newRPL: [UPDATED April 27-2017] Firmware for testing available for download

[Claudio L.]

(09-12-2016 11:50 PM)JDW Wrote:  When I flashed my 50g with newRPL (for the sake of fixing my SD card problem), I noticed that an icon flashes in the upper right corner all the time. But why? That takes CPU time. Why not kill the unneeded on-screen fluff and save even more current?

It's a heartbeat indicator, used for debugging, to know if the CPU crashed. As long as there's a heartbeat, the code is executing. It hardly takes any CPU to toggle the annunciator, but in any case it will be removed eventually, it's just a debugging aid for the time being.

(09-12-2016 11:50 PM)JDW Wrote:  Also, why are so many icons gray and flickering in newRPL? I looks more like a problem than a feature.

They are gray because it uses grayscale mode. Grayscale is done in hardware by cycling the pixels on/off according to a certain duty cycle. This is all hardwired in the LCD controller and I can't change it.
The flicker I guess depends on your eyes, the type of environment light you have and perhaps your hardware. I have 2 50g's and don't notice much flicker at all. Fluorescent light can make it more visible (as the light itself is flickering at 50 or 60 Hz depending on where you live, it causes interference between the light cycle). Incandescent, LED or sun light help reduce/eliminate the flicker.
But I use mine at the office all day with fluorescent lighting and don't notice any flicker at all. Is anybody else seeing excessive flicker?
Also, what do you mean by "icons"? There's only a couple of gray lines on the screen, but no icons at all. Indicators in the status area are all black (except for the new SD card indicator, it's the only gray one).