Hi Ioana, The AppleScript that is used by Keyboard Commander only queries and reports the battery status of your Mac by using a shell script call to the "ioreg" command used under Terminal. Not all devices will report battery level status, even when this feature might be supported. The Apple Wireless Keyboard battery level can be checked from the Bluetooth menu, as can the Apple Wireless Mouse (although I don't use the mouse myself, so this last fact is only by report). This isn't true for other, non-Apple, Bluetooth keyboards and other third party Bluetooth devices. Battery level status for your new Magic TrackPad may also be supported from the Bluetooth menu.
You might want to monitor battery status of these devices if you regularly use your Apple Wireless Keyboard as the main keyboard for your Mac Mini. Bryan Jones posted a warning that he has experienced some system freeze-ups under Lion that appear to be associated with low battery levels on his Apple Wireless Keyboard and TrackPad, and a few others have confirmed this. The discussion was not on this list, but on the mac-access list earlier this summer, but you can read the original post that was saved on the Mail Archive site: • A note about system freezes and kernel panics related to low battery levels in Bluetooth Keyboard & Trackpad http://www.mail-archive.com/mac-access%40mac-access.net/msg01650.html Quick summary is that unexpected freeze-ups may be associated with low battery levels with these Bluetooth devices. At least, in these instances Bryan was able to solve the problem by replacing the batteries in these devices, after confirming that the levels were, indeed low, when this happened. HTH. Cheers, Esther On Dec 28, 2011, at 21:50, Ioana Gandrabur wrote: > Hi Ester, > > Your posts are as usually very interesting and informative. Thanks! > Don't have the mac here but does this report battery level for all devices > connected to the mac? > Will try out tomorrow. > > Best, > > Ioana > > Sent from my iPhone > > On Dec 23, 2011, at 1:11 PM, Esther <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Hi Ioana, >> >> You can set up a Keyboard Commander shortcut for checking the battery level >> with an AppleScript, but as Colin states, the battery level, WiFi, date and >> time, etc. are all icons on the Status Menu bar. Navigate there either with >> the general Mac shortcut of Control+F8, or use the VoiceOver specific one of >> VO-m twice (e.g., hold down Control and Option keys, then tap the "m" key >> twice). Then navigate to the icon you want (e.g. left arrow or VO-Left >> arrow would take me to my Battery level, then to my clock, etc.). Here's >> the link to instructions in my post in the archives on how to set up a >> Keyboard Commander shortcut using the AppleScript that Hai Nguyen Lai posted >> to the list last year: >> • VoiceOver Focus to Status Menu bar [was Re: Sort of bazaar problem with >> Voiceover Focus}: >> http://www.mail-archive.com/macvisionaries%40googlegroups.com/msg47475.html >> >> HTH. Cheers, >> >> Esther >> >> On Dec 23, 2011, at 07:44, Red.Falcon wrote: >> >>> Hi Ioana! >>> You can access the status bar with either vo+m+m or control+f8 and then >>> arrow to the bluetooth menu and scroll down! >>> In there will be all bluetooth devices you have linked and can get the info >>> about the item from there! >>> hth Colin >>> >>> On 23 Dec 2011, at 15:07, Ioana Gandrabur wrote: >>> >>>> Hi all, >>>> >>>> My husband sais he can see the battery percentage of the keyboard and >>>> mouse somewhere in the status bar of the computer where the clock is. I >>>> arrowed around and could find nothing with vo. Is there a way to check >>>> this? >>>> >>>> Thanks, >>>> >>>> Ioana >>>> >>>> Sent from my iPhone >> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en.
