DIY “Smart” Power Outlet

A long time ago (a little over three years ago), I wrote a post about how I modified my PS2 with a hard drive and some software that would let me back up games I owned to a hard drive.  The benefits being I have my entire game collection at my finger tips, as well as it saves the dvd laser (an extremely costly replacement if it ever goes  out).

Well I found a way to do this same thing with my Wii!  Rather than having an internal hard drive (or SD card in the Wii’s case), it uses an external hard drive attached via USB.  As a side note, the Xbox 360 has this feature built into its system rather than unfairly punishing its client base by saying such software should be outlawed.

Anyway, soap box ranting aside, I have it all set up in my fireplace shelf I set up (as seen in my last blog entry).  The only issue is that I really like the curtain my wife made and it’s a hassle to move it back and flip on the hard drive when EVERYTHING else is automated.  I even used a special type of remote (JP1, a subject I’ve also talked about previously) that I programmed the elaborate sequence needed to turn on the various devices in my entertainment system.

I could have left it on all the time but A) That’s a  waste of electricity and B) The external hard drive enclosure I use is passively cooled (it doesn’t have a fan on it).  It get’s a little toasty in my fireplace shelf and having the hard drive on for a couple hours makes it hot to the touch, so leaving it on 24/7 seemed like a very bad idea to me. 

So I began to search for for a power strip or outlet that would automatically turn on when the Wii turned on.  I was able to find some eventually, but they all cost in the range of 30+ dollars.  That’s when I decided it was about time to get out my DIY tools!

I knew my basic idea, I want my hard drive to turn on with the Wii, but the Wii doesn’t really have a lot of external outputs that I can work with… pretty much just a pair of USB ports really.  Well thanks to my job with Prime Controls, I’ve learned a lot about relays and there in was the solution to my dilemma!  I set out to purchase a Solid State Relay that would activate whenever USB voltage was present (or for those who care about the technical side of it.  I needed a SSR that would output a range of AC power that included the 120V AC put out by your every day home power outlet, and whose triggering input voltage covered the 3-5V DC power provided by a standard USB plug.  I know technically USB puts out 5 volts, but I didn’t want an under voltage on my USB to mess up my whole project.)

The only catch was everywhere I looked all the SSRs ran in the 20 dollar or more range.  All things considered, I suppose that’s not too bad a price, but it’s more than I was willing to pay.  If it would cost me $20 to do it myself, there’s not much point in not shelling out an extra 10 bucks to buy a fancy pre-made one.

In desperation I went to Fry’s Electronics, only to be met by a trio of dumb stares from clerks who had never even HEARD of an SSR, and they all work at a desk literally 5 feet from the relays!  Fortunately, one of the workers referred me to an electronic shop called Tanner’s Electronics.  I WILL be remembering this place.  It’s pretty much what radio shack and Fry’s both started off as before they ditched the small electronics and knowledgeable employees in favor of over priced wires and minimal wage high school kids.  It’s AMAZING.  They had what I wanted for 8 bucks.

So I spend some time assembling it all this evening.  I took one of the many printer USB cables I had lying around and cut off the printer end to provide triggering power for my SSR (it tells my relay to turn the switch to the on position).  Then I repurposed a computer power cabled to provide the AC power to the outlet.  I opted for a single outlet rather than a whole power strip because I didn’t need a whole power strip taking up space.

Here’s a photo of the final set up.

You can see both the AC plug and my USB cable.  They go into the first box where I have the SSR mounted to the lid of the box.   I had heard that SSRs need a heat sink to work without over heating so I’m using the box to act as a heat sink.  I also applied a good amount of thermal paste between the box and the relay to aid in getting rid of heat, but so far it doesn’t seem to generate much heat… but the amount of power I’m pulling down it is pretty small so I’m not too surprised.  Finally, the last cable goes from the SSR to my little outlet box.  Anything plugged into those outlets will only turn on when power is going over the USB cord.  Which of course means if I ever wanted to, I could just plug a power strip into one of the outlets and have my very own “Smart” power strip.  Total project cost?  Under $20 if you had to buy all the stuff I already had on end, for me I think it cost under $15  (and it was only that much since I had to buy the two enclosures rather than fitting it all into one box).

DIY “Smart” Power Outlet

On Shelves and TV Mounts

Wow, long time no blog, huh?  Much of the reason is because I’ve started a new job with a place called Prime Controls.  We program PLCs (the things that controls pumps and stuff at water/wastewater plants, oil rigs, and even Dr. Pepper!).  It a completely new field to me and its taking a while to get into the swing of things.

But enough about that!  As the title says this is about shelves and TV mounts.  Amy and I have constantly been working on the TV location since we moved into our home.  The only place for it really is on the fireplace, but there are lots of things in the way there. 

So the first thing we did was take the mantle down.  It protruded far away from the wall meaning the TV had to sit on the very end of the TV stand.  One good push from the cat would knock that TV right off to its untimely demise.

With the mantle gone things were good for a while.  The TV could sit far back on the stand and was safe from curious cats.  But the area itself  still created a lot of clutter.  Wire were strewn all about, the stand itself was large and detracted from the natural feel of the fireplace, it just didn’t work for us.

Ideas were tossed all around, we considered knocking a hole in the wall next to the fireplace and making a recessed shelf area where all the equipment could sit so we could get rid of the stand and mount the  TV, but we didn’t want to do anything so drastic to the home.  It didn’t really seem like the kind of thing that was good for the resale value of a home one day. 

Suddenly it came to us.  We already can’t use the fireplace because the TV is in the way (and because we had covered up the hole with Plexiglas to cut down on drafts), so why not build a shelf in the fireplace to hold the equipment?

But no no, it wasn’t enough to just slap some wood in there and call it a shelf, I wanted to maximize the space available to me.  So I talked to a co-worker (and the guy who got me this job), Colin, on how I should cut the wood to get it angled right (he’s been doing a lot of wood working too, so I knew he’d know) and lo and behold, this is the final product!

Yes, I packed it to the hilt with electronics!  But the best part of all, it Amy made a curtain for it to cover it all up!  So with the TV mounted it now looks like this:

  Yes for whatever reason when this house was made 30 years ago they put the fireplace off to the right instead of centering it.  We decided to center the TV on the wall rather than over the fireplace.  It’s hard to tell, but off to the left, behind the wedding photo is a little white cord cover that is filled to capacity with wires.  All in all, Amy and I are quite pleased with the way it turned out, it really brings our living room up to a much more modern condition and feels… adultish rather than college dormish.

On Shelves and TV Mounts

Does Anyone Else Hear the Sound of Water?

This Super Bowl weekend brought the following things:

1) An embarrassment to Jerry Jones as his ultra elitist stadium failed to have enough seating for everyone he sold tickets to (not to mention all the sound, and operations issues)

2) An embarrassment to Texas as our power grid couldn’t handle the influx of people and cold weather at the same time

3) The sound of rushing water and an impromptu lake forming out in my garage

That’s right, when the weather finally warmed up on Sunday, Amy and I were shocked to find that a pipe in our garage burst.  Fortunately, it was not attached to the water heater, but rather it led to a faucet in the backyard.  I had placed one of those nifty faucet covers over it, but apparently it just wasn’t enough to protect this poor little guy.

When we finally discovered the leak it had accumulated about 2-3 inches of water in our garage.  Thankfully, our garage is a step or two lower than the rest of our home so the only thing that got wet was some concrete floors.  After turning off the water to the house and sweeping the water out of the garage I discovered some interesting things.

The first was that the previous owner of this home clearly experienced this problem as there was replacement piece of drywall covering the exact location where the pipe had burst.

The second was a reconfirmation that the previous owner of this house, was not the handiest of men.  That or he always got his repairs done by the lowest bidder, which in this neighborhood is about 10 minutes east, you’ll find a group of very handy, hardworking men who will work dirt cheap all standing outside a gas station starting at 6 AM, and then bought sub-par parts for them to work with.

Here’s a picture of the pipe that burst. 

Now I’d like to point out that the shiny silver pipe in the wall is the faucet I purchased to replace this broken pipe and faucet.  I had to cut off the pipe at the elbow and sweat on a new piece (thanks again Mr. Pait for teaching me how to do that!).  Here’s a picture of the burst  pipe after the fact.

If you can’t tell, that pipe is paper thin, it’s really not the kind of pipe you should use in a location that is going to have to endure cold temperatures, but you could probably get away with it if you at least put some insulation around it.  It only costs 2 bucks for a six foot long section of copper pipe insulation, come on!

Regardless, in its place, I’m putting an anti-freeze faucet.  The concept with this faucet is that every time you turn the faucet off, it empties the pipe behind the faucet preventing the pipe from bursting from the cold (If you don’t quite get it, just google “Anti-freeze faucet)

Unfortunately, since I had to cut off some of the pipe, things didn’t quiet connect.  So I just brought the faucet inside the garage for a little bit until I have a Saturday when I can solder on a little extension.

The final thing Amy and I did this weekend was to take the mantel off the fireplace.  We have our TV there and the mantel is just in the way.  We were hoping to place it higher on the brick, but it turned out that rather than being attached via mason screws, they had actually replaced a layer of brick with wood and nailed into the wood.  So we decided just to put it into the attic until we leave the home or we decide we want it back.

We also decided that we wanted to prevent our cat from crawling into the fireplace, but didn’t want to shell out the bucks for a some sliding glass doors in front of it.  Amy mom’s had the excellent suggestion of putting Plexi-glass to cover the opening, a trip to Home Depot later and here’s the results!

(For those interested, other fun home projects Amy and I have done include putting lights in the attic, putting on a water heater blanket, and if the weather get’s warm and dry enough for us to finish it, rain gutters)

Does Anyone Else Hear the Sound of Water?