Open Source Bitfenix Recon Software (Linux, OSX, Windows) (Beta Testers)

n3mss

n3mss

n3mss

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Hi,

If you have a BitFenix Recon (fan controller) and would like to beta test some open source software for controlling it, then you might be able to lend a hand :D

Phoebetria:
https://sourceforge.net/projects/phoebetria/

Current status of the software (developed independently and not in association with or endorsed by BitFenix) is beta, meaning that we're really after people willing to test it. The binary files (for OSX, Fedora 17, and Windows) on the site will be updated this weekend, but the update will include very few user visible changes.

All of the features of the OEM software are currently supported, except for web control of the controller. Features that exceed the OEM software are definitely planned once the current release (and the imminent release this weekend) are tested and feedback received from the community (of course we have our own ideas of extended features, but maybe there is something *you* want that we haven't thought of).

The changes for the new binaries, when they are released, are mostly behind the scenes and will no doubt introduce new bugs :( BUT feedback on the current V1.0.0-Beta release are still very welcome.

Also, if you can help in any way please contact us! E.g. packaging/testing for Ubuntu or Mint or Distro-X; translation (localisation); ideas; anything.

Cheers
Craig
 
Quite excited by this so thought I'd give it a quick go.

You probably already know this but your channel numbers on the temperature warning thing start at 0 rather than 1, so it's a bit confusing when you pull up the dialog and it gives you a different number.

Not sure if it's my setup but after a while the program starts to ignore any input I make. Now every time I open it I can't drag the sliders, despite it being in manual control. I did open the normal recon service while fiddling about so it might be that that has taken control away from me. I also noticed that changes I was making to the temperature warning were sometimes being ignored. Again this could be an issue from opening the recon service.

Looks like I might have to reboot to get control back and investigate further.

I think it'd be great if we could get finer control and fan curve editing so I'm really looking forward to seeing development of this.

Windows 7 64 bit.
 
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Thanks Tealc. I think that the bugs you describe have been fixed.

The "Fan Controller Service" should be turned off. Which reminds me, I should add some code to try and see if it's running or not and ask the user to turn it off (or get the s/ware to turn it off after asking).

The temperature warning thing in the latest version start at "blank" (i.e. they show nothing), so I think that might be fixed (not 100% sure though, I will have to check... that's pretty sad considering it's my code, but yeah I do work full time as well [not as a programmer] and have been doing this for the last 3-4 weeks after work).

I do think that both of the bugs you describe are fixed, but cannot be sure :( There is just me and one other person at the moment and your feedback is the first!

What I might do is re-read your message tomorrow and re-check where things are at now, after that Windows Executable was released. There have been a LOT of behind the scenes changes.

If you're willing I'll send you a compiled snapshot of the latest version to test tomorrow (I am in Australia, so I guess tomorrow might be very late tonight for you).

Cheers

PS I might add some more debugging output so bugs are easier to find. Currently I test it on Windows 7 and Fedora 17 (64), and another contributor compiles and tests it on OSX Lion.
 
Tealc said:
You probably already know this but your channel numbers on the temperature warning thing start at 0 rather than 1, so it's a bit confusing when you pull up the dialog and it gives you a different number.
Click to expand...

Doh!

I see what you mean now :) Yes I'll fix that. Thank you!

Also, I think user naming of channels are a given (e.g. instead of "channel 0" the user may call it "front intake"). This won't happen in the next release but it's hight on the list.

Edit: see I still called it "channel 0" in my response to you. LOL. Yeah, it will be fixed and I really had no idea I was doing that.
 
Ok thanks!, just trying to work out how to get the snapshot to you. I think what I'll do is upload it to the sourceforge site so you know it can be trusted; I'll just have to check some things first.

Edit: After the next release I'll probably put together a list of Beta Testers. Since you've found at least one bug (the channel numbering) you're on the list. :)
 
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Ok, I've uploaded the latest build (Windows only) to: http://sourceforge.net/projects/pho...etria_PRE_RELEASE_1.0.1_20120830.zip/download

Note that this isn't a release... it's as things stand right at this moment :D There are not many user-visible changes but there are a lot of changes behind the scenes (code is cleaner and more efficient). Basically the idea behind providing this file is to see if bugs like the one quoted below are fixed (in other words it's better that I don't try to hunt down bugs that have already been fixed during the large behind-the-scene changes)

Not sure if it's my setup but after a while the program starts to ignore any input I make. Now every time I open it I can't drag the sliders, despite it being in manual control. I did open the normal recon service while fiddling about so it might be that that has taken control away from me. I also noticed that changes I was making to the temperature warning were sometimes being ignored. Again this could be an issue from opening the recon service.
Click to expand...

^^^ I am particularly interested in this.

Phoebetria _should_ work with the Bitfenix service running in the background, but I don't really recommend it.

Cheers
Craig
 
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Puppetmaster said:
Just a quick question, do you think it will ever be possible for the fan speed to be adjusted based on temperatures of CPU / GPU?
Click to expand...

It's something we (myself and the other developer) have talked about (apart from him using OSX I think his other motivation for joining Phoebetria was in the hope that it would one day do exactly what you ask). Certainly it would be a very nice thing to be able to do.

Short answer. yes, it's _possible_ (by adding the code to Phoebetria; i.e. you couldn't do it using the Recon without software loaded).

Long answer. First, a disclosure: I don't know how to read the temperatures from the CPU or GPU. Therefore we'd need a developer with knowledge about this. I'm not ruling it out though.

I've very quickly looked at the source code for projects such as Open Hardware Monitor. Three approaches immediately come to mind: (a) incorporating cpu/gpu temp monitoring code into Phoebetria; (b) running a second app (like Open Hardware Monitor [OHM]) that logs to a file and Phoebetria reads the log entries; and (c) maybe adding interprocess communication to a project such as OHM. Any of these three solutions (and there are other ideas as well) would work. In theory. On Windows only. Idea (a) could probably be made to work on OS X and Linux as well although I haven't looked into how that would specifically be done. The main thing that I want is that Phoebetria remains cross-platform and that features are identical on each platform (even if the way the feature is provided is different).

TLDR: Yes, it's possible and it's being thought about. It won't be in the next release or two unless our current situation changes


Edit: Option (a) "Incorporating CPU/GPU monitoring code directly in Phoebetria" is in my mind the best solution. But I have a sinking feeling that it would be a mammoth undertaking.
 
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So the snapshot seems better able to cope with having the fancontroller service running. The Bitfenix software just opens the page as usual but it's not getting any data from Recon as it looks like Phoebetria is taking charge of the Recon.

The slider movement in manual seems much improved. With the other version I'd move a slider up or down and it'd instantly pop back to the previous temperature and eventually the speed would change and it would move. Now it stays in the location for a few more seconds and fan speed change seems more responsive.

Fan speed is still not accurate between the software and the actual hall sensor but that's probably more to do with Recon. For example at the moment I moved the slider to 1000 on my 1400RPM fan and the speed adjusted to 878 RPM true speed and has 1000RPM displayed on both Recon and Phoebetria. Of course I'm assuming that my motherboard reports the speed accurately.

The channel numbers are now reporting correctly :)

Minimise to tray works along with that little balloon message.

I will continue to use it and see if I can find any issues.

Direct CPU and GPU temps would be a killer feature but I do see how that might be tricky.
 
Thanks very much for the detailed response, Tealc!

I think you're right about the RPM anomaly being in the Recon itself. Phoebetria just reads the RPM reported by the Recon (no calculations are done on the result) and outputs them, so.. :(

Do you like the balloon message (I had no idea what to write, LOL)? I'll be adding tooltips to the balloon message so you can just hover the mouse over the icon and get a status summary.

As for the BitFenix software running at the same time... If I do that (and I do it less and less now) I find that if I open the service AND the web interface before Phoebetria they both work better together (I think Phoebetria must put a lock on the USB when it connects, but I can't work out how to stop that).

Cheers


Edit: In the version I compiled for you the slider tooltips do not update correctly; I fixed that issue yesterday afternoon
 
I'm not a big fan off balloon tips to be honest. Is there a way to stop the behaviour and have it just happen once per application run, or first time, or have it as a user option to turn the balloon off.

I've come back to it this evening and the application isn't as responsive as this morning. It could be that my PC went to sleep and broke the application's strange hold on the USB. The sliders immediately snap to the previous position and after a few seconds come to the point I selected. This morning, before running the fan controller service alongside, they waited a few seconds. This could be that Recon has accepted the signal faster or something. I don't know how the application works regarding those graphical type updates.
 
Tealc said:
I'm not a big fan off balloon tips to be honest. Is there a way to stop the behaviour and have it just happen once per application run, or first time, or have it as a user option to turn the balloon off.
Click to expand...

Yes, I can turn it off. Or make it a user preference. I appreciate the feedback! (I actually don't like them myself, either)

I've come back to it this evening and the application isn't as responsive as this morning. It could be that my PC went to sleep and broke the application's strange hold on the USB. The sliders immediately snap to the previous position and after a few seconds come to the point I selected. This morning, before running the fan controller service alongside, they waited a few seconds. This could be that Recon has accepted the signal faster or something. I don't know how the application works regarding those graphical type updates.
Click to expand...

It's difficut, but I think I know what you mean. The problem (I think, if I am understanding you correctly) is that the recon only accepts one command every 110ms (best case; Phoebetria uses 200ms when sending requests) and you have to send a request for each channel to get its status; i.e. it takes 1 second to send the requests for channel status. Then you have to wait for the responses :( This gives a feeling of "lag". I'll keep trying to think of ways to at least give the illusion of it being more responsive.

I wonder if after sleeping the Recon itself does something different as well (like a startup/recalibration/something)? I might do some experiments.

Edit: getting the "alarm temp" for each channel is a different request than getting the channel RPM, so this adds another 5 requests to do.


Question: Was Phoebetria running when the computer entered sleep?
 
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Yes Phoebetria has been running all day.

Let me try and explain again.

This morning when I had it in Manual mode I would drag the slider from say 700 to 1000 RPM and when I released the mouse the slider would remain at 1000 RPM for about 2 seconds, before returning to 700, and then rose as the speed changed.

This evening I again had it in manual mode and when I dragged from 700 to 1000 RPM as soon as I released the mouse the slider snapped back to 700, then rose as the speed changed.

It's not a big thing but due to the delay of Recon actually adjusting speed (5-10 seconds) sometimes you think it hasn't received the command so go over it again. I prefer it to acknowledge the setting change by staying there for a few seconds, or even stay there and adjust the RPM visally and not the slider. Sliders should really stay where you drag them to and not bounce up and down and again I know the Recon software does this.

Will check this responsiveness again in the morning.
 
Tealc said:
It's not a big thing but due to the delay of Recon actually adjusting speed (5-10 seconds) sometimes you think it hasn't received the command so go over it again. I prefer it to acknowledge the setting change by staying there for a few seconds, or even stay there and adjust the RPM visally and not the slider. Sliders should really stay where you drag them to and not bounce up and down and again I know the Recon software does this.
Click to expand...

Ah, I understand. Thanks. I will add a delay or your other suggestion (which is probably better) after setting a manual value where the slider doesn't update.
 
Ok, I am going with your suggestion, Tealc.

Current version when in manual mode now keeps the sliders at the position the user sets them to; only the text box RPM is changed (when the RPM is not at the manually set position). I need to test it quite a bit yet, but it does seem to be working. The main reason I'd like to do a fair bit of testing is because I updated a LOT of code to do this so the GUI responds differently when you change a setting. It's better now. Thanks :)

Edit: I just "got" your username. Nice one.

Edit 2: Contact me through sourceforge if you want a different name (from tealc) added to the thanks file I am going to create. The thanks files will probably go in the about dialog as well.
 
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Tealc is fine. I've always used it.

Had a funny thing just happen with the manual control. If you hammer manual On/Off for a bit (3 or 4 times) you lose actual manual control until you toggle it slowly and nicely.
 
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