Power down PC or PC timer?

[TLCNORM]

I am currently installing a 15" ELO touchscreen after months of following your threads and ideas. Does anyone have any good ways of powering down and up a PC at different times? I would want this T/S to run from lets say 6 AM to 10 PM. I'd like to avoid having to run down to the basement every day to power up. I saw 2 programs online but was hoping for feedback from you guys.

Toff

or

Shutterdown XP

Thanks

 

[123]

You want to turn power off and on to the PC based on a schedule, right?

An inelegant, but simple, solution is to plug it into an inexpensive timer. The PC's OS might not be happy about having its power cut but, hey, I did say it was inelegant.

You can shutdown a remote PC using "shutdown -m \\computername" or via VBScript using WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation). The last VBScript example on this page lets you shutdown a remote PC: http://home.hot.rr.com/graye/Articles/WMI_Intro.htm.

To wake up the PC, you can send it a WOL (Wake-On-LAN) packet. Here's a VBScript example based on the UltraWOL COM object from UltraJones: http://www.robvanderwoude.com/vbstech_network_wol.html

Once you have the two scripts working, you can use your HA software to run them according to a schedule. If you don't have any HA software, you can use Windows XP's "Scheduled Tasks" utility.

 

[garyfunk]

Depending on the age of the computer, it may have startup and shutdown times in BIOS.

 

[drozwood90]

I use this:
http://users.telenet.be/jbosman/poweroff/poweroff.htm

It lets me do all sorts of neat things, and you don't have to worry about firewall rules and such (at least after you authorize the software as AOK).

This will work with ALL windows types that it can be installed on.

I started to use this as my wife's Windows XP Home didn't have an ADMIN$ share, so the NT type tools that allow remote admin wouldn't work.

Then I use WOL to turn PCs on. If they can't be turned on that way, then I use modified UPB appliance modules as relay modules (it was cheaper to do that then to buy the UIO32...at least to just do 1 relay contact!). I wire them in parallel to the "power switch" button on the PC. Then I just turn the appliance module on/off and the PC turns on.

--Dan

 

[beelzerob]

You could also take the 2 wire leads from the power button on the motherboard and wire them to a relay. With WinXP, hitting the power button causes windows to shutdown, so it'll do so gracefully. Then just close the relay again to power it on. Wire that into an Elk or some other controlled relay, and there's your control.

 

[jwilson56]

For my ELO I use the psshutdown.exe application that is executed from a Girder script to place the remote networked laptop that is used for the ELO into 'Standby'. I also set the laptop to 'Wake on Mouse' so that anyone can walk up and simple touch the ELO screen and it will come back on very quickly.

Since I am using a USB WIFI device I can't use WOL so I hacked a cheap wireless doorbell and an old mouse and created a cheap remote control to 'Wake on Mouse' from Girder through my Ocelot SECU-16 relay which then can wake the laptop whenever I schedule it.

 

[TLCNORM]

Thanks for the feedback. I will have to try some of you options and get back to you. I'm just not sure why windows doesn't put in a timer program, especially with so many people looking into energy savings.

 

[jwilson56]

Thanks for the feedback. I will have to try some of you options and get back to you. I'm just not sure why windows doesn't put in a timer program, especially with so many people looking into energy savings.

Well it can time it to shut down... but when its off Windows is not running. It would have to be done via the Bios/hardware if something were done.

 

[123]

.. why windows doesn't put in a timer program, especially with so many people looking into energy savings.

Windows doesn't completely ignore energy savings ... Power Management lets you put the PC into Hibernate mode and the monitor into Sleep mode. What's missing is the ability to get out of power saving mode based on a schedule. Given the OS is slumbering, the wakeup signal would have to be issued by, as jwilson56 indicated, the BIOS.

As decribed by most of the proposed solutions, you'll have to use an external device to issue the wakeup command. Good luck and please let us know what was the best solution for you.

 

[tmbrown97]

I like jwilson's plan about the best... but for the quickest easiest solution, using the shutdown command (some are built in, some you have to get from resource discs - depending on OS, but there's a free one for every OS) and a scheduled task in windows takes care of shutdown, and as GaryFunk said, many times you can set a wakeup time via the BIOS.

But, there's lots of cool ideas there - Beezlerob's idea is kinda cool too!

 

[TLCNORM]

Thanks. I have been following Jwilson and Bfisher's projects closely and am trying to get a setup like one of theirs. I will post a picture of my setup on the Showcase forum hopefully later today. I was thinking. I have a PC that is close by. Can I use that one to turn the T/S on in the morning? How exactly do you WOL? Is it as easy as going to My network places and clicking on a folder?

 

[123]

How exactly do you WOL?

Further to my earlier post, WOL is a special network packet. It is data transmitted over the LAN and intercepted by the "sleeping" PC's network card. It relies on the network card's ability to remain powered even if the rest of the PC is off. This ability is widespread but not universal. If you turn off your PC yet the network card's Link light remains lit then there's a good chance the card supports WOL. You may also need to inspect the network card's setup and ensure WOL is activated (Control Panel > System > Hardware > Device Manager > Network Adapters > Advanced).

Once you've confirmed the network card supports WOL, you need software that is able to send a WOL packet. My earlier post shows how to do it using a free COM object and a few lines of VBScript. Alternately, google "WOL software" and you'll find free WOL utilities.

 

[TD3]

I'm surprised that no one here has talked about doing some sort of serial communication. Id very much like to think that the ELK could communicate with my PC.. As in tell my PC or more over.. my server .. what is going on in the environment or the rest of the building just simply via the Ethernet module or the Serial Port.. Maybe I'm missing something.. i kind of hope i am.. but Id like to shut down a server when the server room gets too hot.. 

 

[brathnach]

TD3,
 
I do believe serial ports on standard PCs are pretty much dead when the unit is powered off. However there may well be a method to turn them off via serial port but there are far more elegant ways of doing this via IP. Does the elk do IP? Otherwise beelzerobs solution seems really elegant. Poor post was having a long nap

 

[tmbrown97]

That's really asking a lot of the Elk - keep in mind it's an all hardware device with limited memory and processing power; and the XEP (the Elk's IP module) isn't very advanced at all; in fact at this point it's pretty dated in keeping up with increased security on mail servers and the like.
 
That said there are plenty of 3rd party applications that can talk to the elk and see what's going on with it - so they could monitor for things like armed status and tell your computer what to do from there.  You can easily put a computer to sleep via network commands, and with WOL you can wake it up.  There are also utilities available that'll let you programmatically put the display into sleep or wake it up and all sorts of other things.
 
If the concern is about keeping a computer on all the time, there are plenty of low powered, low footprint, fanless computers out there like this which could run your HA software and possibly even fit in your structured media enclosure or HA equipment.  I have an old Fit2PC I'd planned to do that with at one point - it's barely bigger than a deck of cards.