Mark’s use of energy@home highlights a need for annotation function but before getting to that stage I want to customize the way historical data is retrieved.

Currently it only shows pre-set number of settings but I face a UI challenge to make it simple to use yet powerful enough to allow multiple overlays and graph settings and types.

As a prototype I have removed the pre-set intervals and replaced it with a textbox and the unit entered in the textbox. Whilst this works well it does not full fill my desire to allow more than one overlay. Also there is no min or max range so someone can crash the browser if they enter a high value with loads of data point e.g 99 hours. Whilst Flot may cope with large sets of data, it makes the point hover very hard and the resolution looks really bad. The flip side to this effect is that the zoom feature gives more data points.

Watts Clever Fridge + Freezer Power Anomaly

There is a report generator in Microsoft Windows 7 which can help you track down what is being used in terms of power. The report tells you what is stopping the computer going into sleep mode (if sleep mode is turned on) as well as devices that do not “suspend”.

Go to the command line as an administrator. This can be achived by going to Start Menu and typing cmd in the search bar. Search for cmd.exe under Programs, hold Shift key and right click on cmd.exe. At this point you can let go of the shift key and select Run as administrator.

A dialogue box may warn you when starting the the program but OK it to start the program. Type:
powercfg -energy
and press enter to start it. The program will monitor your computer for 1 minute. In this time do what you wish.

Once it has finished it will print out the location of the report which is in a HTML (web page) format. You may need to copy to a suitable folder for your browser to open it.

Tekzilla Daily Tip #511