DeskbarSensor

DeskbarSensor 0.1 alpha (2003.09.30)

© 2003 by Christian Packmann <Christian.Packmann@gmx.de>

About

Deskbar replicant which monitors the mainboards hardware sensors.

Warning

The current version uses undocumented calls in the kernel to directly read/write to ISA I/O address space; this might result in unexpected behavior (read: crash). This access method worked okay for me on two mainboards, but you never know...

Before you try out DeskbarSensor, you can check if your board is supported by running the HWMonitorScan_W83697HF program from the Extras drawer in a Terminal, which prints the temperatures and fan speeds every few seconds. If it works okay, DeskbarSensor should work without problems. And if it indeed crashes, you won't have a replicant crashing your machine every time Deskbar is loaded.

Requirements

BeOS R5/x86; not tested on 4.5, but might work.
Mainboard with supported hardware monitoring chip. Currently supported:
- Winbond W83697HF and compatible (tested on MSI KT-2).
As only basic features of the chip are used, DeskbarSensor may work with other Winbond chips, and perhaps even with chips from other manufacturers.
If it works correctly on your machine, please let me know the mainboard type and its hardware monitoring chip (should be stated in mainboard manual), so I can create a compatibility list.

Installation

No installation necessary; just double-click on DeskbarSensor to launch it.
As mentioned under Warning above, you might want to make sure that the accesses to ISA address space won't crash your machine.

Usage

Display

The display will tell you the temperature reading of both temperature sensors (in ° Celsius); one of the sensors has the ability to discern steps of 0.5 °, and is displayed appropriately.
The color of each temperature reading is dependent on the current value, with green=OK, yellow=a bit high, red=dangerous. The thresholds are currently fixed.

Bubblehelp display of Fan speeds

If you move the mouse cursor over the display and rest it there, a bubblehelp with the current fan rotation speeds is shown.

Future enhancements

Things planned for future versions:

Support for more sensor chips.
Preferences to adjust temperature coloring thresholds.