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authorAntonio Ospite <ospite@studenti.unina.it>2011-04-04 15:08:46 -0700
committerLinus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>2011-04-04 17:51:47 -0700
commit9a684e19afc630e0763246ee79c0578c1a8eaee8 (patch)
tree46637b603516deb789051f52a09cdf5830b5ac2a /Documentation/leds
parent9718269a7f5f6f3d723dd34e05269579a3ccfc1e (diff)
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Documentation: consolidate leds files to leds/ subdir
leds: move leds-class documentation under the leds/ subdir. Add also a leds/00-INDEX file describing the files under leds/ Signed-off-by: Antonio Ospite <ospite@studenti.unina.it> Acked-by: Richard Purdie <richard.purdie@linuxfoundation.org> Cc: Andrew Morton <akpm@linux-foundation.org> Signed-off-by: Randy Dunlap <randy.dunlap@oracle.com> Signed-off-by: Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org>
Diffstat (limited to 'Documentation/leds')
-rw-r--r--Documentation/leds/00-INDEX8
-rw-r--r--Documentation/leds/leds-class.txt97
-rw-r--r--Documentation/leds/leds-lp3944.txt50
3 files changed, 155 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/Documentation/leds/00-INDEX b/Documentation/leds/00-INDEX
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+leds-class.txt
+ - documents LED handling under Linux.
+leds-lp3944.txt
+ - notes on how to use the leds-lp3944 driver.
+leds-lp5521.txt
+ - notes on how to use the leds-lp5521 driver.
+leds-lp5523.txt
+ - notes on how to use the leds-lp5523 driver.
diff --git a/Documentation/leds/leds-class.txt b/Documentation/leds/leds-class.txt
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+
+LED handling under Linux
+========================
+
+If you're reading this and thinking about keyboard leds, these are
+handled by the input subsystem and the led class is *not* needed.
+
+In its simplest form, the LED class just allows control of LEDs from
+userspace. LEDs appear in /sys/class/leds/. The maximum brightness of the
+LED is defined in max_brightness file. The brightness file will set the brightness
+of the LED (taking a value 0-max_brightness). Most LEDs don't have hardware
+brightness support so will just be turned on for non-zero brightness settings.
+
+The class also introduces the optional concept of an LED trigger. A trigger
+is a kernel based source of led events. Triggers can either be simple or
+complex. A simple trigger isn't configurable and is designed to slot into
+existing subsystems with minimal additional code. Examples are the ide-disk,
+nand-disk and sharpsl-charge triggers. With led triggers disabled, the code
+optimises away.
+
+Complex triggers whilst available to all LEDs have LED specific
+parameters and work on a per LED basis. The timer trigger is an example.
+The timer trigger will periodically change the LED brightness between
+LED_OFF and the current brightness setting. The "on" and "off" time can
+be specified via /sys/class/leds/<device>/delay_{on,off} in milliseconds.
+You can change the brightness value of a LED independently of the timer
+trigger. However, if you set the brightness value to LED_OFF it will
+also disable the timer trigger.
+
+You can change triggers in a similar manner to the way an IO scheduler
+is chosen (via /sys/class/leds/<device>/trigger). Trigger specific
+parameters can appear in /sys/class/leds/<device> once a given trigger is
+selected.
+
+
+Design Philosophy
+=================
+
+The underlying design philosophy is simplicity. LEDs are simple devices
+and the aim is to keep a small amount of code giving as much functionality
+as possible. Please keep this in mind when suggesting enhancements.
+
+
+LED Device Naming
+=================
+
+Is currently of the form:
+
+"devicename:colour:function"
+
+There have been calls for LED properties such as colour to be exported as
+individual led class attributes. As a solution which doesn't incur as much
+overhead, I suggest these become part of the device name. The naming scheme
+above leaves scope for further attributes should they be needed. If sections
+of the name don't apply, just leave that section blank.
+
+
+Hardware accelerated blink of LEDs
+==================================
+
+Some LEDs can be programmed to blink without any CPU interaction. To
+support this feature, a LED driver can optionally implement the
+blink_set() function (see <linux/leds.h>). To set an LED to blinking,
+however, it is better to use use the API function led_blink_set(),
+as it will check and implement software fallback if necessary.
+
+To turn off blinking again, use the API function led_brightness_set()
+as that will not just set the LED brightness but also stop any software
+timers that may have been required for blinking.
+
+The blink_set() function should choose a user friendly blinking value
+if it is called with *delay_on==0 && *delay_off==0 parameters. In this
+case the driver should give back the chosen value through delay_on and
+delay_off parameters to the leds subsystem.
+
+Setting the brightness to zero with brightness_set() callback function
+should completely turn off the LED and cancel the previously programmed
+hardware blinking function, if any.
+
+
+Known Issues
+============
+
+The LED Trigger core cannot be a module as the simple trigger functions
+would cause nightmare dependency issues. I see this as a minor issue
+compared to the benefits the simple trigger functionality brings. The
+rest of the LED subsystem can be modular.
+
+
+Future Development
+==================
+
+At the moment, a trigger can't be created specifically for a single LED.
+There are a number of cases where a trigger might only be mappable to a
+particular LED (ACPI?). The addition of triggers provided by the LED driver
+should cover this option and be possible to add without breaking the
+current interface.
diff --git a/Documentation/leds/leds-lp3944.txt b/Documentation/leds/leds-lp3944.txt
new file mode 100644
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+++ b/Documentation/leds/leds-lp3944.txt
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+Kernel driver lp3944
+====================
+
+ * National Semiconductor LP3944 Fun-light Chip
+ Prefix: 'lp3944'
+ Addresses scanned: None (see the Notes section below)
+ Datasheet: Publicly available at the National Semiconductor website
+ http://www.national.com/pf/LP/LP3944.html
+
+Authors:
+ Antonio Ospite <ospite@studenti.unina.it>
+
+
+Description
+-----------
+The LP3944 is a helper chip that can drive up to 8 leds, with two programmable
+DIM modes; it could even be used as a gpio expander but this driver assumes it
+is used as a led controller.
+
+The DIM modes are used to set _blink_ patterns for leds, the pattern is
+specified supplying two parameters:
+ - period: from 0s to 1.6s
+ - duty cycle: percentage of the period the led is on, from 0 to 100
+
+Setting a led in DIM0 or DIM1 mode makes it blink according to the pattern.
+See the datasheet for details.
+
+LP3944 can be found on Motorola A910 smartphone, where it drives the rgb
+leds, the camera flash light and the lcds power.
+
+
+Notes
+-----
+The chip is used mainly in embedded contexts, so this driver expects it is
+registered using the i2c_board_info mechanism.
+
+To register the chip at address 0x60 on adapter 0, set the platform data
+according to include/linux/leds-lp3944.h, set the i2c board info:
+
+ static struct i2c_board_info __initdata a910_i2c_board_info[] = {
+ {
+ I2C_BOARD_INFO("lp3944", 0x60),
+ .platform_data = &a910_lp3944_leds,
+ },
+ };
+
+and register it in the platform init function
+
+ i2c_register_board_info(0, a910_i2c_board_info,
+ ARRAY_SIZE(a910_i2c_board_info));
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