Samsung FN Key Details

Hi;

I decided to develop a software for Samsung 7 Series Notebook.
This software will be a replacement for Easy Settings in terms of Keyboard shortcuts.

I want to share my thoughts and knowledge, and I'd like you to contribute with your knowledge (pointing my mistakes, showing correct solutions or at least tips & suggestions)

Please Note That;
Things I've learned are based to my laptop usage (Acer Aspire 5920g & Samsung NP700-...)

I'm interested in software development, but not a huge fan of hardware programming.

I'm thinking using C++ or Java to make this software.
(Yeah Java requires JVM to run applications but this is not a problem for me)


Aim of this software :
---------------------
It lets user to enable | disable wifi / bluetooth / touchpad | adaptive brightness sensor

Also it lets user to change volume level, brightness level and keyboard backlit level

(Maybe) Custom Application Hotkeys for FN+F1 && FN+F12
(Maybe) OSD images (or at least Messages) will be shown when a function key is pressed.

It will not include express cache or fastboot options.
(Actually not for me because I'm using ocz v3 maxiops, don't need express cache at all, and I don't want to make it more complex)

Advantages of this software :
----------------------------

It will be open-source, I will share source code with everyone just in case they want to implement this on their own laptops (different brands | models)

It will be lightweight! If you ever checked Easy Settings folder, there are numerous files & folders and (~150MB) for a software which's main aim is to enable FN Hotkeys and turn on | turn of some hardware components.
(I don't want to talk about Registery !!!)

I hate that kind of software

I can't see future cleary yet, but I guess this software will probably like 2-3 mb and couple of files (including osg images)

Thoughts & Presumptions & Questions
------------------------------------

Please share your knowledge & thoughts with stating question number.
For e.g:

Q1) - True
Q2) - False. It's not working like this..

Q1)
While I'm using Acer 5920G, I can change my brightness level & turn on-off touchpad even in bios screen, or anywhere outside of operating system, or in linux. So I guess Acer has a hardware based FN+Function Keys System (Sorry, IDK how to name it properly )

But Chronos7 provide these only when Easy Settings is installed. So I presume FN+Function Keys System is software based in Samsung 7 Series.

Q2)
Software KeyListener System should work as something close to keyloggers, Easy Settings probably hook something to operating system and listens which keys | combinations are pressed. If any suitable key combinations are detected, It will do something ?

Q3)
Since (according to my assuming) FN+Combinations detected with software, (For eg fn+F3), It has to run a proper command to change brightness or at least send a signal to somewhere to perform necessary task.

Q4)
Changing brightness | sound level should be using commands or at least windows dlls.

Q5)
However changing keyboard backlit might be different from Q4. It may require to send special commands to a some device which is displayed on device manager.

Q6)
What kind of signals | commands are sent | run to accomplish these ?

This is it for now, please share if you have any ideas & thoughts.
Thank you and have a nice day!

 

Sorry if this may sound insulting, but with your questions I doubt you will accomplish what you intend to do since you seem to lack some pretty basic knowledge on how computers work on this level.

But I'll try to answer you in a basic way. But my knowledge might be a bit lacking since I haven't really hacked windows since pre-Vista and things might be done differently now.

Q1) It's both software based, but on different levels, where the Samsung 7 one
is a Windows program.

Q2) Well, even thou I am not 100% sure how this works in Windows 7, but you
should base it on events, not trying to override everything and log keystrokes.
A keylogger is basically the same thing, but on a different level. There are
good and bad ways of doing this.

Q3-Q6) It's most likely not a normal command you will be running, and it's most
likely not the same thing for the different items. All these items have different
drivers and you need to communicate with them directly via whatever API is
available for it. It may be easy or hard depending on the drivers.

Finding information on the API or whatever system they use may turn out to be
a pain and might even require reverse engineering.

 

I think you will be needing to work at quite a low level. If not to the BIOS itself, to the embedded controller level that the BIOS also talks to. Good luck.

John

 

@Luterin not insulting, don't worry i know it's really hard. but nonetheless i'll try it for sure (^^)

@John Ratsey Thank you. at weekend i'll try to reveal details as much as I can. and i'll share them

 

Then I wish you the very best and hope that you succeed!

 

Hey Luterin!

I tried something similar. I do not aim at replacing the whole Samsung easy settings, but I wanted to implement a faster method of switching the WiFi on and off. You may want to have a look at AutoHotKey (Autohotkey.com), it is a very powerful tool that allows to intercept the Fn+Fx keypresses and trigger user defined actions. I used the attached script and batch files (bat files go in C:\Windows\System32\) to implement a fast WiFi switch. It seems like a bad hack, but it gets the Job done in much less time than it even takes the samsung easy software bloatware to start, and you don't have to use your mouse, just press Fn+F12 to toggle between Wifi on and WiFi off in a matter of less than a second (actually, the popup indicating the WiFi state stays visible for 1 second).

I'm sure there are a lot of ways one could improve upon this, so if you want you can use it as a starting point. I will not put any more effort into it, as it does what I want it to, but one thing that comes to mind is that it does not trigger the Keyboard LED indicator for WiFi (which is anyway hardly noticeable , especially when backlight is switched on).

For this to work you will need autohotkey (obviously), DevCon (from Microsoft, but it is not redistributable, so all I can do is give you this link: How to Obtain the Current Version of Device Console Utility (DevCon.exe) - TechNet Articles - Home - TechNet Wiki ), network_wireless_on.ico and network_wireless_off.ico (found one on the internet and put a red cross over it in the Gimp for the off), and you need to set up a task in task scheduler to avoid the UAC prompt that would otherwise pop up when you attempt to run devcon (use this information: Elevated Program Shortcut without UAC Prompt - Create - Windows 7 Forums , name the task "Wifi Switch" and have it run wifi_switch.bat in windows\system32).

Hope this helps people who (like me) are annoyed with the stupid implementation of the WiFi switch on the Samsung laptops.

 

To me, I used the system tray icon to disable. Much faster than using keyboard.