Power management on legacy players

 

Applies to HMP200, HMP130, and HMP100 devices.

Introduction

Power Management is a feature that turns off the power or switches the system to a low-power state when inactive, in order to reduce overall energy consumption.

Within a digital signage setup featuring SpinetiX devices, the biggest part of the power consumption is actually taken by the screens. For this purpose, the player supports different display power saving methods for turning off (and turning back on) the screen connected to it.

The power consumption of the player itself is very low and it should be left in running mode all the time. See player power saving section for more details.

Display power saving

The following methods are available to automatically turn on / off the screen connected to a player:

• DPMS for screens connected via VGA (or VGA to DVI)
• DVI DPMS for screens connected via HDMI
• RS-232 for screens supporting serial communication

Note:

The analog audio signal is not turned off during display power save mode.

Configuration

Control Center - Power Save

To enable this feature follow these steps:

1. Open HMP Control Center
2. Go to Display Settings > Power Save tab > Display Power Save section
3. Check the "Enable display power saving" option.
4. To set a basic schedule for turning ON / OFF the screen at a certain hour each day:
   1. Click to activate "Use fixed schedule for display power" setting.
   2. Enter the time of the day for turning on the attached screen on the input field labeled "Turn monitor ON".
   3. Enter the time of the day for turning off the attached screen on the input field labeled "Turn monitor OFF".
5. Click the "Apply" button.

DPMS

VESA Display Power Management Signaling (or DPMS) is used for screens connected via VGA (or VGA to DVI) to switch the screen into standby mode by turning off the sync signals on the VGA output and it is supported by practically all VGA devices.

Note:

The VGA signal is not completely cut off and some devices (like Sanyo PLC-WXU300 projector) might not correctly interpret this signal.

DVI DPMS

The DVI specification includes signaling for reducing power consumption, similar to the analog VESA display power management signaling (DPMS) standard. The player will use DVI DPMS for screens connected via HDMI to put the screen to standby according to the display power saving policy.

Note:

HDMI CEC standard for power control via HDMI is not supported on these HMP models, but the DVI DPM signal might be interpreted as a standby command by some screens that support DVI style power saving on their HDMI inputs or have one of their HDMI inputs labeled DVI. Also, if the screen has a DVI input and you don't want to use RS232 solely for power management, then consider using an HDMI to DVI adapter - you get the same picture quality as with HDMI and also the power saving feature of DVI.

RS-232

I/O Automation

Power on/off commands can be sent via RS-232 to a (professional) screen supporting serial communication. These commands are supplied by the device manufacturer.

To enable this feature, follow these steps:

1. Open HMP Control Center
2. Go to the I/O Automation > Serial port setting
3. Enable the serial port usage and configure the communication parameters.
4. Select one of the built-in serial port protocol files from the drop-down select box or upload your own and select that one.
5. Click the "Apply" button.

Custom schedule

It is possible to set up a display power saving schedule that is more complex than the basic one above; this can be done using a screen control widget, as explained below. The most common power saving schedule request is to have the screen ON during the working hours and OFF otherwise (including the weekend).

To set up a complex display power saving schedule, you need to use a schedule inside your Elementi project that includes either the power.svg widget or some custom JavaScript code (making use of the JavaScript COM API or the sendComPort function).

• The power.svg widget is usually used with devices connected via the serial port to the HMP, in which case you need to use a protocol file.
• You can also use the power.svg widget with screens connected via VGA (or VGA to DVI), in which case you don't need a protocol file, but ensure that on the Display Settings page > Power Save tab the "Enable display power saving" setting is enabled and the "Use fixed schedule for display power" setting is disabled.

Note:

For a sample project that sets the screen ON during the working hours and OFF otherwise (including the weekend), see the Project:Power Saving page.

Player power saving

Within a digital signage setup featuring SpinetiX devices, the biggest part of the power consumption is actually taken by the screens, which can be turned off through different display power saving methods. The power consumption of the SpinetiX devices is very small (maximun is 14W), so that they can be left in running mode all the time - this is actually recommended because there are different internal operations that are performed during the night.

Nevertheless, if you want to save up even more power, you can shut down or even completely power off the device; for more details, see how to:

• Shut down the HMP;
• Power off the HMP;

Notes:

• Unplugging the HMP device from the power network without a prior shutdown, especially in a repetitive manner, could cause content loss and / or hardware problems!
• After the HMP has been shut down, it can be restarted by briefly pressing its blue button (this does not apply for HMP130 and HMP100 models) or by physically reconnecting it to the electrical network.

VGA power saving

The power required for the VGA output can raise up to 50% of the total power consumption of the player. To save up power, the HMP sends the VGA output signal only if a screen is detected using the Display Data Channel (DDC) signal.

If the screen does not provide a DDC signal or the cable does not have the DDC pin connected (this is typical of some plasma screens with legacy support for analogue devices), the HMP does not output the VGA signal - to overcome this default behavior, the "VGA output enable" option need to be set to "Always On".

Troubleshooting

Extended logging

SpinetiX Support might require you to enable extended logging of events in case the display power management fails. In order to instruct the HMP to log more details regarding the input events, follow the procedure detailed below.

1. Open the Control Center interface on the HMP.
2. Enable the "Advanced" menu.
   1. Open the "Status" page,
   2. Find the HMP picture
   3. Click where the SpinetiX logo (for HMP200) or the blue button (for HMP130 / HMP100) is displayed.
   4. A confirmation dialog appears; click on "Yes" to enable the "Advanced settings" menu on the left side.
3. Configure the player to log extended information for specific events:
   1. From the "Advanced" menu, open the "Logs Settings" page.
   2. Enable "Custom configuration" radio button under the "Config" section. Click the "Apply" button right below it.
   3. Go to "Appender" section and find "debugfile" entry.
   4. Enable "Subscribe to all loggers" option and set the "Max Size" to 50000KB .
   5. Go to "Logger" section and set the "Priority" option (drop-down list) to "Info".
   6. Scroll down and find the "--- comportfsm" row (under "display"); select "Trace" on the drop-down list on the right-most column and make sure that no checkbox are enabled for that row.
   7. Make sure that no other checkboxes are enabled on the debugfile column.
   8. Click the "Update" button at the bottom.
4. Restart the HMP.
5. Leave the player running until the display power management failure occurs again.
6. Generate a new report.
7. Once done, revert to the default configuration - enable the "Default configuration" option and click the "Update" button.