Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Monitor Control (EXE) Discussion

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

    Monitor Control (EXE) Discussion

    I did not see a discussion area for Dale's script/.exe so I started this one so I could say THANK YOU! That is a fantastic little program Dale! I now use is as part of my goodnight macro and it puts my monitors in powerdown/stand by mode! I used to have to use a appliance module on each of the monitors and cut the power to them manually. I have also put a motion sensor facing my computer chair, when I move close enough to it, or sit down, I use it to send the power on command to the monitor.

    Fantastic work! Thanks again!

    - "Home automation is no longer a thing of the future"
    Visit My Home Seer Site at:
    www.JohnWPB.com
    Created with LCARS

    #2
    Thanks Dale,and to John for starting this. I did a few test events and things work great. I will post more when I get a chance to really test it out.

    Peace,

    Dave

    Comment


      #3
      Thanks Dale for your help as well.

      I had the same set up as John and now I can trigger event to shut down my wall-mounted LCD at night. It's been working great.

      One little thing I haven't figured out though. I use 2 LCD panels throughout the house to control HS and showing off pictures when not in use. They're also controlled by motion sensors. At the moment, I can wake up LCDs when motion detected, and shuts off 15 mins after last detected. What I'd like to do is whenever the LCD panel is going into sleep mode, it shuts off the screensaver and when the LCD wakes up, it enables the screensaver.

      This way, I can save a lot of disk activities as I use them to play music and I use AirPanel to control them. I also run backup at night so if I can avoid running screensaver when not necessary, that'd be great.

      Any idea would be much appreciated.

      Initially I had problem running the exe to a networked PC and Dale helped me through email, that was great and much appreciated.

      Simon

      Comment


        #4
        <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR> They're also controlled by motion sensors. At the moment, I can wake up LCDs when motion detected, and shuts off 15 mins after last detected. What I'd like to do is whenever the LCD panel is going into sleep mode, it shuts off the screensaver and when the LCD wakes up, it enables the screensaver.
        <HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

        You mentioned that you have the .exe working through the network... that is 90% of the battle. I am sure when motion is detected by the motion sensor, you trigger an event that in turn activates the monitor, or put's it to sleep. From what I can tell from your setup, all you have to do is also execute the .exe when motion is detected, and turn on the screen saver. When the 15 minutes is up, have that trigger the .exe and turn off the screen saver. This is my best guess as I do not know how you are controlling everything precisely.

        I have broken the .exe commands into 4 SMALL scripts that I can call from another script, an event ect One for each of the 4 modes the .exe has. Below is the one I use to put the monitor in standby mode for example:
        &lt;P&gt;
        Dim strAppPath
        Dim strEXEPath

        strAppPath = hs.GetAppPath
        If (Right(strAppPath, 1) &lt;&gt; "\") Then strAppPath = strAppPath & "\"

        strEXEPath = strAppPath & "MonitorCtrl.exe"


        hs.Launch strEXEPath, "/p_off", ""
        &lt;P&gt;&lt;BR&gt;
        You can then call that script from the "Run Event" tab of the Event that you are using to react when motion is detected ect.
        &lt;BR&gt;
        I hope this helps!

        - "Home automation is no longer a thing of the future"
        Visit My Home Seer Site at:
        www.JohnWPB.com
        Created with LCARS

        Comment


          #5
          Hi John,

          Thanks for getting back to me. You're correct about the way I set them up to turn on/off panels. It seems to work okay but as you can see, every time it sees motion, it runs the exe. If it keeps turning on the monitor is fine as once it's on, it's on. However, if I include to trigger the screensaver along with monitor on, this will keep resetting the screensaver.

          I have webshots to show pictures and it takes good 15 seconds to start. If I keep walking in the room, it gets stuck in the loop of starting up the screensaver.

          If I can get this solved, then I can disable run screensaver after x min and just run it whenever I like it.

          If anyone in interested in controlling other monitors in the LAN, you can use Message Server and the latest beta allows you to pass through variables.

          Dale helped me before passing variable is possible with Message Server and he sent me 4 individual files for monitor on/off, screensaver start/stop instead of using a switch at the end.

          Thanks,

          Simon

          Comment


            #6
            I noticed that my monitor would not come on sometimes when I hit the button to turn on the monitor. What I found was: I used the Control Panel/Power Options, on the Power Schemes tab.

            The first pull down menu is set to "HOME/OFFICE DESK" the second pull down (Turn off monitor) is set to "NEVER". If I set any time interval here to turn off the monitor, then the "MonitorCtrl.exe /p_on" will not turn it on.

            After discussing this with Dale he explained that the "Control Panel/Power Options" timer will remain expired. And when the "MonitorCtrl.exe /p_on" is executed, the monitor will actually try to turn on, but because the "Control Panel/Power Options" timer is still expired it will turn right back off. Dale designed it this way in order to turn on the monitor, but keep the screen saver active.

            If you want to wake the computer and deactivate the screen saver you could try "&hs.Keys" to send any keystroke from a HomeSeer event.

            Here are some old threads on the subject:

            Monitor control

            And Another

            Well that's all folks

            Rick

            Comment


              #7
              I've been looking for a utility to turn my monitor back on based on certain events. MonitorCtrl works great. However, I've noticed that each time MonitorCtrl is executed, that an additional instance of MonitorCtrl is started.

              I'm using WinXP Home, each time I execute MonitorCtrl, a new entry is shown in the "Applications" tab of Task Manager. Eventually, each entry shows a status of "Not Responding", and each subsequent execution MonitorCtrl just adds to the list (I had 12 individual entries of MonitorCtrl in Task Manager, and had to use "End Process" for each one).

              Has anyone else had this problem, or did I do something wrong. I have a script triggered by my Talking Caller ID software each time the phone rings, to turn my monitor on so that I can see the caller information. The single entry in this script is "MonitorCtrl.exe /p_on"

              Thanks,
              Jerry

              Comment


                #8
                Jerry,

                You're not alone with this problem. However, in my case, they start to show up after a day not rebooting the computer.

                Once these programs are piling up, it eventually slows down my PC to a stall and I have to reboot. I'm running Windows 2003 Server on this box.

                Thanks,

                Simon

                Comment


                  #9
                  Check out Wizmo (http://www.grc.com/wizmo/wizmo.htm)

                  ---
                  http://www.CocoonTech.com
                  HSPRO 2.4 (ESXi 4.1) | my.Alert NEW | my.Trigger | HSTouch | ACRF2 | UltraM1G | BLWeather | BLLan | Rover
                  (aka xplosiv)
                  Do You Cocoon? Home Automation News, Tutorials, Reviews, Forums & Chat

                  Comment


                    #10
                    At least this is what happens to HS when the DCOM config is not correct. It's either that or the exe is not shutting itself down after issuing a command. Has anyone contacted Dale?

                    -Rupp

                    What hair color do they put on the driver's licenses of bald men?
                    💁‍♂️ Support & Customer Service 🙋‍♂️ Sales Questions 🛒 Shop HomeSeer Products

                    Comment


                      #11
                      I did check out the wizmo utility, but didn't see a parameter to just turn the monitor back on (the opposite of monoff). I think I will download wizmo for its other nice utilities, but it doesn't appear that it will help with this particular situation.

                      Thanks for the lead, though!

                      Comment


                        #12
                        I was hoping that Dale would see my/our posts and possibly comment on this problem.

                        The Talking Caller ID program I use is supposed to "wake up" the monitor if in the off state, when a call arrives, but hasn't worked since I moved to a laptop for my automation applications. I suspect that it's a problem with the use of the laptop manufacturer's power management utility, as opposed to the standard Windows Advanced Power Management application.

                        I don't have any HomeSeer events that need to wake up the monitor...yet...but I can imagine that need in the future.

                        Thanks,
                        Jerry

                        Comment


                          #13
                          Wow, didn't realize it couldn't turn a monitor on, and I just realized you are talking about a laptop, so an appliance module won't do the job here.


                          [edit]
                          I found this post showing a workaround with wizmo in case you want to know.

                          http://news.grc.com/news.exe?utag=&g...md_next=+Next+


                          ---
                          http://www.CocoonTech.com


                          [This message was edited by Dan (xplosiv) on Tue, 06 January 2004 at 12:38 PM.]
                          HSPRO 2.4 (ESXi 4.1) | my.Alert NEW | my.Trigger | HSTouch | ACRF2 | UltraM1G | BLWeather | BLLan | Rover
                          (aka xplosiv)
                          Do You Cocoon? Home Automation News, Tutorials, Reviews, Forums & Chat

                          Comment


                            #14
                            <BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><font size="-1">quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Jerry S:
                            I did check out the wizmo utility, but didn't see a parameter to just turn the monitor back on (the opposite of monoff). I think I will download wizmo for its other nice utilities, but it doesn't appear that it will help with this particular situation.

                            Thanks for the lead, though!<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

                            I am speaking before testing here, so I hope I am correct, but you should be able to wake the monitor up from a script using hs.keys and send a keystroke that won't negativly impact your application (I find the up-arrow works well in many situations). The only issue is that you need to have an application that you can send the keystroke to (maybe you can just send to the desktop? Not sure....).

                            Alan

                            Comment


                              #15
                              The EXE should kill itself after issuing the command - it has nothing else to do. It has no forms, it's just a module with a Sub Main(). I have attached one that uses the "End" command after performing the actions of power. Hopefully this works for you.

                              &nbsp;&nbsp;Best Regards,
                              &nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;Dale Higgs (Synthesize)

                              &nbsp;&nbsp;Website: http://www.synvb.com/
                              Attached Files

                              Comment

                              Working...
                              X