Aura HD The Strange Case of the Light in the Nighttime.

[MacEachaidh]

Very curious, Dr Watson.

I'm wondering if anyone has noticed a predictable pattern with the light in the Aura HD (f/w 2.8.1), in regards to the Sleep function?

If I put my HD into sleep mode while the light is on, or simply fall asleep and it puts itself to bed, then the light switches itself off. All well and good, and what you'd hope would happen.

But I seem to have discovered a new drinking game: when I wake the Kobo up, will the light come on again automatically? (It often does.) Or will it remain switched off, and wait to be switched on manually? (It often does that, as well.)

So far, I haven't been able to find any predictable, repeatable pattern to which one happens and under what circumstances. Has anyone else?

It's not just you. Mine went through a two-week period of the light not turning back on, but now it does it pretty consistently. I'm sure it originally was fairly consistent about turning the light back on.

[glos]

If I close it with the sleep cover with the light on, when I reopen it the light is still on.
If I let it go to sleep (I set that lights must go off after 5 minutes, same as sleeping) because I forget it open and then close the cover, when I reopen it the light is off. IIRC it's the same if I use the on-off button to put the aura to sleep and wake it.

[robko]

If you let it automatically sleep or power down, the light won't come back on automatically. If you use the switch to sleep or power it down the light will come on when you wake it. That is the intended behaviour even if I can't quite wrap my head around why the light wouldn't always come back on if was on when shut down.
Not sure exactly how sleep cover effects this as I don't have one.

[Nightyume]

Originally Posted by robko

If you let it automatically sleep or power down, the light won't come back on automatically. If you use the switch to sleep or power it down the light will come on when you wake it. That is the intended behaviour even if I can't quite wrap my head around why the light wouldn't always come back on if was on when shut down.
Not sure exactly how sleep cover effects this as I don't have one.

Actually it's quite logical.

Here's the most logical scenario:
First of all take into account that the intended time for light use is nighttime or at least a dark setting. If you turn it off yourself you have most likely been temporarily distracted (by traffic, a phone call, friends or any of that pesky stuff from the "real" world. So when you turn it back on it means you've quickly shooed away such distractions quickly and gone back to what you SHOULD be doing: reading. And it's most likely still dark.

On the other hand if it goes to sleep from inactivity it's most likely because you yourself feel asleep and so when you turn it back on there's no need for a light since it is now day.

Or at least that's what I think they were thinking. Either way it doesn't bother me too much.

[robko]

A reasonable logical thought process. I would argue that the reality is that the majority of users use the light all the time. IIRC the explanation from Kobo was to the effect that the user might not realize that it was on when they turned the device back on (ties into your scenario) and Kobo was worried about battery life. Since the battery drain is so minimal I would disagree with their logic.

[jackastor]

Originally Posted by Nightyume

Actually it's quite logical.

Here's the most logical scenario:
First of all take into account that the intended time for light use is nighttime or at least a dark setting. If you turn it off yourself you have most likely been temporarily distracted (by traffic, a phone call, friends or any of that pesky stuff from the "real" world. So when you turn it back on it means you've quickly shooed away such distractions quickly and gone back to what you SHOULD be doing: reading. And it's most likely still dark.

On the other hand if it goes to sleep from inactivity it's most likely because you yourself feel asleep and so when you turn it back on there's no need for a light since it is now day.

Or at least that's what I think they were thinking. Either way it doesn't bother me too much.

Interesting train of thought regarding the light. I use mine all the time, and know people who use the light on the Aura/Glo because it heightens the readability of the device in all light conditions. Now back to the question about the light turning on and off I usually attribute it to the fact that the light is on a timer, and the timer is held in suspension while in sleep mode but resumes on wake I could be wrong here but that's the reason I use to justify the behavior.

regards

Jack

All seems to make sense. I may indeed be misremembering the circumstances in which the light hasn't come back on.

[samhy]

MacEachaidh, on my Aura HD it's quite straight forward.
If I use the slider to put it into sleep mode, the light will be on when I wake it up.
If it entered sleep mode because it timed out, then the light will be off and I'll need to press the switch on the top bezel.
Those behaviours are the ones I have every time.