Pocket Control PC, new!

[Guest Kingherc]

UPDATED to version 1.1.

Visit the website or Modaco topic "Pocket Control PC 1.1 -updated" for info and download of the new version.

Hi folks!

Well, I focused on creating a new program for controlling a PC remotely with your smartphone! You can control its mouse, keyboard (full with browser, media and application keys) for now! But it's only the beginning! I can add up many features, but as I don't have time to come up with new ideas, I always welcome yours!

Pocket Control PC is usually divided in two programs, both essential for it to work. One program is called the client and the other the server. The server program is Pocket Control PC - PC and always runs on a PC. The client one is a device-dependent program that runs on a remote device. When both programs are run and connected, the remote user can send commands to the PC which are then executed. The current commands supported pertain to the following:

> Mouse and Scroll commands: The remote user is able to control the PC's mouse (and mouse's vertical scroll).

> Keyboard commands: The remote user is able to control the PC's keyboard. All usual keys are supported. Current keyboard layout is US (extended - with media/browser/application keys e.g. next/previous track). The remote user can normally change languages in Windows.

> Input text & keystrokes: The remote user can input text and keystrokes for the PC.

Limitation for the PC version: Microsoft .NET Framework 1.1 Redistributable must be installed. Sorry about this.

For now, the only client program is Pocket Control PC - Smartphone which runs on Smartphones 2003 or later. To connect a smartphone with the PC, you only need to connect with Microsoft's Activesync (trough many ways like cable, bluetooth, network etc). You can find more info in the programs' readmes.

Of course, more client programs for more devices can be supported (like Pocket PC). But, as I don't have much time, I'd rather see first your impressions and your desire for the creation of other client programs.

Quick Guide: Download Pocket Control PC - PC and then Pocket Control PC - Smartphone (first and second download boxes). Unzip them and read their ReadMes. Follow their installation instructions for each program. Then, connect the PC and the smartphone through activesync (a small bluetooth guide is contained in the readme if you prefer it). Then, run both programs. On the PC, set the program to Listen (Connection > Begin Listening). Then, quickly click the Connect button on your smartphone. Now, you're ready to control your PC through your smartphone.

Any further questions or comments are always welcome! :wink:

Further information and download at http://www34.brinkster.com/kingherc/.

ControlPCShot_3.jpg

ControlPCSmartShot_3.jpg

PocketControlPC-Smartphone1.0.zip

PocketControlPC-PC1.0.zip

[Guest londonlad]

OMG ! Brilliant, just what i was looking for! :)

WELL DONE ! :P :D

ill see if i can come up with some ideas

[Guest londonlad]

heres an idea :idea:

:idea: do you think it'll be possible to make your own macro's (i think thats what they're called) where i could get the pc to record a button i click on, then assign it to a button on the phone (label and lil' pic?). For example, i use VLC (videoLAN) player to watch dvd's. Now if i could record the play, rewind, etc buttons and give it buttons on the phone, i could use it as a remote for videolan. This will make this app usable with any pc application. You'll need to give it a sort of playlist (grouping) function, where you could store all videolan functions in one and another one for lets say erm outlook on the pc.

what'd you think? :wink:

[Guest Kingherc]

Hello o there! It's nice to see you liked it! Well, your idea is nice but a little difficult. I could do what you say, but because I don't know how to get the mouse to specific buttons of other applications, I may make a function to record mouse moves and clicks. This means that you'll store Mouse moves and clicks on your PC and then with your smartphone you could activate them. But, this would mean that when you open an application (for which you recorded the moves and clicks), you must not move it, maximize or minimize it because the mouse clicks will be made even if the application is not there / or if it has been moved on the screen!

But, as I recall, there is a certain free PC program going around that does all that (recording mouse moves and clicks). I think it's called Mouse ghost or something. This may be useful. So, if you find this program, install it, and then use my app to open this application and activate it.

Well, this is a bit farfetched but i'll try what you proposed and see if it's possible!

Right now, my next plan is to assign Application shorcuts to smartphone buttons.

[Guest londonlad]

i guess it is a lil far fetched, especially since most programs that require remote control other than the most, usually have hot keys. in VLC pause would be space bar. anyothers can use alt+F for file then N for new, or ctrl+O for open.

So all you really need to do is the grouping function. where the user can make a new page, give it a heading (VLC), select buttons off the keyboard (space) and name it by its function (pause) and assign it a button on the phone keypad (1).

Then there'll be another user created page for other software, and so on.

[Guest maxh2003]

Not tired this yet, but can I just say, the first thing I thought on seeing this was:

F***, I wish I'd thought of that...

Storming stuff, KingHerc :-D :-D :-D

Just a brief thought: would this be a nice framework within which to implement clipboard sharing? Which is to say, pass the contents of the clipboard from Phone to PC, or vice versa? Occasionally this is an extremely useful thing to be able to do.

At its most bizarre you could maybe instruct your PC to *run* the contents of the phone clipboard, where the contents = "C:WINDOWSNOTEPAD.EXE somefile.txt", thus enabling macros. Just use the wonderful AutoHotKey (or similar) to record your macros on the PC, save them with a known filename, then call that filename from the phone. Hey presto, full macro accessibility - and user-customisable to the Nth degree (though I realise it's somewhat half-baked and needs more thought... :-D)

:edit: just realised the source code is available for both parts of this program. KingHerc, I salute you :-D

[Guest Kingherc]

Ok, thx for the enthusiasm! I really needed it because I didn't have all that time to build up this program.

Well, both your ideas are impressive, though londonlad's most realizable. So, here's what I may try to implement: Create a function on the PC to record mouse moves and clicks and keyboard key clicks, and then save them into a text file. Then, you can, from your mobile, command the PC to execute the macros. Or, alternatively, store the text file in your smartphone (and not on the PC), and execute the commands from there.

Well, this could happen easily. The difficult part would be to capture mouse moves and keyboard clicks. If any developper out there can help, I'd be glad. :roll:

Well, ok, i'll give it a try in the next few days.

[Guest diceman]

Excellent job KingHerc!

[Guest maxh2003]

Kingherc, you can probably find out all you need to know from the AutoHotKey source code at http://www.autohotkey.com/ . I found this in a few minutes...

if (g_KeybdHook = SetWindowsHookEx(WH_KEYBOARD_LL, LowLevelKeybdProc, g_hInstance, 0))

... which doesn't half *look like* the code to capture keypresses. The code is commented quite magnificently so it might well be worth having a look at.

I have no links whatsoever to AutoHotKey but I strongly recommend it to anyone needing an automation program. It's free, open-source and brilliant.

Keep up the good work mate :-D

[Guest Kingherc]

AutoHotKey is a very nice software! It's brilliant!

But I'd better make macros myself. I just thought of an idea on how to implement them easier.

Though, you can use AutoHotKey alongside with my program. Look what you can do in short: Create your .ahk file and run it on your PC. The script for the .ahk is present until you close it manually, so you can use hotkeys until you close it. That means that you can now use Pocket Control PC to simulate hotkeys. For example, you create an .ahk file with this inside:

#z::Run www.google.com

Now run the script. Then run Pocket Control PC. Simulate a Windows Key + Z to execute the script!

My perception of my macros is the following:

To record the commands you send from your smartphone into a text file and execute them when you want (from the PC or Smartphone).

I'll try to work on macros this week and fill you up with news.

[Guest fraser]

Nice apps. However, I am wondering why you didn't start your work from VNC? VNC is an industry standard protocol (RFB) for providing remote control of just about anything. You can get servers for most popular operating systems, and clients for just about anything, even really obscure stuff. Does everything your app does plus more and has been around for years.

I, and many people in IT, use VNC extensively. Someone did start a port to the smartphone, but it never went anywhere. To be honest, I'd much rather have a VNC client for the phone rather than this software, as I like to be able to connect to linux hosts, and I'd prefer not to be running two different remote control applications on the PC. Especially as security as important, remote control software is an open door.

[Guest djboo]

theres actually a commercial VNC client for the smartphone that uses gapi and is very good (i use it every day) - ptvncs

[Guest dearsina]

Hey nice app, looking forward to go home and try it. The first thing that comes to mind when you mention ideas is to set up the prog to go thru GPRS (if it doesn't already do so). Bluetooth is nice, but the range is like 7 meters, so if you're that close, you might as well go up to your computer. Good luck developing it further.

sina

london

[Guest meatgrinder]

wow, looks GR8 Kingherc - nice 1

Dave

[Guest londonlad]

ive only just had the chance to try it, the pc side doesnt work for me, i get ' the application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000135)'

[Guest Colonel Trouble]

Hmm, how about a way to view an image of what the pc screen looks like , so its a second much smaller version of what the monitor is displaying ? I think its probably impossible though ..

[Guest SeaneyC]

ive only just had the chance to try it, the pc side doesnt work for me, i get ' the application failed to initialize properly (0xc0000135)'

Same

[Guest Kingherc]

Ok, so a storm of things to reply to.

First, about that error: I just discovered my programs run only on PCs having .NET Framework installed. So, to run my PC app, you need first to install Microsoft .NET Framework Redistributable 1.1. It's big in size, but I didn't know about it. I'll update my site also.

.Net Framework is a new project of Microsoft. Future PCs and Windows Mobile (2003 and later) will be based on it. So, it's useful to have it installed already for other apps too.

Now, about the VNC project. Sorry, I've never heard of it but sounds great. If you could give me more info, plz do! As well as its website!

About the screenshot thing: I tried to implement it before publishing the program and didn't succeed... I may try it in the future and see.

About the GPRS thing: Well, I didn't try it because where I live, it costs damn too much. Also, the connection between the smartphone and the PC should be Activesync. If you can get Activesync connected via network or gprs, you're done. Finally, when I thought up this program, I imagined that people would use it for controlling the PC but seeing it also. My case was watching dvds on my laptop from some distance and using my mobile to pause, volume up/down etc. So bluetooth was adequate.

For now, I'm working on the source of my programs to make them VStudio-free so that anyone can develop the source without having to buy it. I'll provide more info this week.

[Guest fraser]

Now, about the VNC project. Sorry, I've never heard of it but sounds great. If you could give me more info, plz do! As well as its website!

OK. The main site for VNC is here. The are several other branches of it, such as TightVNC. The branches came about when the main VNC stopped development for a while, but it's back on. I belive they plan on adding things like file transfers now.

It communicates with the server using a protocal called RFB, which is the same one that many webcams use. It's basically a gif of the screen, using encodings to only send what has changed since the last poll, and to compress the data down. In reverse, the keyboard and mouse events are sent to the remote machine while you are in the window of the client.

It can be used for other things...for example one application can record an RFB stream suitable for playback later, allowing you to record your screen. Another creates a virtual window one pixel wide up the end of the screen. This is very cool when you have two PCs at your desk, as you can set it up to send the mouse and keyboard events to the other PC (via VNC), so you can control both PCs using the same mouse and keyboard with no additional hardware. I used to have three monitors on my desk in work, plus a laptop, and the same keyboard mouse for all of them. It works pretty much like a dual-head monitor PC. You can even share the clipboard between them, and each one can be on any platform supported by a VNC server.

It's the dog balls of free software. I also use it to remote into my home PC from anywhere in the world (or the couch with a laptop). It's even usable over a dial-up modem link, but you woundn't want to be doing it for a long period of time. What else...oh, it has a built in java client (applet) and micro-webserver, meaning you can point a browser at it and work with the PC with any Java capable browser.

I can't recommend it highly enough!! It's OSS, so you can port it, tweak it, do what ever you want with it.

[Guest Kingherc]

It sounds really cool! :)

I'll give it a try. But I don't see myself going into developping it for smartphones or anything. It's hard and I cannot afford the time right now.

My project seems a lot easier.

[Guest djboo]

it doesnt need to be developed for smartphone, smartvnc and ptvncs already exist.

[Guest Kingherc]

Oh well then. Seems better to use really.

[Guest djboo]

what your doing is certainly useful - with macro's and things (especially if u add gprs support) it could turn the phone in to a kick ass remote - tbh tho, remote keyboard control where u have to be within bluetooth - and monitor sight distance, seems a bit pointless, you may as well just use the kb and mouse (hell, i have RF kb and mouse so its even more pointless for myself) - but for instance, my pc has tv out to a different room, being able to control the dvd player, or winamp or whatever im using at the time from the phone would be dead handy - you can design its uses around the fact that u cant see the screen to your benefit.

[Guest Kingherc]

Thx for the support. I'll continue to add some characteristics and see for myself. I'll also think about the gprs and the screenshot thing. Any help is welcome about these two!

[Guest markhammill]

The download link dosen't seem to work for me. I don't know if it is my firewall or if the site is down. Could someone post it on Modaco for me.

Thanks in advance