What's a data source?
Reading data from all the various sensors and different hardware components out there is no easy task.
That's why we didn't want to re-invent the wheel yet again by trying to do this by ourselfs when there are already lot's of great tools out there doing just that.
The MoBro application is designed and built to take in monitoring data from multiple different monitoring applications (= data sources). It combines them into a single UI while letting you choose which values of which source you want to see.
Default data sources
By default the MoBro application ships with the following two data sources:
Both of these open source hardware monitors are bundled with the MoBro application and the data is available in the application without further action required.
Using HWiNFO
MoBro does also support HWiNFO as a data source.
If you want to use it, just download the latest version from their website and start it.
When prompted just select 'Sensors-only' and click 'Run'.
You can then just minimize it to tray.
As long as HWiNFO is running in the background, MoBro picks up all the data provided by it and you're able to create Widgets based on it within MoBro.
Big shout-out to Martin Malik from HWiNFO for granting us the permission to include HWiNFO as a data source and providing the technical documentation needed for us to do so!
HWiNFO license
Starting with version 7.00 of HWiNFO a 12-hour usage limit per day for the shared memory support was introduced in the free version.
Since MoBro relies on this shared memory support to pull in the monitoring data from HWiNFO, this essentially limits you to 12 hours of usage per day. After those 12 hours are up, the shared memory feature will be automatically deactivated and data will no longer be available in MoBro. HWiNFO also requires you to manually enable the shared memory feature in the settings again the next day if you want to continue to use it.
So if 12 hours of usage per day is not enough for you, we suggest to purchase a HWiNFO 64 Pro license which comes with unlimited shared memory usage and also supports HWiNFO for the great work they are doing.
A Pro license is currently only 21€ per year for personal use. More details about the license here.
Autostart HWiNFO
If you don't want to manually start HWiNFO each time you start your PC, you can also configure it to automatically start with Windows.
To do so, start HWiNFO and instead of clicking 'Run' like previously, just go to 'Settings' instead.
Then make sure the following settings are enabled like shown in the screenshot:
- Show Sensors on Startup
- Minimize Main Window on Startup
- Minimze Sensors on Startup
- Auto Start
Disable the following ones:
- Show System Summary on Startup
- Show Welcome Screen and Progress
Using AIDA64
Similar to HWiNFO, MoBro again uses the shared memory feature to integrate AIDA64 as a data source.
All you need to do is navigate to External Applications inside the Preferences and Enable shared memory as shown in the screenshot.
Then simply select all the values below that you want to retrieve with MoBro via the theme customization or in the app itself.
Once that's set up, the monitoring data will be available within MoBro as long as Aida64 is running.
Troubleshooting
I started HWiNFO, but its not available in MoBro
- Make sure you are using the latest version of both HWiNFO and MoBro
- In HWiNFO: go to 'Settings' and make sure 'Shared Memory Support' is enabled
(keep in mind the 12h per day limit of the free version) - Make sure you start HWiNFO correctly in 'Sensors-only' mode