PowerMon plugin - for laptop carpcs

**Kurt_** · 01-03-2009, 08:55 PM

Hey all. I got road runner installed finally, and am working on the power gauge.

I have barely a clue what I'm doing, but with forums and small alterations in code I learned quickly.

I got rid of the Rotating Honda logo in the skin, and replaced it with the power monitor. Works wonderfully.

But I can't for the life of me get the battery gauge images to work.

As it's on another computer, I'll spare you all the code for everything else. This is the code for the images:

Code:

I,367,300,35,19,"POWERMON_GBATTLEVEL"

I loaded the most recent updated version (the user-provided altered v0.3) using the "Run -> regsvr32 powermon.dll" function. My skin is the default BMV2

I have version 0.3, and the have put all the files just about everywhere I can think of. All of them are still here. The latest files (the image folder and powermon.dll or whatever) are in the following locations. The image folder is in each four times, once as \images, once as \image, once as pm_image, and once as pm_images. I figured I'd cover all my bases.

C:\WINDOWS\system\

C:\Program Files\RoadRunner\

C:\Program Files\RoadRunner\powermon\

Still no dice.

Any help? Don't neglect to mention the simplest of simple things, too. It's likely to be the problem.

**GizmoQ** · 01-03-2009, 10:47 PM

Originally Posted by Kurt_

Hey all. I got road runner installed finally, and am working on the power gauge.

I loaded the most recent updated version (the user-provided altered v0.3) using the "Run -> regsvr32 powermon.dll" function. My skin is the default BMV2

I have version 0.3, and the have put all the files just about everywhere I can think of. All of them are still here. The latest files (the image folder and powermon.dll or whatever) are in the following locations. The image folder is in each four times, once as \images, once as \image, once as pm_image, and once as pm_images. I figured I'd cover all my bases.

C:\WINDOWS\system\

C:\Program Files\RoadRunner\

C:\Program Files\RoadRunner\powermon\

Still no dice.

Any help? Don't neglect to mention the simplest of simple things, too. It's likely to be the problem.

O.K. Let's attack this systematically.

1. Unregister your current powermon.dll:
C:\windows\system32\regsvr32 /u powermon.dll

2. Move the powermon directory to:
C:\Program Files\Road Runner\Plugins\Powermon

3. Delete all other copies of the powermon and pm_images directories or whatever else you may have named them.

4. Register the dll using the "register.bat" batch file.

5. Move the "pm_images" folder from beneath the powermon directory to the skin directory:
C:\Program Files\Road Runner\Skins\bmv2\pm_images

6. Restart RR.

DONE.

**festy** · 01-03-2009, 11:22 PM

Not sure what the pm_images directory is for, but powermon_gbattlevel looks for images in two directories, both relative to the dll's path:
.\images\slider_*.gif, and
.\images\ext\slider_*.gif

The first directory is images to display when on battery power, the second to show while on external (AC) power.

If you put powermon.dll in say c:\roadrunner\plugins\powermon, the image directories should be c:\roadrunner\plugins\powermon\images\ and c:\roadrunner\plugins\powermon\images\ext\

Probably best to make sure you only have 1 copy of powermon.dll on your system too.

Edit - ok I see Sal R mad a change to the image path to skin\pm_images, not sure I agree with that.
If you left it as app.path + \images then it's relative to the dll's location, not skin dependent.

**GizmoQ** · 01-03-2009, 11:34 PM

Originally Posted by festy

Not sure what the pm_images directory is for, but powermon_gbattlevel looks for images in two directories, both relative to the dll's path:
.\images\slider_*.gif, and
.\images\ext\slider_*.gif

The first directory is images to display when on battery power, the second to show while on external (AC) power.

If you put powermon.dll in say c:\roadrunner\plugins\powermon, the image directories should be c:\roadrunner\plugins\powermon\images\ and c:\roadrunner\plugins\powermon\images\ext\

Probably best to make sure you only have 1 copy of powermon.dll on your system too.

Sal R's version changed all that.

**Kurt_** · 01-03-2009, 11:38 PM

Got it! I did everything both of you told me to do. In the end, switching from Sal's version back to the original v0.3 made it work, even though I had pm_images in the right place.

One small problem though. I'm at 81% and I'm showing a full green battery. When I plug the laptop in, I get the charging icon, also over a full battery.

The numerical gauge is correct, as is the state.

EDIT: Nevermind, silly mistake. I now notice the gauges are pretty basic, I'll have to fix that.

Thanks so much for the help and the plugin and such. I'm sure you'll hear more from me in the summer when I'll have the actual parts to turn this into a car pc. Right now it's just a laptop with a gps receiver hooked up to an inverter.

**festy** · 01-03-2009, 11:42 PM

Not sure what images you're using, but the example ones that come with powermon will show full from 80% onwards, I could only be bothered making 4 different images

**festy** · 01-06-2009, 08:37 PM

I think I've come up with a good compromise for image paths.
I can see Sal R's point on having the images within the skin's dir, so what I've done is made the plugin check for a $skinpath\pm_images directory, if that doesn't exist then use the plugin's path\images.

Note - this is not $rrpath\images, it's the directory that the plugin is in (usually something like $rrpath\plugins\powermon\images)

New version is in first post.

**Sal R.** · 01-13-2009, 01:42 PM

Originally Posted by festy

I think I've come up with a good compromise for image paths.
I can see Sal R's point on having the images within the skin's dir, so what I've done is made the plugin check for a $skinpath\pm_images directory, if that doesn't exist then use the plugin's path\images.

Note - this is not $rrpath\images, it's the directory that the plugin is in (usually something like $rrpath\plugins\powermon\images)

New version is in first post.

Cool.

**pafftis** · 01-13-2009, 01:59 PM

m4 atx work?

**Startingline13** · 01-14-2009, 01:38 PM

I'm sorry, not to sound like a n00b or like I want free hand outs and stuff, but how do I install this? Or could you direct me to a place where I could learn to install road runner plugins? I get a bit confused on the whole registering a dll part.