Scheduling F@H & Shortcut Problems

A forum just for SPCR's folding team... by request.

Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee

Post Reply
angelkiller
Posts: 871
Joined: Fri Jan 05, 2007 11:37 am
Location: North Carolina

Scheduling F@H & Shortcut Problems

Post by angelkiller » Thu May 17, 2007 11:07 am

Ok, I have two questions.

1) Is there way I can automatically schedule 1 CPU Console version and 1 GPU Console to automatically run? I'd like both versions to automatically start after about 30min idle after 9 pm. I don't mind stopping it manually.

2) How do you make the CPU console start only on one core? (Using a shorcut?) I've tried "-a0", and it works in the run command but not in the shortcut to the .exe. I've also read something about the "-local" command. I'm not sure what it does or if I need it.

These are minor problems/annoyances, and I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on either of them?

Thanks! :)

peteamer
*Lifetime Patron*
Posts: 1740
Joined: Sun Dec 21, 2003 11:24 am
Location: 'Sunny' Cornwall U.K.

Post by peteamer » Thu May 17, 2007 10:56 pm

angelkiller, In answer to Q1 you could use 'Shceduled Tasks' if you're running Windows. It's lives in programs/accessories/system tools.
It will do exactly what you want. 8)

Q2 I can't answer directly... though I suspect you could configure a batch file to start FAH via the command line and then use Shceduled Tasks to run the batch file?...

As for '-local', have a look here: http://folding.stanford.edu/console-userguide.html


Regards
Pete

angelkiller
Posts: 871
Joined: Fri Jan 05, 2007 11:37 am
Location: North Carolina

Post by angelkiller » Sat May 19, 2007 5:37 pm

Thanks for the response, peteamer.

Yes, scheduled tasks seems to be the preferred method. But I did not see how to have two conditionals. I only want F@H to run after 30 idle min, only if it's after nine pm. My only idea was to have two scheduled tasks. One runs the other, so one launches the (F@H after 30 min idle) at nine. Do you understand what I'm trying to say? (If you don't, it's my fault :oops:)

Thanks again for the info about the local command. I think I should be using that. And a batch file sounds like a good idea. :) If only I knew how to make one.... :( I googled it, and it seems really complicated. If it helps, I can write programs with a TI-83 graphing calculator. (Only a simple scripting code though. :oops:) Know any good tutorials or any ways to help me?

Thanks again!

Plissken
Friend of SPCR
Posts: 235
Joined: Tue Dec 19, 2006 6:22 pm
Location: Seattle

Re: Scheduling F@H & Shortcut Problems

Post by Plissken » Sat May 19, 2007 6:34 pm

angelkiller wrote:2) How do you make the CPU console start only on one core? (Using a shorcut?) I've tried "-a0", and it works in the run command but not in the shortcut to the .exe. I've also read something about the "-local" command. I'm not sure what it does or if I need it.
I'm kind of a FAH newbie, but I think I know about this one.
The CPU console will only run on one core. You need to run 2 instances to get both cores running. So, running one instance with default settings should work.
As far as the switches are concerned, I only use -advmethods and -forceasm. If you want them to work in a shortcut, put them in the "Target:" window of the shortcut, outside the quotes.
Example:

Code: Select all

"P:\Program Files\FAH_1\FAH500-Console.exe" -advmethods -forceasm
Then use scheduler to launch your shortcut.

Plissken
Friend of SPCR
Posts: 235
Joined: Tue Dec 19, 2006 6:22 pm
Location: Seattle

Post by Plissken » Sat May 19, 2007 6:40 pm

If you can't lauch a shortcut in scheduler (I don't know, since I don't use it) yes make a batch file.
A batch file is just a text (notepad) file with a .bat extension, instead of .txt
It will run commands one at a time, as typed in the batch file. Pretty simple.
Open Notepad, and type the command line that you want to run FAH. Then save it as a name with a .bat extension (like "FAH.bat"). Now you can double click it, and it will run that command.

NeilBlanchard
Moderator
Posts: 7681
Joined: Mon Dec 09, 2002 7:11 pm
Location: Maynard, MA, Eaarth
Contact:

Post by NeilBlanchard » Sat May 19, 2007 6:43 pm

Hello,

I'm not sure why you need to have it wait 30 minutes? It starts when you stop using the CPU, and it stops (right away) when you use the CPU again. It has been shown that running F@H in the background all the time slows you down by about 0.01%.

angelkiller
Posts: 871
Joined: Fri Jan 05, 2007 11:37 am
Location: North Carolina

Post by angelkiller » Sat May 19, 2007 7:35 pm

Plissken wrote:The CPU console will only run on one core. You need to run 2 instances to get both cores running. So, running one instance with default settings should work.
As far as the switches are concerned, I only use -advmethods and -forceasm.
Thanks for the info. Wasn't sure if you were supposed to specify which core to run on.
NeilBlanchard wrote:I'm not sure why you need to have it wait 30 minutes? It starts when you stop using the CPU, and it stops (right away) when you use the CPU again. It has been shown that running F@H in the background all the time slows you down by about 0.01%.
Well for a couple of reasons. First, I don't want another window to deal with, and installing it as a service is complicated. (Don't you have to do more than say yes when it asks?) Secondly, my CPU is so slow, that anything less than 100% may not be worth the time.

As for the batch file, I copied the F@H exe's location and used the "-local" arguement. But F@H starts running in the location of the .bat file! So it starts by asking me my user name etc. I'm confused! :? I thought the local arguement fixed this. Even without local, it still starts from the directory the bat file is in. How do I fix this?

And in the second line of the .bat file, I have the location of the GPU client. It fails to run at all. If it matters, I have quotes around the locations.

Thanks everyone! (I seem to have the most F@H problems :(:oops:)

ryboto
Friend of SPCR
Posts: 1439
Joined: Tue Dec 14, 2004 4:06 pm
Location: New Hampshire, US
Contact:

Post by ryboto » Sat May 19, 2007 7:36 pm

NeilBlanchard wrote:Hello,

I'm not sure why you need to have it wait 30 minutes? It starts when you stop using the CPU, and it stops (right away) when you use the CPU again. It has been shown that running F@H in the background all the time slows you down by about 0.01%.
but he also wants to use the gpu client. If he's using his gpu for games or anything else while the client is launched, he'll have serious performance issues.

Plissken
Friend of SPCR
Posts: 235
Joined: Tue Dec 19, 2006 6:22 pm
Location: Seattle

Post by Plissken » Sat May 19, 2007 8:12 pm

angelkiller wrote:As for the batch file, I copied the F@H exe's location and used the "-local" arguement. But F@H starts running in the location of the .bat file!
Try using the first line of the batch file to change the current directory to the location of the console, i.e.:

Code: Select all

cd C:\Program Files\FAH
Then use the second line to run the console.
You might try the same thing with the GPU console, but you should launch it from a separate batch file. Launching multiple programs with a single batch file can get tricky.

peteamer
*Lifetime Patron*
Posts: 1740
Joined: Sun Dec 21, 2003 11:24 am
Location: 'Sunny' Cornwall U.K.

Post by peteamer » Sat May 19, 2007 10:44 pm

angelkiller wrote:Yes, scheduled tasks seems to be the preferred method. But I did not see how to have two conditionals. I only want F@H to run after 30 idle min, only if it's after nine pm. Thanks again!
Shceduled tasks will do both of these together, find the advanced button once you've 'made' the task.
Plissken wrote:Try using the first line of the batch file to change the current directory to the location of the console,
Or put the .bat file in your FAH folder.



And most of all don't worry about asking questions, some of us [cough]peteamer[/cough] have asked some pretty silly questions ourselves... :lol:


Pete

angelkiller
Posts: 871
Joined: Fri Jan 05, 2007 11:37 am
Location: North Carolina

Post by angelkiller » Fri Jun 29, 2007 9:26 am

I finally got some more time to finish this project. I did get it working. (Or at least my test worked.) Turns out I was over complicating things. All the settings were in scheduled tasks. I didn't need the batch files because I had F@H run the actual .exe file itself instead of a shoutcut to it. I had to do some fiddling around to find out exactly how each one works. But it does work. So tonight I'll see if everything works exactly how I want it.

Thanks for all your help!

peteamer
*Lifetime Patron*
Posts: 1740
Joined: Sun Dec 21, 2003 11:24 am
Location: 'Sunny' Cornwall U.K.

Post by peteamer » Fri Jun 29, 2007 9:50 am

angelkiller wrote:Thanks for all your help!
You're Welcome. 8)



On behalf of us all...

Thanks for the Thanks. :D


Regards
'Us'

Post Reply