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

The conclusion of my PS2 adventure

So, when I bought the PS2 I was informed that the reason it was so cheap was the the 1st player port did not work. I thought to myself, "I don't see why I should worry about that, I'm the only one who ever plays Video games anyways at my house" and promptly saved myself 30 bucks. Well as I did some research on the PS2, I decided that I most definitely wanted to install a hard drive on it so I could play games from the Hard drive instead of having to deal with the painfully long load times of the CD/DVD (as mentioned yesterday).

Much to my joy, I found that my local Gamestop carried the Network adapter (remember Network adapter = hard drive?) and instead of it being 30 dollars it was a scant 10! Once I arrived there, I inquired the Gamestop employee where said item was and was informed that the adapter was attached to another PS2 already and they could not give it to me since they didn't have the back plate to cover up the hole left by it. Fortunately I had my PS2 with me in the car with said back plate and convinced them to let me trade my back plate for their adapter (I still had to pay for it of course).

Armed with everything I needed for my set up, I traveled home and inserted a certain disc to allow me to install my hard drive and play games from it. And then I hit "a snag". Turns out this disc only responds to a controller plugged into the 1st player port... you know, the broken one. And just like that, my new PS2 was in pieces on the floor as I searched for the problem. Long story short, the cable that attached the controller ports to the motherboard was loose. It would have been a simple thing to fix... if I hadn't taken apart the entire thing.

As I attempted to reinsert the cable, I realized that the PS2 had designed the cable holder in a fascinating way. The cable in question was just a flat, paper thin cable. To make sure this cable didn't become dislodged, the holder would clamp down on the cable. I found this out just in time for the clamp to break on one end. A quick superglue and electrical tape job later, and I was back in action! At some point I'll buy a replacement piece for it, but right now I'm okay with this solution (plus the replacement pieces cost 25 bucks in most places, if I wanted to spend that much I would have just bought the thing new!). With the first player port now working, it was a simple matter to install the hard drive and copy the discs over to it.

Now one thing I should mention about this software I installed to let me copy the games... the original software it was based on was shut down by Sony (the maker of PS2). Their contention was that by making it such that the game CD is not needed to play the game, the software created piracy solutions where the user could buy the game, copy it, then turn around and return it while keeping the game on their hard drive. And I understand this concern. If Sony had been smart however, they would have simply made it so the game would run from the hard drive only when the game CD was present in the drive (most modern games work like this on the computer). Then they would have made a fortune of selling PS2 compatible Hard drives larger than the official 40GB hard drive.

Regardless, I believe in showing corporations that not every gamer is out to rob them blind (in fact, most aren't and their anti-piracy measures are only hurting the people following the rules). Which is why I have no problem in using a software based on another software shut down by a corporation provided I use it to the fullest legal extent of only making backup copies of my games that will be deleted in the event that I ever sell said game.

Remember kids, always read the EULA so you can know your rights and do things like this to the full extent of the law!

The conclusion of my PS2 adventure

PS2 don't you know you're obsolete?

The following is an e-mail I sent to my mom.

Subject: And right before finals

Message:

Dear Mom:

Love Matt

The true joke of the matter being that mom my is absolutely terrified of what video games do to my life and I knew it. So when I bought this, I made sure no to buy a power cable or cable to attach it to the TV (okay, so I didn't buy those because I already had them, but that's besides the point). All I really lack is a memory card so I can save my game.

But here's where the problem came up. After doing some research I learned 2 things. 1) I really want to buy a network adapter for the PS2 just so I can install a hard drive (I'm not joking you have to buy a network adapter to install a hard drive) so I can save my discs to the hard drive. 2) The price for ANY PS2 item (with the possible exception of the games) has remained at a static price across the board. No matter where you go, everyone sales the same 5 items for the single price of $30 (or more for some items).

It quiet astounded me. I mean, these aren't even the new items, these are the used by 20 different people over the course of its 8 year life-span. You'd think that I'd get a little discount for it being used at least. It seems doubly weird when you consider that the PS2 hardware is now completely outdated with the advent of the PS3. If anything for the PS2 was going to stay locked at a certain price, it should be the games (which are both awesome and playable on the PS3) instead of the hardware (which while being cool for the PS2 is largely useless for the PS3).

Equally fascinating is if you go to eBay and search for these items, they are being bought up at tremendous rates. The more one tries to bid for an item lately the more some guy with the name m**3 comes in and bids higher (which is another weird thing, what's up with the letter double * number names on eBay?) a LOT higher.

Oh well, little by little I get this set up by the time school it out for winter! Current titles: Kingdom Hearts and Ico (Ico may be more universally recognized as the first part to a recent release; Shadow of the Colossus)

Edit: I just learned that the ** thing on eBay is part of their ID masking service so people don't know what your name is if you win the item by being a complete jerk. AWESOME.

PS2 don't you know you're obsolete?

So much frustration

So I've been having internet problems for almost a month now. Anytime I use a P2P software (only for legal reasons I promise), my internet connection dies. Turns out that about 3 weeks ago my ISP updated their software and my router is no longer compatible with it. My ISP tells me that a simple firmware upgrade should fix the problem. Only problem is the firmware they're pushing isn't compatible with my router? That's odd. They tell me to give the makers of my router a call. I can't find a number to call so ultimately I use their online chat. A man named "Ernie C." asks me what the problem is and I tell him I need a firmware update for my router. He curtly informed me that my router was a wireless gateway and therefore "has no firmware".

Really? Are you kidding me? That's funny because your wireless gateway has a different story.

You can't make it out too well, but that says "firmware version" followed by the firmware version. Of course, that was one step better than the next lady I had who tried to get me to download the latest USB drivers for my router to update my firmware version. I hate dealing with lower level know nothings.

So much frustration

Did I mention I was a geek?

Okay, so a little break from what I just posted and what I have in the works for my next post to talk about something I'm quite passionate about; electronics (And with that 90% of the people who read this leave). Hear me out :p In the many years I've had a surround sound system set up in this house I have had an on going battle with getting everything to work with a single remote. And not just a single remote, on no! A single remote that allows a user to sit down and with a single click of a button watch some television. There is no desire in this house to have to push 5 buttons to get everything turned on and set correctly.

For a while I've been exploring the universal remotes with the nice little LCD screen that lets you choose with electronic device you want on, but all of those cost in the $100 minimum range making them assuredly a non-option. Other options I researched were turning a PDA into a remote, a plan that was scrubbed because any PDA of sufficient capabilities would end up costing as much as a universal remote, and using an iPod, which turned out to be extremely limited and rather useless.

Thus it was, as I researched various solutions, that I happened upon a remote that advertised macro buttons. Turns out that there are a large selection of very modest remotes that have the very feature that all the fancy remotes advertise so well. (A macro button sends multiple commands with the push of a single button). And while that is cool enough on its own, the really interesting part started after I found this remote. (for those interested it is the URC-8910 and I've found it for as little as $16 + a few dollars for shipping and handling)

As I read user reviews on this remote I kept seeing people mention this mysterious JP1. Now, to me JP1 means Jumper 1. I see this on every motherboard for every computer I've every dealt with, but no where could I find what JP1 meant to these people. All that anyone ever said was, "but using JP1 quickly fixed that problem!" After several searches I finally found the right combination of phrases that lead me to a forum that had a link to what JP1 was.

Here is what JP1 is. On certain remotes (especially those of radio shack and One for All) there is a 6 pin connector located in the battery compartment with a small JP1 printed on the circuit board next to it. Someone discovered that you could create a custom cable to connect your computer to your remote using this so-called JP1 connector. Then other people realized that you could download the contents of your remote and replace it with custom signals to make your universal remote TRULY universal. Check out the cable that connects the remote to the computer via the serial port (a more expensive usb cable was offered as was a parallel cable)



No more will people have to settle for a remote that mostly works their equipment. These people have THOROUGHLY documented every piece of remote controlled equipment they can get their hands on and relish finding the right signals to get new equipment to work. I'm excited to get my cable in the mail so I can start programming the remote to make it the ultimate universal remote! I actually encourage anyone who reads this to make sure the next remote they get is JP1 capable and learn how to modify the remote to stream line it (or ask me to come do it for you :P ).

Now here's some linkage for you!
Buy the URC-8910 remote at home depot (out of stock last I checked, but maybe you'll get lucky)
Google listings of URC-8910 remote sellers(I just typed URC-8910 into Google search)
Good place to get the JP1 cables
Learn more about JP1 over at this sub-culture's forum!
Good list of current and past JP1 remotes (It's a forum post, click on the download button under the post)

Did I mention I was a geek?