Any way to temporarily cut HDMI signal

[darkapec]

Hi,

I am searching for a way to shut my monitor off after X amount of time. Because the raspberry pi does not have standby functionality I was wondering if anyone is familiar with a way to use the existing shutdown script to actually initiate a stop on the video signal over HDMI. Thus allowing my monitor to go into "no signal" mode and then going into standby.

I do believe I would be able to figure out the above, my biggest issue would be how in the world would I be able to wake the machine back up via XBMC remote or a USB peripheral?

Thanks and any help would be greatly appreciated

[RaTTuS]

setterm --help
man setterm
to look at

setterm -blank
setterm -powersave

[darkapec]

I attempted the following

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pi@raspbmc:~$ setterm -powersave hsync
setterm: cannot (un)set powersave mode: Invalid argument

Not sure where to go from here

[terwarf]

Maybe this helps:

Power off:
/opt/vc/bin/tvservice -o

Power on:
/opt/vc/bin/tvservice -p && fbset "1920x1080"

[darkapec]

Hello terwarf,

It appears I do not have a /opt/vc/bin directory. This must have something to do with using RASPBMC as the OS. Maybe I shall attempt to make a post asking a similar question on there forum.

There is apparently many ways to do this, perhaps RASPBMC just has not included the means to do so.

Thank you to all for the info
Jake

[terwarf]

The tvservice binary is part of the official firmware.

You can get it here: https://github.com/raspberrypi/firmware
Direct download link: https://github.com/raspberrypi/firmware/zipball/master
Copying the opt folder from the zip file to /opt should do the trick, imho

Note:
For the fbset command to work i had to do

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sudo su
fbset -s >> /etc/fb.modes

Hope this helps

[Jago]

Hello all,
I've got the same problem / question as darkapec but on wheezy

I tried terwarf's suggestion:
Power off:
/opt/vc/bin/tvservice -o
-> works for my config: HDMI->HDMI-DVI cable -> FSC Display, goes in power saving mode.

Power on:
/opt/vc/bin/tvservice -p && fbset "1920x1080"
-> Monitor comes up again, but without a screen redraw / re-init so the screen remains blank / black. fbset output: Unknown video mode '1920x1080' , fbset only output: mode "1184x928" ...
I tried several fbset arguments. The best result I got is:

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fbset -xres 1184 -yres928 -depth 16

, where the resolution settings are from the fbset output, refreshing only the current terminal window.

Are there any more ideas to power save the monitor and awake it with proper desktop as leaved by script / programatically?

Thank you!

[terwarf]

Are there any more ideas to power save the monitor and awake it with proper desktop as leaved by script / programatically?

Sorry, i haven't tested this with x11...
I'm using raspian, so I'm not sure this also works for you, but you may give it a try...

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sudo apt-get install x11-xserver-utils


/opt/vc/bin/tvservice -o

/opt/vc/bin/tvservice -p && fbset "1184x928" && xrefresh

if running the script from x - otherwise $DISPLAY isn't set, so from ssh I had to use

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xrefresh -d :0.0

to make it work. Hope this helps...

[olberger]

Hello,

I tried the above, however the display does not redraw and stays black (but with backlight on).

Essentially,

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tvservice -o

turns off the screen as expected, but

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tvservice -p && fbset -xres 1280 -yres 1024 -depth 16 && xrefresh -d :0.0

only turns on the screen, but it stays black.

DMPS and screen savers are turned off.

Does anybody out here have an idea? I would need a solution to turn off and on the screen completely when using X11, maybe after a certain time has passed by.

At first I thought about using DPMS, but that does not turn off the screen (i.e. backlight) completely.

Regards,

Oliver

[dom]

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tvservice -p && fbset -xres 1280 -yres 1024 -depth 16 && xrefresh -d :0.0

only turns on the screen, but it stays black.

I believe fbset ignores you if nothing has changed since the last call. So I think you want to deliberately change something then change back. E.g.

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tvservice -p && fbset -depth 8 && fbset -depth 16 && xrefresh -d :0.0

[terwarf]

Strange, this works for me...

Do you see at least the CPU-Meter in the lower right when the screen comes back?
This is the case on my box - firing xrefesh then forces x11 to draw the whole screen again to the framebuffer.

When you can't see the CPU-Meter I would mention there is a screensaver active (xrefresh then will just force repainting a black screen), or the display number you gave xrefresh is wrong. You can get the right number from x-terminal with

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echo $DISPLAY

I would suggest you try the commands single one after each other (not connected with the &&) from a ssh session and post the output here, if any.

[Jago]

Thank you dom,
this hint is also good for me!

Here is my summary:
This turns my (HDMI) screen of

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/opt/vc/bin/tvservice -o

and this turns the screen on and displays the desktop again

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/opt/vc/bin/tvservice -p
fbset -xres 1184 -yres 928 -depth 16
fbset -depth 8
fbset -depth 16
xrefresh

The whole stuff is now fired by a Python script and the screen will be displayed if the GPIO is attached to HIGH:

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import subprocess
import time
import os
import RPi.GPIO as GPIO

GPIO.setmode(GPIO.BOARD)
GPIO.setup(16, GPIO.IN)

subprocess.Popen('/opt/vc/bin/tvservice -o', shell=True)


while True:
    mybutton= GPIO.input(16)
    if mybutton== True:
        subprocess.Popen('/opt/vc/bin/tvservice -p', shell=True)
        subprocess.Popen('fbset -xres 1184 -yres 928 -depth 16', shell=True)
        subprocess.Popen('fbset -depth 8', shell=True)
        subprocess.Popen('fbset -depth 16', shell=True)
        subprocess.Popen('xrefresh', shell=True)
        print ("I'm awake!")
        time.sleep(30)
        print ("Now I go to sleep!")
        time.sleep(3)
        subprocess.Popen('/opt/vc/bin/tvservice -o', shell=True)

    time.sleep(1)

[olberger]

Hi,

I tried the following:

From an X Terminal

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echo $ DISPLAY
:0

Logged in via ssh:

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pi@pi ~ $ tvservice -o
Powering off HDMI

Screen goes blank and eventually turns off

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pi@pi ~ $ tvservice -p
Powering on HDMI with preferred settings

Backlight turns on, screen stays black

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pi@pi ~ $ fbset -xres 1280 -yres 1024 -depth 16 -v 
Linux Frame Buffer Device Configuration Version 2.1 (23/06/1999)
(C) Copyright 1995-1999 by Geert Uytterhoeven

Opening frame buffer device `/dev/fb0'
Using current video mode from `/dev/fb0'
Setting video mode to `/dev/fb0'

screen shows CPU load indicator and clock, rest stays black

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pi@pi ~ $ xrefresh -d :0

Display is updated correctly and everything is fine

Now I put it into a script:

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#!/bin/sh
tvservice -p 
fbset -xres 1280 -yres 1024 -depth 16 -v 
xrefresh -d :0 

That sometimes works fine for the first time if the time , however trying this more than once usually does not work reliably.

In all those cases it does not work, the image stays black after issuing the fbset command

Screensavers and DPMS have been deactivated - if I do not issue tvservice -o, the screen stays on for hours. There is no reaction on Mouse or keyboard.

Typing startx gets the screen up again, everything stays fine if I kill the new X process with Ctrl-C afterwards, but that sounds not like an solution for a script.

I am using a fairly old Eizo Monitor via a HDMI - DVI cable

Any ideas?

Thanks in advance

oliver

[olberger]

Hi all,

thanks,

the workaround with calling fbset two more times seems to work fine with me. I will try the GPIO solution later on - good idea!

Best regards

Oliver

[darkapec]

Hey Jago

Anyway to modify the python script to make it wake on USB or via network interaction?

I am still unsure if this situation will work for me as I do not think some of the components you are calling in your python script are available to RASPBMC users.

I have just been hoping the next release of raspbmc will have some kind of standby built in. Most people are not having issues because they are using TV's and just use a sleep timer on their TV. I on the other hand prefer to use my 27" monitor as a TV and there is not a sleep timer option.

So I either need to find a way to cut the power to the monitor after X amount of time or figure out how to get raspbmc to cut the signal to hdmi.

The python script is a great start, but needing to invoke it via ssh is kinda irritating. Any way to swap the raspbmc shutdown script with the custom python script? Then I would just need a way to wake it up via usb.

[terwarf]

-deleted as problem already solved, sorry

[terwarf]

I am still unsure if this situation will work for me as I do not think some of the components you are calling in your python script are available to RASPBMC users.

As I've written above these are parts of the firmware, which you can get at https://github.com/raspberrypi/firmware

So I either need to find a way to cut the power to the monitor after X amount of time or figure out how to get raspbmc to cut the signal to hdmi.

As my tv uses ~20 Watts of power in standby mode, I've attached an relais to one of the GPIO pins (via transistor to drive the 5volts the relais needs) and can drive it with my x10 usb remote now, cutting the main power of the tv - maybe that's the way to go for you too?