PCFx - AlienFX lighting depending on things like CPU temperature

PCFx 0.5 (Supported M14x Chassis, possibly others too)

Other chassis can be supported, let me know if you have problems.

Description:
Allows the user to identify computer activity or statistics such as CPU temperature from colour variations on the AlienFX laptop. Simply select what you want the zone to show and the low and high colours. Values that are in between low and high colours will be visualised as a gradient, so gradual colour changes rather than sudden colour changes.

PCFx currently updates colours every 1/5th of a second (200ms), uses the LightFX.dll from the AlienFX SDK and is able to retrieve the sensor information such as CPU core temperatures without third party programs.

Screenshot:


Known Bugs:
- (ViolentArmy) Status lights dropdown box has some old options that are no longer required. This will be corrected in version 0.6+.

Future Improvements:
- 'Battery Capacity %' added to all dropdown boxes as an option.
- Dynamic calibration of supported chassis zones, e.g. M15x has zones which work somewhere else other than where PCFx states.
- Control temperature low and high values.

Virus Scan Report from VirusTotal:
VirusTotal - Free Online Virus, Malware and URL Scanner - Version 0.1 Alpha x86

Download is attached to this post. Extract it, run it, and enjoy! Any questions or ideas please feel free to suggest, and as always if you find the program useful and want to make a donation please do so via the donation button in the program.

Please choose the correct version for your operating system, e.g. if you run 32-bit please download x86, otherwise download x64 if you run 64-bit.

 

Excellent idea - we need more folks with the desire to play with the AlienFX API. Sounds interesting. Look forward to seeing how your project progresses if you decide to go forward.

Have fun!

 

you got my vote .... that's an amazing idea though.......

 

Amazing idea for the colors depends of the temps, so no need to alt tab while gaming to know if the system is getting hot or not. Can't wait.

 

Well based on the positive replies so far I've decided to start an alpha version now, it won't be anywhere near as complete as I want, but initially it will be able to control keyboard elements on all laptop models (or at least that's what I believe from reading the AlienFX SDK and what I've coded so far on my M14x).

Progress as of this post is as follows:
- GUI is 70% complete, just need to add some helpful elements to explain certain things (e.g. About PCFx).
- Changing the left, left middle, right middle, and finally the right zones on the keyboard are possible, with four settings. The settings are Solid Colour, CPU Load (% scale), CPU #0 Temperature (Low as 40C, gradient colour/morph up to 100C as High), Disk #0 Load (% scale).
- Changing the Low and High colours for each zone is possible, rather than having one Low and High colour for all zones.
- Saving settings will be done shortly.

Requirements:
- .NET Framework 4, which all AlienFX laptops should theoretically have anyway as AlienFX requires it.
- An AlienFX capable laptop.

 

Superb idea, can't believe no ones thought of this before.

Good luck!

 

Project released as 0.1 alpha. Could a moderator change the thread name with the name of my post so that it's not longer an idea, but an actual release.

 

I support you! This is a great idea!

 

Awesome +rep

 

Title changed and link added to NET 4.0 installer in post#1. While the current version of Command Center on the 11xR3, 14x, 17xR3 and 18x require NET 4.0, the older systems do not have this requirement for their CC version. Before attempting to run the OPs app, I suggest everyone run the .NET 4.0 installer. Just to confirm.

OP, nice job!

A side note, the legacy AW Systems (pre-dell) probably will not support this as the AlienFX package was a bit different then. Legacy owners, use at your own risk.

 

PCFx has been updated to 0.2 alpha with some improvements.

+ Added support for zones displaying memory load (%).
+ Added a report for unsupported models/chassis, which you submit to me along with your LightFX.dll on your system (not the one with the program).
* Fixed a problem with the same WMI on multiple zones not being read correctly.
* Optimised the code a bit.
- Removed the ability to maximise the window.

 

This is awesome! Great idea! Will this work for m11x though?

 

Ixel states that he designed it on his m14x, however in theory it should work work with all Dell Alienware Alienfx enabled models due to pre-Dell Alienfx being packaged differently

 

You might have to send me a report that it comes up with to support your model, but apart from that it should work. I'm working on changing 0.3 to no longer use the .NET AlienFX (LightFX.dll) DLL and instead use the one in C:\Windows\System32\LightFX.dll which is an unmanaged DLL, so version differences shouldn't be a bother then.

 

i get an error about some file named "AlienwareAlienFXtool" couldn't be loaded on my M17x-R1. Unfortunately it's in danish so you probably won't understand it

 

Update for 0.3 alpha released.

+ Added fading gradient options to the dropdown menus with varying speeds.
+ Added tray/notify icon support.
* Optimised code further, removed .NET assembly LightFX.dll and changed it to work with the LightFX.DLL in System32 folder.

 

Keep going man this is great!

 

Really nice project, awesomely useful.

 

Doesn't work on my M11x R3, i get the following error message: "PCFx was unable to start the LightFX controller. Reason: Initialisation resulted in LFX_Failure."

 

Works fairly great on the M17x R3, but CPU temperature monitor shows up as blank, turned off. Excellent Idea. Thank you.

 

Can I actually help and contribute to this program? I have experience with C#, C, C++ and building Web applications on the .NET framework, which I can transfer over to building desktop apps. Let me know (PM)!

 

I'm also running it on a M17x R3, and to get the CPU Temp monitor to work, you have to have Core Temp running, or atleast for me I do, you can hide the window so its just running in the background but as soon as you close it, the lighting goes off. Other than that, I think this is awesome, I remember thinking when I was setting up the colors on the Dell system that it was stupid on the morph setting, it would jump back to the starting color. I like how yours goes back and forth.

 

Sure, well, I'm looking into the possibility to allow people to add or modify existing code through LUA or Python. Ideas are welcome, but currently I'm running this project as closed source, that may change in the future though.

Thanks, yeah the morph setting was stupid, which is why I designed an alternative solution to it.

I'm currently eliminating the need to use CoreTemp or other programs I was planning to implement support for (such as HWiNFO32), thanks to OpenHardwareMonitor. A simple DLL will be supplied with the program that should hopefully get your CPU, GPU and HDD sensor data, no external programs should be required for such information as a result. Also I'm adding support for a status zone I missed out, status lights.

 

I was just going to update my post about the missing status lights, when I was initally playing with you app, I entirely missed that they were not included.

 

In the next hour I should be able to release 0.5, which has had an overhaul. It no longer relies on third party programs to provide temperature sensor data, or load levels of each CPU core in %. The GUI has been made slightly wider to accomodate for the longer texts in the dropdown boxes. Status lights are now supported too.

To summarise:
+ Added integrated support for reading sensor data without depending on third party programs.
+ Added support for status lights.
+ Added a 64-bit version in addition to the 32-bit version of PCFx.
* Changed temperature gradient to have a minimum low of 1C and a maximum high of 100C, colour depending on what the current temperature is of course. Previously this was low of 40C and high of 100C.
* Changed GUI width to be wider, to allow for wider dropdown boxes due to the longer texts in them now.
* Changed delay between updates from 200ms to 300ms, some hardware limitations made issues from too fast updates.
- Removed dependency on CoreTemp for sensor data.

 

Nevermind, I've solved the problem now, no longer using WMI however.

I've encountered an odd problem with having a 64-bit exe (which is required it appears for the sensor data to work for the CPU temperatures, if you have a 64-bit operating system). Because I'm reading the memory information from WMI it gives an invalid class exception, but the 32-bit exe doesn't (though the sensor data doesn't work properly due to it being 32-bit on a 64-bit operating system, it would work on a 32-bit operating system fine. So unless a coder has suggestions on how else I might retrieve memory usage information on the system, or knows the 64-bit way of getting it from WMI, I will be releasing the 64-bit version of PCFx with Memory Usage % in it, but non-functional.

 

It seems like the Status Lights have more options, is their a reason behind that. It looks like to me, its the old CPU Load Temp option when Core Temp was needed.

 

That's an oversight, I obviously forgot to remove some options from that dropdown box, I'll add it to the known bugs list and correct it next revision. Thanks for pointing that out. Apart from that I take it everything appears to be working?

 

yeah, its working great, though the way I have it set up, low is Blue, and High is Red, my computer is mostly a Light pink most the time, so I need to figure out two good colors that show the differences but don't sit at Neon Pink

 

Just downloaded 0.5 on m14x tried 64-bit and 32-bit and both crash just after the logo gets to the notification area

 

Crash? Do you mean you get the error similar to "This program has caused a fatal error and must now close" with the option to send a report or close it without sending a report? If so I'm not certain why, however some suggestions are.

- Ensure AlienFX is installed and up to date
- Ensure LightFX.dll exists in C:\Windows\System32\
- Ensure UAC isn't causing any problems (if enabled) by running PCFx.exe as Administrator

Other than that I'm not sure what else to suggest, but it sounds like OpenHardwareMonitor is causing the crash, which would indicate to me that the integrated driver might be being blocked by Windows for some unapparent reason.

 

Working great on M17x R3 for 0.5, no crashing.

The GPU function is a really good idea, but the total CPU temperature has disappeared. Otherwise great job. Great work.

Each version has been better than the last, cannot wait for 0.6.

 

Great program but for some reason, a lot of the drop-down menus are mixed up in the m15x. For example, the status lights menu changes the one for touchpad and the touchpad menu changes the lights for the ALIENWARE sign. Any idea what's going on?

 

Unfortunately I had a feeling this would happen. Some chassis/models will have different zone identifiers than the one I designed on, which was the M14x. Yours is the first model so far to be reported with this type of problem. I hopefully will be designing a dynamic way of identifying zones so that this problem doesn't happen, possibly in the next version release. For now all you can do is figure out what zone actually controls where it appears on your laptop.

 

That's exactly what I did, I haven't faced any crashes or anything so far so i'm fine with it. If you ever need to use my computer for beta-testing or anything just let me know.

 

I am curious if it is possible to set the standards that you have for Temp Highs and Lows.

I set my GPU to Blue(low) Red(high) and while it is not in use it sits at 44c but my trackpad is violet as if it is getting close to max temp. Any ideas woudl be great.

Thnaks for the cool program btw.

 

I've read through this thread and I don't see any install instructions, so I assume you can just run the .exe from the folder along with the .dll that is included?

When trying to run the app, at startup, I get the following error:

HTML:

PCFx was unable to start the LightFX Controller.

Reason: Initialization resulted in LFX_Failure.

I did check my system 32 folder and I do have LightFX.dll. I also set the app to run as administrator and bypassed UAC.

Did I miss some install instructions somewhere?

 

Ignore that last post..... the other day while messing with iTunes, I had unchecked "allow 3rd party access". That was the problem.

I do want to tag on to 2GStyle's post a little though. Is there plans in the future to allow us to change what the low and high figures are? I'm in the same boat as 2G, where as at idle, my colors are in half transition. It would be great to be able to set the low and high temps only about 20 degree's apart, 70-90 maybe.

Love the app so far, great work, and looking forward to future releases.

 

After I've done my SSD installation tomorrow and have everything setup again, probably by after the weekend, I'll look into adding the features mentioned. Battery Capacity % is done, but obviously not released yet. I've also resolved the old items being listed in the last dropdown box, but again hasn't been released yet.

I'll look into the possibility of adding a check to see if third party access is allowed or not, if it isn't then the error message will ask the user to enable third party access.

 

Works flawless on my m18x thanks Ixel + rep

 

I got the error reporting message you described. It showed me where the dump files were. When I open it, it sticks its icon in the tray for about 15 seconds before the windows error reporting comes up saying it's crashed.

Dump files - sorry I had to use rapidshare, this forum only allows <585.9KB zip files (?)
https://rapidshare.com/files/2962728675/pcFX_Error.zip

update: mediafire is better http://www.mediafire.com/?hfs5fbeb2zcgju9

 

Any time frame on when there might be an update? Love the idea of this and cannot wai tto see next verison.

 

I hope to have an update soon, I'm trying to figure out how to read and understand mdmp files with Windbg, but it's proving to be a pain.

 

man i just saw this and got it.. works amazing!! absolutely love it!
EDIT: any chances we will have support to change the lighting around the power button on the m14x? also any chances we could get GPU load as an option? those features would make this program absolely amazing for monitoring!
this program is great .. lets you monitor and lets you change up the touchpad with changing colors unlike the alienware command center FX. I intend on donating soon as this program is something very useful thanks a lot

 

Hey, just thought I was let you know. I downloaded and tried your program today, after setting things the way I wanted it the program crashed. Crashed as in windows crash. After reloading the program I was able to make changes just one last time. All my lighting zones, to include my tactx mouse is locked in there current colors. I've tried rebooting to reset them as well as changing the colors in the fx controller to no avail. Also my windows battery meter is now glitched out, not reading properly, one moment is says it's charging the next it says the battery is unavailable. Could be unrelated but any ideas on a fix short of doing a full format and reinstall would be helpful. Thanks

EDIT: After uninstalling Alien FX and reinstalling and removing the battery and holding the power button. It's working again, but now I'm concerned about using the software, I REALLY like the software I'm just concerned.

 

I don't have an Alienware laptop (yet, at least. I may be getting one). So I can't open this program. But I have a potential idea to contribute if it hasn't been implemented already: building off shak541's idea of having GPU load as a zone option, maybe a simple binary "this-color/that-color" for Optimus would be nice, so people could know if the Intel or NVIDIA GPU is active?

 

I am stoked for this program on my 18x when it arrives, and will donate to boot

 

hey, just tried this for my m15x
before saying a word i'd like to say this is an instant donate app. not many of those around but i'd feel really guilty not pressing the donate button so cheers, you deserve it bud.

a few issues with labels not that big an issue, however my status lights (i'm assuming that's the caps/scroll/numlock lights along with the touch sensitive buttons).

is there a way to turn those on for the m15x cause as of right now, they just turn off and stay off no matter what i set the configuration to.

and for those wondering here's a list of the labels and what it actually controls for the m15x
status lights = modifies the touchpad
touchpad = modifies the ALIENWARE
ALIENWARE = does nothing (possible to change something so this could effect the status lights?)

all the keyboard settings seem to be in the right place

thanks a million for this anyhow, finally can monitor temps in game with just a glance. oh one more thing, is it possible to allow us to modify the high/low variables?

 

My M17x (no revision) does the same thing. I'm not concerned about the labels, but I need those touch sensitive buttons to be lit, that's the only thing keeping me from using it and donating for it.

 

When I try to load the program it says Unable to load C:\Windows\System32\LightFX.dll D: