Are there any power consumption indicators?
I would love to see how much power my notebook is consuming all the time.
Therefore I want an indicator that constantly (interval of 1 second maybe) monitors the current power consumption (electric current measured in mA or electric power measured in W) and displays it in my Unity panel of Ubuntu 16.04.
Solution 1:
Note: As of right now it is not possible to measure power consumption of laptop on AC adapter or a desktop computer via software means. Even other OS such as windows requires having external hardware sensors to provide that information. If you want indicator for desktop computer , this answer won't work for you
I have written an indicator that monitors energy consumption in both Watts and milli - Amps. The usage if very simple :
python /path/to/power-flow-indicator
or from the same directory as the script:
./power-flow-indicator
By default output is shown in Watts, but --amps option allows showing the output in milli-amps:
python power-flow-indicator --amps
The -h will show this same information :
usage: power-flow-indicator [-h] [--amps]
optional arguments:
-h, --help show this help message and exit
--amps display output in milliamps
Obtaining the Indicator
The indicator source code is located on GitHub. If you have git installed , you can clone the repository via:
git clone https://github.com/SergKolo/power-flow-indicator.git
Alternatively , one can obtain zip file via
wget https://github.com/SergKolo/power-flow-indicator/archive/master.zip
Source Code
NOTE: the indicator needs an icon. It is preferable that you clone the git repository or obtain the zip package rather than just copying the source code alone.
#!/usr/bin/env python
# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
#
# Author: Serg Kolo , contact: [email protected]
# Date: July 21, 2012
# Purpose: Indicator that displays power
# consumption of laptop battery
#
# Written for: http://askubuntu.com/q/801003/295286
# Tested on: Ubuntu 16.04 LTS
#
#
#
# Licensed under The MIT License (MIT).
# See included LICENSE file or the notice below.
#
# Copyright © 2016 Sergiy Kolodyazhnyy
#
# Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
# of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
# in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
# to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
# copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
# furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:
#
# The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included
# in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.
#
# THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
# IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
# FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
# AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
# LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
# OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
# SOFTWARE.
import gi
gi.require_version('AppIndicator3', '0.1')
from gi.repository import GLib as glib
from gi.repository import AppIndicator3 as appindicator
from gi.repository import Gtk as gtk
import os
import dbus
import subprocess
import argparse
class LockKeyStatusIndicator(object):
def __init__(self, show_amps):
self.show_amps = show_amps
self.app = appindicator.Indicator.new(
'power-flow-indicator', "",
appindicator.IndicatorCategory.APPLICATION_STATUS)
self.app.set_status(appindicator.IndicatorStatus.ACTIVE)
self.icon_path = os.path.dirname( os.path.realpath(__file__) )
self.app.set_icon( os.path.join(self.icon_path,"pwi_icon.png" ))
self.update_label()
self.app_menu = gtk.Menu()
self.quit_app = gtk.MenuItem('Quit')
self.quit_app.connect('activate', self.quit)
self.quit_app.show()
self.app_menu.append(self.quit_app)
self.app.set_menu(self.app_menu)
def run(self):
try:
gtk.main()
except KeyboardInterrupt:
pass
def quit(self, data=None):
gtk.main_quit()
def run_cmd(self, cmdlist):
new_env = dict( os.environ )
new_env['LC_ALL'] = 'C'
try:
stdout = subprocess.check_output(cmdlist,env=new_env)
except subprocess.CalledProcessError:
pass
else:
if stdout:
return stdout
def run_dbus_method(self, bus_type, obj, path, interface, method, arg):
if bus_type == "session":
bus = dbus.SessionBus()
if bus_type == "system":
bus = dbus.SystemBus()
proxy = bus.get_object(obj, path)
method = proxy.get_dbus_method(method, interface)
if arg:
return method(arg)
else:
return method()
def get_power_info(self):
battery_path = None
battery_info = []
energy_rate = None
voltage = None
current = None
on_battery = None
for line in self.run_cmd(['upower', '-e']).decode().split('\n'):
if 'battery_BAT' in line:
battery_path = line
break
self.run_dbus_method('system', 'org.freedesktop.UPower',
battery_path, 'org.freedesktop.UPower.Device',
'Refresh', 'None')
for entry in self.run_cmd(
['upower', '-i', battery_path]).decode().split('\n'):
if 'state' in entry:
if entry.replace(" ", "").split(':')[1] == 'discharging':
on_battery = True
if 'energy-rate' in entry:
energy_rate = entry.replace(" ", "").split(':')[1][:-1]
print energy_rate
if 'voltage' in entry:
voltage = entry.replace(" ", "").split(':')[1]
current = round(
1000 * float(energy_rate[:-1]) / float(voltage[:-1]), 4)
if on_battery:
return str(round(float(energy_rate),2)) + 'W', str(int(current)) + 'mA'
else:
return 'on ac', 'on ac'
def update_label(self):
cwd = os.getcwd()
red_icon = os.path.join(cwd, 'red.png')
green_icon = os.path.join(cwd, 'green.png')
if self.show_amps:
label_text = self.get_power_info()[1]
else:
label_text = self.get_power_info()[0]
self.app.set_label(label_text, "")
glib.timeout_add_seconds(1, self.set_app_label)
def set_app_label(self):
self.update_label()
def main():
parser = argparse.ArgumentParser()
parser.add_argument(
"--amps", help="display output in milliamps", action="store_true")
args = parser.parse_args()
indicator = LockKeyStatusIndicator(args.amps)
indicator.run()
if __name__ == '__main__':
main()