LebGeeks

MSD

Member

Power Failure Detector

Hello,
Since we are in Lebanon and we get a lot of power outage, it is hard to just leave our Desktops on without fear of them getting powered off after our UPS is drained. So if you have such a scenario and you want a solution (other than buying an expensive UPS that can detect and act on a power failure by hibernating your PC for example) then I might have a way. This topic is out of curiosity to know how useful my application is to otherd, so I would appreciate some feedback in return.

What the application does:
It hibernates your windows when the power is out, this is detected by a lost network connection in turn caused by a switch/router turning off.

What you would need
1. .Net Framework 2.0
2. a switch or similar hardware ( it should be connected directly to the main power)
3. PowerFailureDetector.exe running
4. A UPS that can hold long enough for your system to hibernate
5. Hibernation must be enabled in windows (google it)

Issues that might arise:
1. If you have a wireless connection that could go off at some point, my application could detect that as a false power failure, not tested.
you can find it here:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/5dih5158d … tector.rar

Last edited by MSD (December 24 2010)

Kassem

Member

Re: Power Failure Detector

So what about someone like me who has his switch/router connected to a UPS and stays turned on 24/7? :)

MSD

Member

Re: Power Failure Detector

So what about someone like me who has his switch/router connected to a UPS and stays turned on 24/7? :)

If you are connected 24/7 then you have a pretty good UPS :)

Kassem

Member

Re: Power Failure Detector

So what about someone like me who has his switch/router connected to a UPS and stays turned on 24/7? :)

If you are connected 24/7 then you have a pretty good UPS :)

Unfortunately, only the router is connected and not the PC :/

But really, great idea none the less... I'm sure many people would find it useful. :)

Padre

Member

Re: Power Failure Detector

What if your cable was out accidentally.
I would recommend either getting a UPS that has a communication port, or simply hacking your UPS to send a message for your PC to shutdown. Hacking those small UPS should be pretty straight forward, and you can either take a DIO in using parallel port or whatever method, or add a small PIC (or other) that would send you the signal by serial communication.
Anyhow, nice app :)

MSD

Member

Re: Power Failure Detector

If the cable was out for a couple of seconds, the application would cancel hibernation when the connection is restored, also you can manually override the hibernation if you are present on the desktop.

nuclearcat

Member

Re: Power Failure Detector

For guys with routers on UPS, small suggestion, get a small switch, power it from main electricity :-)
If you dont want your internet connection dropped, just put one more network card in your pc, you can use it also as backup and for experiments. Additional ports on switch maybe one day will be useful :-)