Turn the Projector Off Automatically Between Bookings

A simulator bay that sits locked all afternoon with its projector lit burns lamp or laser hours, electricity and heat for nobody. VTee's kiosk app can switch the projector off while the bay is idle and have it back on before the next customer walks in. This guide covers the three ways to do that, how to tell which one your projector needs, and the exact settings in VTee.

How it works

Every option is driven by the same per-bay setting, SimLock → Setup → your bay → Screens off when idle. Once the bay has been locked for the idle time you choose (20 minutes by default) and nothing is booked on it in the next 60 minutes, the kiosk darkens the bay. Twenty minutes before the next booking, or the moment anyone unlocks the bay, it lights it again. A booking made online for "right now" relights a dark bay within a couple of seconds.

What "darken" and "light" mean depends on which of the three options the bay uses:

Option	How the projector goes off	How it comes back	Needs
1. By signal	The PC stops the picture; the projector's own Auto Power Off shuts it down after a few minutes of "No Signal".	The PC restarts the picture; the projector's Signal Power On wakes it.	Nothing to buy. Two projector menu settings.
2. Direct control	The bay PC tells the projector to power off, over the network (PJLink) or a serial cable (BenQ RS-232).	The bay PC tells it to power on.	Projector on the network, or a USB-to-serial adapter and cable.
3. Smart plug	The bay PC switches the projector's power outlet off.	The outlet comes back on; the projector's Direct Power On boots it.	A Wi-Fi smart plug on the venue network.

Option 1 is where to start: it costs nothing and works on most bays. Options 2 and 3 exist because some projector and graphics-card combinations defeat it, and the next section tells you in ten minutes whether yours is one of them.

Step 1: Find out what your projector does

Do this once per bay, with someone standing in it. You need the projector's remote and the bay PC's keyboard.

1. Set the projector menu. Turn on Auto Power Off (shortest option, 3 to 5 minutes) and Signal Power On for the HDMI input the PC is on. Leave Direct Power On off for now. These live under Power Management, Operation Settings or similar depending on the brand.
2. The cable test. Unplug the HDMI cable from the projector. It should show "No Signal" and switch itself off after the Auto Power Off time. Plug it back in: it should switch itself on. If either half fails, fix the menu settings first, because every option below depends on the projector doing at least this much.
3. The screens-off test. In SimLock, turn on Screens off when idle with the shortest idle time, lock the bay and wait. The touchscreen goes dark. Now watch the projector. Within a minute it should show "No Signal", and after the Auto Power Off time it should switch off.
4. The wake test. Unlock the bay. The projector should switch itself back on within about 30 seconds.

Read the result:

• Off and back on by itself: option 1 works. Set the idle time you want and you are done.
• Projector shows a black picture instead of "No Signal" and never switches off: your graphics card keeps sending a picture even with the displays "off". We have seen this on current NVIDIA cards with projectors that advertise HDMI audio. Go to option 2 or 3.
• Switches off, but does not come back on unlock: in standby the projector only reacts to a physical cable plug, not to a picture starting on a cable that is already connected. Some BenQ models behave this way. Option 1 cannot wake it; go to option 2 or 3.

Option 1: By signal

Nothing to set up beyond the two projector menu items from Step 1. In SimLock → Setup → your bay, turn on Screens off when idle and pick the idle time. Under it, leave How the projector goes off and on on "By itself, from the HDMI signal". The Live tab shows "Screens off" on the bay while it is dark.

Option 2: Direct control (PJLink or BenQ RS-232)

This is how professional AV installs control projectors, and it is the most robust option: the projector shuts down and warms up the way it was designed to, and it reports its state back to SimLock. It needs a control connection to the projector.

Over the network (PJLink)

Most Epson, BenQ, Optoma, Sony, Panasonic, NEC, ViewSonic and Hitachi projectors with a LAN port speak PJLink.

1. Connect the projector's LAN port to the venue network, the same network as the bay PC.
2. In the projector's network menu, note its IP address and reserve it in your router so it never changes. Turn on Network Control (also called LAN Control or PJLink).
3. Find the standby setting (Standby Mode, Network Standby or Standby Power) and set it so the network stays on in standby. Without this the projector cannot be powered on remotely.
4. Turn Signal Power On off, so the projector does not switch itself back on when the bay PC is idle.
5. In SimLock → Setup → your bay, turn on Screens off when idle, set How the projector goes off and on to "Controlled by the bay PC (network or serial)", enter the IP address and the PJLink password if the projector has one, and Save. Within a minute the card reads "Projector is on". If it shows an error instead, the message names the cause: "connection refused" means network control is off on the projector, "did not answer" means a wrong IP or the standby setting, "refused the password" means it needs the PJLink password.

Over a serial cable (BenQ RS-232)

For BenQ projectors with no LAN port, including the golf-simulator models, VTee speaks BenQ's RS-232 protocol through a USB-to-serial adapter on the bay PC.

1. Buy a USB-to-serial adapter with an FTDI chipset and a DB9 female-to-female null-modem cable long enough to reach the projector. RS-232 is fine over 15 metres, so run the serial cable rather than a USB extension.
2. Plug the adapter into the bay PC. Windows installs the driver. In Device Manager → Ports, note its COM number, for example COM3.
3. Connect the cable from the adapter to the projector's RS-232 port. Turn Signal Power On off on the projector.
4. In SimLock → Setup → your bay, turn on Screens off when idle, set How the projector goes off and on to "Controlled by the bay PC (network or serial)", enter COM3 (or COM3:9600 if the projector's baud rate is 9600 rather than BenQ's usual 115200) and Save. Within a minute the card reads "Projector is on". "No answer on the serial port" means the baud rate or the cable: try the 9600 form, then a straight cable instead of null-modem, since BenQ changed the pin-out between model families.

Option 3: Smart plug

The quickest install when the projector has no control port you can reach, or you just want it done today. The bay PC switches the projector's power outlet. Understand the trade-off first: in the common case where the projector never reaches standby on its own (the "black picture" result in Step 1), the plug cuts mains on a running projector with no cool-down. Laser and LED projectors tolerate this well; lamp projectors lose lamp life. Any power blip at the venue also turns the projector on.

1. Buy a Shelly Plus Plug or Shelly Plug Gen3 for your region (rated well above the projector's draw). Plug it into the wall and the projector into it.
2. In the Shelly app, add the device and join it to the venue Wi-Fi. Reserve its IP in your router. In the device's settings set Power On Default to On, so the projector has power again after a venue outage without waiting for the PC.
3. On the projector, set Direct Power On to On. This is what boots it when the outlet comes back.
4. In SimLock → Setup → your bay, turn on Screens off when idle, set How the projector goes off and on to "Switched by a smart plug", then choose the plug type:
   • Shelly smart plug (reads the projector's power) if your projector does switch itself off on no signal (the first result in Step 1) and you only want the plug to remove standby power. Enter the Shelly's IP. This mode reads the plug's power meter and refuses to cut while the projector is still drawing power, so it is safe for lamps.
   • On/off links if the projector stays on with a black picture. Enter the Shelly's switch links, with its IP in place of the example:

     Power-on link:  http://192.168.1.50/rpc/Switch.Set?id=0&on=true
     Power-off link: http://192.168.1.50/rpc/Switch.Set?id=0&on=false

     Any other plug or home-automation system works the same way: paste whatever two links switch it on and off.
5. Save, then set the cut delay (8 to 60 minutes after the screens go off; 10 is fine).

Before relying on it, test the plug by itself: on the bay PC paste the power-off link into a browser and confirm the plug clicks and the projector dies, then paste the power-on link and confirm it boots on its own. That proves the plug, the IP and Direct Power On before the kiosk is involved.

Step 2: Test the whole cycle once

Lock the bay with nothing booked on it in the next hour and leave it for the idle time. Expected, in order: the touchscreen goes dark; the projector goes off (by signal, by command, or by the plug after the cut delay); the bay shows "Screens off" on the Live tab. Then unlock the bay: the projector comes back within about 30 seconds, and a simulator launch lands on it as usual.

For the booking side, make a test booking 30 minutes out. The bay should light 20 minutes before it.

If something misbehaves

SimLock → Live → your bay → Fetch app log uploads the kiosk's log. The lines that matter start with Display sleep:, Projector: and Projector plug:, and each failure line says why. Common ones:

You see	It means	Do
Projector black, never off, "screens OFF" logged	The graphics card keeps the picture up with the displays off.	Option 2 or 3.
Projector off but dark on unlock; log shows it still listed	The projector ignores a picture starting on a connected cable.	Option 2 or 3. Nothing on the PC can fake a cable plug.
"Projector: connection refused"	Network control is off on the projector.	Turn it on in the projector's network menu.
"Projector: the projector did not answer"	Wrong IP, different network, or the projector's standby mode powers down its network.	Check the IP from the bay PC; set standby to keep the network on.
"Projector plug: not switching off — still drawing … W"	Shelly mode protects a projector that has not gone to standby.	Expected if the projector never shows "No Signal"; switch the plug type to "On/off links" and accept the hard cut, or use option 2.
"Projector plug: could not switch on"	The plug is unreachable from the bay PC.	Same Wi-Fi network? Reserved IP still correct?

Why some bays need more than the signal

If you are wondering why the free option works at one venue and not the next, it comes down to two independent hardware traits, and a bay only needs the signal route to fail on one of them.

Does the graphics card really stop the picture? Windows' "display off" is a request to the graphics driver. Most cards drop the HDMI link and the projector sees "No Signal". Some, notably recent NVIDIA cards driving a projector that advertises HDMI audio, keep a black picture running so the audio stream stays alive. The projector is lit, showing black, and its Auto Power Off never starts.

Does the projector wake to a picture, or only to a plug? "Signal Power On" is implemented differently by different makers. Many projectors watch for an actual picture and wake when one arrives. Others only watch the cable's hot-plug line, which changes when a cable is inserted or the PC is powered on, but not when a picture starts on a cable that was connected all along. Those projectors go off fine and never come back, which is worse than staying on.

The plug, the serial cable and PJLink all produce a real event the projector cannot ignore, which is why they work everywhere.