Screen Saver Defeater

A box that prevents your screen saver from activating when you place your mouse on it.

Step 1 Parts Used

Here are the parts I used in this project
1. 5 inches of 0.01" 70 degree Nitinol wire
2. A 5 volt power supply .5 amps (this can be replaced with a usb cable)
3. A small wood box from a craft store
4. Two ring lugs
5. Two 3mm counter sink screws and nuts
6. Two plastic wire ties
7. Some 30 AWG hookup wire
8. Super glue
9. A small piece of balsa wood.
10. A 2K resistor and a TIP31 NPN Transistor
11. A 555 timer kit

Comments

[GGShuffle]

.... why don't you just turn off the screen saver ....

[celguero]

hi there:

 I have try to reset the initial memory shape without success. For how long do you have to heat up the Nitinol to have it change to the coil shape? I am using a Nitinol Wire .0150" OD, 90C Transition Temp. Does it have to turn red?
it would be great if you could let me know
thanks!

u__u

[Phil_D]

I heated mine in an open flame until it was glowing orange, it did not take very long because the wire is so thin.  You do have to keep it in the shape you want it to stay in while you are heating it and until it cools off.  Once it is cool to the touch it should have the new memory shape.

Good Luck
Phil

[iLikeCoolStuf]

or u could put a high screensaver time like me ( I have it in 1000 mins ) lol is true

[AndyGadget]

This reminds me slightly of a video I saw many years ago when industrial robots were first developed. It showed a large robot arm whirling around, and then delicately poking a tiny hole in an egg with a pin. Why would you want to use a million dollar robot to poke a hole in an egg? To stop it cracking when you boil it, of course! (You could just turn the screen saver off ;¬) I've never used nitinol wire. What sort of current do you need to get it to the transition temperature? (I doubt if a USB port could supply it.)

[Phil_D]

Hi Andy. Depending on where you work you have no way to disable the corporate screen saver on your PC. Not that I am suggesting this device be used to circumvent your companies IT department : ) The system draws 0.4 amps at 5 volts DC when heating up the wire. The spec for a PC usb port is 0.5 amps at 5 volts, although I have heard that some laptops may not met the usb spec.

[frollard]

Also, if you need to draw less current, use the usb to charge a largeish capacitor thru a resistor to keep the draw below a reasonable amount... then you'd have tonnes of juice ready for when you need to short the nitinol wire...

[frollard]

(removed by author or community request)

[Phil_D]

So what would your solution be? Keep in mind I can not install any software on the pc and the screen saver controls are disabled. I need data to be displayed on the screen for up to 2 hours at a time while I am about 4 feet away from the keyboard. So other than getting up and and moving the mouse every 10 min I am not sure what else to do.

[frollard]

(removed by author or community request)

[frollard]

Sorry - I wasnt intending it as a jab at the project, but you must admit its very rube goldberg for a mouse-wiggler ;)

Anyhow; without getting yourself in too much trouble - can you run the registry editor? (start+R >> regedit.exe >> run)
If so, navigate to:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
set
ScreenSaverIsSecure = 0
ScreenSaveActive = 0
ScreenSaveTimeOut = 30000 (number of seconds until it kicks in)
Delete key 'SCRNSAVE.EXE' (name of the scr file that runs)

OR ask your IT department to unlock the controls?

[frollard]

ooh ooh, OR, you could make a local html file - grab a mouse-mover javascript, and have it run in a minimized window; set to load on startup...granted it uses resources, but not much...just move the mouse 5 pixels every now and then...

[uberdum05]

Or... you just make a batch file with a script in it to run what you said earlier with a command to edit the registry in cmd

[tstens]

This is totally brilliant. My co-workers and I were trying to figure out how to tackle this exact problem. My idea was to use either a mirror or an LED to reflect enough light back into the sensor of an optical mouse to 'bump' the mouse cursor enough to disengage the screen saver. I tried the simple trick of putting the mouse up flat against the screen (it's an LCD monitor) to see if the change in light levels when the screen goes black was enough to jog the cursor. It actually worked, but only about 25% of the time. If your mouse at work is optical, you might simply be able to rig the 555 circuit up to an LED to get it to blink slowly enough to bounce the cursor about. This was the idea I had added to the pile of projects that outweigh my 'garage time'.

[mdmoose29]

my favorite screen saver defeater goes something like. right click desktop click properties screen saver tab screen saver - none ... haha not always applicable tho, but neither is carrying a box around i suppose.