[krad]

awesome mod!

you get a +1 in my book.

[NipRing]

Mod worked for me. 100% brightness whenever i want it

thanks
~bill

[NRGZ28]

Sometimes I find that it's too bright.... I think it gets brighter than even when I had the original T-Mobile firmware on it.

[GMK]

Originally Posted by NRGZ28

Sometimes I find that it's too bright.... I think it gets brighter than even when I had the original T-Mobile firmware on it.

Yes I believe that would be true. In the .42 OS Autodim on has a setting that is at least one step brighter than when Autodim is off. I haven't done the mod yet - this weekend I hope - but its possible that if you set it to Autodim off (assuming you're still on .42 OS) in dim environments, it may back off that one step. If you upgrade the OS you will likely be stuck with the highest brightness always.

Once again, without a software fix, we have no-win choices.

Thanks again for your pioneering efforts.

[NipRing]

Hold on, this morning I just noticed my keypad no longer lights up, so I removed the soldered wire....not good, keys still won't light. Aw crap.

[GMK]

Originally Posted by NipRing

Hold on, this morning I just noticed my keypad no longer lights up, so I removed the soldered wire....not good, keys still won't light. Aw crap.

I am very sorry to hear that. When in bright light, my 8100 screen is very bright and the keyboard and pearl are not lit when in autodim on. I can think of a couple of things. Sorry to say, neither good.

Your resistance in the sensor circuit after the mod is close to zero. Current goes up (even higher than with the sensor fully closed) & something on the board might really not like it. I don't think this likely as there is usually a limit in series with the circuit that caps the current. If the engineers designed the resistance in the circuit in series with the voltage drop across the sensor (assuming that it doesn't go to zero) than this could be possible.

When you soldered the wire on, the sensor got overheated. This is more likely the case and the sensor is stuck fully closed, even after removal of the wire. It thinks it is under bright light. Are you fully bright?? If so, this is probably the case.

What OS are you on? If not on .42 you could try going back to .42 and see what happens when you turn autodim off. You should see the keyboard come back on. When you go to autodim on you'll have full brightness (but no keyboard light). These are assumptions.

Best of luck

[krad]

time for a replacement....

still cool trick though.

[Rebel XT]

I just got a Pearl a couple of days ago, and at first i thought my phone was faulty, b/c it would switch from bright to dim back to bright. So annoying.
i'm on version .51 --- is there any reason why I should upgrade to a higher version? I believe the only reason is so the phone can recognize 2gb microsd cards?

[John Clark]

Your version ..51 should support 2Gb cards....if you're not having any issues/problems then I wouldn't bother upgrading unless you're just a fanatic about having the latest stuff on your device.

[GMK]

I have a really tough time with Auto-backlight or Autodim so I was encouraged by a couple of posts on a hardwire solution to keep the 8100 brightness up. Both used solder and wire to bypass the sensor but one apparently overheated (my guess) the sensor causing sensor failure. I wanted to try it using a trace pen or conductive pen to xxx8220;drawxxx8221; the bypass. A trace pen is a pen that contains conductive silver ink. You draw the line (trace) and upon curing, you have a connection. It works. These pens are readily available at electronics supply houses, in fact, I believe Radio Shack carries them.

Even though this mod does what it is supposed to do I do not recommend that anyone do it for reasons I will explain at the end of this post.

The Theory
The original intent was to see if it was feasible to put a resistor in parallel to the sensor with the idea of not eliminating Auto-backlight but to kick it up so that in normal (office lighting) it would always be bright. In less light (gin mills), it would not be completely dim but a notch less than full bright so the keyboard lighting would come on. At max bright, the keyboard lights go off.

Reading across the sensor with a VOM I found the following:
Very bright light = 800 ohms
Moderate light (app 45 foot candles) = 6,000 ohms
Dark = 135,000 ohms

Quite a spread, but very workable. If we wanted a bright light at what would be a 6,000 ohm sensor reading, we need to put a resistor in there of 1,000 ohms. This gets us 857 ohms assuming a sensor resistance of 6,000 ohms in dim light. This is based on the // resistance formula of: Total resistance = 1 / ((1 / R1) + (1 / R2) + (1 / R3 +....)).

I did not do this because I didnxxx8217;t have a tiny surface mount 1,000 ohm resistor and the 1/8 watt 1,000 ohm resistor I did have is a bit large for the inside of the BB. So instead, I decided to bypass the sensor with the trace pen and go for the full bright solution.

1st, disassemble the BB 8100 per the instructions in the FAQ. EXCEPT: Be sure to remove the screws before taking off the side covers. The screws on mine go through ear holes on the side covers and any attempt to pry them off will break the ears. See the photo.

The light sensor is on the very right top of the board. Beneath it is the LED. Don't fool with the LED for this exercise.

Draw a line from one side of the sensor to the other with the trace pen. Be sure to go up the sides of the sensor with the ink so you will have a good contact. If you have the time, let it dry for an hour or so and do it again for good conductivity.

Give it a couple of hours to completely dry. The pen manufacturers recommend some heat?? I let mine air dry. It has to set up well for the resin to contract and pull the silver particles together or it wonxxx8217;t be conductive.
Put it back together. Youxxx8217;re done.

Am I happy? No. For daytime activity itxxx8217;s super. In less than good light situations itxxx8217;s super. In a dim light situation, itxxx8217;s awful. With a full bright backlight you lose keypad lighting and although I thought I could live without it, it is tough to navigate the unlit keyboard, especially when the backlight is glaring at you in a low light situation.

The make-do solution is to use OS .42. For always bright, use Auto Backlight ON. When in a low light milieu, set Auto Backlight OFF. With Auto Backlight OFF the screen does not get as bright and the keyboard lights up. Even though it only takes a couple of seconds, it's still a PITA.

I wouldnxxx8217;t recommend doing this unless the Auto Backlight always on really gets to you and you can live with OS .42 or no keypad lighting.

First Pic is the side cover showing the ears
2ND is the sensor in the top right
3RD is the Modded sensor with the conductive ink
4TH is the bottom of the trackball showing 4 magnetic rollers that roll over pick ups on the PC board

[SanFrancisco]

Originally Posted by GMK

I have a really tough time with Auto-backlight or Autodim so I was encouraged by a couple of posts on a hardwire solution to keep the 8100 brightness up. Both used solder and wire to bypass the sensor but one apparently overheated (my guess) the sensor causing sensor failure. I wanted to try it using a trace pen or conductive pen to “draw” the ....

What an absolutely wonderful and refreshing post. I say "refreshing" because it's nice to see this kind technical material as opposed to threads titled "Need Help."

That said, your post helped me a lot. How? No way am I taking apart my Pearl like this. That's way out of my league. I know I'd screw it up and then I'd really be in the sewers of Paris.

[NRGZ28]

Hmm... I noticed that myself after a few days. But I've had like that for... what..I guess 3 months now ? While it IS annoying that you have to guess where certain keys are in a dark environment, it's A LOT MORE annoying to not be able to read the screen during the day (where 90% of my life goes on anyway). Hehe

[geo_zavala]

i have the same problem. the dim backlight drives me crazy. the only feature on this phone, i dont like

[John Clark]

Welcome to the forums,

Get your auto dimming-off feature back with this latest OS update:

http://www.blackberryforums.com/gene...y-release.html

[xxaarraa]

This short circuting thing is intense!