Thread: Laptop Shutdown Controller - FINAL - 24OCT09

Very Nice! I have often thought about using a laptop for a CarPC as the built in battery gives you a lot of options for when the power to the ignition is cut.

This way, when you turn the car off, you can have the CarPC go into standby, and off the internal battery alone (No draining the car battery) will maintain the standby for a good number of hours. My Dell laptop will remain in standby for around 10-12 hours till the battery goes dead. The nice thing is you can set windows to go into hibernation at 10% power, and this will work even when the computer is in standby mode.

I have also thought of a "Dual power" mode to extend it even further. Have an intelligent power supply that will leave the laptop power supply on for say... 8 hours (Not near enough to kill the car battery). Then when that turns off, the Laptop battery will take over, and your Plugin would turn the laptop off when it reached say 10% battery level. These combined offers roughly 18 hours of standby time.

In most cases, unless you do not drive the car for a couple of days, would offer an "instant on" when the ignition is turned on, and a signal from the power supply returns the laptop from standby.

Is this being used on a laptop
It must be installed on a laptop in order to work.

Ok found the bug.. re-download from the first post.
Sorry for that.

Originally Posted by JohnWPB

Very Nice! I have often thought about using a laptop for a CarPC as the built in battery gives you a lot of options for when the power to the ignition is cut.

This way, when you turn the car off, you can have the CarPC go into standby, and off the internal battery alone (No draining the car battery) will maintain the standby for a good number of hours. My Dell laptop will remain in standby for around 10-12 hours till the battery goes dead. The nice thing is you can set windows to go into hibernation at 10% power, and this will work even when the computer is in standby mode.

I have also thought of a "Dual power" mode to extend it even further. Have an intelligent power supply that will leave the laptop power supply on for say... 8 hours (Not near enough to kill the car battery). Then when that turns off, the Laptop battery will take over, and your Plugin would turn the laptop off when it reached say 10% battery level. These combined offers roughly 18 hours of standby time.

In most cases, unless you do not drive the car for a couple of days, would offer an "instant on" when the ignition is turned on, and a signal from the power supply returns the laptop from standby.

I recently switched to a laptop for this very reason. I would never go back to mini-itx again. Laptops are definitely the way to go.
Windows battery monitor doesn't work very well I found out. I would come back to a dead battery every time. Unless your power is over the limits set in the power management system, it will not trigger the commands.
This was the reason for creating this plug-in. This plug in updates every 2.5 seconds and sits in the system tray so it doesn't use a whole lot of resources and gets the job done every time.

I been using the shutcontrol since I started carpc..quite a while ago. one only problem I encountered was when the power was abruptly shut off (battery dead and AC power cut off) then upon boot I would get the frameworks error.. but other than that I could keep in stanby for 24hr+ no problem instant on.. I was thinking on switchin to microITX though because of the lack of FM and adding on sound.. USB just is'nt good enough option, Anyhow Im gonna test this version and simulate crashing PC several times to see if this one works better
:~)

Originally Posted by jessekilner

I been using the shutcontrol since I started carpc..quite a while ago. one only problem I encountered was when the power was abruptly shut off (battery dead and AC power cut off) then upon boot I would get the frameworks error.. Anyhow Im gonna test this version and simulate crashing PC several times to see if this one works better
:~)

Let me know your findings..
Thanks

very nice app.no framework errors on 10 hard power down's in a row I did notice 1 little small thing that I figured is worth mentioning..just for your F.A.Q. I copied the app and stuck it in the startup folder...with this done it will default to original settings, like shutdown rather than the (32)standby i selected. I imagine it's due to it acting as seperate app rather than a shortcut. I checked .ini the settings are correct, if i launch it in that folder it works normal.. so SHORTCUT the app in startup not copy..lol

its the version 2 one I tested, I;m giving the 04OCt one a whirl tomorrow.. Im tired..

The 04OCT09 version doesnt work. I am having trouble with it and am working out some bugs now...