Turning Kindle Fire Backlight off remotely

[simonmason]

I am getting ready to mount some Kindle Fire 7" units around the house.  I would like to be able to turn the backlight on or off remotely from homeseer or Allonis MyServer.  I achieved this on Apple iTouchs (that I am replacing with the Kindles) by using TerminalActivator - available through Cydia.  So far I haven't found something similar in the Android world?  Does anyone have any ideas?  Thanks.

 

[giesen]

I bet Tasker could handle this... If you've never used Tasker before, it's an automation platform for Android with hundreds of plugins to allow you to respond to events and then call actions.

One example I use it for is when my phone rings, Tasker reads the caller ID information and then makes a REST call to another instance of Tasker running on my Nvidia Shield TV to display the caller ID info onscreen.

Sent from my SM-N910W8 using Tapatalk

 

[simonmason]

Thanks, I have Tasker running but so far I can only dim it from 0 to 255.  At 0 the backlight is still on, it is only the screen brightness that is controllable.  Unfortunately this seems to be something that can only be done with rooting the device and there is no root for 5.3.2.1 Fire OS at present.

 

[giesen]

What about changing the screen timeout to something really low like 7 seconds

Sent from my SM-N910W8 using Tapatalk

 

[wuench]

I think this is normal for most tablets because they use lcd.   The monitor must remain on to be responsive to touch, and when on there is some light leakage on a lot of them.  I have the same issue on my GalaxyTab, you can only eliminate the glow by letting it turn the screen off, not the backlight.  But it may not respond to touches, you will need to press a button to wake it up.

 

[Darinqpfb]

I wonder if power is a factor. If you plug XIM4 into the console with nothing attached then only connect the keyboard does the backlight turn on?

 

[simonmason]

Thanks for the note.  I don't actually have a XIM4 so I can't test this.  I am however close to giving up on the Kindle for this particular use.  The lack of root has made it difficult to work with - and Tasker is unreliable with some of the functions.  So I am starting to look for other devices that will be much easier to control.