Electrical idea, need help

[MameMe]

In this image I am trying to explain what I want to do.

Inside the cab I want an electrical outlet so I can plug two(2) items such as a TV and light.  I was hoping I could then splice a computer power cable and connect it to the back of the electrical outlet, which would then feed outside the cab and into the wall.

Is this possible?  How do I wire this mess?

[screaming]

Uh, why don't you just mount a powerstrip?

[MameMe]

Hmmm...I dunno.  I must have been over-thinking this problem and got stuck in a mental box. 

I guess that makes more sense now that you said that. haha My goodness it must be Friday.

[jer2665]

would something like this work for you?  http://home.bendcable.com/werstlein/

[rdagger]

You just install a single metal gang box.

[MameMe]

One of the reasons the power bar will not work is because I want to have a "ON/OFF" switch on the entire thing.  I don't want to buy that 'smart strip' either.

[rdagger]

One of the reasons the power bar will not work is because I want to have a "ON/OFF" switch on the entire thing.

[markrvp]

One of the reasons the power bar will not work is because I want to have a "ON/OFF" switch on the entire thing.

[MameMe]

I have a smart strip in my existing cab, but for this mini that I am making I only have a hacked jakks controller & a tv to power up.  A smart strip is over-kill, plus I'd like to try something new.

Eventually I will use basic house electrical outlets to get this working.  Its just a matter of getting some advice/expertise before killing myself with voltage!

[dema]

Why not just create your own power source? Then you can wire it up exactly like you originally wanted. Look up the BYOAPA message boards (build your own particle acclerator) or read up on the Cold Fusion FAQ website. From there you can create enough power to fully operate your cabinet as well as your home. You can charge neighbors for surplus electricity. Heck, you can then look to become a private power company for your neighborhood/town/city/state...the whole world, really. Or buy some plutonium and create a mini-nuclear power plant in your basement to run it.

Or just buy a power strip and save yourself the effort.

www.smartstrip.net/


Don't worry. Read my past posts and you'll get a true sense of a guy who overthinks everything.

[NoOne=NBA=]

I must be missing something here.
Your first diagram, and explanation, is a glorified extension cord.

What EXACTLY do you want to have happen, when you do WHAT?

From the sounds of it, you just want a switch that will power everything up when flipped.
Any power strip should do this.
You'd just need to remote the power switch for it (if it's inside the cab), or leave it outside the cab.


Other things to consider are:

1) Will the TV power up automatically when plugged in?
Alot of them will not restart automatically if the power goes out, and returns.
They go to standby mode.
That would mean that you would have to turn the TV on manually every time at powerup.

2) Will the TV hold it's station when there is no power to the cord?
Alot of them revert to channel 2 on power out.
This means you would need to change the channel on powerup every time, even if it does power up by itself.

2) What are you going to use to trigger the power on cycle.
Most of the ready made ones, and alot of the BYO ones, are designed to trigger from a motherboard, which you won't have.

[EndTwist]

The "Mini Power Minder" might work for you. You connect it to a USB port on your PC and connect it to a wall outlet. As long as your USB ports aren't "always on", when you switch off the PC, everything plugged in to the Mini Power Minder will go off. When you switch the PC on, everything goes on. (At least, that's how it is supposed to work -- I'm ordering one this weekend)

[MameMe]

I must be missing something here.
Your first diagram, and explanation, is a glorified extension cord.

What EXACTLY do you want to have happen, when you do WHAT?

From the sounds of it, you just want a switch that will power everything up when flipped.
Any power strip should do this.
You'd just need to remote the power switch for it (if it's inside the cab), or leave it outside the cab.

Basically yes I want a power strip with the ability to be turned off or on from the outside.

[NoOne=NBA=]

I think I should be able to hack a cheap power bar and attach a button or something to the outside of my mini cab

That part would be easy enough.
Just remote the switch that's already in it to the outside of the cabinet.
You might have better luck with one of the metal cased ones than the plastic because they may mold the switch holders into the plastic casing.

No it does not come back on.  I plan to somehow use a paperclip or tape to hold the power button pushed in

Make sure you test that before starting anything.
It may require a "pressed from OFF" condition to work properly.
It also may be easier for you to just remote the switches on the TV and Jakk's unit, and be done with it.
That would let the TV stay powered up, but in standby (like it was designed to), but still operate everything from a single power switch.

I need it to stay on video mode.  It seems to hold the video mode but as mentioned the power thing may be an issue

Again, a little testing will save you alot of redesigning.

[Druin]

I designed an "Auto Button Press" circuit for someone that takes a 5 volt power supply from something on the power bar that will be connected to the same stuff (such as stealing 5 volts from a computer that gets powered on at the same time as a TV)

It is a micro controller that,when turned on, will delay for a jumper configurable number of seconds, and then it will send out another jumper configureable number of "pulses", then just loop infinitely in standby doing nothing until power is cycled.

That way, the circuit is smart towards power on, waits for some settling time for other AC devices to get their power flowing, then it "presses" a button a certain number of times as if to change its channels, video sources, POWER switch, whatever.

It seems to work fine. 

I used the micro controller but maybe a pure digital logic circuit could be configured to do that too...like a 4017 chip (10 stage output sequencer) or a binary counter etc, with reset signals tied in and flip flops all over the place in a big digital chaos so it will run once, then disconnect itself from the output pulsing gates until power on reset again.

In my case, the switches on the TV I was controlling were logic level, so I used a 4066 "spst" switch IC to connect across the terminals. If the switches are higher power, simply drive a relay or something from the logic, as required.

DOes anyone think it would be worth while for me to elaborate upon this design with schematics and possibly pure-logic-no-programming circuits?