Custom MagSafe indicator light

[gandandev]

It would be great if I could customize the MagSafe indicator light color, such as green when fully charged to the maximum charge limit or amber during charging.

[ulrichloose]

I think you should largely follow the usual original: Loading (no matter up to what percentage) = orange without flashing. It is simply indicated that it is loading, up to what percentage does not matter.

Charging status 100% reached = green without flashing. This would correspond to the original.

The really new state "User charge level reached + charging stopped" should be indicated by flashing the green LED. Since a "blinking" from my point of view always has the attribute "attention is necessary" and the blinking bothers (me), I would find it nicer, you could turn the simple flashing into a "heartbeat" or even better a decongestant green light like the white LED of the old Macbooks at the time.

Of course, I don't know if this is technically possible...

On this occasion, I would also have a suggestion for improvement: A timer that charges the battery up to 100% once a week, regardless of the settings. This seems important so that the Mac can get an idea of the "health" of the battery. With my Android smartphone, for example, the 80% charge is offered from the factory and it is forced to charge to 100% once a week.

[mhaeuser]

@ulrichloose No, this is not possible, the blinking is handled by the SMC firmware, not in software. Also I don’t feel like static while charging but blinking while not is very intuitive - right now the blinking motion indicates an action and color a state. Stopped charging is not new by the way, as Apple Optimized Charging does the same thing, and in fact it just remains static orange, so you just can’t distinguish between charging and charging on hold.

Periodically charging to 100 % makes sense and Apple also does this (but they’re more sophisticated nowadays than other manufacturers), but only when you can automatically drain back down to the user-specified level (Apple actually does this now). I don’t (yet) know how to do this seamlessly and I don’t have the time to research it either, unfortunately.

I’m not sure for how much longer this tool will be needed anyway, as Apple is clearly working on a GUI limiter like on iOS and personally, my use-case is mostly covered by Optimized Charging now.

[gandandev]

The main purpose of this app is to enforce a charging limit. For example, if the limit is set to 80%, the battery should be considered "fully charged" once it reaches that threshold.

I think it would be clearer if the charging status was shown as:

• Orange while charging toward the limit
• Green once the limit is reached and the battery is being held

This way, the colors consistently reflect the charging state within the set limit.

[mhaeuser]

@gandandev You’re not the first to suggest this, I’m aware of this opinion. But I will not change the default to be objectively less expressive. Whether there will be a toggle some time - maybe, but I can’t dedicate much time to the tool right now.

[gandandev]

Got it, thanks for clarifying. A toggle in the future would be perfect, but I get that priorities and time are limited.