Following the Bluetooth notification hack that I did few years ago for my previous iPAQ 6965, I created another “hack” last week to overcome the notification deficiency in my new Samsung i780. Well not exactly a hack, more like a workaround to keep the LED blinking when the phone attempts to get into sleep mode.
Few points to note;
- Currently the patch will keep the LED blinking for SMS notification only. Both Palm threading message application and default Pocket Outlook, are supported. Although the program is designed to support other 3 notifications, namely missed call, voice mail and email, they are currently disabled due to lack of testing.
- Default duration that determines how long will the LED light keep blinking before it times out, is 60 minutes. If you want to extend or shorten the duration, you have to manage this in registry (sorry, no GUI at this moment!) Go to HKCUSoftwareZenyeeNotif Blinker and change the key value Duration to the desirable length, in minutes. Of course, if you happen to read or dismiss the new message notification before the time limit, the LED will stop blinking. Becareful of setting a long duration(e.g. 240 minutes), because it may drain the battery unnecessary (see below for further explanation).
- You can personalise the colour of the LED to your liking, but this is device dependent. For Samsung i780, the colour index for the LED is as follow; Green (1), Blue (2), Red (3), Yellow (5). The index should be updated in the registry HKCUSoftwareZenyeeNotif BlinkerLED Color. Take note that if you choose yellow as the blinking LED colour, it will not show up if your device is connected to a power source.
Lastly, it is important to understand how this patch is being delivered. Essentially, it is created to keep the device in unattended mode, rather than sleep mode, during the notification process. The latter effectively suspends all running programs (including system programs) except for selected hardware-specific/relevant programs. That explains why LED light stops blinking after a while without the patch software. The patch utility is designed to keep the LED blinking, while due diligence is taken to ensure it consumes minimal power during the process of blinking. However, it doesn’t stop other program from running havoc in the background, which would otherwise be blocked when the device is in suspend mode. In anycase, when there’s no notification occuring, the patch software will not stop the device from getting into suspend mode.
Anyway, enough of geek speak. If you own a Samsung SGH-i780, and you are baffled by the non-blinking notification, you may want to try this Notif Blinker v0.1.
Update
12th July Notif Blinker v0.1a fix some bug where new message either couldn’t be detected, and/or LED light stops abruptly.
13th July Notif Blinker v0.2 (build 0713) fix a bug that cause new message notification not to trigger any LED blinking. Also added multi-notification support.
14th July Notif Blinker v0.2 (build 0714) fix a bug that affects Palm Messaging App users.
18th July Notif Blinker v0.2 (build 0718) bug fix and code improvement
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Great job and thanks a million. It works flawlessly on my i780. Surprisingly, it also keep the LED blinking when there is a missed call !!!
yes, since version 0.2, Notif Blinker is SMS and Missed-call notification aware. In fact, it can also detect voice mail (only if your telco supports voice mail notification) and Email, but these two notifications are disabled at the moment. They can be enabled via registry though 😉
Excellent tool! Thanks a lot. I turned on e-mail notification – it saves my battery, course not so often turn on device to check for new messages.
It would be great to use different colors for different notifications. For instance, green for e-mails, red for missed calls, blue foe SMS.
Thanks for your feedback.
managing different LED colour for different notification would make the phone like a Christmas tree 😀
Joke aside, this has been suggested before, but I will consider this as the lowest priority. If I have to improve the program, I would consider other areas such as interval audio notification, schedule where the blinker would works, etc.
But at this point, nothing is being planned due to my hectic work schedule 😦
btw, latest version is 0.3.0809a, it’s posted in the forum, and if you need the latest version please let me know. Otherwise, I will post the version in a new blog entry sometime end of this week.
Cristmas tree sounds good 🙂 But you plans about schedule of notification much better!
btw, I use SPB mobile shell. It has sond notification for missed calls, voice mail (who this uses?) ans SMS but email! I adjusted sound notification at 5 min, and your blinker helps me see when mail has arrived. At night my device automatically makes sound off – it helps me sleep well 🙂
So, thank yoг once more and good luck!
I intend to upgrade my i780 to WM6.1. Would Notif Blinker work on WM6.1? Thanks.
it looks like those who are running on WM6.1 customised ROM has no problem using this utility software. And I don’t see why it won’t work, since there’s no major change to the operating system between the two versions.
Hello, i’m watching your site from time to time. Thanks for your blogposts and apps. I have the same problem on my Samsung Omnia with WM6.1prof. If it got into asleep, notify LED does not continue to blinking. It must be bug, isn’t it? There will be no new Windows update to fix it? There is no other possibility to pass thru? I comprehend, that solution is not to bring the device into suspend mode. Only switch diplay off and lock the screen. But it’s not good solution with regard to battery tenacity. I need to get my Omnia to suspend mode if I want to use it a long time without recharging. On my recent mobile phone HTC Artemis with WM5 it goes well. Please, I’m not sure I understand all the problem. Is there some solution to let LED blinking on my WM6 phone in suspend mode? Thank you for you answer on this forum or to my mail webmag@centrum.cz as well.
unfortunately, there’s no way to led LED to blink while putting the device on suspend mode, to do this, you need to have the OEM to develop LED driver that can operate even when the device goes into sleep mode. Unfortunately, it is a project too complex and huge for me, and it’s device dependent. (read: low level programming, and may not be possible w/o having access to the device kernel I think)
Having the LED blink using Notif Blinker, may not necessary consume alot of battery power. If there’s no runaway program, it would consume as much battery as when your phone is in suspend mode. For what’s worth, in Smartphone, there’s no suspend mode, as the phone is always on. It’s always the running software that will eat up the power, and if you can ensure that you have software that doesn’t run wild, you should be save.
Plus, Notif Blinker only keeps the device from suspend mode when there’s new LED notificaton. When there’s no notification, it’ll idle and let the device sleeps. So you should be able to have the cake and eat it too 😉
hope this helps.
hi i don’t know if anyone still checks this site but i just got the samsung sgh i780 and my led doesn’t work when it’s on sleep mode.. could you please help?
@soconfused,
of course I still check this site since this is my blog 😉
the purpose of notif blinker is to overcome the no blinking when sleep mode. Are you saying that your problem still persists after installing notif blinker?
Hi Zen,
I’ve clicked the links provided above and they seem to be broken (page not found). Could you please let me know where/how I can download this program of yours.
Much appreciated.
Nevermind Zen.. i found your updated program when I searched off google. Thanks so much for developing such a sweet patch.
no problem, glad that it works for you. I have moved my blog host so some of the links are broken. Sorry!
do you have any idea on how to disable the message sent sound? the beep is annoying..i’m an avid sms-person
you can install sms-setting utility to turn off message sent notification (assuming this is what you are referring to)
http://www.freewarepocketpc.net/ppc-download-sms-settings.html
I´m using versuin 0.3.0809a on i780 and it works perfect. Only problem is, since installation – stopped any reminder notifications in calendar. This is very annoying. Any idea, how to fix it? I tried to at least use notification of reminders using NotifBlinker (option in settings is possible to check) but standard way or via NotifBlinker – same results = no reminders on events. Thanks.
Really awesome article! Really!
hi Zen!
I really like your work, i hope once you became a famous 🙂 !
Zen, I need codes of blinker. Exactly the way how you come over suspend mode. I want to make my i780 blinking when its on network, like old Erricson did;)
Thanx so much!
Heineken