Power

Revision 9 as of 2010-09-04 15:34:15

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There should be a simple battery status menu replacing the panel applet displayed by gnome-power-manager. The rest of the gnome-power-manager interface should work as normal.

We also offer this design to KDE and Kubuntu developers as a possible replacement for the menu displayed by kpowersave.

Rationale

The battery status menu exists to indicate how much time you have left when a rechargeable thing (battery, UPS, mouse, iPod, Bluetooth phone, etc) is discharging, and conversely how much longer everything needs to fully charge.

Artwork requirements summary

icons.jpg

A total of 97 icons are needed, though 33 of these may be covered by only three distinct graphics (leaving a total of 67), and 60 others consist of 30 pairs that differ only in coloring.

(3✕) For each of {battery, mouse, generic device}, there should be:

  • (1) an icon for “running on AC”
  • (11) icons for “charging” at levels of charge from 0% to (nearly) 100%, in 10% increments (these might all be the same icon)
  • (10) icons for “discharging but not critical” at levels of charge from 10% to 100%, in 10% increments
  • (10) icons for “discharging and soon depleted” at levels of charge from 10% to 100%, in 10% increments.

There should also be (1) a generic battery icon, for use when a battery has been removed or when its charge level has not yet been determined.

Design

power-menu-no-brackets.jpg

When to show the menu

The “Power Management Preferences” window should be adjusted to a “Power Settings” window, with simpler options for when to display the power menu.

gnome-power-manager-before.png

gnome-power-manager-after.jpg

By default (regardless of any previous Gnome Power Manager setting), the setting should be “Whenever a chargeable device is present”. (If the menu disappeared whenever the thing was fully charged, this would make it difficult to realize that it was fully charged.)

Icons

icons.jpg

In both the menu title and the menu contents, a chargeable thing should be represented by an outline icon that most closely matches the component or device: a battery, a mouse, or a generic box.

If it is a battery that is either missing or of unknown charge level, it should use the generic battery icon.

If the thing is fully charged and not discharging, the icon interior should feature a plug emblem.

If it is discharging, the icon interior should be filled from left to right approximately as much as the remaining charge. If it has less than 30 minutes left, the fill should be red rather than black. (This coloring is deliberately time-based, not percentage-based; how much time you have left is more important than how long the battery can theoretically last.)

And if it is charging, the icon interior should feature a lightning bolt emblem. Depending on clarity and space available, the icon interior may also be filled from left to right approximately as much as the amount charged.

Title

The menu title should tell you at a glance what you need to know most: what will lose power soonest, or otherwise which thing will take longest to charge. (More detailed information can be accessed inside the menu itself.)

If the menu is set to “Whenever a chargeable device is present”, but the charge level has not yet been detected, the menu title should consist of a generic battery icon.

If all components are fully charged and none are discharging, the menu title should consist of a battery-with-a-plug icon, mouse-with-a-plug icon, or thingy-with-a-plug icon, depending on which components are present (using thingy-with-a-plug if there are zero or multiple chargeable components).

If anything is discharging, the menu title should consist of an icon representing the thing that is estimated to lose power first. For example, if your notebook battery is estimated to discharge in 1 hour 47 minutes, and your wireless mouse battery is estimated to discharge in 27 minutes, the menu title should appear as a mouse icon containing a red sliver.

If nothing is discharging, the menu title should consist of an icon representing the thing that is estimated to take longest to charge. For example, if your wireless mouse battery is estimated to finish charging in 48 minutes, and your UPS is estimated to finish charging in 1 hour 10 minutes, the menu title should appear as a UPS icon containing a lightning bolt.

Items

The menu should contain one item for each chargeable thing, a separator if there are any chargeable devices, and a “Power Settings…” item.

The order for chargeable things should be:

  1. any internal battery or batteries (if there is more than one, listed alphabetically in order of sysfs path, but not showing that sysfs path)
  2. any UPS
  3. any wireless mouse
  4. anything else.

The menu item for each chargeable thing should consist of three elements.

  1. The icon representing that thing.
  2. Text representing the name of the component (“Battery”, “Mouse”, “UPS”, “Alejandra’s iPod”, etc) and the charge status:

    • “X is charged” if it is fully charged and not discharging
    • “X (estimating…)” if it is charging or discharging, but an accurate time estimate cannot be made yet
    • “X H:MM until charged” if it is charging
    • “X” if it is discharging with 12 hours or more left
    • “X H:MM left” if it is discharging with less than 12 hours left.
    (We investigated showing this time as a table column, but it looked worse.)

Selecting the item for a chargeable component should open Gnome Power Manager’s “Device Information” window for that component. (A KDE implementation would open the “KPowersave Information Dialog”.)

The “Power Settings…” item should open the Power Settings window. (In a KDE implementation, it would open the “KPowersave Settings” window.)

Unfortunately the Linux kernel does not provide real-world identifiers for multiple batteries in a computer; they have only serial numbers, and labels of the form “BAT0” and “BAT1”. So we cannot show useful distinguishing labels like “Battery (front slot)” in the menu.

gnome-power-manager changes

gnome-power-manager should be altered so that it no longer presents its own notification area item or application indicator.

Handling upgrades

Since the previous gnome-power-manager menu is being removed at the same time as the new battery status menu is introduced, there are no upgrade considerations.

Implementation

  • Run along side the GNOME Power Manager
  • Patch GNOME Power Manager to not show its status icon irregardless of the GConf Key if the Power Menu is running.
  • Use the DevKit-Power and GPM DBus APIs to gather information on state of the system.

  • Major issue is testing all of the corner cases (hard to reproduce)
    • Need to write user runable tests (Wiki pages)
    • Feed into Ubuntu Testing Team

Comments

-- troy-sobotka 2010-06-29 17:45:21 I find the idea of a centralized battery / power monitor area quite quietly brilliant. Perhaps moreso if there is a way to integrate progressive eco-conscious / environmentally progressive elements into the design pattern. For a North American / European English speaking casual audience member, this appears to have a good chance of delivering to need. Kudos for the genesis of and interesting design starting point. What would really hammer this home is to step away from the reliance on menus and bring a whole new visually immersive element to the presentation.

-- davidthamm 7/5 >> Shame on hardware mf for making ubuntu dedicate a menu to them. May I suggest a logitech mx mouse that runs on AA's. The batteries last for months.

-- r.green 2024-03-28 11:52:27 I love this idea, integration with brightness controls and battery profiles (performance, powersaving etc) would be a great adition to the spec.

-- thjaeger I don't understand why the battery percentage is still not shown not that there's enough room for it: Remaining time estimates are woefully inaccurate to the point of being completely useless.