Comments on: My arduino clock… http://www.arkadian.eu/pages/51/my-arduino-clock thinking out loud... Tue, 21 Dec 2010 19:07:49 +0100 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: arkadian http://www.arkadian.eu/pages/51/my-arduino-clock/comment-page-1#comment-11 arkadian Thu, 06 Aug 2009 10:13:27 +0000 http://www.arkadian.eu/?p=51#comment-11 Hey Kevin, thanks for your comments. Well, the problem is that the various websites, where we download the reports from, use flash even for the authentication screens and create the pdf files on the fly, i.e. I could not just use cron and a wget script on a server and grab them all in one go (believe me I tried to do that for months!). The manual process of downloading all these files involves approx 100 clicks on the screen which are slightly different every day (which is why I'm using autohotkey to automate that part). The problem is that Autohokey (as far as I know) cannot run as a cron job on a windows machine that's locked. My other problem was that, for security reasons, all the PCs at work have their screens locked if nobody is using them for like 5 mins. I wasn't allowed to change that. If I could remove the requirement for a login & password at boot (which would never happen at work), I would wire the arduino directly on the power pins of the motherboard, so that it just boots the PC up with the alarm goes. I could have the autohokey script on the Startup folder and I would save the X-keys board for another project (a flight simulator sounds like a cool idea :) )... Hey Kevin, thanks for your comments.

Well, the problem is that the various websites, where we download the reports from, use flash even for the authentication screens and create the pdf files on the fly, i.e. I could not just use cron and a wget script on a server and grab them all in one go (believe me I tried to do that for months!). The manual process of downloading all these files involves approx 100 clicks on the screen which are slightly different every day (which is why I’m using autohotkey to automate that part). The problem is that Autohokey (as far as I know) cannot run as a cron job on a windows machine that’s locked.

My other problem was that, for security reasons, all the PCs at work have their screens locked if nobody is using them for like 5 mins. I wasn’t allowed to change that.

If I could remove the requirement for a login & password at boot (which would never happen at work), I would wire the arduino directly on the power pins of the motherboard, so that it just boots the PC up with the alarm goes. I could have the autohokey script on the Startup folder and I would save the X-keys board for another project (a flight simulator sounds like a cool idea :) )…

]]> By: kevin http://www.arkadian.eu/pages/51/my-arduino-clock/comment-page-1#comment-10 kevin Thu, 06 Aug 2009 03:48:53 +0000 http://www.arkadian.eu/?p=51#comment-10 By the way, you couldn't use a cron-job to assemble the files for you? By the way, you couldn’t use a cron-job to assemble the files for you?

]]> By: kevin http://www.arkadian.eu/pages/51/my-arduino-clock/comment-page-1#comment-9 kevin Thu, 06 Aug 2009 03:46:49 +0000 http://www.arkadian.eu/?p=51#comment-9 Hey, cool project! I can see where it could be said that you are going overboard, but you are learning and that is key. I have an x-keys matrix and an arduino (as well) and it never occurred to me to wire them together. I am saving my x-keys for a flight simulator cockpit (yeah, I know...) but it might be fun to play with in other ways before I dedicate it. Keep it up and I look forward to seeing more projects from you. Hey, cool project! I can see where it could be said that you are going overboard, but you are learning and that is key. I have an x-keys matrix and an arduino (as well) and it never occurred to me to wire them together. I am saving my x-keys for a flight simulator cockpit (yeah, I know…) but it might be fun to play with in other ways before I dedicate it.

Keep it up and I look forward to seeing more projects from you.

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