Always On in Bangle 2 vs Bangle 1 timeout 0

[espruino-discuss2]

Posted at 2021-10-01 by d3nd3-o0

What is unique about AOD always on in the bangle 2? Is it unique hardware, technique? Or simply equivalent to never turning screen off? I'm confused.

[espruino-discuss2]

Posted at 2021-10-01 by @gfwilliams

edit: It's the display technology. Bangle.js 2 is transflective - it can reflect ambient light back out (like an old-school LCD watch). Bangle.js 1 LCD is only really visible when the backlight is on and that draws a bunch of power.

It's just power usage. The Bangle.js 1 display backlight draws about 60mA alone. You can leave the display on but backlight off and I think it's around 1mA which is perfectly fine, but it's basically impossible to see.

The Bangle.js 2 screen is really easy to see in sunlight with no backlight whatsoever, and draws basically no power at all so can just be left on all the time. When you do need to see it at night you can turn the backlight on but it doesn't draw as much power as Bangle.js 1's, and it can be dimmed really easily.

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Posted at 2022-05-27 by youphyun

I also found that timeout = 0 is equivalent to always on. Since the Bangle2 is transflective can a screen timeout of 2 or any lower value then 5 be added to the LCD settings? Under light conditions the screen does not need to be on at all to view the screen and in the dark a few seconds are enough to see the time.

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Posted at 2022-06-07 by @gfwilliams

I can definitely lower the minimum timeout value to 1 or 2 seconds.

What do you mean by timeout 0 though? If you leave the backlight on constantly you'll drain your Bangle's battery in under 10 hours.