L40BATT - IBM PS/2 L40 SX Battery Monitor Program ------- --- ---- --- -- ------- ------- ------- (C) Copyright IBM Corp. 1991 - 1993. All Rights Reserved. L40BATT is an OS/2 Presentation Manager program for monitoring the condition of the IBM PS/2 L40 SX battery. Bar graphs show the battery voltage and the current (in amperes) being drawn from the battery. Both bar graphs are updated once per second. Another graph displays the 'historical' value of the battery voltage so that you can monitor the battery's rate of charge or discharge. The program also displays an indicator whenever the AC adapter is connected to the L40. =============================================================================== REQUIREMENTS This program was written for, and only runs on, the IBM PS/2 L40 SX. It communicates directly with the L40's Slave Micro-Controller Unit (SMCU) to determine the current battery condition and to detect the attachment of the AC adapter. The program was compiled to run under OS/2 1.30.1. It runs correctly under OS/2 2.0 as well. =============================================================================== INSTALLATION The file L40BAT.ZIP is a ZIP archive file. Unpack it with PKUNZIP (available on any bulletin board system or on CompuServe) into the subdirectory from which you intend to use the program. The following programs are contained within the ZIP file: L40BATT.DOC This file. L40BATT.EXE The executable file. L40BATT.HLP The interactive help file for the program. L40BATT.ABS A short description of the program. LICENSE.TXT The AS-IS program license agreement. The executable program must access the L40's I/O ports to communicate with the SMCU chip, so you will need to make sure that it is given I/O Privilege in your CONFIG.SYS file. To do this, check to see that you have the following line in your CONFIG.SYS file: IOPL=YES If you have IOPL=NO, you'll need to edit the line to change NO to YES. The IOPL=YES line gives I/O privilege not only to L40BATT, but to any program that requests it. Some people, fearing damage from viruses or from rogue programs, prefer to limit the programs they give IOPL to. You can alternatively use the following line in your CONFIG.SYS file: IOPL=L40BATT With this line, only the L40 Battery Monitor program is given I/O Privilege. To successfully use L40BATT's built-in interactive help, be sure that the help data file L40BATT.HLP is copied to one of the following locations: 1. Directory \OS2\HELP on your OS/2 boot disk drive, 2. Any directory specified in the HELP environment variable (type SET to see the value of the HELP variable), 3. The current default directory (type CD to see the current default directory.) =============================================================================== OPERATION The L40BATT program may be executed by simply typing L40BATT at an OS/2 command-line, by placing it in one of your OS/2 1.3 Group menus, or by placing it in one of your OS/2 2.0 Workplace Shell file folders. The latter are the preferred methods of execution, as you can specify that L40BATT will come up at system start-up. You can force L40BATT to start up in the minimized state (that is, as an icon rather than an open window) by specifying the /M parameter when invoking the program. This is the only command-line parameter that L40BATT accepts. The bar graphs are updated once per second. The left graph shows the battery voltage (9 volts to 15 volts) and the rightmost graph shows the current in amperes being drawn from the battery (0 amps to 4 amps, though the value will become negative when the battery is charging.) The line graph records the voltage value every 18 seconds, thus building a chart of battery voltage over the last hour. A downward slope indicates that the battery is discharging, and an upward slope indicates that the battery is charging. You can clear this graph by selecting the NEW option in the DISPLAY action bar pull-down menu. =============================================================================== NOTES L40BATT consults your OS/2 system configuration parameters to determine how long it should display its initial logo screen. After you install OS/2, the logo panel display time is 'indefinite', and you must press ENTER to dismiss the panel. You may change the logo panel display time to any desired value in milliseconds, including 0, in one of the following ways: Under OS/2 PM 1.30.x, bring up the Desktop Manager menu and select the "Group - Utilities" option. Under this menu, select the Control Panel application. The logo display time value can be changed via an action bar menu item. Under OS/2 PM 2.x with the WPS, open the "OS/2 System" folder on the desktop. Under this folder, open the "System Setup" folder, and select the System icon under this folder. The logo display time value can be changed via one of the notebook 'tabs'. =============================================================================== HISTORY Version 2.21 July 22, 1993 Error pop-up messages are now written to a log file. 'Phantom' errors from the system are now detected and ignored. Increased the program stack to account for new OS/2 2.1 requirements. Found a compiler switch set wrong - unknown if it caused any problems. Program was not saving options correctly under OS/2 2.1, causing multiple unrelated program errors at subsequent startups. Program options are now saved to L40BATT.INI, and not to OS2.INI. Released to the world via the IBM Employee Written Software program. Version 2.20 February 9, 1993 Added option to sync window title updates to bar or line graph updates. Revised display code to not redraw the line graph each second. Changed the 'simulated display' mode to be more visually interesting. Released to the world via the IBM Employee Written Software program. Version 2.10 October 12, 1992 Interactive help added. The voltage graph value is now displayed in the program title. Added the /M command line parameter to force minimized start-up. Changed the line graph X-axis label from elapsed "Hours" to "Minutes". Released to the world via the IBM Employee Written Software program. Version 2.00 November 22, 1991 Now works correctly under OS/2 2.0 beta test driver 6.167F. Minor fix to better handle customized screen colors. Released to individuals within IBM and to CompuServe's IBMOS2 forum. Version 1.05 October 10, 1991 Revised amperes calculation (Found an error in the L40 Tech Ref.) Display of very small +/- amperes values is now handled correctly. Released to individuals within IBM and to CompuServe's IBMOS2 forum. Version 1.04 September 20, 1991 AC connection indicator (a dot) was added to the minimized program icon. Graph colors can now be specified. Program options can now be saved between sessions. The program window position can now be saved between sessions. Correctly uses color when the PM window background color is not white. Attempt to make work under OS/2 2.0 6.149 (PTR opened for DosPortAccess.) Released to individuals within IBM and to CompuServe's IBMOS2 forum. Version 1.03 September 2, 1991 Charge/discharge history graph now displayed in minimized program icon. Released to individuals within IBM and to CompuServe's IBMOS2 forum. Version 1.02 August 22, 1991 Default program icon now set automatically. Released to individuals within IBM. Version 1.01 August 13, 1991 Removed the MAXIMIZE button from the title bar. Updated DOC file to mention problems with OS/2 2.0 EEP driver 6.149. Released to GEnie's LAPTOP forum. Version 1.00 August 12, 1991 Baseline functionality. First version, released to CompuServe's IBMOS2 forum. ===============================================================================