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- Newsgroups: comp.sys.apollo
- Path: sparky!uunet!munnari.oz.au!metro!maths.su.oz.au!szabo_p
- From: szabo_p@maths.su.oz.au (Paul Szabo)
- Subject: Re: automatic screen turn-off
- Message-ID: <1992Sep1.212305.21135@ucc.su.OZ.AU>
- Sender: szabo_p@maths.su.oz.au (Paul Szabo)
- Nntp-Posting-Host: adder.maths.su.oz.au
- Reply-To: szabo_p@maths.su.oz.au (Paul Szabo)
- Organization: Mathematics, University of Sydney
- Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 21:23:05 GMT
- Lines: 32
-
- In article <1992Sep1.124958.29119@lmpsbbs.comm.mot.com> shuky@mot.com
- (Joshua Beinhorn) writes:
- > In article <BtuqtL.Jor@apollo.hp.com> ganek@apollo.hp.com (Dan Ganek) writes,
- > in answer to my question :
- > > >However, in some cases the screen is not turned off even if there is
- > > >no user input for hours. In particular, This happens when there is one
- > > >window which covers all the screen.
- > > So, perhaps the app your running in the full screen window is calling
- > > gpr_$video_ctl. Does it happen if your grow an ordianry DM pad to full
- > > screen?
- > The screen is not being turned off when I leave it with no particular application
- > running - just one or more shell and edit windows open.
-
- I have the following explanation, which may of course be completely wrong...
-
- Maybe the screen is not blanked out because there is mouse input. Sometimes
- mice are left in a position where they generate a continuous stream of
- input; in this case the cursor on the screen is an arrow, not reverting to
- the steady-state block. In these cases I find that moving the mouse a tiny
- bit will allow the cursor to become a block.
-
- Inside the mouse there are two slotted wheels which rotate (in response to x
- and y mouse movements) between a LED and a photodiode; these give pulses
- corresponding to the succession of dark/light. If you happen to stop the
- mouse such that the LED is half-obscured, the photodiode may not be able to
- make up its mind whether it is light or dark, emitting a continuous stream
- of pulses. (Whatever happened Schmitt triggers?)
-
- Hope this makes sense.
-
- Paul Szabo - System Manager // School of Mathematics and Statistics
- szabo_p@maths.su.oz.au // University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
-