Screensaver On, Peripherals Off
This is one of those projects that makes you go, “That was so obvious! Why didn’t I think of that?!” Pretty much every computer system has the ability to run a screensaver. Back in the days of CRT monitors, they were a much needed tool, especially when you could read the text on your screen and the computer is turned off! In general, I tell people to turn off their screensaver if they have an LCD monitor or at the very least set it to a black screen.
But, I may have to change my recommendation to always use a black screen screensaver if more people start to build this little device!
photozz has developed a system that monitors (no pun intended) the status of the screensaver. As soon as the screensaver kicks in, it sends a signal to the printer port which is picked up from this device. This then tells the device to cut the power to all of the appropriate peripherals that are connected to the device!
This ideas is pretty ingenious to me because if the screensaver is running, then you are probably not at your computer to use the peripherals that are connected to it! I wish that I had seen this before I wrote Reduce Home Network Power Consumption. It is a really cool way to help keep the electric bills down.
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4 Responses to “Screensaver On, Peripherals Off”
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Jordan Price Says:
March 26th, 2007 at 12:51 pmI have an Dual 19″ LCD Monitors and 1 CRT running… I ALWAYS turn them off. I know its better on electricity that way. I don’t think I’ve ever seen the screen saver go on this machine. =]
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Adrian Says:
March 27th, 2007 at 10:42 pmConsidering the number of times in a couple of hours use that my screensaver kicks in and out I don’t think I want all my peripherals powered on and off repeatedly. If I did I’d get my 3yo nephew to sit there and flick the power switch back and forth a few times.
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Tim Fehlman Says:
March 28th, 2007 at 6:36 amIf you were to implement this solution, you may want to consider changing your settings.
Tim
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FrankZ Says:
March 28th, 2007 at 1:21 pmA black or blank screensaver does not turn monitor off, so doesn’t save any power (backlight is still on). Here’s a little program that can be configured to turn it off…
Screen Saver Control - An utility for manage the screen saver and monitor power off - AMPsoftReally cool. FrankZ
