Autodimming monitor after 2 seconds of inactivity. (Solution inside)

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Originally Posted by RPM_VR4

chronot150: Yes, most cars have a "dimmer" wire as part of the radio harness (it is usually the orange wire). It is 12V when your lights are on and 0V otherwise. I'm looking for something a lot more sophisticated than that though.

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RPM_VR4: You are correct in that most cars have a dimmer wire in the radio harness. But, it isn't just 0V or 12V. You can control the brightness with the dimmer switch so I would guess that the voltage on that wire is 0-12V not 0 or 12V.

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Originally Posted by dfk70

RPM_VR4: You are correct in that most cars have a dimmer wire in the radio harness. But, it isn't just 0V or 12V. You can control the brightness with the dimmer switch so I would guess that the voltage on that wire is 0-12V not 0 or 12V.

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Does you're car have a "dimmer switch" which affects the dimming of the hu? In all the cars i've had, the wire is just a constant voltage, with the amount of dimming set by the hu itself.

Anyways, i've been messing around with a few ideas and the best I've come up with is essentially a small micro controller which has a light sensor attached to one input and the above mentioned wire attached to another. If the light sensor falls to a certain reading or the headlights are switched on for greater than a set period of time, the micro controller can send an output. Now, this output could be to a pin of a serial port on the PC or maybe directly interfacing to some modification of the screen. For ease, probably best if its to the pc and then this would need to be a plugin to sit between. Interestingly, the output doesn't necessarily have to be a binary "on/off", it could send an analogue signal to allow the amount of dimmming to be altered based on the actual ambient light.

Thoughts guys?

Who Is This Smart Guy?!

RPM_VR4: I understand. Thanks for clearing that up.

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Originally Posted by WhoIsThisGuy?

Does you're car have a "dimmer switch" which affects the dimming of the hu? In all the cars i've had, the wire is just a constant voltage, with the amount of dimming set by the hu itself.

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Yes, actually, all of my cars have dimmers. It controls the dash lights as well as the radio brightness.

Suggest away at the GC forum :)

Anyways, for those that want something in a frontend: its a very simple API that checks for idleness. Link :)

hey Tipastar, this works very well!

Would you have the knowledge to incorporate this VB6 code into your script, so that it can automatically calculate sunrise/sunset time based on your predefined coordinates? (same thing GammaControl does)

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Originally Posted by tipastar

I don't use these tools but here's a quick way to solve the time problem of when you activate your screensaver....

Do everything justintime says in his post. Then, to only have the screensaver (power dimmer) activate only when it's dark you could write a quick vbs script to get the current time and if it's greater than the time it gets dark in your area, then activate the screensaver. Here's some code.

<snipped>...

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Another great idea from JIT! :) I hope you solve the problems as simple as possible without any extra hardware involved.

Most cars are simply on/off to the radio. More expensive cars usually have a second wire for dim-level as well as the normal on/off (...and a few cars just have the dim-level). In any case, I always have my dimmer level on full bright.

I really think the two best options here are:
1) Sunrise/Sunset times calculated off ZIP-code or GPS. (software only)
2) A light sensor connected to a micro or joystick axis. (better, but requires wiring extra hardware)

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Originally Posted by justintime

Check and see that you DON"T have 'password on resume' feature enabled in your screensaver control panel.

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I'm experiencing exactly the same issue. Password protect is definitely not checked. Pressing "Preview", it works as advertised. Waiting 5 seconds (what I have the timeout set at), it goes blank with an hourglass icon. Never asks for a password when I move the mouse, of course, but it doesn't make PowerDimmer work properly.