More control over LEDs needed?

[Miguel Duarte]

Hi!

Does anybody else feel the need for more control over the LEDs? For
example, when both HDDs are on standby mode, I would prefer the lights
of the HDDs to be off, and not in "airplane mode" like now (blue + red
lights).

Also, I prefer the on/off button to be off most of the time, maybe
only have the lights on when turning the unit on or off, or if there
is a problem...

For example, for someone which has the DNS-323 in a bedroom and
doesn't want to put a sticker over the LEDs, the current "airplane
mode" on the firmware could be quite annoying...

Miguel

[Teh Han Lin]

Hi,

My DNS-323 is sitting in secluded area so I wont need any LED info since I cant see it. :)

But IMO it is good to have eventhough I dont need it but when it come to troubleshooting and diagnosis, it could be an indispensable feature to have.

Sorry to hijack this post but I found that ever since I use alt-f, my network throughput is increased rapidly (copy from/to network/local speed obviously faster). Previously I was with Dlink f/w and fun_plug.

Cheers.

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[Miguel Duarte]

> But IMO it is good to have eventhough I dont need it but when it come to
> troubleshooting and diagnosis, it could be an indispensable feature to have.

Maybe there could exist 2 led modes. A "quiet mode", and an "advanced
mode".

> Sorry to hijack this post but I found that ever since I use alt-f, my
> network throughput is increased rapidly (copy from/to network/local speed
> obviously faster). Previously I was with Dlink f/w and fun_plug.

Well, didn't tested it, but, one thing is for sure, this firmware gave
a new life to my DNS-323. I now use it only for backups, since I
offered myself a new Synology this Christmas, but, had I discovered
ALT-F previously and I think I would have delayed buying the Synology
(which is a great product!) for one more year or two.

It is incredible how João, alone, in his spare time, is doing a much
better job than D-Link through all this years.

[Joao Cardoso]

On Feb 20, 1:01 am, Miguel Duarte <miguel.dua...@gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi!
>
> Does anybody else feel the need for more control over the LEDs? For
> example, when both HDDs are on standby mode, I would prefer the lights
> of the HDDs to be off, and not in "airplane mode" like now (blue + red
> lights).

Have you flashed Alt-F? Or are you using the "reloaded" (fun_plug)
method?

In my flashed box the disk leds only blinks when there are disk
access; this means that when the disks are in standby only the orange
leds blink (nice, airplane mode :)

> Also, I prefer the on/off button to be off most of the time, maybe
> only have the lights on when turning the unit on or off, or if there
> is a problem...
>
> For example, for someone which has the DNS-323 in a bedroom and
> doesn't want to put a sticker over the LEDs, the current "airplane
> mode" on the firmware could be quite annoying...

I find the network led to be much more annoying than the power led,
but that is not easy to change, as it is controlled by the network
driver which is a very large and complex piece of code.

Anyway, you can turn the power led off by executing the following
command

echo 1 > /sys/class/leds/power:blue/brightness # turn off
echo 0 > /sys/class/leds/power:blue/brightness # turn on

You can turn the orange leds always off by executing the command

echo none > /sys/class/leds/right\:amber/trigger

you can see the current and possible values by executing the command

cat /sys/class/leds/right\:amber/trigger

The leds that you can manipulate:

ls /sys/class/leds

The actions you can take on them (content depends on "trigger")

ls /sys/class/leds/right\:amber

You can write those commands in a on-disk startup script file and
activate it at boot, see Services->User->user->Configure. The file
must be an executable shell script, e.g.

----8<------------------------------
#!/bin/sh # file first line, no leading blank characters

# commands to be executed, exactly as you type them on the command
line
echo 1 > /sys/class/leds/power:blue/brightness # turn off
echo none > /sys/class/leds/right\:amber/trigger
echo none > /sys/class/leds/left\:amber/trigger

# this is a comment, just for illustrative purposes
---->8-------------------------------

Of course some system actions might reactivate the leds, please report-
back your findings.

> Miguel

Boa sorte, Miguel

[Miguel Duarte]

> Have you flashed Alt-F? Or are you using the "reloaded" (fun_plug)
> method?

Flashed. After seeing your firmware, I'll never return to the D-Link
crap. ;)

> In my flashed box the disk leds only blinks when there are disk
> access; this means that when the disks are in standby only the orange
> leds blink (nice, airplane mode :)

Mmmmm, just follow the link below and check :):

http://miguelcduarte.dynip.sapo.pt/photo/photo_one.php?name=323031322d30322d32302d3038372e6d7034&dir=5075626c6963

Both disks are on standby (I am using RAID 0, Rev A1), as you can see,
lots of blue lights also.

> I find the network led to be much more annoying than the power led,
> but that is not easy to change, as it is controlled by the network
> driver which is a very large and complex piece of code.
>
> Anyway, you can turn the power led off by executing the following
> command
>
> echo 1 > /sys/class/leds/power:blue/brightness # turn off
> echo 0 > /sys/class/leds/power:blue/brightness # turn on

Tested it, at least on my NAS, it is the oposite:

echo 1 > /sys/class/leds/power:blue/brightness # turn on
echo 0 > /sys/class/leds/power:blue/brightness # turn off

> Of course some system actions might reactivate the leds, please report-
> back your findings.

Correct code (on Rev A1) to turn off red and power leds:

echo 0 > /sys/class/leds/power:blue/brightness

echo none > /sys/class/leds/right:amber/trigger
echo none > /sys/class/leds/left:amber/trigger

I could turn the power led back on by:

echo 1 > /sys/class/leds/power:blue/brightness

And play with the amber power leds, but not put them back to the
original state.

Always on:

echo default-on > /sys/class/leds/left:amber/trigger
echo default-on > /sys/class/leds/right:amber/trigger

Heartbeat mode (for having a disco in the bedroom?):

echo heartbeat > /sys/class/leds/left:amber/trigger
echo heartbeat > /sys/class/leds/right:amber/trigger

Timer mode didn't seem to do anything on my unit, or I was doing
something wrong (a value for the timer missing?).

Obrigado! :)

Miguel

[Miguel Duarte]

Just one more thing, if it was me, I would implement a "quiet mode"
option in the firmware with:

echo 0 > /sys/class/leds/power:blue/brightness
echo none > /sys/class/leds/right:amber/trigger
echo none > /sys/class/leds/left:amber/trigger

Almost perfect (perfection would of course also to turn off the
network led, but, well, life wouldn't be funny if it was perfect) :)

[Joao Cardoso]

> Both disks are on standby (I am using RAID 0, Rev A1), as you can see,
> lots of blue lights also.

Ah, so this is a rev-A1 issue.

> > Anyway, you can turn the power led off by executing the following
> > command
>
> >    echo 1 > /sys/class/leds/power:blue/brightness # turn off
> >    echo 0 > /sys/class/leds/power:blue/brightness # turn on
>
> Tested it, at least on my NAS, it is the oposite:
>
> echo 1 > /sys/class/leds/power:blue/brightness # turn on
> echo 0 > /sys/class/leds/power:blue/brightness # turn off

My code works fine on my B1 board, it's definitively a A1 issue.

...

> Timer mode didn't seem to do anything on my unit, or I was doing
> something wrong (a value for the timer missing?).

Yes, in 'timer' mode you have to set the on/off blink rate (in
milliseconds)

echo timer > /sys/class/leds/power\:blue/
echo 2000 > /sys/class/leds/power\:blue/delay_on
echo 1000 > /sys/class/leds/power\:blue/delay_off

From your "nightly video" it seems that the delay_on/off timing
(airplane mode) is correct for the A1 board.

The disk-present leds behaviour (on when a disk is attached on rev-A1
boards) are probably as difficult to change as the network led.
At most I can consider disabling the airplane mode and turning the led
power off as an option in the "sysctrl setup" web page, although the
always blinking network led discourages me from doing it.

[Joao Cardoso]

Of course, after the disk leaves and reenters standby the airplane
mode returns... and when a USB disk/pen is inserted and a fsck is
performed, the power led will blink with a heat-beat pace and then
will be kept on...

[Herra Manala]

I would love an option for a full control because my blue led on left bay has worn out almost totally. You barely can see it unless its very dark. So if I could have more control over these leds I would put the amber led to flash on disk activity and the blue one solidly on just to indicate if the drive is active and spinning. If a drive has spun down I wouldn't want any leds indicating anything at all. The power led would be sufficient. My amber leds are still really bright, hell I didn't even know the box had those before I installed Alt-F. :D

-MrM

[João Cardoso]

On Saturday, January 4, 2014 8:30:33 PM UTC, Herra Manala wrote:

I would love an option for a full control because my blue led on left bay has worn out almost totally. You barely can see it unless its very dark. So if I could have more control over these leds I would put the amber led to flash on disk activity and the blue one solidly on just to indicate if the drive is active and spinning. If a drive has spun down I wouldn't want any leds indicating anything at all. The power led would be sufficient.

The only controllable leds are the two amber disk and the blue power led.

The blue network and blue disk leds are controlled by the disk and ethernet drivers themselves, which are a very complex peace of software and don't have a way to be user-level controlled.

My amber leds are still really bright, hell I didn't even know the box had those before I installed Alt-F. :D

You can always flash D-Link firmware back... 

The amber leds should only shortly flash once every three seconds when a disk is spun-down, or steady on with a degraded RAID array -- if that is the case you should fix it! Read the About Buttons and Leds sourceforge wiki, and seartch for leds under Tickets/Issues also at sourceforge.