Using GSD/Ruby to control display power with DPMS?

[totallymaxed]

Correct, this has nothing to do with IR, it is signalled through the sync pins on the VGA connector. The device you create is a GSD one, I set the Comm Method to unknown... don't think this really matters that much. You need to make sure the Controlled By is the MD device that the monitor is connected to and the room/entertainment areas are correct. This in addition to ensuring there is a video pipe from the MD to the VGA Monitor device you are creating. Check the device log when it starts to make sure it is happy with the Ruby and starts up correctly. And make sure that the devices is "Registered: Yes" once started. Then you can either use the power menu as Krys mentions, or simply wait - after the timeout, LMCE will automatically trigger the Off command and send it down the audio and video pipes in that entertainment area, which ends up hitting your new devices, which interprets this command and executes the Ruby snippet cutting off the screen...

The only time I have seen it no reliable was after a scheduled event I had running each morning playing music. The screen was off, the event would trigger and the screen would come on. I would kill the music after a minute or so, and the screen would never turn off again. Btw, there is an annoying factor - unfortunately, LMCE considers even mouse movement to be a wake up trigger. This makes it very difficult to turn the power off with a gryo remote, and moderately difficult with a mouse. Clearly there is no reason for mouse movement to be considered "activity" this should be limited to actual button presses, then the mechanism would be complete.... have yet to log a bug ticket for this...

Of course if your not using VGA this is not a possibility (we never use VGA other than for racked Cores)... so we always use either IR blasting or rs232 to control the on/off of the screen.

All the best

Andrew

[kyfalcon]

Yeah, it would.

But until we can figure that out, you can add it in the setup wizard, and it will work just fine.

Basically the TV will have ONE port, the PC port, and you just connect that to the media director in the setup wizard.

-Thom

Thom,
Do I have to update something on my system to have this show up in the wizard? If so could you please explain how to get this template on my system!

Thanks,
Kevin

[kyfalcon]

anyone 

[seth]

I can confirm, that this now works. I have created a template called "LCD Flat Panels" that were created as a device under TV's/Projectors/LCD's drop down. I chose rs232 as the control group, created a new group called "LCDs" and added the on off commands using:

Code: [Select]

system("xset dpms force off")
and
system("xset dpms force on")
respectively

Now it shows up as a TV device in the AV wizard, and Sara sees it as a TV. Now when I call the display off button from the orbiter, or press power on the remote to call it, it blanks out the screen. When you hit the menu button on any of the remotes, it comes back, and also after it sits idle for too long, 5 minutes I think, it blanks the screen as well.

Works just like it is supposed to. But I am looking forward to Thom's template in the upcoming release.

Thanks and Regards,

Seth

[kyfalcon]

THX!