?

will this double Prism batt life?
i just got khroma
and changed most things to dark colors (w/the basic bg black and with orange text)
since these pixels are 'off' (are they?)
will the batt life double?

an app called 2red sorta does this too if you want to save the time from chosing colors
its kinda like winxp's settings

Registered: Apr 2000
Location: San Jose, CA
Posts: 118

I think power consumption comes mostly from the lamp. Dimmer hack will dim the lamp after a short preset time, without powering off. Saves power when you are not actually interacting with the unit.

Registered: Feb 2003
Location:
Posts: 25

wow, never heard of dimmer hack, but ill prob have it by the time you read this
(maybe itll quadruple the batt life?)
am i too hopeful?
does the 'whole lamp' still use power evenif black isthe dominant color on the screen?
also if the green visors / palms reversed their pixels would that save powerr , i wonder?
tia

Registered: Apr 2000
Location: San Jose, CA
Posts: 118

The LCD and lamp are spearate. I don't think flipping colors would help. If the individual pixels were lighting up (like on a TV), it would.

Here's where you can pick up Dimmer:
http://www.palmblvd.com/software/pc...20-palm-pc.html

Registered: Oct 2000
Location: Aberdeen, SD
Posts: 2531

It takes just as much energy to illuminate dark pixels as it does light ones. However, with a black background and light text, you may be able to drop your brightness a bit...

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Abortion: Darwinism at its finest.

Registered: Feb 2003
Location:
Posts: 25

quote:

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Originally posted by dick-richardson
It takes just as much energy to illuminate dark pixels as it does light ones.

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Registered: Apr 2000
Location: San Jose, CA
Posts: 118

It's the processor that goes to sleep

The Dragonball processor drops to 0 MHz after it completes all current tasks, waiting for the next screen tap or button press. The LCD screen refresh freezes too, unless something is going on (clock display, game, etc.).

It takes very little power to flip an LCD pixel from off to on. The lamp needs high voltage, which requires a DC/DC converter to up the 3V battery voltage. You lose right off the bat because the converter isn't 100% efficient.

The lamp is interesting, though. Brightness is determined by length of power pulses to the bulb. The lower the brightness setting, the fewer pulses needed, and the less power is used:
http://www.pspilot.de/ppppiiic/ppppiiic.html#T5

You can check power consumption on a Prism by:
go to Applications
press the Up button
tap and hold on the battery level symbol

Registered: Jun 2002
Location: 3rd planet, Solar System
Posts: 112

I really don't see the benefit of the dimmer hack - it doesn't lower the brightness any further than the normal control and if you already have power management set to 1 min - the palm powers down... I would like to see what the background looks like with no backlighting at all... Sort of like the current Gameboy Advance (or the Sony Clie for better reference)

Registered: Jul 2002
Location: Sunny Tucson
Posts: 7

Because the prism does not use a reflective or transreflective screen at all, the screen would be all but unuseable without the lamp. Just a black screen with some faintly visable characters if you hold it up to the light just right. If you have ever seen a laptop with it's backlight off, that is about what you would get.

The Dimmer program is quite useful. If you like to keep your Prism in 1/3 or 1/2 power most of the time while you are using it, the Dimmer will dim it to 0% after a moment, saving battery life if you are distracted for a minute or so. Many people don't set their handhelds to shut off after one minute, as it is a distraction to keep having to turn it back on all of the time. (Especially if you are connected to the Internet with a Modem or a WI-FI Springboard and have to reconnect all of the time)
Doug

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