----------- POWER CHECK ----------- for the Psion Series 3 Version 1.02 18-May-92 from Electric Frogplate Software OVERVIEW -------- To squeeze all of the Series 3's circuitry into such a slim case Psion had to make compromises. One decision was to use only a 1-bit digitizer to measure the main battery voltage. A 1-bit digitizer can only measure whether a voltage is above or below a certain level and thus the Series 3 can only tell if its main batteries are "Good" or "Low". Power Check gives the Series 3 user more information about the remaining life in the main batteries by monitoring the computer's use. It runs continuously in the background and records the time the Series 3 is used on battery power. By comparing the use of the current batteries against the lives of previous sets Power Check is able to estimate their remaining life. This is displayed graphically as a bar chart showing the percentage of the batteries useful life that remains. Power Check also displays the elapsed time the current batteries have run the Series 3 so far, when the batteries were fitted, the current state of the main and backup batteries and whether the machine is being powered from the mains. LICENCE ------- Power Check is Copyright (C) J.M.Littlewood, 1992. Permission is given to freely distribute this software and documentation as long as the following restrictions are observed: - The software and documentation should not be modified without permission from the author. - No fee may be charged for distribution of this software apart from a small handling charge. - The software and documentation must be distributed in the form of the original ZIP file containing POWERCHK.TXT, POWERCHK.OPO and POWERMON.OPO. The author accepts no responsibility for damage or loss due to the use of this software. Use of this software is at the users own risk. Every effort has been made to ensure that this software works correctly and can cause no damage to the system on which it is run. INSTALLING POWER CHECK FOR THE FIRST TIME ----------------------------------------- The following steps are used to install Power Check: 1. Copy POWERCHK.OPO and POWERMON.OPO to the \OPO directory on the internal drive M: of your Series 3. The names of these programs can be changed if desired but they must keep their '.OPO' extensions. 2. At the System screen press the [System] key to cause the Series 3 to update its file lists. Then move the cursor to the 'Powermon' entry under the 'OPL' icon and hit [Enter]. 3. POWERMON will run, displaying its copyright screen. Press the [System] button to return to the System screen. 4 Move the cursor to the 'Powerchk' entry under the 'OPL' icon and hit [Enter] a screen showing the current status of the batteries will be displayed. Press [Psion-U] to display the "Edit Battery Usage" dialogue. Enter your estimate of the number of hours that the Series 3 has been used on the current set of batteries and press [Enter]. 5. Press [Esc] to return to the System screen. Power Check is now installed. It automatically creates a directory called M:\POWERCHK which it uses to store its record of details about the Series 3's batteries. It then continues running in the background. Once a minute it checks the state of the Series 3's power and updates its records accordingly. Do not stop POWERMON running or it will lose track of how long the Series 3 has been using battery power. If POWERMON is stopped for some reason, then it can be restarted by following steps 2 and 3 above. However its estimate of remaining battery life will be incorrect by however long it was halted. UPGRADING FROM POWER CHECK 1.00 or 1.01 --------------------------------------- Power Check 1.02 is compatible with the Powerchk.odb file that versions 1.00 and 1.01 used to record details of the machine's battery usage. Details of battery usage to date will not be lost when upgrading. The following steps are used to upgrade Power Check: 1. At the System screen move the cursor to 'Powermon' under the 'OPL' icon and press [Delete]. Press [Y] to confirm that the program should be quit. 2. Copy POWERCHK.OPO and POWERMON.OPO to the \OPO directory on the internal drive M: of your Series 3, overwriting the previous versions. The names of these programs can be changed if desired but they must keep their '.OPO' extensions. 2. At the System screen press the [System] key to cause the Series 3 to update its file lists. Then move the cursor to the 'Powermon' entry under the 'OPL' icon and hit [Enter]. 3. POWERMON will run, displaying its copyright screen. Press the [System] button to return to the System screen. Power Check is now upgraded. USING POWER CHECK ----------------- The program Powerchk, listed under the OPL icon, is used to display the current battery condition and predicted life. It can also be used to modify Power Check's parameters. To run the program press the [System] key to get to the System Screen and then move the cursor to the 'Powerchk' entry under the OPL icon and hit [Enter]. When Powerchk is running the top section of the display shows a graphical representation of the remaining main battery life. The bar chart indicates 100% when the batteries are new and 0% when they need replacing. The middle section of the display shows the elapsed time that the Series 3 has run on the current set of main batteries. Power Check stops timing when the Series 3 is being powered from the mains adapter and resets the timer when the user indicates that new batteries have been installed. The middle section also shows the date on which the current batteries were fitted. The bottom section of the display shows the state of the main and backup batteries and whether mains power is being supplied. These values are read from the Series 3 hardware. Powerchk updates its display every five seconds, except when menus are being displayed. Pressing [Esc] will terminates Powerchk - but note this still leaves Powermon running in the background. Pressing the [Menu] key displays three menus: Edit - Allows the recorded battery statistics to be edited and the user to indicate that new batteries have been fitted. Info - Shows the program version and other useful information. Special - Allows the user to Exit from Powerchk. Each option is described below: Edit Menu --------- New Battery [Psion-N] Use this option directly after fitting a new battery. The program checks whether you really meant to select the option. If you confirm a new battery has been fitted then the program uses the recorded life of the last battery to update its estimate of average battery life. It then resets its timer and record of when the last battery was fitted. Edit Hours Used [Psion-U] When Power Check is first run it assumes that the main batteries are fresh. The program therefore defaults to the assumption that the batteries have been used for zero hours so far and that 60 hours of useful life remain. This option allows the user to edit the number of hours usage recorded for the current set of main batteries. It is useful when Power Check is run for the first time or when a partially used set of batteries are installed. When the number of hours usage is changed Power Check recalculates its estimate of the number of hours of useful battery life remaining. When the option is selected a dialogue box is displayed requesting the user to indicate the number of hours the Series 3 has been run on the current set of batteries. The value defaults to that currently recorded by the Power Check timer. Type the new value and press [Enter] to update the timer. Press [Esc] to leave the original value. The minutes recorded by the timer are set to zero if the hours are updated. Edit Average [Psion-E] Power Check records the average number of hours that sets of batteries last in the Series 3. It also records the number of sets of batteries it has monitored. This option allows these parameters to be changed. Selecting this option displays a dialogue box containing the current values for these parameters. Edit the values and press [Enter] to update. Press [Esc] to return to the main display without changing the values. When the program is first installed it sets the average number of hours per set of batteries to a default of 60 hours. The actual life of a set of batteries depends on a number of parameters including: - The make and type of battery used - Whether Flash or RAM SSDs are in use - How often 3-Link is used Info Menu --------- Version [Psion-V] This option displays details of the program, including version and release date. Press [Esc] to return to the main display. Special Menu ------------ Exit [Psion-X] Selecting this option causes Powerchk to exit. However the Power Monitor program, Powermon, continues to run in the background, keeping track of the machine's status until Powerchk is next run. If it becomes necessary to terminate Powermon for some reason then move the cursor to the bold 'Powermon' entry under the OPL icon and press [Delete] and then [Y] to confirm that the program should be terminated. ENHANCEMENTS ------------ A new version of Power Check is already being designed. New features will include: - Better and more accurate analysis of battery life statistics - Better modelling of battery use - Easier and more flexible configuration - More consistent use of the Series 3 user interface - Automatic updating of the parameter file from Version 1.xx REGISTRATION ------------ There is no charge for this program. However if you find it useful then a small gift to Greenpeace or a famine relief charity would be most welcome. If you continue to use this program please register its use by sending the following details to Electric Frogplate Software: - Name - Compuserve, CIX or other Network IDs - Postal address - Power Check Version - Where Power Check was obtained - Comments This information will be used *solely* to keep you up to date with new releases of this software and will not be passed to any other organisation in any form. Send the above details to: J.M.Littlewood, Compuserve 100016,2464 jlittlew@CIX or by post to: Electric Frogplate Software 8, Harvard Walk, Elm Park, Hornchurch ESSEX RM12 4BB Great Britain REVISION HISTORY ---------------- Version 1.00 ------------ Original, limited, release of the package. Release date 12-May-92. Version 1.01 ------------ The following improvements have been made in Version 1.01: * The updating of the battery and mains status fields has been corrected so that changes in status do not corrupt the display. * Refreshing the displayed data was manually selected from a menu in version 1.00. The display is now automatically refreshed at 5 second intervals. * On rare occasions Powermon would abort due to incorrect handling of a device busy status when attempting to update Powerchk.odb. This has been corrected. * Powermon now creates the M:\POWERCHK directory when first run if it does not already exist. Release date 14-May-92. Version 1.02 ------------ The following improvements have been made in Version 1.02: * The number of hours a set of main batteries has already been used can now be edited. This is useful when installing Power Check or fitting partially used batteries. * Earlier version of Power Check prevented the Series 3 Auto switch- off from operating, even when running in the background. This version informs the operating system that Power Check is 'non-active', allowing the operating system to power the machine down when necessary. * In previous versions hot-keys, such as [Psion-X] to exit, only worked when the menus were visible. They now work at any time in Power Check. Release date 18-May-92.