Intelligent switchable rack power strip ?

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12dbLow

Well-known member
Joined
Apr 27, 2012
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63
Location
Hamburg, Germany
Hi guys,

not been here for a long time, but this is a question for this board:

I remember some years ago, I came across a power strip for the rack that switches on all the hooked up gear one after the other with a slight delay, so that you dont get pops or loud noises from your speakers. (Maybe there was only a delayed outlet for the speakers?) Anyway.. I am interested in something like that but cannot find it anywhere. Do you know who makes them? I would easily homebrew something like that, but it would possibly cause problems with the insurance and stuff...

Best,
Adrian.
 
Hi,

thanks! It was this one I was talking about: http://www.furmansound.com/product.php?div=03&id=PS-8RE_III

Can you program in a sequence to the Anel-Elektronik ones? Or can you only control them directly via network?

Best,
Adrian.
 
I really like the Furman for no-brainer setups.  You have some programmability with the sequencing, and it has a remote feature where it can be in a machine room amp rack and be activated by powering something in the control room.
And those Anel strips are schweet!
Mike
 
What do you think about these? They look heavily used.. Probably from live use.. Would you buy them for that price?
http://www.ebay.de/itm/201199462009
 
I gave this kind of product some thought decades ago, and it seems like you should be able to sense the current draw in one master outlet, to turn on a bank of slave outlets. Delaying them seems pretty straight forward, but i didn't pursue because sensing the off current state for some gear with caps across the mains may be difficult, and newer high power amplifiers have soft start switching supplies and/computer remote control.

Perhaps a more robust on/off decision might listen to audio coming from the master device to turn on the slaves, but then you need to mix high voltage with low voltage signals.

JR



 
> you should be able to sense the current draw in one master outlet, to turn on a bank of slave outlets.

I'm sure you realized "it depends".

There are power-saw switches to turn-on your dust-sucker. That's easy: a power saw will pull significant Amps, maxed-out at turn-on, and has no leaky caps or vampire load.

But using data I have handy: I caught my network router pulling 0.1 Amps. Is it on or off? That could be the standby current of a switcher supply. Or the 0.1 Amps could be the total current of a mini-router, or say a master control/switch for an audio monitoring setup.
 
Like I said, I thought about it and dismissed it as impractical decades ago... Some cheap gear leaves the transformer primary connected and switches the secondary. Eddy currents will also load the mains slightly even when turned off.

Lots of modern gear draws a trickle of current when off to keep some internal brain alive.

JR
 
My TV setup is switched via an current sensing master outlet of my powerstrip. it's a ready made swiss product - I just had to adjust the threshold with a trimpot, and it works perfectly. I switch on my receiver and that powers on the TV, the cable DVD player and some other gear. there is a limit on how low you can set the threshold, but I had no issue with that. since power usage has become a topic with the public these 'intelligent' power strips have become available to general public here..... you can get a device over here that powers the connected device on sensing IR remote control activity (without the need to decode the IR signal) and will shut down fully as soon as the power used goes below a certain threshold. so when you power down your TV set the powerstrip shuts of completely to reduce the standby power use.

some of the smarter ANEL powerstrips have other features, like timers, logic inputs coupled with a simple script language, that lets you do all sort of wonderful things. and of course they are networked. you would have to program the delays to get the functionality of the furman, but it should be doable.

I used the Furman in a project long time ago, but I had a bad relay burn out due th the larger inrush current of the amplifiers connected. now this can be an individual failure, but it reduced my confidence in that product....
 

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