Control USB power strip with AutoIt

[FutileBehavior]

Dear friends.

Together with a friend I bought a Gembird SIS-PMS power strip. It is connected to the PC via USB. An exe-File allows to switch the power on and off for each socket. Now, we try to control the switches directly with AutoIt and not via this supplied software, because it sometimes crashes. Gembird supplies a description, I guess for C#, to control it directly.

But I am no expert in controlling USB-devices. Can you give me a overview over the steps to do? Attached is the description from Gembird. I understand everything except the (I guess API-) functions HidD_GetFeature and HidD_SetFeature(). Can I use these in AutoIt? Do I need to include libraries?

Thanks a lot for your help.

Futile

;-------------------------------------------------------------------

Silvershield - Power Manager (SIS-PM) USB reports (API decription)

The property of Gembird Electronics Co, 2008

//Retrieves or sets SIS-PM device ID

;-------------------------------------------------------------------

Feature report 1 (set,get) : Device ID

Data: 4 bytes

;-------------------------------------------------------------------

//Enables/disables SIS-PM buzzer. If buzzer is enabled it will notify

//user when voltage alarm goes on for a socket or when timer schedule

//is broken (unsynchronized)

;-------------------------------------------------------------------

Feature report 2 (set,get): Buzzer enable/disable

Data: 1 byte

Bit 2: Buzzer control

1=enable,0=disable

;-------------------------------------------------------------------

//Retrieves (get) socket#1 control and voltage status

//Sets socket#1 control - switch on/switched off

;-------------------------------------------------------------------

Feature report 3 (set,get): Outlet 1 control and status

Data: 1 byte

Bit 0: Outlet 1 control

1=switch on, 0=switch off

Bit 1: Outlet status (get only)

1=outlet voltage is present, 0=outlet voltage is absent

;-------------------------------------------------------------------

//Retrieves (get) socket#2 control and voltage status

//Sets socket#2 control - switch on/switched off

;-------------------------------------------------------------------

Feature report 6 (set,get): Outlet 2 control and status

Data: 1 byte

Bit 0: Outlet 2 control

1=switch on, 0=switch off

Bit 1: Outlet status (get only)

1=outlet voltage is present, 0=outlet voltage is absent

;-------------------------------------------------------------------

//Retrieves (get) socket#3 control and voltage status

//Sets socket#3 control - switch on/switched off

;-------------------------------------------------------------------

Feature report 9 (set,get): Outlet 3 control and status

Data: 1 byte

Bit 0: Outlet 3 control

1=switch on, 0=switch off

Bit 1: Outlet status (get only)

1=outlet voltage is present, 0=outlet voltage is absent

;-------------------------------------------------------------------

//Retrieves (get) socket#3 control and voltage status

//Sets socket#3 control - switch on/switched off

;-------------------------------------------------------------------

Feature report 12 (set,get): Outlet 4 control and status

Data: 1 byte

Bit 0: Outlet 4 control

1=switch on, 0=switch off

Bit 1: Outlet status (get only)

1=outlet voltage is present, 0=outlet voltage is absent

;-------------------------------------------------------------------

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

;;;;;

;;;;; Hardware schedule description and reports

;;;;;

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

Timer schedule report for each socket of SIS-PM has the following structure:

Report ID (1 lowest byte)

Reports #04,07,0A,0D for each socket correspondingly

Time stamp in seconds - the system time when the schedule is being set (4 bytes).

10 schedule entries, each of 2 bytes long (20 bytes).

Each 2-bytes entry has the following structure:

1st byte 2nd byte

sdllllll hhhhhhhh

s=switch control, 1=switch socket on,0=switch socket off

d="delay without switching" entry flag, d=1 - switch control isn't performed, d=0 - switch controlling entry

h=delay in minutes after switching, high byte

l=delay in minutes after switching, low byte

Delay in minutes before first entry begins (2 bytes)

1st byte 2nd byte

llllllll hhhhhhhh

h=delay in minutes after switching, high byte

l=delay in minutes after switching, low byte

Totally 27 bytes.

Note: Set report should be used to set schedule. Get report with the same as for settings schedule Report ID should be used to retrieve schedule

Note: SIS-PM timer schedule entry performance time is specified relatively. SIS-PM is simply increasing it's timer until delay time before first entry begins elapsed. Then it performs first entry switch, zeros it's timer and begin increasing it till delay time after switching 1st entry elapsed.

Get current schedule entry report for each socket of SIS-PM has the following structure:

Report ID (lowest byte)

Reports #05,08,0B,0E for each socket correspondingly

Schedule error state (1 byte)

This error state byte has meaningful "power fault during schedule performing flag" at 5th bit, other bits are not used.

The entry (2 bytes)

Entry has the same structure as described above.

Totally 4 bytes.

;--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

;Silvershield - Power Manager (SIS-PM) USB reports explicative c++ code (short version)

;

;The property of Gembird Electronics Ltd., 2007

;--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

/*******************************************************************************/

/*In the code below SIS-PM_HidDevice refers to HidDeviceObject handle of SIS-PM*/

/*******************************************************************************/

#define S_SIZE 10

#define S_RELEASE_TIME 0x3FFF

struct ENTRY

{

BOOL bSwitchState;

BOOL bSkipControl;

UINT nReleaseTime;

};

struct SCHEDULE

{

CTime tStartup;

UINT nOffsetTime;

ENTRY entries[s_SIZE];

UINT nCurrentEntry;

UINT nTimeLeft;

};

BOOL SetSchedule(int nSocket, const SCHEDULE& schedule)

{

BYTE out_buffer[1+4+S_SIZE*2+2];

out_buffer[0] = 4 + 3*nSocket;

time_t t = schedule.tStartup.GetTime();

memcpy(out_buffer+1, &t, 4);

for(int i = 0; i < S_SIZE; i++)

{

((WORD*)(out_buffer+1+4)) =

(schedule.entries.bSwitchState ? (S_RELEASE_TIME+1)*2 : 0) |

(schedule.entries.bSkipControl ? S_RELEASE_TIME+1 : 0) |

schedule.entries.nReleaseTime & S_RELEASE_TIME;

}

((WORD*)(out_buffer+1+4))[s_SIZE] = schedule.nOffsetTime + ((t%60) ? 1 : 0);

return HidD_SetFeature(SIS-PM_HidDevice, out_buffer, sizeof(out_buffer));

}

BOOL GetSchedule(int nSocket, SCHEDULE& schedule)

{

BYTE in_buffer[1+4+S_SIZE*2+2];

in_buffer[0] = 4 + 3*nSocket;

if(!HidD_GetFeature(SIS-PM_HidDevice, in_buffer, sizeof(in_buffer))) return FALSE;

time_t t;

memcpy(&t, in_buffer+1, 4);

schedule.tStartup = t;

for(int i = 0; i < S_SIZE; i++)

{

schedule.entries.bSwitchState = ((WORD*)(in_buffer+1+4)) & ((S_RELEASE_TIME+1)*2) ? TRUE : FALSE;

schedule.entries.bSkipControl = ((WORD*)(in_buffer+1+4)) & (S_RELEASE_TIME+1) ? TRUE : FALSE;

schedule.entries.nReleaseTime = ((WORD*)(in_buffer+1+4)) & S_RELEASE_TIME;

}

schedule.nOffsetTime = ((WORD*)(in_buffer+1+4))[s_SIZE] - ((t%60) ? 1 : 0);

if(!GetCurrentScheduleEntry(nSocket, schedule.nCurrentEntry, schedule.nTimeLeft)) return FALSE;

return TRUE;

}

BOOL GetCurrentScheduleEntry(int nSocket, UINT& nEntryNumber, UINT& nTimeLeft)

{

BYTE in_buffer[4];

in_buffer[0] = 5 + 3*nSocket : 3;

if(!HidD_GetFeature(SIS-PM_HidDevice, in_buffer, sizeof(in_buffer))) return FALSE;

nEntryNumber = (in_buffer[1] & 0x7F) != S_SIZE ? (in_buffer[1] & 0x7F) : -1;

nTimeLeft = *((WORD*)(in_buffer+2)) & ((in_buffer[1] & 0x7F) != S_SIZE ? S_RELEASE_TIME : 0xFFFF);

return TRUE;

}

BOOL SISPM::GetScheduleErrorState(int nSocket, BOOL& bScheduleErrorState)

{

BYTE in_buffer[4] = { 5 + 3*nSocket };

if(!HidD_GetFeature(SIS-PM_HidDevice, in_buffer, sizeof(in_buffer))) return FALSE;

bScheduleErrorState = in_buffer[1] & 0x80 ? TRUE : FALSE;

return TRUE;

}