Several years ago I bought a couple of Smart power strips.

They have one socket into which, for example, a computer could be
plugged. When it was powered down, slave items such as a monitor and
sound system plugged into the slave sockets would automatically be
turned off too.

They worked well but now need replacing.

In searching I am b..d if I can find anything quite matching them.

Anybody know better.

TIA Alan

--
Mint 20.3, kernel 5.4.0-139-generic, Cinnamon 5.2.7
running on an AMD Phenom II X4 Black edition processor with 16GB of
DRAM.

pinnerite <pinnerite@gmail.com> wrote:
> Several years ago I bought a couple of Smart power strips.
>
> They have one socket into which, for example, a computer could be
> plugged. When it was powered down, slave items such as a monitor and
> sound system plugged into the slave sockets would automatically be
> turned off too.
>
> They worked well but now need replacing.

'Master/slave socket strip', but I can only find Euro ones:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Brennenstuhl-Premium-Sockets-Protection-Function/dp/B000WJPEPA/
Maybe that is how they translate it from German.

Ah, an Overclockers thread pointed me towards this:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/ELECTRIUM-Oneclick-Intelligent-Mains-Panel/dp/B0007SQK54

However they may not work very well these days. Appliances take less power
than they used to, and often go into low power standby mode when not being
used. You don't want everything switching off because your computer goes to
sleep when you haven't used it for a few minutes. Since there's no
adjustment of the threshold you might find phantom turn-ons or turn-offs and
there's no way to tweak the level to avoid them.

Theo

On 20/02/2023 22:22, pinnerite wrote:
> Several years ago I bought a couple of Smart power strips.
>
> They have one socket into which, for example, a computer could be
> plugged. When it was powered down, slave items such as a monitor and
> sound system plugged into the slave sockets would automatically be
> turned off too.
>
> They worked well but now need replacing.
>
> In searching I am b..d if I can find anything quite matching them.
>
> Anybody know better.
>
> TIA Alan
>

Do you mean one of these?
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0007SQK54/ref=pe_27063361_485629781_TE_item_image

I purchased one a few months ago, and they still seem to be available.

I have however found that, since modern computers draw less current than
their older counterparts, the current isn't always enough to trigger the
switch or, if it's marginal, you might find that all your peripherals
get turned off when the the computer is idle.

On one of our computers, I've had to connect both the computer box *and*
one of the monitors to the main socket of the smart switch to make it
work reliably. I have to turn that monitor on and off manually!
--
Cheers,
Roger

On 20/02/2023 22:56, Roger Mills wrote:

> I have however found that, since modern computers draw less current than
> their older counterparts, the current isn't always enough to trigger the
> switch or, if it's marginal, you might find that all your peripherals
> get turned off when the the computer is idle.
>
> On one of our computers, I've had to connect both the computer box *and*
> one of the monitors to the main socket of the smart switch to make it
> work reliably. I have to turn that monitor on and off manually!

I have my computer and monitor plugged into a Kasa energy monitoring
socket (and remote-control switch, although I don't use it for that).

I was quite surprised to see how little power they use when they are
asleep. When I put my PC to sleep ("sleep", not "hibernate" *) and the
monitor goes into energy saving because there's not signal from the PC,
the combined power consumption falls from about 90-100 W down to about
2.5 W. (My PC takes f-ing ages to be usable after a total
shutdown/boot-up so I do this as rarely as possible, and normally just
put it to sleep overnight or other times when I won't be using it for a
while.)

So you may find that it's not worth the extra hassle of making sure the
smart power strip removes power to the monitor, given that its
energy-saving power is likely to be very low.

(*) The PC does draw continue a very small amount of power, so I presume
it's preserving the system state by keeping the memory powered, rather
than by saving it to disk and then totally turning off the PC power. Am
I right that "sleep" keeps the memory powered and "hibernate" saves to disk?

On 20/02/2023 23:49, NY wrote:

> (*) The PC does draw continue a very small amount of power, so I presume
> it's preserving the system state by keeping the memory powered, rather
> than by saving it to disk and then totally turning off the PC power. Am
> I right that "sleep" keeps the memory powered and "hibernate" saves to
> disk?

In a nutshell yes...

There a s number of sleep states - S0 (normal operation) to S4
(hibernation). Under hibernation the system context is written to a
hibernation file on the disk. When the system is "woken" very similar to
a cold boot pretty much of everything is off except RAM, and the system
context needs to be reloaded from disk.

Other states will keep context in RAM which is preserved.

Some of the gory details here:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/kernel/system-sleeping-states

--
Cheers,

John.

/=================================================================\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\=================================================================/

On 20/02/2023 22:22, pinnerite wrote:
> Several years ago I bought a couple of Smart power strips.
>
> They have one socket into which, for example, a computer could be
> plugged. When it was powered down, slave items such as a monitor and
> sound system plugged into the slave sockets would automatically be
> turned off too.
>
> They worked well but now need replacing.
>
> In searching I am b..d if I can find anything quite matching them.
>
> Anybody know better.

Easy enough to build your own...

The principle:

http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/index.php/Current_activated_switch

When I can muster sufficient round tuits I am going to do a "split"
version where the sensing bit and the switching bit are separate parts
linked by radio - so I can do remote controlled equipment in the
workshop slaved to tool use, but also be able to have the full 3kW
available for the controlled load.

Some of this will start as a baseline:

http://wiki.diyfaq.org.uk/index.php/DIY_Real_time_mains_power_meter

--
Cheers,

John.

/=================================================================\
| Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
|-----------------------------------------------------------------|
| John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
\=================================================================/

On 2/20/2023 6:49 PM, NY wrote:
> On 20/02/2023 22:56, Roger Mills wrote:
>
>> I have however found that, since modern computers draw less current than their older counterparts, the current isn't always enough to trigger the switch or, if it's marginal, you might find that all your peripherals get turned off when the the computer is idle.
>>
>> On one of our computers, I've had to connect both the computer box *and* one of the monitors to the main socket of the smart switch to make it work reliably. I have to turn that monitor on and off manually!
>
> I have my computer and monitor plugged into a Kasa energy monitoring socket (and remote-control switch, although I don't use it for that).
>
> I was quite surprised to see how little power they use when they are asleep. When I put my PC to sleep ("sleep", not "hibernate" *) and the monitor goes into energy saving because there's not signal from the PC, the combined power consumption falls from about 90-100 W down to about 2.5 W. (My PC takes f-ing ages to be usable after a total shutdown/boot-up so I do this as rarely as possible, and normally just put it to sleep overnight or other times when I won't be using it for a while.)
>
> So you may find that it's not worth the extra hassle of making sure the smart power strip removes power to the monitor, given that its energy-saving power is likely to be very low.
>
> (*) The PC does draw continue a very small amount of power, so I presume it's preserving the system state by keeping the memory powered, rather than by saving it to disk and then totally turning off the PC power. Am I right that "sleep" keeps the memory powered and "hibernate" saves to disk?

Here are numbers for my Zen3 5600G (65W processor)
Power numbers are idle, while in Windows 11 desktop.

CPU idle 12VDC @ 0.32A or about 4 watts (DC clamp-on ammeter around yellow wires)

These numbers are wall measurements with a Kill-O-Watt meter.
PSU is non-PFC Enermax EG465-VE (not one of those 80+ ones).
The watts to VA ratio, shows the PF is not 1.0 but is
the bad older number.

W VA
S0 46 78 (While CPU draws 4W or so, one hard drive, GTX1050 video card is idle)
S1 44 76 (Screen goes black, monitor sleeps, measured power is only the computer power)

S3 5.3 14.5 (Sleep: 4x16 DDR4 DIMMs remain powered, CPU off)
S4 1.8 9.3 (Hibernate: DIMMs and CPU off, no wake on lan)
S5 1.8 9.3 (Soft Off, PSU still making +5VSB so machine can button-start)

The VA is easier for a smart power strip to measure, and
it will be measuring the amperes and pretending the
volts are a manifest constant.

Smart power strips with the sensitivity adjustment knob,
you may be able to adjust them, but the adjustment range
is not infinite. You can adjust a small amount around
the advertised number. They are unlikely to tell you
what the adjustment range is.

*******
Example of full-blast numbers (Prime95 blend)

CPU All-Core 12VDC @ 6.1A or about 73 watts (on a 65W CPU w. some turbo)

W VA
S0 139 210 (While CPU draws 73W or so, one hard drive, GTX1050 video card is idle)

The memory has a significant difference between idle cycles
and read/write cycles. The implied number by this measurement,
still seems like a lot of memory power. There should not be
any chipset power increase. And that's the thing, when you do
measurements like this. Lots of surprises.

*******

Around the year 2000, both idle and full on a PC were 150W,
and you could hardly tell Prime95 was running (that power was
not measured with a Kill-O-Watt by the way). Memory
bandwidth back then was a mere 300MB/sec. The CPU ran on
a 35W single phase VCore power converter. Nobody gave
a rats ass about wasted power back then. The motherboard,
cards and drives, were absolute villains.

My monitor back then, a Trinitron, saved no power at all when
the screen went blank. I always loved that part. What
did save power, was 1024x768 drew less power than 1280x1024,
and that was a significant amount of electricity. You could
feel the top of the monitor running cooler. LCDs do not behave
the same way.

Paul

What on earth is there to go wrong with these? As far as I know they merely
watch the current at that socket and turn the other sockets on when current
is taken.
Brian

--

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"pinnerite" <pinnerite@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:20230220222226.5a52e17e653c6adade472fe4@gmail.com...
> Several years ago I bought a couple of Smart power strips.
>
> They have one socket into which, for example, a computer could be
> plugged. When it was powered down, slave items such as a monitor and
> sound system plugged into the slave sockets would automatically be
> turned off too.
>
> They worked well but now need replacing.
>
> In searching I am b..d if I can find anything quite matching them.
>
> Anybody know better.
>
> TIA Alan
>
> --
> Mint 20.3, kernel 5.4.0-139-generic, Cinnamon 5.2.7
> running on an AMD Phenom II X4 Black edition processor with 16GB of
> DRAM.

You know one of the now defunct office supply stores used to do a power
sensing strip with an adjustable threshold. It cost a bit more and of
course, no guarantee that it can go low enough for what you want.
Brian

--

--:
This newsgroup posting comes to you directly from...
The Sofa of Brian Gaff...
briang1@blueyonder.co.uk
Blind user, so no pictures please
Note this Signature is meaningless.!
"John Rumm" <see.my.signature@nowhere.null> wrote in message
news:tt13pf$td37$1@dont-email.me...
> On 20/02/2023 23:49, NY wrote:
>
>> (*) The PC does draw continue a very small amount of power, so I presume
>> it's preserving the system state by keeping the memory powered, rather
>> than by saving it to disk and then totally turning off the PC power. Am I
>> right that "sleep" keeps the memory powered and "hibernate" saves to
>> disk?
>
>
> In a nutshell yes...
>
> There a s number of sleep states - S0 (normal operation) to S4
> (hibernation). Under hibernation the system context is written to a
> hibernation file on the disk. When the system is "woken" very similar to a
> cold boot pretty much of everything is off except RAM, and the system
> context needs to be reloaded from disk.
>
> Other states will keep context in RAM which is preserved.
>
> Some of the gory details here:
>
> https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-hardware/drivers/kernel/system-sleeping-states
>
>
> --
> Cheers,
>
> John.
>
> /=================================================================\
> | Internode Ltd - http://www.internode.co.uk |
> |-----------------------------------------------------------------|
> | John Rumm - john(at)internode(dot)co(dot)uk |
> \=================================================================/
>

On 20/02/2023 22:43, Theo wrote:
> Master/slave socket

Fucking hell.... if you wrote that at work you'd be off to see the
equality and diversity police in double time where they would give you a
final written warning.

On 21/02/2023 19:08, mm0fmf wrote:
> On 20/02/2023 22:43, Theo wrote:
>> Master/slave socket
>
> Fucking hell.... if you wrote that at work you'd be off to see the
> equality and diversity police in double time where they would give you a
> final written warning.
>
>
>
>

yes you are right..... you have to use appropriate language such as
Primary and secondary..

cannot even write enabled or disabled anymore,

its now activated or deactivated.

Can't write blacklist or whitelist either, its Allowed list vs
Disallowed list.