Hi Everyone,

I've written an add-in that lets you control the HP MediaSmart Server's LED light show. It gives you additional control over the speed of the blinking (from a slow 1/2 second interval to a seizure-inducing 20ms interval) and let's you program the text and send rate for the "morse code" theme. Settings from the panel are interactive (you don't need to press Apply). It also has a simple help dialog to describe how each part of the settings panel works.

This add-in is only for the HP MediaSmart Server.

Remember, the light show is NOT an officially supported HP feature nor is this add-in! That said, since I know the HP developer pretty well (at least my therapist thinks I do ), please let me know if you run into any problems or issues with either the server LED behavior or this add-in.

The .zip file containing the .MSI installer is available here: http://www.mediasmartserver.net/downloa ... taller.zip

Install the add-in by by copying the LightShowInstaller.msi file to the Software\Addins share of your Windows Home Server.

Start the Windows Home Server Console, select Settings, then Add-Ins. Select HP LED Light Show Settings from the Available tab, and click "Install".

Note there are a few known issues:

* If you have the LED slider on the HP tab in the "easter egg" mode, the settings on this panel will not work.

* Occasionally, switching back to the system default will leave all of the LEDs off. Adjusting the brightness or toggling again between theme and default modes should reset the LEDs to the system colors.

* Fast speeds for some themes may induce a high-pitched tone from the server (generated by the voltage regulators that control the LEDs). This is normal.

Enjoy!

Jerry

Cool Add-In, thanks for sharing! The pulsing and night-rider modes look much better with the speed increased a little bit.

Question: If I were to use the light show, would it override the built in software that makes an LED turn red if a drive fails???

Yes (unless you're in the "pulsing system lights" mode), however you have the red health LED to tell you there is a problem with the server.

Also, the server image next to the LED brightness control will ALWAYS show the correct state of the server drives, regardless of whether the server light show is enabled (and it's correct even when the control is in "egg" mode). The image in the Hardware Status panel also tracks the true drive LED state. For example, if you have the console open when you add a new drive to one of the drive bays, you'll see the server LED turn purple in the server images at the same time it turns purple on the server itself.

So, if WHS did detect a drive failure, you would get a the WHS popup alert on your WHS system tray icon and the health LED will turn red on the server. When you open the WHS console, you'd see the appropriate red LED on the server image in the HP tab.

Jerry

Awesome. I was afraid of running the light show in fear that I couldn't quickly identify the failed hard drive. I may have to put on some holiday lights!

I like this addin.

like the morse code one. Looks like my server is working overtime
with disk activity lights! LOL

Looks cool anyways.

I'm curious would it be possible to right a program that would turn one drive indicator from red (because the drive is not part of the pool) to blue and allow them to track the health? I find that I would like to have a non pool drive inside my MediaSmart and I really don't want to see one red light. Can one cancel the red in effect for a drive not being part of the pool? An opt out option...

Thanks

Very cool, thanks.

Is there any chance the LED's could show individual drive activity?

Hi,

It is very interesting and fun.

But it could make the lights will flash depending on the activity of the hard drives?
If the hard drive works then the light flashes. But if the hard drive is in standby, then the light goes off.


It would be very useful and interesting.


Thank you for your work, and thanks to this great community : )

Greetings.

First, giltesa, welcome to the world of MSS/WHS. Good to have you aboard!

Folks have been wondering about changing those LEDs to show activity for over two years now... To date no one has found a way.

Hi,
Thanks for your prompt response.

I had no idea, it's a pity not being able to use it. : (

I have to learn more about MSS ^ _ ^

Greetings.

This add in apparently no longer works with the 3.0 upgrade which is a shame because I liked being able to change the tempo of the light show which was a feature in this add-in that is not available with the easter egg.

Correct, Jrock indicated to me that he would like to update the add-in to work with the newer software, I'll remind him and see if he is able to follow up.