LCD Smartie

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HWiNFO Plugin displays system sensor data from HWiNFO's shared memory on your character LCD.

-- A detailed user guide LCD Smartie HWiNFO Plugin.pdf is included in the zip file download. --
Big thank you to HWiNFO's author Martin Malík and to Nick Conners and Aaron Buhr for assistance in creating this plugin.

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Update: Version 1.0.3 12-04-2021
- Program data files: hwinfo.ini, hwinfo_Sensors.txt, hwinfo_LoopSensors.txt now located in App Data directory:
C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\LCD Smartie\plugins\hwinfo
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Change Log:
v1.0.2 - Includes handling for offline sensors with user configurable Offline sensor value.
v1.0.1 - Includes patched DNBridge.dll to fix text encoding issue with dotNET plugins.
v1.0.0 - Includes support for new shared memory layout in HWiNFO v4.30+

Minimum Requirements:
- LCD Smartie 5.3 beta 3+ (for dotNET plugin support) http://lcdsmartie.sourceforge.net/smartied.htm
- HWiNFO v4.30+ (for V2 shared memory support) http://www.hwinfo.com/
- dotNET Framework 4.0+ http://www.microsoft.com/en-au/download ... x?id=17718

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Download: See note at end of post --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

HWiNFO Plugin Setup
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1. Start and set-up HWiNFO to monitor the sensors you are interested in and name the sensors as you prefer.
2. Make sure to enable Shared Memory in HWiNFO.
3. Extract hwinfo.dll and hwinfo.ini to your LCD Smartie plugins folder.
4. On the first run HWiNFO Plugin will create and open hwinfo_Sensors.txt
5. Get the sensor address of the sensor you want displayed from the tables in hwinfo_Sensors.txt
6. Type into LCD Smarties screen settings: $dll(hwinfo,1,x,) where x = your sensor address.

LCD Smartie plugins use a command line style syntax: $dll(plugin,function,param1,param2)
The syntax for using HWiNFO Plugin is:

$dll(hwinfo,Function,[?SensorGroup]|[?SensorType]|[SensorLabel],[Options])

Functions:
$dll(hwinfo,1,sensor address,) - The main function. Returns sensor value for given sensor address.
$dll(hwinfo,2,,) or $dll(hwinfo,1,#loop,,) - Loops through all the sensors monitored by HWiNFO.
$dll(hwinfo,3,,) or $dll(hwinfo,1,#loopfile,,) - Loops through the sensors defined in hwinfo_LoopSensors.txt
$dll(hwinfo,4,,) or $dll(hwinfo,1,#sensors,,) - Creates a list of all available sensor id's and names.
$dll(hwinfo,5,,) or $dll(hwinfo,1,#config,,) - Re-loads settings from the config file hwinfo.ini

Sensor Address: (param1)
- Each value must be separated by "|" bar symbol (SensorGroup and SensorType are optional)
- These values represent the sensor address of the sensor you want to display.
- The sensor addresses for your system can be found in hwinfo_Sensors.txt

Options: (param2)
- These are all optional, per sensor overrides for the defaults which are set in hwinfo.ini
- Each option can be added in any sequence and must be separated by "|" bar symbol.

More information about the options is in the included user guide, but briefly the options include settings for:
Decimal place, Show/Hide sensor labels/values/units, Display Min/Max/Avg reading, Display sensor group/type.

Examples:
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$dll(hwinfo,1,14,)
$dll(hwinfo,1,#loop,)
$dll(hwinfo,1,1|2|3,0)
$dll(hwinfo,1,Temp|Core #0,1|-unit)
$dll(hwinfo,1,Total CPU Usage,L20|U)
$dll(hwinfo,1,GPU Utilization,-L|max) etc..

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Any questions or feedback is welcome, please post to this thread.

Cheers,
hurley.

EDIT: I can't post attachment here for some reason so for current version (1.0.3) check HWiNFO Forum.

Is this only for xp? Will this not work for w7 64bit?

im so EXCITIETED!":!":!

AHAHAHA it works seems good al;skdjfal;skdjfasl;dfaf

just a question, like I set for cpu temp and it automatically goeas "Core Max: 52*C". How do I change it so it reads something else, like, "CPU TEMP IS NOT X*C" or something.

t's not really all that complicated, just that there's a lot of options to suit everyone's setup.
Refer to the hwinfo_Sensors.txt file for the inputs you need and re-create that file if you make changes to HWiNFO.
In most cases '$dll(hwinfo,1,n,)' n = your sensor index number.. Is all you need to enter.

how do you recreate the sensors txt?

Should work fine with Win7 x64, I just don't have that OS to test on.
I'm pretty sure LCD Smartie runs in 32 bit mode on x64 systems.

To change the text displayed for the labels just change the sensor name in HWiNFO's settings.
Also you can disable the labels completely by changing the setting Show Labels in hwinfo.ini to false.
The hwinfo.ini is in your plugins folder.

Function 2 creates and opens a new 'hwinfo_Sensors.txt' file. $dll(hwinfo,2,,) Just note the warning below.

Edit: Bug resolved from v0.6.0 onwards.
There's a nasty bug with v0.4.0 beta. Don't use function 2 if you have more than one copy of hwinfo plugin per LCD Smartie screen.
You'll end up with a million copies of notepad open. Sorry, I'm working on a fix for this and another minor bug now.

I can confirm.
Windows 7 64 bit is support with no problem at all!

hurley wrote:Should work fine with Win7 x64, I just don't have that OS to test on.
I'm pretty sure LCD Smartie runs in 32 bit mode on x64 systems.

To change the text displayed for the labels just change the sensor name in HWiNFO's settings.
Also you can disable the labels completely by changing the setting 'Show Labels' in hwinfo.ini to false.
The hwinfo.ini is in your plugins folder.

Function 2 creates and opens a new 'hwinfo_Sensors.txt' file. $dll(hwinfo,2,,) Just note the warning below.

There's a nasty bug with v0.4.0 beta. Don't use function 2 if you have more than one copy of hwinfo plugin per LCD Smartie screen.
You'll end up with a million copies of notepad open. Sorry, I'm working on a fix for this and another minor bug now.

What do you mean more than one copy of hwinfo plugin per lcd smartie? Why would you use double plugins? Do you mean displaying more than one hwinfo thing on the lcd?

I'll probably change the show labels to false, that way i can have hwinfo software display something while lcd smartie displays it how i want it to display.

this is SO cool. now if i can just fix the problem with my lcd+micro

Yes I meant a call to hwinfo on multiple lines in LCD Smartie, but I've resolved that bug in version 0.6.0

Belial88 wrote:I'll probably change the show labels to false, that way i can have hwinfo software display something while lcd smartie displays it how i want it to display.

You can always set up your labels how you would like them displayed from HWiNFO's settings. (the app not the plugin)
Also, have a play around with the 'Result Formatting' options in hwinfo.ini.
Using 'Limit result to length' and 'pad short labels' you can set up a nice matching layout on multiple lines of your LCD.

Version Update: 0.6.0

- Fixed: Bug with function 2 opening multiple notepad instances.
- Fixed: Loop mode now works together with normal modes on multiple lines. (only one line can be loop mode though)
- Fixed: Random sensor error's returned to LCD Smartie.
- New feature: You can now Create a new 'hwinfo_Sensors.txt' using either: $dll(hwinfo,2,,) or $dll(hwinfo,1,#sensors,)
- New feature: You can now Reload settings using either: $dll(hwinfo,3,,) or $dll(hwinfo,1,#config,)

-- Please delete your old hwinfo.ini if upgrading, there's some minor changes to it in new version.
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..There's a couple more tweaks in the works for v0.7.0...
Thanks for your feedback, hurley.

Version Update: 0.7.0

- Fixed: When no config exists, function 3 wasn't creating a new config.
- Fixed: Minor bug when switching between loop and loopfile modes.
- New feature: Additional Param2 'formatting' overrides for label and unit.

-- Please delete your old hwinfo.ini if upgrading, there's some minor changes to it in new version.
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Version Update: 0.8.0

- New feature: Additional Param2 'formatting' overrides for returning 'Headers': group name and sensor type.
- Removal of Beta status.
- pdf documentation included in zip file.

-- Please delete your old hwinfo.ini if upgrading, there's some minor changes to it in new version.
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hurley wrote:Yes I meant a call to hwinfo on multiple lines in LCD Smartie, but I've resolved that bug in version 0.6.0

Belial88 wrote:I'll probably change the show labels to false, that way i can have hwinfo software display something while lcd smartie displays it how i want it to display.

You can always set up your labels how you would like them displayed from HWiNFO's settings. (the app not the plugin)
Also, have a play around with the 'Result Formatting' options in hwinfo.ini.
Using 'Limit result to length' and 'pad short labels' you can set up a nice matching layout on multiple lines of your LCD.

I'm not sure what you are saying, I see them in the ini but not sure what they would do.

What I meant, was that it would be cool to have HWinfo display a value one way, and the LCD another. The biggest reason that comes to mind is limited real estate, ie "CPU VCORE x.xxx" is cool for hwinfo, but it takes up a lot of space on the LCD so I might change it to "VCORE X.XX" and then I could use the extra space to display another value.

My LCD seems to show a buggy character with the * (degree) symbol. Is there a way to replace this or something?

Belial88 wrote:I'm not sure what you are saying, I see them in the ini but not sure what they would do.

Yes my user guide needs re-doing it's not very clear.
Pictures may help.

Limit result to length = true, Length = 20, And pad short labels = true
Changes this: To this: The long labels are trimmed and the short labels are padded so that the total length of each sensor reading is 20 characters.
It's probably more useful for larger screens or when using the loop modes so the layout stays consistant for each sensor reading.
But for your situation just making your own labels in LCD Smartie and setting Show Labels to false might work better.

OR Better still use Limbo's Search and Replace plugin:
http://www.eserver.gr/limboonline/plugins.html
http://www.eserver.gr/limboonline/plugins/sandr.zip

- Put something like this in sandr's "omit.ini"
[Search1]
1=CPU VCORE
[Replace1]
1=VCORE
- Then in LCD Smartie: $dll(sandr,1,$dll(hwinfo,1,YourSensorID,),)
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Belial88 wrote:My LCD seems to show a buggy character with the * (degree) symbol. Is there a way to replace this or something?

Are you using any custom characters on the same smartie screen?
The degree symbol uses up the first custom character position so there may be conflict with other custom characters.

I found in testing that when plugins send a text degree symbol to LCD Smartie an extra space gets inserted before the degree symbol.
I'm not sure why and I can only test this on the Emulated LCD at the moment.
So as a work-around, this plugin sends a custom character code for that symbol instead.

You could try setting the option Replace degree with custom character at the end of hwinfo.ini to False.
Or change which of the 8 custom character spaces you allocate to the other custom chars you are using.
The plugins custom degree symbol uses the first position 1/$Chr(176) ...Perhaps I should change this to the last position?

Edit: Custom Char for degree symbol no longer used. Bug resolved with patched DNBridge.dll in v1.0.1

Version Update: 0.9.0

- Fixed: Better checking for HWiNFO process running / shared memory valid.
- Added: Config option: Convert fan RPM to ON/OFF.
- Added: Check config version: If invalid delete and re-create, send msg: "Config Updated".
- Changed: Degree symbol custom character changed to position 8/$Chr(136).

-- Old config file will be deleted! If you have custom settings in your config you will need to redo those settings after upgrade.
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This plugin is now considered feature complete and bug free.
Unless anyone has some good ideas for new features, or can find any bugs,
the next version 1.0 will be the final release, with minor performance optimizations only.

Cheers, hurley.

Version Update: 1.0.0 Final

- Complete re-write of backend for better efficiency.
- Significant improvement in resource usage particularly memory usage.
- Added: Support for new features in HWiNFO v4.30 (Max, Min and Avg sensor readings)

-- Old config file will be deleted! If you have custom settings in your config you will need to redo those settings after upgrade.
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This is the final release for HWiNFO Plugin, baring any major changes in HWiNFO.
It is mainly a performance improvement over v0.9.0 but also includes support for the new shared memory layout in HWiNFO v4.30.
This means that HWiNFO v4.30 is now the minimum supported version for use with this plugin.

**Note: There has been a minor change to the order of SensorTypes.
'Other' type sensors is now ID 8 instead of ID 1 to match HWiNFO's internal order.
You may need to change some screen setups to suit.

New feature in v1.0.0 is the ability to display maximum, minimum and average sensor readings.
To use this feature add either "max", "min" or "avg" to param2.

Heres an example using the loop feature: $dll(hwinfo,1,loop,)/$dll(hwinfo,1,loop,max|-L)

*Tip: The most efficient way (for cpu usage) to set up your sensors is to use only the SensorLabelID number which you can find in the first two tables in hwinfo_Sensors.txt

Cheers, hurley.

Version Update: 1.0.1 - See first post ^

- Minor update: Added option to show/hide the sensors value.
This enables users to split the reading result into Label/Value/Unit and for example pass part of the result through another plugin. eg: a font plugin

eg: $dll(hwinfo,1,1,-V|-U)$dll(anotherplugin,1,1,$dll(hwinfo,1,1,-L|-U))$dll(hwinfo,1,1,-L|-V)

- Bug Resolved: The bug with the degree symbol having a space or random character inserted before it has been traced to DNBridge.dll.
Essentially, multi-byte unicode/UTF16 characters such as the degree symbol were not being converted to single byte characters on their way to LCD Smartie which results in the first byte being interpreted as another character, usually Chr(194) or Chr(195). This most likely is a japanese glyph on most LCD's.

After looking through LCD Smartie's source it appears this issue was patched back in 2005 by MikeB but the patched file 'DNBridge.dll' was not included in LCD Smartie downloads.
There may well be a good reason for this omission, however after testing the patch on my system it seems to fix the issue with the degree symbol, so I'm posting the patched DNBridge.dll as a solution to this bug.

NOTE: this file was compiled on Win32/x86 system so I'm unsure if it will cause issues on x64 systems.
If it causes any un-forseen issues, please report them here.
Reference: http://sourceforge.net/p/lcdsmartie/bugs/43/

-- Old config file will be deleted! If you have custom settings in your config you will need to redo those settings after upgrade.
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Version Update: 1.0.2 - See first post ^

New Feature:
- Handling for offline sensors with user configurable Offline sensor value. By default '--' is displayed for offline sensors.

Changed:
- Loop Modes: Loop and LoopFile now require a hash prefix ie: #loop and #loopfile. Also accessible via function 2 and function 3.
- Create Sensor List: #sensors changed from function 2 to function 4.
- Re-load Config: #config changed from function 3 to function 5.

-- Old config file will be deleted! If you have custom settings in your config you will need to redo those settings after upgrade.
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