LED Diagnostic Indications

[Just Another Joe]

Hello João, First, thank you for Alt-F!

Regarding diagnostic indicators using the LEDs, you have done very well.  While pressing the power button, giving blinking yellow right-left sequence, and different actions based on when the button is released, is very functional.

BUT, when the drives spin down, having the right-left Disk LEDs (and the Power LED!) repeatedly blink yellow is VERY distracting for me, and I think non-intuitive as well.  Please let me explain:

The standard with the D-Link firmware is thus:

Power Button:  Solid, bright blue when unit is powered and awake; blinking bright blue when unit is booting or shutting down; dim blue when unit is asleep (discs spun down); off when unit powered down.  Never yellow; in fact, I didn't even know the power button could show yellow, until Alt-F installed.

Intuitive, since the large, square power button is always lit when the unit is powered (whether dim or bright depending on sleep or wake), while also giving sleep/wake indication, and never BLINKING (distracting) during normal use (only during boot/shutdown).

Alt-F:  mostly the same, except OFF when unit is asleep (non-intuitive; doesn't give indication that unit is powered up), and BLINKING YELLOW (extremelly distracting) when disks are spun down; non-intuitive, since yellow (and rythmic blinking also) is normally used as a fault indication (disk degraded); disks spun down shouldn't normally be considered a fault.

Activity (Network) LED:  Solid blue when connected to network, blinks with network traffic.

Intuitive, since gives indication both of network connectivity, and of network traffic.  Intuitive also, since it uses the same indications as other network LEDs, such as on routers/switches/NICs.

Alt-F:  the same; excellent.

Right/Left Disk LEDs:  Solid blue when drive spun up; blinking blue when drive is accessed; off when drive is spun down; yellow fault indication (disk degraded).

Intuitive, since, once again (like Network LED), it is solid on when connected (spun up), and blinking with traffic (access); matches other indicators.

Alt-F:  OFF when disk spun up (non-intuitive; opposite of other indicators); blinking when disk accessed (good); BLINKING YELLOW when disk spun down (as already stated above, yellow is normally a fault indication, and spin down shouldn't be considered a fault, and blinking is very distracting).

To summarize, ON should indicate powered-on/connected/spun-up (this is more-or-less a standard), blinking should indicate traffic/access (this is more-or-less a standard), yellow (and blinking yellow) should be reserved for fault indications (could be used for several different faults, when solid or blinking, and combined with solid or blinking yellow of power button).

In short, while Alt-F is amazing, and has improved upon and overcome some shortcomings of the D-Link firmware, not everything about the D-Link firmware was bad/incorrect.  PLEASE consider returning the LED indicators to those used by the D-Link firmware, as described above, while still maintaining your excellent diagnostics as mentioned in the opening paragraph.

BTW, I know you have a sticky post saying to post bug reports and feature requests in the tickets area; I checked that area and found only bug reports, no feature requests.  However, I would be happy to post this there, if you like.

[João Cardoso]

On Saturday, March 1, 2014 9:17:02 PM UTC, Just Another Joe wrote:

Hello João, First, thank you for Alt-F!

Regarding diagnostic indicators using the LEDs, you have done very well.  While pressing the power button, giving blinking yellow right-left sequence, and different actions based on when the button is released, is very functional.

BUT, when the drives spin down, having the right-left Disk LEDs (and the Power LED!) repeatedly blink yellow is VERY distracting for me, and I think non-intuitive as well.  Please let me explain:

The standard with the D-Link firmware is thus:

Power Button:  Solid, bright blue when unit is powered and awake; blinking bright blue when unit is booting or shutting down; dim blue when unit is asleep (discs spun down); off when unit powered down.  Never yellow; in fact, I didn't even know the power button could show yellow, until Alt-F installed.

Intuitive, since the large, square power button is always lit when the unit is powered (whether dim or bright depending on sleep or wake), while also giving sleep/wake indication, and never BLINKING (distracting) during normal use (only during boot/shutdown).

Alt-F:  mostly the same, except OFF when unit is asleep (non-intuitive; doesn't give indication that unit is powered up),

isn't the network led on?

 

and BLINKING YELLOW

didn't know that. What's your hardware board rev? A1/B1/c1 (look at the box bottom label)

 

(extremelly distracting) when disks are spun down; non-intuitive, since yellow (and rythmic blinking also) is normally used as a fault indication (disk degraded); disks spun down shouldn't normally be considered a fault.

Activity (Network) LED:  Solid blue when connected to network, blinks with network traffic.

Intuitive, since gives indication both of network connectivity, and of network traffic.  Intuitive also, since it uses the same indications as other network LEDs, such as on routers/switches/NICs.

Alt-F:  the same; excellent.

Right/Left Disk LEDs:  Solid blue when drive spun up; blinking blue when drive is accessed; off when drive is spun down; yellow fault indication (disk degraded).

Intuitive, since, once again (like Network LED), it is solid on when connected (spun up), and blinking with traffic (access); matches other indicators.

Alt-F:  OFF when disk spun up

(non-intuitive; opposite of other indicators); blinking when disk accessed (good); BLINKING YELLOW

But this blinking should be very short, three seconds off, 0.1 sec on; when RAID is degraded, they should be solid amber.

 

when disk spun down (as already stated above, yellow is normally a fault indication, and spin down shouldn't be considered a fault, and blinking is very distracting).

To summarize, ON should indicate powered-on/connected/spun-up (this is more-or-less a standard), blinking should indicate traffic/access (this is more-or-less a standard), yellow (and blinking yellow) should be reserved for fault indications (could be used for several different faults, when solid or blinking, and combined with solid or blinking yellow of power button).

In short, while Alt-F is amazing, and has improved upon and overcome some shortcomings of the D-Link firmware, not everything about the D-Link firmware was bad/incorrect.  PLEASE consider returning the LED indicators to those used by the D-Link firmware, as described above, while still maintaining your excellent diagnostics as mentioned in the opening paragraph.

BTW, I know you have a sticky post saying to post bug reports and feature requests in the tickets area; I checked that area and found only bug reports, no feature requests.  However, I would be happy to post this there, if you like.

Look at the Tickets menu, it drop down as 

Bug Reports

Package Request

Feature Requests

Old Issues

This has been covered several times, please search the forum and the Tickets/Old Issues. Different users have different needs and views about this.

There is a bug in RC3 regarding the power led, you might want to try the recently released RC4 Snapshot (in TryIt or FlashIt mode)

In short, I have a rev-B1 box and it looks fine for me. Alt-F doesn't control the blue disk/network led, it's the the disk/network device driver that does that, and they are a very complex piece of software which I'm not familiarised with.

[François Blackburn]

Le samedi 1 mars 2014 16:17:02 UTC-5, Just Another Joe a écrit :

Power Button:  Solid, bright blue when unit is powered and awake; blinking bright blue when unit is booting or shutting down; dim blue when unit is asleep (discs spun down); off when unit powered down.  Never yellow; in fact, I didn't even know the power button could show yellow, until Alt-F installed.

Intuitive, since the large, square power button is always lit when the unit is powered (whether dim or bright depending on sleep or wake), while also giving sleep/wake indication, and never BLINKING (distracting) during normal use (only during boot/shutdown).

Alt-F:  mostly the same, except OFF when unit is asleep (non-intuitive; doesn't give indication that unit is powered up), and BLINKING YELLOW (extremelly distracting) when disks are spun down; non-intuitive, since yellow (and rythmic blinking also) is normally used as a fault indication (disk degraded); disks spun down shouldn't normally be considered a fault.

Are you sure that the blinking yellow of power button isn't a reflection of the disks LED? As for me, it is because disk LED is very strong. (You can remove the front panel to see it)

[Just Another Joe]

  Yes, you are correct.  The Disk LEDs (especially when yellow) are very bright, and are reflecting in the bezel of the Power LED!

[François Blackburn]

Enjoy with aluminum foil :P

[Just Another Joe]

On Sunday, March 2, 2014 8:45:05 AM UTC-6, João Cardoso wrote:

On Saturday, March 1, 2014 9:17:02 PM UTC, Just Another Joe wrote:

Hello João, First, thank you for Alt-F!

Regarding diagnostic indicators using the LEDs, you have done very well.  While pressing the power button, giving blinking yellow right-left sequence, and different actions based on when the button is released, is very functional.

BUT, when the drives spin down, having the right-left Disk LEDs (and the Power LED!) repeatedly blink yellow is VERY distracting for me, and I think non-intuitive as well.  Please let me explain:

The standard with the D-Link firmware is thus:

Power Button:  Solid, bright blue when unit is powered and awake; blinking bright blue when unit is booting or shutting down; dim blue when unit is asleep (discs spun down); off when unit powered down.  Never yellow; in fact, I didn't even know the power button could show yellow, until Alt-F installed.

Intuitive, since the large, square power button is always lit when the unit is powered (whether dim or bright depending on sleep or wake), while also giving sleep/wake indication, and never BLINKING (distracting) during normal use (only during boot/shutdown).

Alt-F:  mostly the same, except OFF when unit is asleep (non-intuitive; doesn't give indication that unit is powered up),

isn't the network led on?

The Network LED is on, if and only if the NAS is connected to the network.  The ON/OFF status of the Network LED is intended to indicate connection status (blinking to indicate network activity).  Therefore, the Network LED cannot be used as a power indicator.

 

and BLINKING YELLOW

didn't know that. What's your hardware board rev? A1/B1/c1 (look at the box bottom label)

Rev B1.  As Francois pointed out, the power button is reflecting the yellow Disk LEDs, because they are bright, so please ignore that part.

 

(extremelly distracting) when disks are spun down; non-intuitive, since yellow (and rythmic blinking also) is normally used as a fault indication (disk degraded); disks spun down shouldn't normally be considered a fault.

Activity (Network) LED:  Solid blue when connected to network, blinks with network traffic.

Intuitive, since gives indication both of network connectivity, and of network traffic.  Intuitive also, since it uses the same indications as other network LEDs, such as on routers/switches/NICs.

Alt-F:  the same; excellent.

Right/Left Disk LEDs:  Solid blue when drive spun up; blinking blue when drive is accessed; off when drive is spun down; yellow fault indication (disk degraded).

Intuitive, since, once again (like Network LED), it is solid on when connected (spun up), and blinking with traffic (access); matches other indicators.

Alt-F:  OFF when disk spun up

(non-intuitive; opposite of other indicators); blinking when disk accessed (good); BLINKING YELLOW

But this blinking should be very short, three seconds off, 0.1 sec on; when RAID is degraded, they should be solid amber.

Whatever the duration, the Yellow LEDs are very bright and, when blinking, very distracting.

 

when disk spun down (as already stated above, yellow is normally a fault indication, and spin down shouldn't be considered a fault, and blinking is very distracting).

To summarize, ON should indicate powered-on/connected/spun-up (this is more-or-less a standard), blinking should indicate traffic/access (this is more-or-less a standard), yellow (and blinking yellow) should be reserved for fault indications (could be used for several different faults, when solid or blinking, and combined with solid or blinking yellow of power button).

In short, while Alt-F is amazing, and has improved upon and overcome some shortcomings of the D-Link firmware, not everything about the D-Link firmware was bad/incorrect.  PLEASE consider returning the LED indicators to those used by the D-Link firmware, as described above, while still maintaining your excellent diagnostics as mentioned in the opening paragraph.

BTW, I know you have a sticky post saying to post bug reports and feature requests in the tickets area; I checked that area and found only bug reports, no feature requests.  However, I would be happy to post this there, if you like.

Look at the Tickets menu, it drop down as 

Bug Reports

Package Request

Feature Requests

Old Issues

Found; thank you for pointing out.  Have reviewed previous posts on subject.

This has been covered several times, please search the forum and the Tickets/Old Issues. Different users have different needs and views about this.

Yes, see different opinions.  In one thread, titled "More LED Control" you mentioned the possibility of setting up options so that the use could control the LED blinking, etc.  I had thought that might be too much to hope for, but if you could make some configuration options that would allow the user to select things such as "When spun down, disk LED a) turns off, b) blinks" and "When spun up, disk LED is a) On, and blinks with access, b) Off, and blinks with access" and "When both disks are spun down, power LED is a) on bright, b) on dim, c) off", it would hopefully make all users happy.

There is a bug in RC3 regarding the power led, you might want to try the recently released RC4 Snapshot (in TryIt or FlashIt mode)

In short, I have a rev-B1 box and it looks fine for me. Alt-F doesn't control the blue disk/network led, it's the the disk/network device driver that does that, and they are a very complex piece of software which I'm not familiarised with.

 Thank you for your consideration!