Starting/stopping LTC at specific times ...

[dmcole]

I'm something of a Windows XP neophyte (what can I say, it's been all Mac and/or Unix), so I'm not 100 percent sure how to accomplish this:

I have two *.led sequences I want LTC to run, one starting at around 3 p.m. and then ending at 6:25 p.m., and then the other starting at 6:30 and running until 10 p.m. I have the Windows machine on a lamp timer and it turns on at 3 and turns off at 10:30 (I have XP scheduled to do a shutdown at 10:15); the PS for the Triks/Triks-C is on the same timer.

I know about XP's Scheduled Tasks, but it will only launch an application, which doesn't help me with the LTC parameters. How do I run something at a specific time that has that long string?

TIA.

\dmc

[TimW]

Could you run a batch file?

ie create a text file called 'startup.bat'

inside startup.bat put the ltc and parameters

[dmcole]

Could you run a batch file?

ie create a text file called 'startup.bat'

inside startup.bat put the ltc and parameters

OK, that starts it ... what can I do to stop it so I can start another one?

\dmc

[shocker]

you could have 2 file like 300.bat and 1830.bat and use task scheduler in administrative tool in windows

[kiwichristmas]

what I do is use a batch file to run ltc which uses a text file for commands.
ie
file name : start.bat
c:\ltc.exe script.txt

and then have another batch file that kills the ltc.exe task
ie
file name : end.bat
tskill ltc.exe

for more info google "tskill"

so you could do as shocker suggests and use 2 batch file in scheduler to start ltc and another to end it.

hope that helps
cheers
kiwichristmas

[dmcole]

for more info google "tskill"

That's the puppy I was looking for.

Thanks.

\dmc

[cobraman44]

In XP - In the schedule task properties - Settings tab
Under Scheduled Task Completed
Check - Stop the task if it run for: (Set the duration)
This will kill the app after the duration you set. Has worked every night for me so far.

[dmcole]

Check - Stop the task if it run for: (Set the duration)

That was going to be my next course of action. But tskill works, as long as you remember this:

When using tskill don't put .exe in the command

So, the line in the bat file would be:

tskill ltc

\dmc

[tconley]

with in scheduled task you can pass command line switches. I do it all the time at work use the following syntax:

cmd.exe /c "defrag.exe c: -a -f -v"

that passes it the c: -a -f -v switches, you can pass as many as you like. I have some process that use 5 and 10 different switches.