LED status monitor

[alex060670]

Hi to all gbPVR users out there,

as my (very silent ;-) PC is hidden in the closet (w/o monitor, only the TV-set) I never know if it's running or what it's doing (recording, playing back, etc.).

I thought of connecting a hardware thingy to an USB-Port that lights some LEDs to show the status like my old VCR did. The hardware thingy would just be a tiny microcontroller that listens to the information presented on the USB-Port. I guess I could build it by myself.

Example:

* no LEDs = power off;
* green LED flashing = waking up from hibernation mode but gbPVR frontend not yet started (this process could last up to 60 seconds in my case);
* green LED = gbPVR frontend successfully started - ready for use;
* red LED = recording in progress;

What I would need is some program that sends the actual status to the USB-Port (ok - I could do this by myself, too: just a tiny program that checks the tasklist and the color of the recording service taskbar icon to get the information... but as gbPVR already HAS this information it certainly would be much easier let it be done directly by gbPVR itself).

Did anybody think of this too or is even able to provide me with a solution?

Greetings, Alex

[betlit]

this should not be a big problem. but... why do you want to use a (more or less) complex usb device?

why not just use the serial port? or even simpler the paralell port?

when using the parallel port, you do not even have to build a microcontroller or something, just hook up some (max 8) LEDs+resistors (470ohm) on pin D0 to D7 (ground is G7).
in this case the software controlling the leds just sends numbers between 0 (no LED active) to 255 (all 8 LEDs active) to the parallel port.

the pin layout on the parallel-port is as follows
__________________________________________
\ S4 S5 S7 S6 D7 D6 D5 D4 D3 D2 D1 D0 C0 /
-\ G7 G6 G5 G4 G3 G2 G1 G0 C3 C2 S3 C1 /
----------------------------------------

<german mode>
aha. ich sehe gerade österreich im posting-header... und sogar noch wien (eine der schönsten städte wie ich finde).

wird zeit da sich 'euch' wieder mal besuche.. *g*

grüsse aus der schweiz
</german mode>

daniel

[stefan]

Not quite what you want, but perhaps a place to start:
http://www.bladerhq.com/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Plugin/LCD

[alex060670]

@ betlit:

Thank you. But what *software* could be able to do this job?

Greetings,
Alex

An belit:

Danke. Aber welche *Software* könnte diese Aufgabe erledigen?

Gruesse,
Alex

[betlit]

just a simple app reading the status of the machine and of the gbpvr app.

i would write it in c (or even c# for that matter). doing it as a plugin is of course not possible, because you want infos before gbpvr is started.

i can look further into this and write something for you. but i can't give you an exact deadline (but it should take not more than some days (maybe a week or two, 'cause first i have to look further into the hardware-stuff))

daniel

[alex060670]

@ betlit:

THX very much for the offer! I really would appreciate that piece of software.

I've spent some thoughts on it:

* As I said, I would like a green LED flashing when the PC wakes up (e.g. from hibernate). During this time, NO software is running b/c the OS just restores the memory content from the HDD.

-> The only thing to detect during this phase will be the power supply. So if there is NO power, all LEDs are off. If there IS power (and nothing more), the green LED starts flashing. The flashing can't be done by any software but must be done by a hardware thingy.

* After waking up successfully, I use wake.cmd (by sub) to close and re-start gbpvr frontend (in order to get my XCard working). This works fine.

-> I could imagine to add a command to the wake.cmd that changes the green LED from flashing to light continuously. The green LED may light until next hibternation as a sort of "power-on" indicator (not only indicating the power of the machine but indicating that gbpvr frontend is running). One of the pins (let's call it: D0) of the parallel port could "override" the flashing and make the LED light continuously.

* The biggest problem seems to be to detect if gbpvr is doing some recordings or isn't. This can be done by looking on the recording service task bar icon. If no recording is done, it will be red. If any show is recorded, the icon will be green.

-> A 2nd LED (e.g. red) could show this. Therefore the status of the recording service will have to be looked at periodically. Every second? The result of this monitoring could be forwarded to another pin (D1) of the parallel port.

So the hardware thingy has to control the LEDs as follows:

Greed LED:
off when there is no power
flashing when there is power but D0 is not active
lighing continuously when D0 is active

Red LED:
off when there is no power
off when there is power but D1 is not active
lighing continuously when D1 is active


Of course the new piece of software MUST NOT prevent my machine from going to hibernate mode!

Any other inputs or ideas?

Greeting, Alex

[betlit]

* As I said, I would like a green LED flashing when the PC wakes up (e.g. from hibernate). During this time, NO software is running b/c the OS just restores the memory content from the HDD.


-> The only thing to detect during this phase will be the power supply. So if there is NO power, all LEDs are off. If there IS power (and nothing more), the green LED starts flashing. The flashing can't be done by any software but must be done by a hardware thingy.

* After waking up successfully, I use wake.cmd (by sub) to close and re-start gbpvr frontend (in order to get my XCard working). This works fine.

-> I could imagine to add a command to the wake.cmd that changes the green LED from flashing to light continuously. The green LED may light until next hibternation as a sort of "power-on" indicator (not only indicating the power of the machine but indicating that gbpvr frontend is running). One of the pins (let's call it: D0) of the parallel port could "override" the flashing and make the LED light continuously.

the flashing must definitely be done by a astable mutlivibrator (aka blinkschaltung *g*)... and (i am not this much into electronics.. just the basics) the LED have to be hooked up to D0 too or something (which is a bit evil, i think *g*)... i will ask a pal of mine who is an electronic technician about this. i'm sure he can provide me with an easy and 'correct' way to do this.

* The biggest problem seems to be to detect if gbpvr is doing some recordings or isn't. This can be done by looking on the recording service task bar icon. If no recording is done, it will be red. If any show is recorded, the icon will be green.

this is absolutely no problem. that information can be retrieved using the GBPVRPublic.dll interface... kinda "getRecordingStatus" (tells you either "pending", "in_progress", etc.).

-> A 2nd LED (e.g. red) could show this. Therefore the status of the recording service will have to be looked at periodically. Every second? The result of this monitoring could be forwarded to another pin (D1) of the parallel port.

yeah, the app would have to periodically check the every couple seconds. but this will consume almost no resources.

Of course the new piece of software MUST NOT prevent my machine from going to hibernate mode!

*g* of course.

i am thinking of implementing this app as a windows service. so it gets started with the computer. as this app remains in memory (for checking the recording status all couple of seconds or something) it would be there also after hibernation, so theres no need to add it to wake.cmd.

the app itself would get the 'PowerModeChanged'-event, and can figure out if the machine goes into or comes from hibernation, and react to it (for example when the compy goes down to hibernation, the led could start to flash again *g*).

i hope i can spend a little time on this subject this weekend

daniel

[alex060670]

the flashing must definitely be done by a astable mutlivibrator (aka blinkschaltung *g*)... and (i am not this much into electronics.. just the basics) the LED have to be hooked up to D0 too or something (which is a bit evil, i think *g*)... i will ask a pal of mine who is an electronic technician about this. i'm sure he can provide me with an easy and 'correct' way to do this.

I don't want to take too much of your time. If you can provide me just with the software that controls the two output pins of the parallel port (or something similar, like USB for example)...

I certainly can do the rest (i.e. the hardware thingy), as on the parallel port is everything I need: Gnd, D0 and D1 (and perhaps Vcc if I can use any of the control pins as "power supply" for the thingy).

Thank you so far!

Greetings, Alex

[betlit]

so... finally i could spend a little time on this.

see readme.txt for installation and usage.

have fun

[edit]removed attachement[/edit]

daniel

[valkokir]

This looks really cool. Perhaps you could add a wiring diagram to the readme file on how to wire up the hardware portion of it. I would like to give it a go on a breadboard. I only know the basics from having built an led taillight and some really simple circuits.

I think I know where to start from reading the posts but I don't want to risk frying my parallel port. If it works the way I think than It would take about two seconds to wire assuming I can find one of my soldered parallel cables

Also It would be good to have it all together so that one can simply download the zip file without trying to refer back to the postings.

Thanks much.