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🖥️ActiveHome Pro => ActiveHome Pro General => Topic started by: Noam on August 10, 2010, 02:39:26 PM

Title: X10Dispatcher replacement for Windows 7
Post by: Noam on August 10, 2010, 02:39:26 PM
Does anyone know of a program similar to X10Dispatcher, that will work on Windows 7 64-Bit?

The latest version of X10Dispatcher (from 2007) won't install for me on Win7, and I can't find anything else for Windows 7 that works to notify me when my UPS switches to battery power (indicating a power failure). I have my router/modem/etc on the UPS, and this worked perfectly under XP.

My UPS software isn't smart enough to be able to send e-mail alerts, and I can't find anything else (free) for Windows7 that can do it.

Does anyone have any ideas?
--Noam
Title: Re: X10Dispatcher replacement for Windows 7
Post by: Dan Lawrence on August 10, 2010, 05:21:49 PM
I believe you can create a XP "Window" in 7 that makes older programs that ran under XP.   That should allow X10 Dispatcher to run on a 7 machine.
Title: Re: X10Dispatcher replacement for Windows 7
Post by: Noam on August 11, 2010, 08:50:47 PM
Thanks for the suggestion, but I was looking for something that would run natively in Windows 7.
Title: Re: X10Dispatcher replacement for Windows 7
Post by: Dan Lawrence on August 11, 2010, 10:14:24 PM
There isn't any.  It's either do what I posted or forget about X10Dispatcher.
Title: Re: X10Dispatcher replacement for Windows 7
Post by: hawk1 on August 12, 2010, 10:34:24 AM
Don't know whether or not this will do the trick but it has a free trial so you can give it a try!   :)

http://www.passmark.com/products/batmon.htm

here's another one:   http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/System-Miscellaneous/UPS-Assistant.shtml
Title: Re: X10Dispatcher replacement for Windows 7
Post by: Noam on August 12, 2010, 12:13:03 PM
Looks like BatMon is not designed to do what I need (and you have to pay after the trial period), and UPS-Assistant is not compatible with my UPS (I already tried it :-( )

Using BLAT, I wrote a CMD script that sends me an e-mail when it is run, logging the time in the e-mail itself (a modified version of the one that runs when each of my PCs boots up).
I found that my UPS software does log a Windows even (in the Applications log), when the UPS switches from AC to battery and back.
Windows 7 allows you to create a scheduled task to be triggered by a certain event ID.
I set up tasks to run my "power is out" and "power is back on" scripts based on those events, and it seems to work (verified this morning when we lost power).

My "Home Automation and Other Stuff" server is on the UPS, as are my router, monitor (turned off when not being used), and KVM. The only problem is that if power is out for more than a few minutes, then my Verizon FiOS system drops the Internet and TV services, to conserve battery power for the phone system. I don't think it recovers fast enough for the "power is back on" e-mail to go out, but since all of my non UPS-ed PCs e-mail me when they boot up, I'd have a pretty good idea.
Perhaps I'll modify the "power is back on" script with a delay before it sends the message, to give time for my router to reconnect.
Title: Re: X10Dispatcher replacement for Windows 7
Post by: hawk1 on August 12, 2010, 12:28:33 PM
I thought for sure that batmon sends an email.  Sorry.  Sounds like you got it all setup anyway!   #:)