In "contact" with UPS device ?

[VBakias]

Hi there,

suppose that a pc has also a UPS device connected. This comes also with a program to install, that after some time (depending on UPS' capacity) the program will start the procedure to turn off the pc.

My question is, (apart from the program and its functionallity): can i somehow detect if the pc is on by the UPS' current? This could help me propably with a timer control to store some unfinished settings and last to terminate the program.
Then the pc after some time will be turned normally off by the UPS' program.


Tnx!

 

[ThatRickGuy]

Interactive UPS systems usually come with a USB or Comm-port connection. The UPS application communicats with the UPS over that connection and if the UPS does not have a power supply and it's levels are draining, the software will send shutdown commands to all of the processes and the shut down the computer.

-Rick

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[chiph]

Often the program supplied by the UPS vendor will have the ability to shut down running applications.

If not, you would then monitor for the WM_POWERBROADCAST windows message, which has parameters like:
PBT_APMPOWERSTATUSCHANGE and PBT_APMBATTERYLOW.

For the power status change message, you would call the GetSystemPowerStatus function to find out what happened (on battery, power restored, etc).

Chip H.


____________________________________________________________________
If you want to get the best response to a question, please read FAQ222-2244 first

 

[chiph]

Forgot to mention that those are all win32 functions.

In the .net framework v1.1, this is only exposed by the ServiceBase class, which is inherited by Windows Services (not available to your typical winform application program, in other words).

Chip H.


____________________________________________________________________
If you want to get the best response to a question, please read FAQ222-2244 first

 

[VBakias]

I know that the UPS is connected to the pc through usb or com1-2. So i can't detect in a win app and not with a widows service that the power is off and the power supply is from the UPS ?

 

[ThatRickGuy]

huh?

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[VBakias]

Assume that there is a voltage breakdown. The pc will shut down immediately unless there is a UPS device. Can I detect if the UPS does the power supply for the pc ?

 

[ThatRickGuy]

The software that communicates with the UPS should be able to tell you if the UPS is powered. There is likely an API for that software that will tell you. The software may even try to update the windows settings to tell the machine that it is running off of battery power. if that's the case, then you can use the wind32 api to get the power state.

-Rick

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I believe in killer coding ninja monkeys.

 

[VBakias]

Can you provide some more help about this win32 API ?