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wwPCRemote Help

  Overall Help
  First time setup

World Wide PC Remote Overall  Help

wwPCRemote lets you to control your PC using your iPhone

Things you can remotely control include:

-          Devantech USB relays, which let you turn on and off lights in your house, open / close your garage door, etc.

-          Hardware or software that react to UDP messaging,

-          Restarting/Shutting-down your PC and other PCs networked to yours, and

-          Waking up of other PCs, which support Wakeup on LAN functionality, networked to yours.

 

A little more context:

 

wwPCRemote for the iPhone comes in a lite and full version. Here is a recap of what’s the same and what’s different about them:

 

Features	wwPCRemote	wwPCRemote Lite
UDP Messaging	Yes	Yes
Control Devantech USB relays (*)	Yes	Yes
Restart / Shutdown your PC	Yes	Yes
Number of Buttons	80	2
Run multiple commands from one button	Yes	No
Displays ads	No	Yes
Cost	$1.99	Free

(*) models supported: USB-RLY02, USB-RLY08, USB-RLY16, USB-OPTO-RLY88, and USB-OPTO-RLY816

wwPCRemote for the PC is made up of two separate programs.  There is one program that you see (wwPCRemote Application), and another program that you do not see (wwPCRemote Service).  The program you don’t see works in the background reacting to commands from both your iPhone and the wwPCRemote Application.

The wwPCRemote Service starts working when you turn your computer on.  In this way you don’t have to first log on to Windows before your iPhone can start sending commands to your PC.

 

1.0 The wwPCRemote iPhone app

 

The wwPCRemote iPhone app has a set of buttons that allow you to control your PC.   In behind the buttons there are setting windows.  The setting windows allow you to give names to your buttons, and set up button command and other options.

 

1.1 Button titles and commands

When you first start wwPCRemote you will see a series of blank buttons.

While wwPCRemote Lite only supports two buttons, wwPCRemote supports 80.   For wwPCRemote there are 8 buttons per screen, for a total of 10 screens.

Pressing the up/down/right and left arrows allows you to navigate to the setting screens where you can give titles to the buttons and also set button commands.

For example from the first screen, press the down arrow once to go to the screen that allows you to change the button names for the first screen, and then press the  down arrow a second time to change associated the command values.

Command values are listed in the section below entitled ‘3.0 Command Reference’.

 

1.2 Menu Control on your iPhone

The full version of wwPCRemote has 10 screens of buttons.

If you want to move quickly between screens, you can assign commands starting with two greater than signs ‘>>’ followed by a screen number (between 1 and 10) to jump to the associated screen.  

For example you can have a button on screen 1 entitled ‘PC Commands’ with a command value of ‘>>5’ (without the quotes).   

In this case, when you press the ‘PC Commands’ button wwPCRemote will jump to screen 5, where you can  have, for example, your Restart and Shutdown commands set up.

You can also press where the page number is shown on the buttons screen to be returned to the first opening button screen.

Another navigation command ‘>>Exit’ (without the quotes) immediately quits wwPCRemote for the iPhone.

1.3 Misc. Settings on the iPhone

IP Address / URL

For wwPCRemote to communicate with your PC, wwPCRemote must know where your PC is, and it must also know what internet port number to use to communicate with it.

The easiest way to do this is to set up a link using a dsn service provider. 

A dsn service provider (such as no-ip.com) provides a link that you can use to connect wwPCRemote to your PC. 

Here are the steps you would take to set this up:

1.       Sign up for a free account by following this link

No-IP.com website

2.       Follow the instruction at No-IP’s support – Getting Started page to set up a link.  Use the port 80 redirect option to redirect communications between your iPhone and your PC on the internet port that you identify on the wwPCRemote Applications Settings screen (default is 55123 – there is more information on this below).

Set/Change Password

 Set a password for communicating with your PC

 Please note the password set on wwPCRemote on your iPhone and in the PC application must match exactly.  Passwords are case sensitive.

Location On/Off

 Turn on or off location reporting to be used with the PC distance restrictions settings – more on this in the section entitled ‘Distance Restrictions’ below.

 When the location option is on you will see a direction arrow at the top of the wwPCRemote iPhone screens.    Also on the Misc. Settings screen you will see your location (Longitude, Latitude, etc.) information displayed.

Sound On/Off

The Sound On/Off button toggle on and off a clicking sound when you press buttons on the wwPCRemote iPhone app.

Save and Restore

Saves your iPhone settings to your PC; Restores your iPhone settings from your PC.

Please note:

Before upgrading wwPCRemote between the Lite and Full version, or between releases, please first Save your settings using the Save button so that after the upgrade you can restore them.  They will not otherwise be preserved. 

Your IP Address / URL and Password are not saved nor restored using these commands.

Test

 Used to test your iPhone to PC connection

 

1.4 Info Screen

 

Additional info and web links related to wwPCRemote.

 

2.0 The PC Remote Application:

 

The wwPCRemote Application has five main screens:

1.       Button and Commands,

2.       Settings,

3.       Service,

4.       Help, and

5.       License.

 

Just click on the tab bar at the top to the screen to change between screens.

 

2.1   The Button and Command screen

 

This screen allows you to configure the buttons and commands for wwPCRemote.

Button titles and their associated commands can be entered on either your iPhone or on your PC.

 

You can then sync the two, by pressing either the ‘Save’ or ‘Restore’ button on the wwPCRemote’s iPhone Settings (Misc.) screen.

 

If you want to update your button and command settings on the iPhone, just do so using the wwPCRemote iPhone app, and click the Save button on the wwPCRemote’s iPhone Settings (Misc.) screen.   Once done your settings will be saved to your PC.

 

If you want to update your button and command settings on the PC, just do so using the wwPCRemote PC application, click the Apply Changes button on the Settings screen, and then on your iPhone press the Restore button on the Settings (Misc.) screen and the settings that you changed on your PC will be loaded to your iPhone.

 

You can also have wwPCRemote run a command on your PC, buy clicking on the associated button on the Button and Commands window.

 

2.2  The Settings Screen

 wwPCRemote settings are defined here. These include:

 

Internet Port

 

For your iPhone to connect to your PC it must do so via an internet port.   By default wwPCRemote uses port 55123; however this number can be any number between 49152 and 65534 inclusive. 

 

The wwPCRemote PC application also needs to communicate with the wwPCRemote PC Service.  This is done thru the port number 1 greater than the internet port number; by default 55124.  You only need to enter the Internet port number.

 

Password

 

For security purposes you need to enter a matching password both here and on your iPhone for wwPCRemote to action commands from your iPhone.  Passwords are case sensitive.

 

Distance Restrictions

 

Distance restrictions are a feature of wwPCRemote which you can use at your own option. 

 

Distance restrictions allow you to set a ‘home base’ and then have wwPCRemote process, or not process, commands from your iPhone based on how far away from your home base your iPhone is (according to your iPhone GPS locator feature).

 

In relation to distance restrictions, you have three choices:
1. Process all commands regardless of the distance between your iPhone and your ‘home base’,
2. Never processes commands once your iPhone goes beyond the distance(s) you set

3. Process commands when your iPhone goes beyond the distances you set but only when you override the distance option for a particular command.

For example, you may want to turn on or off a house light using a relay switch command from anywhere in the world, but you may only want to open your garage door (using another relay switch) if you are within 300 meters of your house.

Checking the option ‘Allow distance restrictions to be overridden’ provides for just that.

To override a distance restriction, either have your iPhone button command start with an asterisks ‘*’ (for example “*Relay 3 2 On”) or have your iPhone send a command that is just an asterisk ‘*’, after which time the next command will have it distance restriction overridden.

If you set up a Distance Override button (a button with an associated command having in it just a single asterisk ‘*’) and use it, the location icon at the top of your iPhone’s screen will blink until the next button is pressed.  When the next button is pressed the distance check will be bypassed (assuming the PC Settings allow for that).  If after you press the Distance Override button you decide you want to cancel it, just press the Distance override a second time and it will be cancelled.

 

In association with the Distance Restrictions, you can elect to enforce horizontal restrictions, vertical restrictions, or both.

For example you can choose to enforce a horizontal restriction within a 300 meter radius of your house (remembering of course this is based on your iPhone’s GPS locator which has some inaccuracies associated with it).  You can also choose to enforce vertical restrictions, for example if your home base is on the 12^th floor of an apartment complex.

Horizontal and vertical restrictions can be set independently, and be based on feet,yards, miles, meters or kilometres.

To set your home base location, click the ‘Set Base Location’ button and follow the instructions.  You will need your iPhone with you as part of this process.

 

Time Restrictions

 

Log activity

 

2.3   Service Screen

 

wwPCRemote can be used to start and stop the wwPCRemote Service (the program that works in the background to process commands from your iPhone).

 

Just click on the ‘Start’ or ‘Stop’ button to start or stop the service.

 

When the service is stopped wwPCRemote’s settings cannot be changed and no commands will be processed from your iPhone.

Click on the ‘View log’ button to see wwPCRemote Service’s activities (assuming the Log Activity option is checked on the Settings Screen).

 

Please note the Activity log is cleared out each time the wwPCRemote Service is started (including when you turn on your PC).

 

2.4  Help and License Screens

 Detail product help and the wwPCRemote licensing agreement.

 

3.0 Command Reference

 Here is the format of the various commands as they relate to:

·         Sending UDP Messages

·         Controlling Devantech USB relays

·         Running a PC program or script file

·         Waking up, Restarting and Shutting Windows PCs

·         Running multiple commands with one button

 

3.1  Sending a UDP message to other computers on your network:

                 UDP [* / IP address] [Port] [Message] (Encoding)

 

* / IP address (values are:    *   !   xx.xx.xx.xx):

                                * is short for 255.255.255.255 (used for a system wide broadcast)

                               ! is short for 127.0.0.1 (loopback address) 

                                A specific IP address, for example 99.123.45.11

 

Port (values 49152 thru 65532 inclusive)

 

Encoding (optional values: Ascii   BigEndianUnicode   Unicode  UTF32   UTF7   UTF8)

               if not present Unicode is assumed

 

Message (value whatever you like)

Message can contain numbers, letters and special characters.  If you need to send a control code (such as ascii code value 10) then code \nnn where nnn  is the three digit (leading zero) ascii code ( such as \010 ).

 

Here are a few examples:

 

                UDP * Hello there

             

           UDP ! Ascii Hello there

 

                UDP 99.88.77.66 Hello there \013\010

 

3.2 For controlling Devantech USB relays:

 

Relay [Com Port Number] [Switch] [On/Off/Flash/Toggle] [Flash time]

 

Com Port (values 0 thru 24):

 

The Com Port is the Com Port the Relay is attached to.  For example 3 for Com Port 3.

 

If you have more than one Relay board attached you can use a Com Port  0 (zero) if you want your command to apply to all Relay boards.

 

Switch (value 0 thru 2, or 0 thru 8 depending on the relay board model(s) you have)

 

This is the number of the relay switch on the board, for example 2 for relay switch 2.  

 

A value of 0 (zero) refers to all switches on the board.

 

On/Off/Flash/Toggle

 

                On: turn the switch on

                Off: turn the switch off

Flash:  Turn the switch on if it is off, or off it if it is on for a brief period.  The default flash time is 1 second.

Toggle: Turn the switch on if it is off, or off it if it is on.

 

Flash time (value 1 thru 4000)

 

the time in milliseconds that the switch will flash, for example 1500 (for 1.5 seconds).

 

If not coded, the default of 1000 milliseconds (1 second) will be used.

 

                Here are a few examples:

 

                Relay 4 2 On       

(for the board that is connected to Com Port 4, turns switch 2 on)

 

                Relay 0 0 Off

                                (turn all switches off)

 

                Relay 5 7 Flash 1500

(on board that is connected to Com Port 5, flash switch 7 for 1.5 seconds).

 

3.3  Running a PC Program or Script file

Run [Program / Script File] (Parameters)

Program / Script File

Enter the full path and program name or script file name surrounded by double quotes ( " )

When entering the full path and program name or script file name the slashes need to be doubled;

that is to say if at the Windows Command prompt you would normally type

c:\temp\test.bat

for wwPCRemote you will need to type

c:\\temp\\test.bat

Parameters

Optionally you can also add parameters to be passed into the PC program or script file that will be run

Here are a few examples:
              Run "c:\\temp\\test.bat"
              Run "c:\\temp\\test.bat" 12345
              Run "c:\\temp\\myprog.exe"
                       
Please Note: 

The program or script file will run as if it was run from the Windows' command prompt.

However there is one important limitation:

The program or script file cannot cause an interaction with the user desktop.  

So for example, if you have a script file that copies one file to another, then the script file does not need to access the desktop and it will run fine. 

However if you have a script file that launches Microsoft Notepad then the script file would cause an interaction with the desktop and it will not run correctly.

 

3.4  For Waking Up, Restarting, and Shutting down

Wakeup [MAC Address]

Restart  [MAC Address]

Shutdown [MAC Address]

Enter a command as 'Wakeup', ‘Restart’ or ‘Shutdown’ (without the quotes) followed by a space and then the MAC Address of your computer. 

For example
              Shutdown 1E-F4-B6-78-9A-12 Of note: the MAC address of your computer is much like a unique serial number associated with the hardware in your computer which connects to the internet.

The MAC address of your computer is displayed on the wwPCRemote PC Application's Setting window.
wwPCRemote will let you shutdown or restart any Windows computer on your network, however, for this to work the wwPCRemote PC must be running on those computers.
wwPCRemote will let you wake up any Windows computer networked to the primary Windows computer which wwPCRemote interacts with, assuming that the computer to be woken up supports Wakeup On LAN functionality and it is correctly configured to do so.   wwPCRemote can not wake up the primary computer that wwPCRemote interacts with.

Please Note:  For Windows 7, and earlier, Wake Up On LAN is supported when your computer has been shut down, is hibernating or sleeping.  In Windows 8 Microsoft changed the behavior of Wake Up On LAN so that is only supported from a sleep or hibernation state.   For more information please see: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2776718

3.5 Running multiple commands with one button

This feature is only available in the full version of wwPCRemote

First, build a simple text file with the commands you would like run, for example create the file

Bedtime.txt

which contains:

         Relay 3 4 Off
         Relay 3 6 Off
         Relay 5 2 Off
         Shutdown 1E-F4-B6-78-9A-12

Second, move the Bedtime.txt file to the same directory the log file is store in.

 To find out what directory the log file is store in, go to wwPCRemote PC application’s Services screen and click View log.  The second line in the log file will tell you the folder it is saved in.

 Third,

 For one of your wwPCRemote iPhone buttons, just enter an associated wwPCRemote iPhone command of:

                        @Bedtime.txt

 The ‘@’ sign tells wwPCRemote that there is a file to look for called BedTime.txt in the same directory as your log file, and that contains a list of commands to be processed.

 Of note, depending on your Windows settings, you might not see the .txt extension after the file name that you create, or you may inadvertently create a file called Bedtime.txt.txt

 To help reduce confusion, go to the Windows – Control Panel, select View by Large Icons, select Folder Options, click on the View tab, and uncheck the option ‘Hide extensions for known file types’, and click on ‘OK’.

 

World Wide PC Remote first time setup

For wwPCRemote on your iPhone and on your PC to communicate with each other you must setup a path for communications. 

If you have a fixed IP address, you can set it up by simply typing it in the wwPCRemote iPhone app's Settings (Misc.) window as follows:

http://xx.xx.xx.xx:yyyyy   (where xx.xx.xx.xx is your fixed IP address, and yyyyy is the internet port that wwPCRemote uses to communicate with (by default port 55123))

 for example:

http://79.32.127.15:55123

Please note the direction of the two slashes after the http:

They are forward slashes; that is to say “//” not “\\”

 

If your IP address changes from time to time you can use a free service such as no-ip.com to manage it, here's how:

What you will need is a free 'host name' redirected to the internet port wwPCRemote communicates (by default port 55123).

Just go to no-ip.com and no-ip.com, click on the 'Support' tab, and then click on where it says 'Getting Started guide'.  No-ip.com's getting started guide is excellent, just walk thru the instructions to set up a host and redirecting commutations the internet port wwPCRemote communicates (by default port 55123).   Here is a screen shot showing the 'Add a host' window and how to fill it out.

You may need to allow a few minutes for these changes to take effect.

 

No-IP also offers a free software program which runs on your PC and automatically updates the No-IP system with your new IP address when it changes.

Here is where you can get that software: http://www.noip.com/downloads.php?page=win

 

Once you have done this, go to wwPCRemote for your iPhone and enter the host name on the Settings (Misc) screen. 

Also, for security purposes, you should also set a password on the wwPCRemote for your iPhone Settings (Misc) screen.  Please note, passwords are case sensitive.

Here is an example.

Finally, go to the wwPCRemote PC Settings window, update the internet port if you don't want to use the default, and changes the password to match the one you entered on your iPhone (again, passwords are case sensitive).

 

Note: Your connection may not work if your iPhone is using the same WiFi Network as your PC.  In this case, just turn your iPhone's WiFi connection off (use 3G as an alternative) to enable the connection.

Firewalls

Depending on your system, you may have either one or two active firewalls; one associated with Windows and another associated with your router.

You will need to allow access to wwPCRemote to the internet through these firewalls. 

For your firewall associated with Windows (for example Windows Firewall, Norton, etc.) this is usually done by clicking on 'allow' or 'unblock' when you are prompted by your Windows firewall system to allow wwPCRemote access.  Beyond allowing wwPCRemote access, you may also need to open up the internet port that wwPCRemote uses.  By default wwPCRemote uses TCP port 55123 to communicate with the internet. Microsoft's write up for adding a port using the Windows Firewall can be found here. If you are not using Windows Firewall, just do an internet search (google/yahoo/etc.) for 'firewall open port <the name of your firewall>'  for more information.

For the firewall associated with your router you need to check your router manual (usually available from your router's manufacture). 

Test it.

To test the connection, press the 'Test' button on the wwPCRemote iPhone app Settings (Misc) screen.

If everything is working fine your wwPCRemote iPhone app will report the version of the wwPCRemote PC software with which it is working.

If when you press the 'Test' button on the wwPCRemote iPhone app the message 'Test Failed - PC Connection' appears then the most likely reason is that communications are being blocked by your firewall(s).  For more information, please see the section entitled 'Firewalls' directly above.

A secondary, less likely reason, is the wwPCRemote Service is not running on your PC.  To check this just start wwPCRemote on you PC, if the Service tab says 'Service (Stopped)' then just click on the Service tab and then click the 'Start' button. 

 

Copyright Rob Latour 2011 - 2012 All Rights Reserved