MOTIONSENSR + DAKboard

1. What you're building

The end result: a PC in your living room (or kitchen, or hallway) that shows a fullscreen DAKboard photo calendar whenever no one's using it. When someone walks into the room, the PC wakes up from sleep and the display comes on. When the PC sits idle for a few minutes, DAKboard takes over the screen automatically. When everyone leaves and the room goes quiet, the PC puts itself to sleep.

MOTIONSENSR handles the physical presence detection: wake on motion, sleep on no motion. A small AutoHotkey script handles the software side: launching DAKboard when the desktop is idle, and dismissing it when someone shakes the mouse.

2. What you need

3. Configure MOTIONSENSR

Plug in MOTIONSENSR. A drive called MOTIONSENSR will appear. Open CONFIG.TXT and set it to:

mod =
key = PAUSE
light_on_motion = 1
cooldown_ms = 10000
nomotion_enabled = 1
nomotion_after_ms = 600000
nomotion_mod =
nomotion_key = SYSTEM_SLEEP

Save the file. The LED blinks green to confirm. Here's what each setting does in this setup:

Disable the lock screen on wake

By default, Windows shows a lock/password screen every time the PC wakes from sleep. That defeats the purpose of a kiosk. You want DAKboard to appear instantly, not a "Enter your PIN" prompt. You need to disable this for the setup to work seamlessly.

4. Set up DAKboard

If you haven't already, create a screen at dakboard.com. Add your Google Photos album, calendar, weather, whatever you like. Once your screen looks good, grab the private URL for your screen. It looks something like:

https://dakboard.com/screen/uuid/xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx

You'll paste this into the AHK script in the next step.

5. Install the AutoHotkey script

Download the script: dakboard_idle_kiosk_v3.ahk

Save it somewhere permanent on your PC (e.g. C:\Scripts\). Double-click to run it. You'll see a small green "H" icon in your system tray, which means it's running.

Start on boot (optional but recommended)

To have the script start automatically when Windows boots, create a shortcut to the .ahk file and place it in your Startup folder:

The script will now launch every time you log in.

6. Configure the AHK script

Open dakboard_idle_kiosk_v3.ahk in any text editor. The configuration section is at the top:

; ----------------------------
; USER CONFIGURATION
; ----------------------------
IdleMinutes := 9

DakURL   := "https://dakboard.com/screen/uuid/YOUR-UUID-HERE"
EdgeExe  := "msedge.exe"
DakTitleHint := "DAKboard"

Save the file and re-run the script (or right-click the tray icon and choose Reload Script).

7. Get the timing right

The timing relationship between the AHK idle threshold and the MOTIONSENSR no-motion timer is the most important thing to get right. The rule is simple:

With the defaults:

This gives a 1-minute buffer. DAKboard is on screen for a minute before the PC sleeps. When someone walks in and wakes the PC, they see the photo calendar immediately.

Why the script is PAUSE-aware

There's a subtlety: MOTIONSENSR sends the PAUSE key every 10 seconds while someone is in the room. Windows counts PAUSE as keyboard activity, which would normally reset the idle timer and prevent DAKboard from ever launching while people are present.

The v3 script solves this. It maintains its own "real keyboard idle" timer that ignores PAUSE keypresses from the sensor. This way, if you're sitting in the room but not touching the keyboard or mouse, DAKboard still activates after 9 minutes, even though MOTIONSENSR is pressing PAUSE every few seconds to keep the PC from sleeping.

This is the "desktop idle with people present" case: the room isn't empty (so the PC shouldn't sleep), but no one's using the computer (so it should show the photo calendar).

8. Test it

Once everything is configured, walk through each scenario to make sure it works:

9. Troubleshooting

PC doesn't wake from sleep

Make sure "Allow this device to wake the computer" is enabled for the USB keyboard in Device Manager. Find Keyboards → HID Keyboard Device, right-click → Properties → Power Management tab, and check the box. You may also need to enable "USB Wake Support" in your BIOS settings.

PC wakes but shows a lock screen instead of DAKboard

Windows requires a password/PIN after waking from sleep by default. You need to disable this for the kiosk to work. See "Disable the lock screen on wake" in the configuration section above. Go to Settings → Accounts → Sign-in options and set "Require sign-in" to Never.

DAKboard never launches (even after 9 minutes idle)

If MOTIONSENSR is pressing PAUSE every 10 seconds, make sure you're running the v3 script (not v2). The v3 script has PAUSE-aware idle detection. The v2 script counts PAUSE as real keyboard activity and will never trigger while the sensor is active.

DAKboard launches and immediately dismisses

The script has a 2-second grace period after takeover to ignore input jitter. If DAKboard is still dismissing too quickly, increase GraceAfterTakeoverMs in the script (e.g. to 3000).

DAKboard opens on the wrong monitor

The script uses MoveToPrimaryWorkArea to position DAKboard on your primary display. Make sure your kiosk monitor is set as the primary display in Windows Display Settings.

PC sleeps while I'm using it

This means MOTIONSENSR can't see you. Check the sensor's line of sight. The PIR sensor detects motion in about a 100° cone, 3–5 meters range. Reposition the device so it faces the area where you sit. Also check that nomotion_after_ms isn't set too low.

The PAUSE key is interfering with something

PAUSE is deliberately chosen because almost nothing uses it. But if you have software that responds to PAUSE (some debuggers and media players do), you can change key in CONFIG.TXT to another unused key like F13 (which doesn't even exist on most keyboards). If you do, update the AHK script's hotkey handler from ~*Pause:: to ~*F13::.