Re: Suggestions, plz, for computer-driven power switches for its peripherals

LeftCoast_Dave wrote:
Hi,
A search-engine scan of the web for "xxx switches", where "xxx" has been several different modifiers, yields me seas of hits, but a lot of slogging through them hasn't yielded what I seek.

I would like to be able to power up/down my printers, speakers, scanner, external drives, and monitor from my computer.

-- Some of these, such as the speakers, printers, and scanner, I don't normally need on; I am aware that there are programmable relays, though what I'm finding seems expensive, and too restrictive as regards the OS.

-- The monitor and external drives need to be on early enough in booting up to be useful, and in the case of the drives, recognized (they are eSATA) in time.

-- My computer has several OS's, so I would want to be able to control the switch(es) with a cross-platform language; Python would be my first choice, or I could wing it fairly well with C. What I *don't* want is the language to be Visual Basic (as I discovered with one company), because of the cross-platform desideratum.

Can you /please/ point me to particular products, "switch-focused" forums, books and/or sites to help me wade through the mess?

Many, many thanks in advance.

Regards,
DaveB

This device appears to work on the same concept as a BSR X-10 controller.
You use one of these in a house, and it sends commands over the A.C. wiring.
Receiving units turn the commands into A.C. switching actions. I have
no idea what language they use. Some issues with sending commands on power
lines, would be encryption and/or device address space, if a technology
like this is prevalent in your neighborhood.

http://www.smarthome.com/2414u.html

If you can figure out the standard being used for sending the commands
over the A.C. wiring, you can then use the standard name for identifying
other devices.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X10_%28industry_standard%29

Perhaps Homeplug_CC ? I don't really know which of these
standards is "winning".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Power_line_communication

http://www.insteon.net/%5Cspecs.html

Paul
.

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