Comments on: Serial controlled power outlet

By: Alan Millar

Alan Millar — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 23:29:28 +0000

> And for the rest of us, there's the printer's sleep
> mode. Not as effective, but still retains the
> warranty.

My hack here retains the printer warranty also. The printer is just on a glorified power strip. Of course, any printer new enough to have a warranty probably also has a decent sleep mode.

> That scares the holy shit outta me. He needs a light
> bridge to provide 100% isolation from the serial port
> to the switching device.

I was under the impression that solid state relays include an opto-isolator in them. I don't really know. That's a good point to investigate.

> oooh...a Laserwriter. What model?

This is a LaserWriter Pro 630. It can do PostScript and PCL 2, with serial AppleTalk, 10Mbps EtherTalk, and Centronics parallel interfaces. The PCL is limited to 300x300 resolution, while the PostScript can do 600x600 resolution. And the parallel port is glacially slow. So I drive it with PostScript over the EtherTalk interface.

By: bchafy

bchafy — Tue, 07 Nov 2006 00:50:05 +0000

> It is dangerous if youre paranoid. But in general
> it's fine. If buy the exact relay i put there your
> parallel port will be fine

You mean the solid state relay rated at 1-AMP ?

Just call me paranoid then :)

By: Luis

Luis — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 19:45:33 +0000

Hello I wrote the article http://www.foogazi.com/2006/11/03/controlling-electronic-devices-made-easy/ and in response to the person who says it's dangerous... It is dangerous if youre paranoid. But in general it's fine. If buy the exact relay i put there your parallel port will be fine. If you buy a different and connect it directly it might burn out your parallel port so yeah you will want to add a didoe.I tried to make it as easy as possible. And ac with the cardboard... The only way it would even start a fire is if the two wires some how touch. very unlikely.. Especailly beacuse mine are all insulated

By: josh

josh — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 16:48:55 +0000

That scares the holy shit outta me. He needs a light bridge to provide 100% isolation from the serial port to the switching device. Of course, you'll need an extra board for the AC main turn on/off switch.

And do it in a plastic Radioshack project box, with proper safety (erm, like fuses???).

By: ed3

ed3 — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 15:57:20 +0000

Neat. Could also automagically power cycle the cable modem if it loses sync (they usually give up re-trying after 15 minutes).

Although, for the non-DIY'er who has more money than time there is X10:

First you need the controller:
http://www.smarthome.com/1132b.html

Then your need plugin modules:
http://www.smarthome.com/2456s3.html

And naturally software to drive it:
http://www.linuxha.com/

By: andrew

andrew — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 23:37:24 +0000

bchafy: just took a look at your dpms circuit. nice :)

By: andrew

andrew — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 23:31:17 +0000

uhhh yeah, about that foogazi.com link… there are many things wrong with that circuit. first, it’s got the paralell port directly running a relay. besides the fact that there is no mention of a protection diode (!!) virtually any relay will pull more current than what your typical parallel port is rated for. an npn transistor and resistor is absolutely essential. furthermore, he’s got the whole thing with AC mains wiring in a cardboard box! i wouldnt even think about doing that!

By: neoxide

neoxide — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 23:18:09 +0000

oooh…a Laserwriter. What model?

By: bchafy

bchafy — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 20:30:30 +0000

I also made a similar power outlet, based on DPMS:
http://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/bchafy/pstrip/dpmspowerstrip.html

Here's another that uses the parallel port (found it on digg), albeit a little on the dangerous side: :)
http://www.foogazi.com/2006/11/03/controlling-electronic-devices-made-easy/

My guess is any one of these could be combined with wake-on-lan. Problem for me is I have an inkjet printer that goes into a 10+ minute selftest whenever its unplugged and plugged back in. I suspect most of my cartrige ink drains away during that time. Fortunately it doesn't consume much power.

By: F. Shafique

F. Shafique — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 18:24:49 +0000

And for the rest of us, there's the printer's sleep mode. Not as effective, but still retains the warranty.

Also, I suppose this could be combined with the Wake-on-lan hack from a few days ago, to get a sort of WOL relay for your network printer.

By: fucter

fucter — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 16:50:10 +0000

cool, ive been looking to do something like this, but ive been too lazy

By: Computer_kid

Computer_kid — Sun, 05 Nov 2006 06:48:15 +0000

“But I have more fun breaking, I mean making things myself, “
I have a lot experience breaking things, making them work is th trick :-)