Windows 8.1 EventGhost Headless Machine

[Javier]

I am just posting this to help anyone who purchases a windows 8.1 tablet to use as an EventGhost headless machine or media center.


I recently purchased a "Winbook TW700 Tablet - Windows 8.1" for $60 to use as an always on EventGhost machine which will use less power then any of the PCs I have at home.

The tablet would continually go to the lock screen even though it was disabled, which prevented EventGhost from working. After a lot of frustration and searches I was able to find the reason and a way to prevent the tablet from locking. Apparently windows 8.1 "tablet may still enter Connected Standby, even when you disable Turn Off Display" (http://www.thewindowsclub.com/windows-8 ... ed-standby), this will enable the lock screen even if it is disabled by the user. In order to prevent this from happening I had to Disable Automatic Maintenance (http://www.thewindowsclub.com/automatic ... -windows-8).

Now I have an always on EventGhost headless machine for less then $96

Setup:
Winbook TW700 Tablet - Windows 8.1 Ôëê $60
HDMI Micro Adapters Male to Female Ôëê $3
CompuLab Display Emulator (fit-Headless) $15
Cable Matters┬« USB 2.0 to 10/100 Fast Ethernet Network Adapter Ôëê $11 (this is not needed but makes remote connection faster than over WiFi)
AmazonBasics 4-Port USB 2.0 Ultra-Mini Hub Ôëê $7

USB-Uirt and home ir distribution system.
VNC to access the tablet from my PC.

Hope this helps someone who wishes to use a Windows 8.1 tablet or is having problems with EventGhost when the lock-screen is enabled

[krambriw]

This is very nice information, thank you!

[piert]

Thanks for the useful information.
Have you measured the watt-power consumption of this always-on solution?

[Javier]

Hi Piert,

I do not own a meter and I am unsure of how the USB (wall wart) power supply uses energy when the tablet battery is full. The supply is rated at 5.0V 1.2A and does not have a problem running the USB-uirt, the USB ethernet adapter and the screen. Although I do not have the screen on. Best of all, no fan!

[piert]

Thanks. It looks like your solution does use little power indeed.

I am actually using a similar setup as you, but with an old Asus EeePc that has a hard time keeping up with all the stuff that I have running on it. For instance, I have views from 4 IP camera's collected through a software program and which is always on centrally on the attached monitor, which I view when in the living room. The view comes up elsewhere on other PC's and Android tablet through UltraVNC. Based on detection of camera's and photo's popping up in a watched folder, alarms with screenshots are sent through Pushbullet to other devices and alarm messages are posted on the screen through OSD (most of the plugins in use are from Walter and Pako)
There is a webserver on Eventghost for controlling various things. There are lots of scenes, actions and timers to automatically switch amplifiers and Squeezeboxes(through a combination of LAN control, Irtrans and USBUIRT). There is an emulated Squeezebox running on the EeePC as well after one of my squeezeboxes died.

In the past I used a Fit-PC2, which was performing maybe better than the EeePC (which I got from a friend that no longer uses it). I have put it out of service because it runs Windows XP, which is no longer supported. I have not dared trying to upgrade the FitPC2 to windows 7 yet, because I am unfamiliar with changing/upgrading OS's on PC's and I think it will take up a lot of time that might be better spent on fun stuff. Furthermore, I think the newer generation PC's offer more processing power at lower power consumption.

Currently I am in the situation of 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it'. But every once in a while EventGhost can't keep up (for instance when many IP camera movement actions come in in a short time) and commands are no longer executed 'real time'. This is obviously undesirable and there will come a time when an upgrade will be necessary.

[Javier]

That does Sound similar to my setup. One of the best things I did for performance was to get a networked surveillance DVR. I over spent to get one with HDMI which we used at first but most of the time it is just easier to look at the cameras from our phones. The hard drives in DVRs are (usually) video recording hard drives that have less error correction than a PC hard drive. According to the manufactures they create less heat and last longer than PC HDDs recording video. This allowed for connections faster than VNC and allowed me to do some interesting things such as launch the cameras on my phone automatically with tasker when there was an event such as the doorbell was pressed or a door is opened during hours we should be at work. A few months ago my wife got me a Moto 360 and I was able to do the same setup on the watch which made me a believer in the smart watch. This setup was faster than the ADT call when my mother in law entered the home and could not disable the alarm system in time.

Check out the video of the watch here https://youtu.be/v9QV-DWm3oU and the tutorial is on my youtube page

Additionally, If you have an old android device laying around you may be able to set it up as your DVR with "IP Cam Viewer Pro" it is ChromeCast compatible so you will still be able to watch it on your TV if desired.