Timer issue on VB6

[kusky]

The code you (kusky) posted is a mixture of the code from EllisDee (datediff) and randem.
You create the Static Seconds and update it, but you don't use it for checking!
You use the DateDiff correctly, however you're telling the software to stop after one minute (which is something like 60 seconds AFAIK) and not 30 minutes. How did you stop the 34 seconds, exactly when the Form_lad was happening??
did you see the messagebox at all?, since this command is after Unload.Me I don't think so (it was the other way around in Ellis code!)

The reason my code has the seconds is simply for me to view something when im testing it.

I have found out that no matter when i open the form it will close when the system clock hits the first full minute. The Code does not wait for 1 minute after the form was opened.

IS the only way to make sure its full minutes to use what randem suggests and use seconds?

[krtxmrtz]

Sorry I haven't read all the posts but in case it may help, just place a timer in your form with interval set to e.g. 1000 (1 second) and paste this code:

Option Explicit
Private Declare Function GetTickCount Lib "kernel32" () As Long
Dim StartTime As Long
Dim EndTime As Long
 
Private Sub Form_Load()
 
    'Aplication must end after this
    'time (in minutes) has elapsed
    EndTime = 30
    'Convert to milliseconds
    EndTime = EndTime * 60 * 1000
    'Elapsed milliseconds since windows was started
    StartTime = GetTickCount
 
End Sub
 
Private Sub Timer1_Timer()
 
    'Is the elapsed time since application started
    'larger than the maximum allowed time?
    If GetTickCount - StartTime >= EndTime Then
        Unload Me
        End
    End If
 
End Sub

To avoid waiting, try to set EndTime to a small fraction of a minute to see how it works.

[Ellis Dee]

I have found out that no matter when i open the form it will close when the system clock hits the first full minute. The Code does not wait for 1 minute after the form was opened.

IS the only way to make sure its full minutes to use what randem suggests and use seconds?

No, DateDiff will work fine, although if you think the user might change the system time then go with randem's counter technique.

DateDiff() returns a 1 the moment the unit of time has changed. If you ask DateDiff() the difference in years between 12/31 and 1/1, it'll tell you a year has passed when in reality only a day has.

What that means is that you want to use the next size down whenever the value you're looking for is less than 10. When looking for 30 minutes, checking the DateDiff() minutes differential is fine. When looking for only a single minute, however, you'll want to check for 60 seconds:

If DateDiff("s", mdtmLastActivity, Now()) >= 60 Then

I dislike using counters because timer controls are unreliable. If the system is busy, timer controls don't bother to fire an event. Even worse is that timers don't "save up" missed events; they just flat out skip them. If you use the counter method and set a timer's interval for 60,000 as a way of counting minutes, then you just have to hope that each minute when the timer is about to fire your program doesn't happen to be busy.

Of course, that's the whole point of this thread -- tracking user inactivity -- but this is why I just don't like relying on timers to do any kind of calculation in general. So instead of counting intervals, I always opt for comparing the current time with the starting time.

To illustrate timers skipping iterations, create a project, add a command button and a timer control, then paste this into the form's module:

Option Explicit

Private Sub Command1_Click()
    MsgBox "Blocker - Timer1 is not firing"
End Sub

Private Sub Form_Load()
    Timer1.Interval = 1000
    Timer1.Enabled = True
End Sub

Private Sub Timer1_Timer()
    Static lngCount As Long
    
    lngCount = lngCount + 1
    Print lngCount & " seconds elapsed"
End Sub

Run it, then after a few seconds have gone by click the command button. Wait a few more seconds and then click the OK button on the messagebox.

[masterkert3]

i use this code to keep track of time elapsed

Private Sub Timer1_Timer()
Dim secs As Long
Dim mins As Long
Dim hour As Long
secs = Val(Text1.Text + 1)
Text1.Text = secs
If Text1.Text = 60 Then
Text1.Text = 0
mins = Val(Text2.Text + 1)
Text2.Text = mins
End If
If Text2.Text = 60 Then
Text2.Text = 0
hour = Val(Text3.Text + 1)
Text3.Text = hour
End If
End Sub

you could do a check like this:

if text2.text = 30 then
unload me
end if

and put it on a timer

[kusky]

All works great now. Thanks everyone for your help. I went with Ellis suggestion and works like a charm - thanks again

[krtxmrtz]

All works great now. Thanks everyone for your help. I went with Ellis suggestion and works like a charm - thanks again

Well, the code I posted in #18 is not having the problem that EllisDee refers to in #19 as it is based on the GetTickCount function. The timer may not fire but time is still being kept track of.

[Ellis Dee]

Well, the code I posted in #18 is not having the problem that EllisDee refers to in #19 as it is based on the GetTickCount function. The timer may not fire but time is still being kept track of.

Same basic idea as what I suggested. Using DateDiff (or the Timer function, which has the same precision as GetTickCount) has the added bonus of being native VB, so no API declarations are required.