Keeping a Pocket PC awake

My compact framework application imports XML into a local database. As there is so much data to import this can take up to an hour. During development there were no problems with this, but of course during development the Pocket PC is docked in its cradle which provides it with power.

When a Pocket PC is removed from its cradle it manages power differently, just like an unplugged laptop. So every five minutes the Pocket PC would hibernate and the user would have to turn it back on in order for the import to continue. During an hour the user would have to do this approximately twelve times. How annoying, and dangerous too if the employee is driving to their first job.

Anyway, I found the following very useful code on the web and thought I'd point it out as it was so useful!

public class Device
{
 #region Device sleep support
 [DllImport("CoreDll.dll")]
 public static extern void SystemIdleTimerReset();

 private static int DisableSleepCallsCount = 0;
 private static System.Threading.Timer PreventSleepTimer = null;
 #endregion

 public static void EnableDeviceSleep()
 {
  DisableSleepCallsCount--;
  if (DisableSleepCallsCount == 0)
  {
   if (PreventSleepTimer != null)
   {
    PreventSleepTimer.Dispose();
    PreventSleepTimer = null;
   }
  }
 }

 public static void DisableDeviceSleep()
 {
  DisableSleepCallsCount++;
  if (DisableSleepCallsCount == 1)
  {
   TimerCallback keepAlive = new System.Threading.TimerCallback(
    delegate(object applicationData)
    {
     try
     {
      SystemIdleTimerReset();
     }
     catch (Exception)
     {
     }
    }         
   );
   PreventSleepTimer = new System.Threading.Timer(keepAlive, null, 0, 30 * 1000);
  }
 }
}

Now I can do this

Device.DisableDeviceSleep();
try
{
 //Do stuff
}
finally
{
 Device.EnableDeviceSleep();
}