Distant powering using device local control (difficult to describe!)

["noughtomate" <balraj_jassal@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

(A lengthy read, but your patience is appreciated!)

I've got a dilemma here, which I don't think can necessarily be
solved using X10.

I have three devices (say A, B, and C) which I want to ALL power on
using the device A's actual local device power switch. I could
choose to leave all the devices permanetly on, but I'm trying to be
eco-friendly and keep my power consumption down!

Here's the situation :
- Device A and B are located next to each other.
- Device C is situated away from Devices A and B. I want this to be
powered on when devices A and B are on
- Device A should only really be powered on using local control, as
opposed to mains power control (i.e. X10 is not an option)
- I have a Comfort alarm/HA system, which could be harnessed to
implement this solution

The only way I can think of doing this is :
- A is plugged into the Master socket of a Master/Slave multi-socket
- B is plugged into the Slave socket of the Master/Slave multisocket
- An X10 device is plugged into the Master/Slave multisocket which
remembers it's last state before power failure and is set to address
D1
- At this point in time if A is locally powered on, B and X10 D1
will be on
- I program Comfort to listen to D1 on/off signals and send a D2
on/off signal
- C is plugged into X10 appliance using code D2

As you can see, it's far from elegant and there are many points of
failure :
- Because master/slave adpters make use of PLC, D1 may not
necessarily come on
- D1 needs to be a plug in controller that remembers it's last
state. I'm not sure if this is a feature of current X10 plug in
modules
- X10 is often unreliable. Because I'm depending on listening to D1
and then sending D2, I'm increasing the chances of failure

Could any one offer advice on how they control remote devices which
demand device control of a local device ?