Hi, I'm looking for a form of IR controlled power switch that I can connect between a wall outlet / power strip and my HTPC power supply.
My HTPC often needs a manual reset to get audio or video working again after going to sleep, and I am tired of getting up to do that. I want to program a key on my programmable remote to just power cycle the box.
As you can see from Amazon reviews, and reviews on other forums, it is no good, explodes, stops working, or any IR turns it on, it also has no earth connector, and it does not accept polarized plugs.
I am looking for something better / higher quality. Any recommendations?
Do you need an actual power cycle, or just a reboot? It might be easier to create a reboot command and assign it to a remote button. What software are you running on the htpc?
I think the REAL solution here is to fix the HTPC. I get that it cant get out of sleep. I have a computer that can't come out of sleep because of the motherboard (everyone with it has that problem).
So consider configuring it to NOT go to sleep and instead to go in hibernation.
Hi, I'm looking for a form of IR controlled power switch that I can connect between a wall outlet / power strip and my HTPC power supply.
Some years ago, I designed a computer system which gets 12V DC input (via round plug from AC adapter) only when you press the ON button of IR remote. So the AC adapter is always connected, but computer does not get 12V DC unless you use the remote to turn it on.
You can do something similar using off-the-shelf 1-channel IR-controlled DC relay. It is also trivial to put it together using separate IR module and DC relay. But such discussion will be more appropriate in the electronics forum.
If I could fix the HTPC stability issues I would, clearly this is out of desperation. So please, AC outlet IR control recommendations?
An IR controlled DC relay would also work, I just connect it on the DC side of the power brick. Would have to cut cables on 4 x HTPC's, but if I can't find an AC plug version, I'd consider that. Any links to models?
I agree with the other post suggesting you fix the problem at the root. That being said, what is your system running? Is it MythTV? XBMC? Something else? If you are using LIRC, then it should be fairly simple to call a script via remote to reboot gracefully. The Unix forum on this site is awesome. Smart people who can probably come up with smart solutions.
Ok, I changed my mind, I need to turn a light on remotely using IR, please suggest an inline AC outlet switch to turn the light on and off, and the light does not need to be fixed.
Lutron makes an IR controlled dimmer switch. And it can be run from a harmony remote. You could rig something up with that, but obviously only ptogram the on and off codes, wouldnt want dimmed output to a pc.
Hi, I'm looking for a form of IR controlled power switch that I can connect between a wall outlet / power strip and my HTPC power supply.
My HTPC often needs a manual reset to get audio or video working again after going to sleep, and I am tired of getting up to do that. I want to program a key on my programmable remote to just power cycle the box.
As you can see from Amazon reviews, and reviews on other forums, it is no good, explodes, stops working, or any IR turns it on, it also has no earth connector, and it does not accept polarized plugs.
I am looking for something better / higher quality. Any recommendations?
You'll need a programmable or learning remote that can spit out the X10 cmd to turn off the module.
The concept is that the IR remote sends out an X10 IR protocol A1 AOFF cmd pair and the IR543 translates that to X10 powerline communication. The X10 3 pin appliance module responds to this dutifully turning off the connected "appliance". Here's the cool part though, the appliance module has what is known as "local sensing" that is intended to allow you to manually over-ride the module by operating the appliance's local on/off switch. This results in the following behavior, X10 module receives the "off" cmd and turns the relay off. Then, it immediately senses that the appliance switch is still on, so it turns back on. In most cases this would be undesirable, but in this case, it is perfect for what you want to do. You simply send the "off" cmd and it toggles the power off and right back on. This local sensing anomaly may or may not work in your case, but it does for me. It depends greatly on the load characterstics.
The IR543 IR to X10 pwrline translator can be a bit over-sensitive to IR noise sources. I ended up masking the IR receiver with a piece of electrical tape with a 1/8" dia hole cut in the middle, else my Toshiba LCD TV bothered it.
I use this setup to power cycle my cable modem and router remotely. Works a treat and there are also RF to X10 translators that you can use via keyfob remote to perform the off/on cycle.
It should also be mentioned that "pulling the plug", which is exactly what you are doing, isn't the greatest thing to do to any PC. Even with SSDs. You certainly wouldn't want to make a habit of it.
Ok, I feel compelled to justify my question, should I really have to?
I'm running OpenELEC on Zotac ZBOX using a FLIRC and URC 890 remote with a MRF350 RF to IR converter (times 4 units in my house).
The device sometimes becomes unresponsive, must power cycle. The device sometimes does not display video when waking up, must power cycle. The device sometimes does not play audio when waking up, must power cycle.
If I could solve this with software I would, between the TV, AVR, hardware, Linux, and XBMC, things don't always work reliably, this is high velocity open source software, power cycle to the rescue.
Suspend / hibernate, no difference, S3 means HDMI goes offline. LIRC / remote shortcut to reboot, remember, the device is unresponsive as in the software on it is not operational, as in whatever macro was setup is not operational, if it was working, my existing restart XBMC macro would have worked already.
An IR controlled DC relay would also work, I just connect it on the DC side of the power brick. Would have to cut cables on 4 x HTPC's, but if I can't find an AC plug version, I'd consider that. Any links to models?
I mentioned earlier that this discussion is more suitable for the electronics forum.
You attach IR sensor to a pin of the microcontroller and program it to decode the power button press of any available IR remote. You can program a sequence like [power + * + number] for each HTPC if you don't want them to turn on at the same moment.
Code examples are available for both IR decoding and AC/DC Relay driving ... you just have to put them together to build a robust solution.
Just thinking out loud, but, I have some Zotac bords (in my main HTPC anyways), and it works great. (only problem is, if I boot/reboot the HTPC when the projector is not on, it wont use the HDMI port that its connected to).
Did you look if there is a latest bios firmware ?
Also, if using Linux, some of the kernels (when suspend/hibernate was introduced) made the those mode some what dodgy... maybe look at a kernel update/upgrade.
If nothing else is working, I would look into *not power cycle(computer on/off) but use the arduino like lutful said and produce short circuit on the reset pins on the motherboard.
In my searching I did see these "Infrared IR Learning Module with Relay Control" devices on eBay. I did not consider using it as a reset button, but that is a good idea.
The Zotac ID84 boxes I use do not have reset switches on the outside, maybe they have on the inside, will have to open one up and look.
Ok, I feel compelled to justify my question, should I really have to?
Yes, please, though it's "explain", not "justify".
When people have a problem, it's remarkably common that they come up with their own solution and ask questions about that, rather than elaborate on the original problem. The truly helpful people here will try to get to the bottom of the request and perhaps find a solution better than the one you asked about: they usually do.
In your case, you do in fact seem to have thought about this really well, so the background may not lead to anything other than the solution you suggested in the first place, but please don't get annoyed by those who are trying to help.
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