Controlling OLED backlight on the ZUMspot?

All things relating to OLED Screen(s)
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ka3zmn
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Joined: Fri Jan 25, 2019 5:03 pm

Controlling OLED backlight on the ZUMspot?

Post by ka3zmn »

Just got a new ZUMspot Kit W/1.3 OLED-2 working. No issues. I notice that the backlight is always on on the OLED. Is there any way to either:

1) keep the backlight off full-time (and still see the screen image unlit)

or

2) (Probably more preferable) Only have the screen backlight on when it's "idle" (that is, when it is only displaying "MMDVM"? When it's active, it could be bright to show the activity.

(I figure with the backlight on 24/7, I wonder how long that light will last over time. Regardless, I'd like to see if there is a way to accomplish either of the two above scenarios.)

I've been in Expert mode on Pi-Star:3.4.16 / Dashboard:20180806 configuration and don't see the option in the OLED section. The only Expert OLED-related options are set to:

OLED
----
Type 6
Brightness 0
Invert 0
Scroll 0

Any ideas how to accomplish either scenario above? Thanks! --Steve - KA3ZMN
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VK7HSE
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Re: Controlling OLED backlight on the ZUMspot?

Post by VK7HSE »

Oled displays do not use a conventional backlit method to illuminate like an LCD/TFT. These light up per pixel, granted over time they will suffer from a loss of brightness but I'd suspect that will be long time!

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ka3zmn
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Joined: Fri Jan 25, 2019 5:03 pm

Re: Controlling OLED backlight on the ZUMspot?

Post by ka3zmn »

VK7HSE wrote: Sat Jan 26, 2019 12:30 am Oled displays do not use a conventional backlit method to illuminate like an LCD/TFT. These light up per pixel, granted over time they will suffer from a loss of brightness but I'd suspect that will be long time!
Oh! Just learned something new... didn't know that about OLED. So, it sounds like I don't need to be concerned. Except... is there a way to adjust how bright the screen is, just to dim it a bit, at least, as it is really bright in a darkened room. Or are the pixels stuck at one brightness level? I do see there is a "Brightness" setting under the OLED section in Expert MMDVM configuration. But, I'm not sure what the brightness level values range from in that setting.
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VK7HSE
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Re: Controlling OLED backlight on the ZUMspot?

Post by VK7HSE »

I've tried different numbers in that section but there was no difference. You certainly can adjust the brightness when using the screen say with an arduino or similar using PWM. But I'm going to guess that hasn't been ported across for the oled driver. Not sure...

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ka3zmn
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Re: Controlling OLED backlight on the ZUMspot?

Post by ka3zmn »

VK7HSE wrote: Sat Jan 26, 2019 2:34 am I've tried different numbers in that section but there was no difference. You certainly can adjust the brightness when using the screen say with an arduino or similar using PWM. But I'm going to guess that hasn't been ported across for the oled driver. Not sure...
OK, thanks VK7HSE!
M6XUT
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Re: Controlling OLED backlight on the ZUMspot?

Post by M6XUT »

I have been tinkering with the oled settings and changing the brightness setting to 1 does reduce the screen brightness somewhat. You can see this more of you put the Invert setting onto 1 before doing this. It would be nice if the mmdvm image scrolled around like on the Jumbospot. PI star version 3.4.17 Zumspot v.1.3.3. 73's
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