NFB - Electrical

[Black97]

Maybe one of you guys can help me. I have several external drives and other equipment that is hooked up to my computer.

When I shut down the PC these devices stay on since they are fed by 120 Volts. The older PC cases used to have a 120 V plug in the back for the monitor and other stuff. So once you turned the PC off, the stuff plugged in would turn off too.

I was thinking if there was a relay or similar that has a signal (low voltage) input taken from the PC i.e. 5 or 12 V. The "high" voltage side would be 120 V.

So when you start the PC the low voltage current from it would give a signal to the relay to switch the 120 Volt on.

Is there something like that out there that can easily be purchased (Radioshack) and be uitilized for my project?

[Flash 97 WS/6]

Your idea is very sound, I have almost built this device many times, but never got around to it. The nice thing about a PS controlled 110v outlet would be that the computer's power management could shut the external devices down, you would not even need to physically use a switch.

As far as I know there is nothing like this readily available. Not sure why? I have even thought about going a step further and using a IR xmit-receiver pair to electrically isolate the 110v relay from the computer's supply...there's lots of options.

If you decide to build something like this, I would recommend using the 12v source because some of the 5v sources remain energized in newer ATX power supplies during a "soft off" state to provide ram refresh, network card power for WOL etc...

[Jeff_in_Atl]

I have thought about it too. However, I never shut my computer off anymore. I have 2 reasons for it.

1. Electronics don't like thermal cycling. Going from cold to hot many times will usually cause a failure before letting it stay hot all of the time. Especially monitors.

2. Let the computer run a resource sharing program to help out a good cause. The biggest (and only ones I know of) is "Seti" http://setiathome.ssl.berkeley.edu/ and the "UD Agent" http://www.ud.com/home.htm . The next program to come out will be "BOINIC" by UC Berkeley http://boinc.berkeley.edu/ . When your computer is on, it runs a continuous loop on the processor to keep it warmed up (The processor doesn't cool off when it is idling). It sits there and runs 1+1=* over and over. Why not let it do something useful and help some project out. SETI is looking for a signal from space proving life not on earth. UD agent used to have several thing including looking for a cure for cancer. My wife does the cancer thing. Both run as a screen saver so it does not slow the computer down when you are using it. (both can be set to run all of the time even when you are on it but they don't have to be set this way). Neither work with very big files. I used to do SETI with dialup. No problems.

[DJ Taso]

Maplin sell all the electronic bits you'll ever need.

[briantech]

what does nfb stand for?

[Jeff_in_Atl]

Non F Body
People put it in the subject line to designate it as not related to F bodies.

[wolfdogs]

Originally posted by briantech
what does nfb stand for?

"None a ur Friggin Business"..........
















jus kiddin

get it..."NFB".......None of ..........never mind.....