Well that's just stellar. I've been using https://github.com/fnesveda/ExternalDisplayBrightness on my Intel and sorely missing it for M1.
The journey to controlling external monitors on M1 Macs
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Re: The journey to controlling external monitors on M1 Macs
#12Does the gamma solution lower the power use like a proper brightness reduction? And if so, by the same amount?
Did you ever attempt to reach out to Apple about how this should be implemented on the new kernel? I would hope there's some forum for this kind of question still.
Re: The journey to controlling external monitors on M1 Macs
#13DDC is great - I remember saving a Samsung 193P monitor (no buttons and controlled by a proprietary driver that only worked on WinXP) that had its brightness set unusably low by its prior owner. I also remember someone using DDC scripts as a KVM solution by switching the monitor inputs programmatically.
Re: The journey to controlling external monitors on M1 Macs
#14great work!
> reading brightness, contrast or volume from the monitor fails about 30% of the time
I2C over long lengths of wire isn't the sturdiest physical layer... I would expect the low level I2C handlers to retry a few times on no ACK received, but a retry_count of 5 might resolve most of the issues around a bit flipping on its way through the wire :)
Re: The journey to controlling external monitors on M1 Macs
#15It's too bad people keep trying to use the M1 for power user tasks. The hardware shortcuts and proprietary implementations make using the machine in anything but factory use cases tedious if not infeasible. Being able to change the backlight intensity shouldn't have to be a major accomplishment with unfixable sporadic hardware bugs.
Re: The journey to controlling external monitors on M1 Macs
#16great work! > reading brightness, contrast or volume from the monitor fails about 30% of the time I2C over long lengths of wire isn't the sturdiest physical layer... I would expect the low level I2C handlers to retry a few times on no ACK received, but a retry_count of 5 might resolve most of the issues around a bit flipping on its way through the wire :)
Yes, retrying always fixes the problem. And for the purpose of getting the latest monitor values from time to time to keep the UI in sync, this suffices.
I'm more surprised that I2C works at all over the long, thin Thunderbolt cable of my LG. Huge bandwidth going through it for video and the USB hub, lots of current passing through for charging the MacBook at the same time, I'm amazed it works so well.
Re: The journey to controlling external monitors on M1 Macs
#17I haven't used Lunar (https://lunar.fyi/), the app the author built, but it looks fantastic! Clearly great effort has been put into it!
I really appreciate this class of application that exposes more hardware functionality to the end user. Flux (which may or may not be a direct competitor) is another great example, as is Halide, the pro camera app for iPhones. They're certainly not flashy, but they can be great quality-of-life improvements.
And they're difficult to write! They require using APIs that are often woefully under-documented, and terribly difficult to debug. I wanted to write an app that would slowly lower your device's volume over time (so you could raise the volume for a song that you like, but then not accidentally spend the next 30 minutes with the volume super loud), and even doing simple things like listing audio devices and getting their names was endlessly frustrating.
Re: The journey to controlling external monitors on M1 Macs
#18Great write-up and a fun read.
I was caught off guard by this note:
> the delivery guy called me about a laptop: the custom configured M1 MacBook Pro that costed as much as 7 junior developer monthly salaries has arrived!
I tried the MacBook Pro configurator and could only get up to $2300 USD (excluding optional software like Logic Pro). I’m sure the price and taxation are higher in the author’s country, but I still don’t understand how that could cost the equivalent of 7 months of junior developer salary anywhere.
Re: The journey to controlling external monitors on M1 Macs
#19It's too bad people keep trying to use the M1 for power user tasks. The hardware shortcuts and proprietary implementations make using the machine in anything but factory use cases tedious if not infeasible. Being able to change the backlight intensity shouldn't have to be a major accomplishment with unfixable sporadic hardware bugs.
Couldn't you say the same for any SoC? Or any non-free system?
Re: The journey to controlling external monitors on M1 Macs
#20It's too bad people keep trying to use the M1 for power user tasks. The hardware shortcuts and proprietary implementations make using the machine in anything but factory use cases tedious if not infeasible. Being able to change the backlight intensity shouldn't have to be a major accomplishment with unfixable sporadic hardware bugs.
It’s actually been a great experience for the most part. I certainly wouldn’t call it “tedious if not infeasible”.
It’s a new platform so I don’t expect every single feature of every piece of software to work on day 1, but I haven’t encountered anything show-stopping.
Not being able to adjust monitor brightness using a 3rd party tool for a few months until the developer adds the new hardware isn’t really the end of the world.