Tell me what you think

[Ghoast]

Hi all.
I bought a Crystalfontz 16X2 LCD a couple of weeks ago. I've made software for it and would like to know what you think of it. This is what it does:

-Temperature monitoring, monitors any sensor that motherboard monitor picks up. you can set your own name for the sensors instead of temp1, temp2 and so on.
-CPU and memory load.
-HDD free space in percent, you can choose drives to monitor.
-System uptime
-Time and date
-New e-mail notification
-Backlight and contrast control
-Starts minimized in systray

Requires MS windows version 4 or above and motherboard monitor version 5.1 or above.

EDIT: removed incorrect download link, see new reply for the new link.

[TechGuyOne]

I'd love to try the software. BUT

when you unzip the file it says "error missing 27 bytes in zip file" and won't open :(

[TechGuyOne]

I'd love to try the software. BUT

when you unzip the file it says "error missing 27 bytes in zip file" and won't open :(

[Ghoast]

It should work now

[TechGuyOne]

This is SUPERB :)

well done!

Finally a program that works for me

Ghoast you are a SUPERSTAR

please don't stop developing for this, I'm more than happy to beta test for you

regards

H.

[TechGuyOne]

ok a little update for Ghoast.

For me, the install wouldn't work. It kept telling me my files were out of date, and would require a reboot to take effect. (W2K SP2)

I did install it sorta, by copying the lcdstats zip to my program files, and running it from a shortcut.

Of course this means its not in Add/Rem programs in control panel.

All was good until I changed the drives it looked at (hd stats) to something like C: & G:

it kept reporting my drive usage was 56% on both.
no matter what drives i told it to look at.

Finally, now it will load briefly, then crash with a
"runtime error 6" overflow message :(

but it DID work for a little while, certainly long enough for me to see a lot of potential there.

please reply soon Ghoast.

[Ghoast]

Good to hear that you liked it!

I'm going to add multiple e-mail account checking and the option to autostart the program with Windows in the next version, and maybe change the systray icon to a mail icon when there is new e-mails. Do you have any other ideas?

[Ghoast]

About your problems:
I think you should install it properly and reboot. And try deleting the registry entries, they are located at HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\VB and VBA Program Settings\LCDstats. You can do that from within the program. (if you get it to start)
Please try this and tell me if it works afterwards.

edit:How big are your drives?

[TechGuyOne]

Ghoast,

all of those sound great :)

But I would firstly work on the install, and stability right off.

[TechGuyOne]

clearing the registry out made it work again :)

I'll retry the install, but I think its going to keep telling me to reboot, over and over like before :(

in terms of functionality, apart from the hard disk stuff, its all working and picking up mbm5 settings fine.

I have my disks partitioned in roughly 10 gigs each partition

[Ghoast]

i will shortly post a new version with some bugfixes and a new installer and some other enhancements, thanks a lot to TechGuy for the feedback and testing.

[TechGuyOne]

When Ghoast releases the new version I strongly recommend to everyone they try it.

It needs no other files, no weird messing around with drivers or "putting stuff" into windows dirs.

As some may know, I had a load of bother getting ANY software to work with my LCD.
Well this worked, first time "out of the box" and its cool :)

It's designed for a 632 LCd, although I don't see why it wouldn't work on a 634 too.


Ghoast, once again good work!

[Ghoast]

I've finished the new version. This is what changed:

-fixed HDD stats bug reported by TechGuyOne
-added network stats
-systray icon now changes into a mail icon when LCDstats detects new e-mail
-readme file added
-Installshield Installer

Screenshot:
http://w1.262.telia.com/~u26209407/lcdstats/lcdstats_screenshot.jpg

I made two different setup packages, one with Windows Installer Engine included (3.7MB) and one without it (862KB).

Installer with Windows Installer Enginge:
http://w1.262.telia.com/~u26209407/lcdstats/lcdstatswithwindowsinstaller/lcdstats.zip

Installer without Windows Installer Engine:
http://w1.262.telia.com/~u26209407/lcdstats/lcdstats/lcdstats.zip

Feedback is greatly appreciated.

[domtek]

Hi

@Ghoast

I tested your program and its really fine. Only one installation and it run.
I use it with a 20x4 Display from Crystalfontz.
Will you make a version for 634 displays with using four lines?

Sorry for my bad english. :)


Greetz from Germany


Domtek

[Ghoast]

No i will not make a version for 20X4 CF LCDs, but i will post a link to the source code (visual basic 6) for the program once i have fixed some bugs. Changing it to display 20 character wide lines instead of 16 is very easy, but using all four lines will take a little more time to do.

[Ghoast]

new version of LCDstats, bugfixes mostly.

Install package:
http://w1.262.telia.com/~u26209407/lcdstats/lcdstats.zip

Sourcecode:
http://w1.262.telia.com/~u26209407/lcdstats/sourcecode.zip

Screenshot:
http://w1.262.telia.com/~u26209407/lcdstats/screenshot.jpg

[Ghoast]

version 1.3.0 is now available.

Installer:
http://w1.262.telia.com/~u26209407/lcdstats/1.3.0/LCDstats.zip

Sourcecode:
http://w1.262.telia.com/~u26209407/lcdstats/1.3.0/sourcecode.zip

edit: 1.3.0 wasn't the last version as i stated before, progress just slowed down because of other projects :)

[leigho]

Hey Ghoast. I've had my Crystal Fontz laying around here for the last three months after buying it as a gadget and having problems getting it running. Found it in a box today and had a look back here and found your thread and I have to say WOW!!!

This app is amazing. I actually don't see me ever needing to download another one as this one does all that I need straight out of the box and even has its own installer. You're one clever person and I only wish I knew where to start to do something like this.

Some feedback for you is that I have it running on Windows XP Pro and everything is fine apart from the CPU useage. That is displaying as 0 although I suspect that's an MBM problem so I'll look into that. I also received an error during the install saying that one of the api.dll's (I think??) was in use. I shut everything down and also restarted and it still said the same but I eventually ignored it and it seems to be OK (unless that is what's causing the CPU Useage problem)

I can only say thanks very much for putting your time into this and good luck with whatever you do in the future.

Leigh

p.s your English is excellent as well judging by the Readme file ;)

[rockandchelle]

I downloaded this software adn I really like it..however..I am having trouble with the email part of it. I test the email and everything works fine..it has a little box that pops up and says that I have no message..but the LCD starts flashing that I do have new mail...but I don't. I don't know what is going on..it always says I have new mail..is there something wrong with it??

[ShadowPeo]

Just think that you may want to add support for Dual Processors. Those of us hat have them only get Processor 1 Displayed

[Ghoast]

New version available at http://w1.262.telia.com/~u26209407/lcdstats/1.4.1/LCDstats.zip

Source can be found here (http://w1.262.telia.com/~u26209407/lcdstats/1.4.1/Sourcecode.zip) .

E-mail problems should be fixed now. I haven't used it myself so i wasn't aware that it didn't work too good. I also fixed an overflow error that occured after 2140MB net sent or received.

E-mail screen now tells you how many new e-mails there are in the mailbox.

edit: ShadowPeo, i put in support for dual CPU load monitoring. I discarded "CPU and mem load" and instead put more options in the MBM 1 and MBM 2 configuration. CPU speed, CPU 1 load, CPU 2 load and Mem load is now i those two screens. I don't know how CPU speed behaves with dual CPUs. I'm not sure CPU 1 load and CPU 2 load works since i only have computers with one CPU to test on.

[TechGuyOne]

version 4.10 is good (I like the added flexibilty of more mbm options)

BUT.

I really would like to see the Mem load, and CPU load put back in as a seperate item again (I find it useful to be able to monitor those as well as everything else)

As I see it, although the extra mbm settings are cool, I'm losing the extra screen for the mem/cpu load.

[Ghoast]

or i could add one more MBM screen.

[TechGuyOne]

Yes, that would do it :)

At least then, everyone wins, and we get complete flexibility too.
Good idea

[Ghoast]

I've added one more MBM screen now and some other stuff, this is what i wrote in the version history:

1.4.2
-Added another MBM screen
-4 HDDs can be monitored instead of 2. If user enables
monitoring of HDD3 or HDD4 there are two screens, one
showing HDD1 and HDD2 and another screen showing
HDD3 and HDD4.
-Added network current transer rate monitoring.

links:
Installer (http://w1.262.telia.com/~u26209407/lcdstats/1.4.2/LCDstats.zip)
Sourcecode (http://w1.262.telia.com/~u26209407/lcdstats/1.4.2/Sourcecode.zip)

[TechGuyOne]

Just a few observations about 4.20

Nice job Ghoast :)

The 3rd mbm screen was spot on :)

I *think* the old email prob is gone (I havent been able to reproduce it)

One thing which does need looking at is:
the drives thing:
4 drives to view is cool (I have enough partitions to do that)
BUT.

Currently they ALL say 26% free (C, D, E, F)

They actually are like this:
Drive size info for drive C: ...
Total space: 9,991.59MB
Free space: 2,559.85MB (26%)
Used space: 7,431.74MB (74%)
Drive size info for drive D: ...
Total space: 9,991.59MB
Free space: 2,959.13MB (30%)
Used space: 7,032.46MB (70%)
Drive size info for drive E: ...
Total space: 9,286.3MB
Free space: 8,659.26MB (93%)
Used space: 627.05MB (7%)
Drive size info for drive F: ...
Total space: 14,301.72MB
Free space: 10,755.16MB (75%)
Used space: 3,546.55MB (25%)

I Think there might be a bug there, when you moved from 2 drives to 4

[TechGuyOne]

UMMM

Forget my last post.
MY mistake,
I very stupidly had all the drives reporting on C:
which IS only 26% free...

I corrected it, so that they report on C, D, E, F and its fine.

my apologies.

[Ghoast]

i'm glad it wasn't a bug, mistake reports are better than bug reports

[Ghoast]

i'm glad it wasn't a bug, mistake reports are better than bug reports

edit: hm..the reply was meant to be posted once, nm.

[Ghoast]

No response to the new version, didn't anyone try it?

[TechGuyOne]

Yes, I did.

My previous post was about version 1.4.2 (hopefully the most current)

it's stable, and is working perfectly (including email) on my system

1 CPU AMD 1400 on Windows XP

[rockandchelle]

I tried it and I loved it..I use it all the time now. The only thing I would say would be possibly to offer another one or two more MBM options..that would be great. Other than that I love it and it is the main program I use great job. Oh yeah, since it appears as you have a good knowledge of programming for these do you know of any programs or could you possibly develop a program which can be used while playing multiplayer games such as Quake 3, Soldier of Fortune, Return to Castle Wolfenstein, etc..which will post info such as your score and other peoples scores and stuff. The last part was just a question..but pertaining to the program you made..I love it and I won't use any other..it is perfect..just what I wanted.

[MadPower]

First I want to say this program is great. I've downloaded and installed the latest version in WinXP. Runs like a champ. But, there's always a but, I can't get it to work in Win2000. When I install it it says some system files are out of date and need to be updated. So they get updated and then it says I must restart to begin the installation. After I restart and run the setup, the same messages appear. So I get stuck in and endless loop where my system files 'supposedly' get updated each time. Could you help me solve this problem?
As for program options, I would also like the ability to display 4 items on the lcd, 2 per line. Such as Temp 1 and Temp 2 on line 1 and Temp 3 and Temp 4 on line 2. And not just temperatures, all of the options in the program. This way instead of 6 separate, maybe only 3 or 4 would have to rotate x number of seconds.
Thanks
Mike H

[Ghoast]

When you install it in win2000, is it possible to ignore that message you mentioned and continue the installation? If it is, then i suggest you try that.

[MadPower]

If I hit cancel when it suggests updating the sytem files, the setup will just exit. If I hit OK, it asks if I want to restart to restart the setup progam, but when I do, I get the same message. And if I hit cancel the setup program exits without installing.
There seems to be nothing I can do to get it to work. I don't know if it's any of the background programs running, those other than the ones that would show up in the tray, or registry 'settings'
Mike H

[TechGuyOne]

Heres is what I do to get around the problem.

Unzip the LCDStats zip.

Unzip the LCDStats cab file

Copy the unzipped cab to program files

Make ashortcut to the LCDStats.exe

Use the program.

---------------

Ghoast.

I think its the installer program, remember when you changed it a while back, that stopped all of that from happening.

[Ghoast]

Yea i used installshield and that worked great, but my trial version expired...:(

[Opus33]

Ghoast:

This is without a doubt the best, most bug-free LCD software I have installed to date. Great Job!

Runing your most recent version on XP Pro with an AthlonXP 1600+ and a CF 2x16 and it is flawless.

Thanks!