[PythonCE] How do I run programs when screen is off

[Christopher Fairbairn]

Hi Knic,

On 17/10/2007, at 9:23 PM, knic knic wrote:
> I am running the PythonCE release pythonce-2.5-20071004 on a WM 6  
> phone. I was
> wondering how do I enable python programs to run and not sleep when  
> the
> screen is turned off?

Are you using a Windows Mobile 6 Standard (i.e. non touchscreen), or  
Windows MObile 6 Professional (i.e. touchscreen enabled) device?

I assume by screen turning off you are actually talking about the  
entire device turning off and the power button needing to be pressed  
to turn it back on. There is actually an "unintended" state a device  
could get into where the screen is off, but the CPU is still running,  
but since you say your application stops running I am assuming the  
entire device is powering down.

If using a Windows Mobile 6 Professional device the answer is to use  
the ctypes module to periodically call an operating system API called  
SystemIdleTimerReset. This API is documented within MSDN at http:// 
msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms941840.aspx, basically each time  
you call this function it resets a timer. If the timer is not reset  
and expires the device suspends. So by calling the function  
periodically within a main loop of your program etc the device  
shouldn't turn off.

I don't have a code example for doing this on hand, but could  
probably sort something out if you are interested in this technique.

Hope this helps,
Christopher Fairbairn