I would like to add to my Blynk project, actual status of PC running on Windows OS. I would like to know is PC is turn on or off. My idea is to use HTTP PUT method to trigger virtual pin in Blynk and show actual status on graph. I think that the best way will be to use EventGhost application to do this, but maybe you have some experience how to solve it?
Till now I used ESP8266 with light sensor inside PC tower which was mounted near power LED 
but I don`t want to use this board only for such simple job.
Seems a bit overkill. Why don’t you just run a really tiny webserver on the PC to serve a webpage? With Blynk you could do a HTTP call and thus determine if you get a 200 response or something else.
Well, if this is working well then I’d stick with it. A Wemos D1 mini costs less than €3 from AliExpress, so it’s quite a cost effective solution.
If it ain’t broken…
Pete.
Thank you for your suggestions, I think that idea with tiny HTTP server is ok but for me will be too complicate to create code for it on Blynk device.
After spend many hours, I found solution and I would like to share with you, maybe it will be helpful for somebody.
Step 1
Install EvenGhost on PC and create inside structure like this:
Step 2
“wlacz” and “wylacz” are Python script actions in Eventghost and you should put inside code
for turn on state:
import urllib
urllib.urlopen(‘http://139.XX.XXX.XXX:8080/AUTH_TOKEN/update/v11?value=1’)
and this code for turn off state:
import urllib
urllib.urlopen(‘http://139.XX.XXX.XXX:8080/AUTH_TOKEN/update/v11?value=0’)
Step 3
Inside Blynk app you should create for example button, Led or SuperChart for Virtual Pin 11 to visualize PC status.
In shutdown action I added once again turn on trigger “wlacz” and after that turn off trigger “wylacz” to have better looking graph in blynk.
@Chris1982 are you using EventGhost to actually shutdown the PC as your initial post was to obtain the status not to actually trigger an action?
If you are shutting down the PC will you be using WOL or something else to restart the PC?
Eventghost is only for PC status on virtual PIN, I am not using it to turn on/off PC. To turn on PC I am using WOL via tasker on Android phone connected to the same network.
What are you actually using the ESP for now that you have abandoned the light sensor system?
Now I will use this NodeMcu for motion sensor in my home automation Blynk system and light sensor will be use to turn on night lamp.
For me you already had the solution with the light sensor. I wouldn’t spend “many hours” for a $3 return.
Maybe you are right but I have now system in my home based on 4x NodeMcu boards connected to Blynk, I would like to avoid another device + power supply only for such simple thing. In future I would like to buy PC case with transparent window, so it will be little more complicate to measure LED state because of ambient light.
1 Like