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BYO Auto-Switching Power Strip

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CIA_Guy:

JohnNevets:

You've got the 110V part right -- the common and the NO will be connected when power is applied to the relay.  When no power is applied, that "circuit" is broken -- "normally open."  Your description of what to do with the 5V side scares me a little.  It looks like you're thinking of hooking the USB ground to the "common" tab -- don't do it.  That hooks it to the hot 110V!  The 5 volts is applied across the coil (in this case the two small tabs).  USB 5V to one small tab and USB ground to the other.  

Now for the standard disclaimer.....without seeing the relay, I'm just relying on what's in the picture crashwg has linked....if you see lots of sparks and the relay begins to meld, I must have made a mistake.....

  ;D

crashwg:

Mwahahahaha, the final piece of the puzzle has arrived today.  

I've already cut off the male end and all I need now is to borrow my homie's multimeter to find out which wires to connect to the relay!

At the rate I get stuff done arround here, I'm pretty sure it should be done sometime this weekend.  ;D

A funny little tidbit:
The cable (only thing I bought) came in a box measuring about 3x5x10"!!!
Seems a little overkill to me...

UPDADE!:

I decided to throw caution into the wind and just go for it.  So I plugged the cable in and touched the wires to my tounge... No seriously, I did.

It fealt like red/black red/green and red/white all had current, so I gave up, but only for a little bit.

I then touched all the different combinations of wires to the relay and the only ones that activated it were the red and black ones... go figure.  I tried them forwards and backwards and both worked so I assume since the relay isn't labeled when it comes to polarity either way will due.

A couple solders later and a little bit of super glue to hold the relay and usb cable in place and it's done, well almost.  I can't seem to find the screws for it so currently it's being held together with rubber bands.  ;D

I've only tried it on my laptop sofar.  Because it has a broken screen of course and it wouldn't be as big of a deal if I fried the USB ports too.  I'm still a little weary of testing it on the main PC of the house mainly because the USB ports are used quite often...  :-\

Overall this has been a satisfying experience.  I didn't realy save myself any money by doing this myself vs. a smart strip, but I do know that it will function properly even when the laptop's battery is charging.  Plus I can say "Check it out dude, this power strip turns on when the computer turns on.  Yea, and I made it myself too dude!"

I'm pretty sure if I look hard enough I can find exactly how much I spent on this but I'm not willing to spend any more time on this project so...

Powerstrip - Wal*Mart - ~$10
Relay - Mouser - ~$6 + shipping ~$4 = ~$10
USB maleB-femaleB cable - pccables.com - $11.16 w/shipping
USB cable - Free, have one already, but...
Lighted USB cable $10 - that'll just make it so much cooler!

So all together I have spent approximatly $30 and plan on spending a tiny bit more.

So there ya go, it works!  Go make one now.

Dexter:

"because they don't work in the UK"

I think maplin in the UK carry a similar item. Just go to maplin.co.uk and search for "Intelligent Mains Extension Lead"

Dexter



benwillcox:

OK Guys, I'm thinking about having an autoswitching power strip too, but it seems to me that theres a simpler, cheaper, neater way to do this ....

All you need to do is convert the monitor passthrough power connector on the PSU to switch on only when the computer is powered - then just plug the powerstrip into the monitor passthru.

Basic mod would be the same, but you can put the relay inside the PSU switching the supply to the outlet, and just tap off the 5V or 12V for the relay coil from directly inside the PSU. That way you don't need any USB cables hanging out of powerstrips etc. Safer too, I reckon.

Ben.

crashwg:

I haven't seen a power supply with a monitor pass thru outlet in a long while...

Not that I've been looking or anything.  I'm just saying, it may be hard to find a power supply like that.

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