Laptop Battery status?

monkeyracer · 07-18-2008, 11:13 PM

I searched but could not find.

I would like to have a slider or custom indicator that shows the laptop's battery status; charging, charged, what percent, etc.

Why? Well, I am installing the laptop in the car, and there will be times when I want to use it after I shut off the engine, and want to have some kind of indicator to show how much time I have left before it goes dead. Right now, I have to minimize RR, then highlight the icon in the tray, not easy to do without a mouse.

Any help would be appreciated.

slvrsol · 07-18-2008, 11:17 PM

There is a plugin that uses labels out there somewhere.

GizmoQ · 07-18-2008, 11:23 PM

Read this thread
http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/rr-p...light=powermon

monkeyracer · 07-18-2008, 11:30 PM

thanks, that did not come up when I searched...

GizmoQ · 07-18-2008, 11:32 PM

Np

monkeyracer · 07-19-2008, 12:13 PM

Ok, I got that to work, but I'm having trouble making a slider for it.

I have the slider defined as such:

Code:

/, Y,  Back Slider file path
Y01,"battery\slider_*.gif"

/, S, x, y, w, h, x1, y1, w1, h1, O, Style, Pointer file path, h2, Code;SLIDERCODES, Tooltip
S01,5,460,30,14,-250,0,30,14,H,01," ",14,"$BATT$",
.

Code:

"ONSKINSTART","StrRepl;BATTPERCENT;%;;BATTERY||EVAL;BATT;$BATTERY$*656",menu.skin
.

And I have 21 images named "slider_*.gif" (0-20) in a folder called "battery" in my skin's folder.
The first time I load the skin, the slider is there and works. But if I send the command "RELOADSKIN" the slider dissappears.

What am I missing?

Blue ZX3 · 07-19-2008, 12:30 PM

to me and given info, could be a bug in the plugin?

monkeyracer · 07-19-2008, 12:32 PM

In which plugin?

RRStrings or Powermon?

Because the Label "BATTPERCENT" doesn't have any problems after reload. I would assume that if it were the powermon plugin, that label would go away as well, but it doesn't.

monkeyracer · 07-19-2008, 01:18 PM

Let me see if I understand the way these plugins work;

Powermon:
Reads data from the laptop's "Power meter" interprets the data and creates four labels -
BATTSTATE - Label returned as text, one of two words (Charging or Discharging)
POWERSRC - Label returned as text, one of two words (Battery/External)
BATTLEVEL - Label returned as text, one of four words (High/Low/Critical/Charging)
BATTPERCENT - Label returned as a number, with the text "%" appended (xx%)

RRStrings, specifically StrRepl:
When the command is issued, it takes the command, and replaces one string of characters with another, and creates a new variable. So "StrRepl;BATTPERCENT;%;;BATTERY" will take the label "battpercent" and replace "%" with "" and make a new variable called "BATTERY" which is referenced as "$BATTERY$".

Now where I am confused is when are these codes valid?

On skin start (with the X code) but when do they expire? Reload? Exit?

This compared to the labels and codes that are hard coded in RR (TIME, for example) or codes in the exectbl.ini that don't expire or change with the status of RR.

Basically, I want to be able to show a 21 step slider AND a label that represent what the % charge of the laptop's battery is. I want this to not be affected by changing the text color or background, or other things that require RR to be reloaded.

Blue ZX3 · 07-19-2008, 01:24 PM

First I would check the values of both the labels and both of your vars after skin reload and see what the value are to see where exactly the error/prob is at.

Blue ZX3 · 07-19-2008, 01:25 PM

I would highly req using the SkinTool if your not aready using it for doing said checkin easly.

monkeyracer · 07-19-2008, 01:49 PM

Ok, it turned out an indicator was covering the slider. So on reload, the indicator became the top most, and hid the slider. I moved it, now it works just fine.

GizmoQ · 07-19-2008, 07:31 PM

Thanks Monkeyracer, now I gotta go and change my main menus to add battery sliders.

Learn something new everyday.

monkeyracer · 07-19-2008, 10:01 PM

I figured something familiar to my current experience would be ideal. I'm used to seeing the little battery icon and when it's full, it's full, when it's empty, it's easy to tell.

I'll probably redesign my slider in the future, but I just stole the images from the ipod 5.5G firmware 1.2 since there was already 21 images.

Here's a pic of it working:

Bottom left corner...

festy · 07-20-2008, 04:10 PM

Powermon already supports a slider for battery level, but it's been so long since I looked at that plugin, I'm not sure whether I published the version has that code in it or not.
I better check...