Please give us a user-defined color temperature scheduler!

phase_delay

Hello,

I have been trying the most current beta of f.lux, and for me, it is just as uncomfortable to use as the previous version. I have to adjust the levers manually all even though I follow the same pattern every day. I have the impression that f.lux tries to "know everything better" and does not give me the control I would like to have when defining an automatic schedule. Everybody has a different schedule and different preferences. Why can't you just give us a simple scheduler? I want to keep my rhythm independent of sunset data outside, and I want f.lux to take into account my needs as a DSPD patient. DPSD sufferers are likely a major group of f.lux users, yet it seems impossible to set f.lux to a setting adequate for this purpose.

( @f-lux-team, this is an improved version of the e-mail I sent you yesterday. )

For example, decent configuration options could look like this:

"Please enter your preferred color temperature for each time period, and also indicated how fast you would like transitions to take place:

1.) choose up to 10 periods and their corresponding color temperatures, and choose the duration of each transition:
(0.25,0.5, 1,2,5,10,15,30,45,60 minutes) (FYI, 0.25=15 seconds)

(e.g.)

00:00-01:00 3400K 90% brightness
transition: 30 (i.e., transition to " 2.. " )
01:00-02:00 1900K, 80% brightness
transition: 30
02:00-09:00 1200K, 50% brightness
transition: 30
09:00-18:00 6500K, 100%
transition: 15
18:00-20:00 6000K 100%
transition: 15
20:00-21:00 5500K 100%
transition: 15
21:00-22:00 5000K 100%
transition: 15
23:00-00:00 4200K 90%
transition: 30
------ - ------ (not used in this example)
------ - ------ (not used in this example)

Bonus option: Quickly set all transitions to [choose minutes]. [OK]

2.) Daylight Saving Time Options:

Stay in Daylight Saving Time for the whole year [ ]
Stay in Non-Daylight Saving Time for the whole year [ ]

--

Some general remarks:

The above example of lighting is for me, a DSPD patient with sleeping hours from 03:00 till 11:00.
Note that there are additional color settings (5500K etc.). This is really important. I want to be able
to set colors more exactly. The differences (in K) between the current options are too large!
Only full hours should be selectable (e.g. 14:00 - 17:00), not 14:30 - 17:00) to keep things simple.
A setting of "30 minute transition" means that the transition will start 15 before the new setting's time
and end 15 after the new setting's time. For example, it will start to dim at 21:45 and end to dim at 22:15, when
it will have reached 4200K.

And there should be the following two menu items for the tray icon menu:

"Ignore currently active color temperature and set color to [ select K ] for [ minutes ], then transition to the color defined in options at the time, within [ ] minutes."

The choices should be saved in the menu dialog, so the next time user uses this option, the same setting will appear as a pre-set. Or alternatively,
the user should be able to define the pre-set for the above dialogue.

As to the second menu item, it should be:

"Increase/decrease the currently active color temperature by [ select K ] for [ minutes ], then transition to the color defined in options at the time, within [ ] minutes."

The options for K should look like this:

...5000K
-1500K
-1000K
-500K
0 (default)
500K
..
5000K

Obviously, 1200K and 9200K (or s.th. like this) should be the upper / bottom limits.

If a new setting will occur later in time, according to schedule, the user-requested temporary modification should also apply to this, of course. I.e., if the user has set 4000K for 11:00 - 14:00, and 6000K for 14-18, and he chooses at 13:30 to increase K by 500, for 2 hours, then both the 4000K and 6000K settings should be affected, of course, during that time.

--

Important: Dear f.lux users and forum users, if you too would love these manual schedule options to be implemented, please voice your support by upvoting (up arrow just above the "sort by" button (bottom right)), or by replying to this thread in the affirmative. Thank you.

And sorry for grammatical mistakes, I'm not a native speaker obviously.

herf

Yes we have something like this in the works, but it's not exactly like you describe.

Our main focus is to let you dial in a non-visual stimulus while giving flexibility over appearance. We don't think these two are connected as much as people think, so this is more complicated than it looks.

Similarly, we don't think fixed schedules are a very good idea, because people vary so much by the seasons. Whether or not you want to pay attention to the sun, your body pays a lot of attention -- it is by far the brightest light source around.

Hope more to show later this year.

phase_delay

Thanks for your reply.

Precisely because people are very different, flux needs maximum flexibility (fluxibility;-).

So, I'll try again: Would you then please consider giving users a command line feature?
This would allow users to do exactly what I suggested, it would be easy for you to implement
and it would not show up in the settings at all.

Basically it would look like this:

flux.exe -color 1900K -transition fast

This would change color temperature to 1900K, with fast transition, and keeps it there until a new command is given.

Here are the needed switches:

-color
... 1900K (and any other value)
... darkroom

-transition
... fast
... slow
... medium
... 25 (and any other value, in minutes; transition starts when command is given, obviously)

-ignore (ignore mode will ignore all commands for the specified time unless they contain the command "-ignore off"):
... 60 (minutes, any value)
... off (immediately switches off ignore mode)

e.g. -color 4200K -transition 25 -ignore 60
e.g. -color 3600K -transition 20 -ignore off

-brightness (flux integrated brightness, not windows power settings display brightness)
... 10/20/30.../90/100.

e.g. flux.exe -color 4200K -brightness 90 -transition 25 -ignore 60

-off

:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::

switches off all and any previously given command line commands, and does whatever is set in
the flux interface. Likewise, any command given on the command line will overwrite the flux
interface (instead of an -off switch, you could also give a checkbox "use command line" within the
interface).

Scheduling could be implemented with third party programs.

By the way, I have no idea how flux is supposed to work in Northern Europe or Canada. In fact, if anything,
flux should be doing the opposite of what nature/the sun is doing there, to counteract the effects of
excessive sunlight/darkness. But as I said, there are lots of reasons why people will want all kinds
of schedules that are unpredictable for the flux.team, so the command line will offer a tool / Swiss army knife
"to rule them all".

I'll be happy to support this with 25 Euros and hope others will, too (please post).

Thanks.

TwoCables

What I do is, I just delete the f.lux entry in the Registry that makes it start with Windows. This way, I simply launch f.lux when I want f.lux. I'd like to tell you where the key is, but I'm sure that's best kept to private messages.

I keep all 3 f.lux modes set to 800K so that I get 800K regardless of when I launch f.lux. I require a melatonin supplement (3mg) to sleep properly, and so this works perfectly.

So, when I know I will want to be sleeping in 2-3 hours, I lower my monitor's brightness all the way and then I launch f.lux (or I launch f.lux first, it doesn't matter). I also change all my indoor lighting to blue-free light (red and orange/amber). Then, about 10-15 minutes before going to bed, I take my melatonin and then I'm all set.

With the way I do it, I don't need a scheduler or anything like that.

So yeah, I bypass all of f.lux's automatic operations completely.