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Re: Web Enabled Time/Temp/Humidity and I/O Controller



"RickH" <passport@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:8577550c-ac5e-

<stuff snipped>

<<I ordered one to do remote power-up / boot-up of other computers in
the home.  Computers that I occasionally need to get to over the
Internet (to copy files from work etc) but dont want to leave running
all day (for network and power reasons).>>

Since the company that makes these is a server farm "balancer" I suspect
that you're doing just what they designed this to do for themselves:
monitoring and controlling computers.  Given how much power today's superhot
CPU's can draw, I think the question of "leave them running" or "shut them
off" has finally been settled in favor of  shutting them off, if only for
power saving reasons.   It's kind of funny that 20 years ago the
conservation side of that ON/OFF debate was hardly a factor.  Certainly not
the emissions part of things.

<<Still unsure about how to do this, will probably have to wire a relay
to the actual on/off switch on the computer and have this little guy
trigger a remote boot by paralleling said relay across the existing
power button.  Once the remoter computer is powered and booted, I can
use Windows remote desktop services to do a normal shutown when I'm
done.>>

I'd try to figure out how to use wake on LAN or Modem Ring.  Even the old
2001 PC's I've got have that capability.  When I used to use a similar
wakeup method (anyone remember remote modem programs like "Reachout" and
"PCAnywhere"?) I used an X-10 phone responder and an appliance module to
start and stop the computer and set the BIOS to reboot on power blips.  Cost
under $50 IIRC.  I hooked up the PC to the module, plugged the responder in
and when I dialed my home phone, after 10 rings, it would pick up, beep
three times and then I entered a secure code and then I could touch tone 1*
to turn on the PC and 1# to turn it off and so on for up to 16 different
devices.

In your scenario you'd replace the X-10 module with a relay - I'd probably
wire up a 2 gang plastic box with a line cord, a relay on one side (with a
fuse on the relay line that would blow if 110VAC ever got cross-connected)
and an outlet on the other.  I'll bet there are code-compliant components
for this, so I leave it to other to chastize me for running LV and line
voltage into the same box.

<<I dont mind leaving this little guy "online" all the time but dont want to
leave my large home computers online all the time.>>

I can't blame you, but in your case, I'd probably still use X-10 and a phone
responder if I still had a phone line simply because I'm still not sure how
secure this is all going to be over the internet.  The house sending out
warnings and information to me or the entire world isn't so bad, it's the
whole world activating my PC's remotely that I would worry about.  Maybe
I'll feel differently after seeing it an action.

So far, I've been busy ordering parts for it, like the Honeywell Humidistat,
the One-wire temp sensors and a solar panel + rechargeable battery to run it
on.  I want my unit to run completely free-standing in a worst case
scenario.  I figure in about two years, when they discover this recession
was a tremor preceding the "big one" the house may need to fend for itself
off the grid.  It's probably time to start a covert ops defense program and
put a SCIF

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sensitive_Compartmented_Information_Facility

in the basement where I can build my own version of the this:

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2008/12/israeli-auto-ki/

The "pan, tilt, zoom and boom" ultimate security system.  (-:  Twenty years
ago it was a deleted scene in the movie "Aliens" and now it's a reality.

--
Bobby G.




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