Fuze power on indicator (just a firmware mod could do it)

As a new owner of a Fuze, I have forgotton to turn it off twice now with earbuds plugged in and drained the battery.  I was checking some things in the menu and put the Fuze down and then forgot to tun it off.  I was wondering if either of the following two options could work as a power on indicator?

Option-1:
The Fuze normally blanks the screen to save power.  Would it be feasible to put a power on indicator in the form of a small red dot at the top left corner of the screen?  Does a dark screen with a small red dot use more power since the screen is actually active but just mostly dark?

Option-2:
A second option is turning the screen on momentarily with just the small red dot once every 5 seconds or so.  With almost all of the screen dark, would this momentary blinking still use too much power?

Just wondering,
Sky

@skyglider wrote:
As a new owner of a Fuze, I have forgotton to turn it off twice now with earbuds plugged in and drained the battery.  I was checking some things in the menu and put the Fuze down and then forgot to tun it off.  I was wondering if either of the following two options could work as a power on indicator?

Option-1:
The Fuze normally blanks the screen to save power.  Would it be feasible to put a power on indicator in the form of a small red dot at the top left corner of the screen?  Does a dark screen with a small red dot use more power since the screen is actually active but just mostly dark?

Option-2:
A second option is turning the screen on momentarily with just the small red dot once every 5 seconds or so.  With almost all of the screen dark, would this momentary blinking still use too much power?

Just wondering,
Sky

I assume that you still had music playing when you set it and the earbuds down. The solution to that is in the settings menu, you can set it to shut down after a predetermined time, as long as you pause the music playback. When I had my Fuze, I had it set for 5 minutes.:smiley:

 I end up pressing a button  after I am finished using the player to make sure that the player is off if I am not certain that I turned it off. How about having an optional mode  where  one must press a button on the player at least once every 15(this could be user settable) minutes or the player powers down? While I haven’t accidentally depleted the power on my player yet, I worry that I will do so, and leave the player playing.

I would like to see a player with a low power alphanumeric LCD display that is on all the time while the player is on(so one could just look at the player and see if it was left on) It could have a backlight that is on only while a dedicated backlight button is pressed(this is how most digital watches work, and they run for years on a very tiny battery).

 

Marvin_Martian said:

I assume that you still had music playing when you set it and the earbuds down. The solution to that is in the settings menu, you can set it to shut down after a predetermined time, as long as you pause the music playback. When I had my Fuze, I had it set for 5 minutes.:smiley:

 

Yes, I had set “repeat song” since I didn’t want to listen to the songs that came pre-installed in the Fuze.  The battery was already low in both cases due to my experimenting with the Fuze. ----- It’s sort of a catch22.  I don’t want the Fuze to automatically turn itself off via a timer while I’m listening to it, but putting the Fuze down with music playing with no observable power on indicator, the Fuze will remain powered on until it drains the battery.

So far the only solution I see is to have some sort of power on (or music playing) indicator.  I think if one can be implemented with minimal drain on the battery, that will be better than draining the battery and not be able to use the Fuze the next time until the battery is recharged.  Periodic blinking of a red dot would be more obvious than a constanly on red dot and should conserve power better.  Of course nothing can help if one never even looks at the Fuze… :wink:

Thanks,
Sky

@skyglider wrote:


 

Marvin_Martian said:

I assume that you still had music playing when you set it and the earbuds down. The solution to that is in the settings menu, you can set it to shut down after a predetermined time, as long as you pause the music playback. When I had my Fuze, I had it set for 5 minutes.:smiley:

 


Yes, I had set “repeat song” since I didn’t want to listen to the songs that came pre-installed in the Fuze.  The battery was already low in both cases due to my experimenting with the Fuze. ----- It’s sort of a catch22.  I don’t want the Fuze to automatically turn itself off via a timer while I’m listening to it, but putting the Fuze down with music playing with no observable power on indicator, the Fuze will remain powered on until it drains the battery.

So far the only solution I see is to have some sort of power on (or music playing) indicator.  I think if one can be implemented with minimal drain on the battery, that will be better than draining the battery and not be able to use the Fuze the next time until the battery is recharged.  Periodic blinking of a red dot would be more obvious than a constanly on red dot and should conserve power better.  Of course nothing can help if one never even looks at the Fuze… :wink:

Thanks,
Sky

I think you may have misunderstood me. The setting I was referring to will not shut it down while you are listening to it. It will only shut it down if you pause the music playback…so simply pause it before you put it down, and then the Fuze will power itself down after your preset time has elapsed. Problem solved!

@skyglider wrote:


 

Marvin_Martian said:

I assume that you still had music playing when you set it and the earbuds down. The solution to that is in the settings menu, you can set it to shut down after a predetermined time, as long as you pause the music playback. When I had my Fuze, I had it set for 5 minutes.:smiley:

 


Yes, I had set “repeat song” since I didn’t want to listen to the songs that came pre-installed in the Fuze.  The battery was already low in both cases due to my experimenting with the Fuze. ----- It’s sort of a catch22.  I don’t want the Fuze to automatically turn itself off via a timer while I’m listening to it, but putting the Fuze down with music playing with no observable power on indicator, the Fuze will remain powered on until it drains the battery.

So far the only solution I see is to have some sort of power on (or music playing) indicator.  I think if one can be implemented with minimal drain on the battery, that will be better than draining the battery and not be able to use the Fuze the next time until the battery is recharged.  Periodic blinking of a red dot would be more obvious than a constanly on red dot and should conserve power better.  Of course nothing can help if one never even looks at the Fuze… :wink:

Thanks,
Sky

I think you may have misunderstood me. The setting I was referring to will not shut it down while you are listening to it. It will only shut it down if you pause the music playback…so simply pause it before you put it down, and then the Fuze will power itself down after your preset time has elapsed. Problem solved!:smiley:

 

Marvin_Martian said:

I think you may have misunderstood me. The setting I was referring to will not shut it down while you are listening to it. It will only shut it down if you pause the music playback…so simply pause it before you put it down, and then the Fuze will power itself down after your preset time has elapsed. Problem solved!

 

 I did notice your mention of pausing before putting the Fuze down in your previous post.  JK98 mentioned that he presses a button before putting the Fuze down to insure that he did power it off. Both methods will work well and I appreciate the feedback.

A power on indicator is just a wish item and if it was an option in system settings it would allow the user to have the best of either world.  Since music is playing anyway maybe the minimal power drain of a blinking red dot would be negligible in comparison.

Really no big thing, though it would be handy if the Fuze is the source for an amplifier in the house or a FM transmitter in a car where the user turns off the amp or turns off the engine in the car but forgets to turn the Fuze off.  Maybe beat the iPods with a new feature…:wink:

Thanks!

Sky