Our goal is to figure out how we deal with this SAF effect. There is an easy way. Move all the receivers, subwoofer amplifers, 300-DVD and 300-CD jukeboxes, multimedia server, surge protectors, etc. in another room in the basement, garage, unused hidden shelf that your spouse does not care about or attic, if you have found out a way to keep attic temperature under 95 degree Fahrenheit.
There are a few little problems with this approach though. First of all, how do you control all the infrared remote controlled home electronics equipment, when it is not in the line of sight. Secondly, how do you get system status. Ideally, I'd have liked to have a two-way Bluetooth remote control that would not only send a command but also receive return status from each multimedia equipment and display it. Nobody has yet made such a Bluetooth remote control. This is a multi-million dollar idea, which I'm giving away for free. Now, we will have to figure out a cheaper way of remote controlling our home electronics.
Let us start with the control of power.
Our goal is to be able to soft turn-on and soft turn-off a multimedia server PC and then use that to turn-on/turn-off rest of the dependent equipment, for instance, receiver, 300-DVD or 300-CD jukebox, subwoofer amplifier, et cetera. We will talk more about remote IR control later. Let us discuss about power first. Those of us who are hardcore may probably look for remote control power devices like Baytech RPC-3 and RPC-4. In fact, Monster--the guys who figured out how to make money selling cables--are now making some real expensive devices for remote management of power for home electronics. For instance, Monster Signature Series HTPS 7000 MKII is one such power management system. Monster also makes Empowered series of PowerCenters with out of sight infrared control of each power port using an external infrared receiver and a bunch of infrared emitters. These devices are Empowered PowerCenter EP3650 and EP2450. Empowered series PowerCenters do not have relay controlled switched power ports. Signature series HTPS 7000 MKII has switched and unswitched outlets similar to HTS 1000 MKIII. However, I have yet to find a device that has all of the following features:1. Discrete (not toggle) infrared control for each power output port - This means that an on means on, and off means off no matter how many times you press the same button on your remote
2. Surge protection and power filtering
3. Current sensing Master/slave power control with current-sensing sensitivity control
4. Individual relay controlled or relay triggered power ports
5. If-then-else programmable power ports
6. Computer connectivity and ability to check and control through a computer
7. Remote talk-back status (or acknowledgment) capability
8. Possibly, ability to program delays in turn-on and turn-off of some power ports. For example, when multimedia server PC is turned on, you may want external disks to be turned on right away but depending upon boot up time, you may want to delay receiver/amplifier turn on to be delayed by 30 seconds. Similarly, when multimedia server PC is turned off, you would want external hard disks to be turned off a couple of seconds later.
Therefore, for my purposes even the best in class Signature series power control device like HTPS 7000 MKII is not enough. For example, it would not make much sense to put a multimedia server PC, multiple external hard disks, analog-to-digital converter dongles, HDMI switchers on HTPS 7000 MKII.
If we can't find one power management device that will meet all our needs, the only alternative is to find a couple of devices and hook them up in a configuration that will hopefully meet our needs. Let us start with current sensing power switches. What we are looking for is a switch that senses that one of the equipments connected to its master control has been turned on and turns on the slave power. These are simple current sensing power switches. These current sensing master/slave switches are often used in tool shops. For example, if you turn on a saw, you may want to turn on a vacuum cleaner to suck up the dust.
Below are some recommendations but only first three are current sensing. Others have relay triggers, computer control and talk back capabilities.
1. Smart Strip Power Strips marketed by Bits Ltd.
2. Craftsman Auto Switch sold by Sears
3. DGC i-Socket
4. Monster Home Theatre PowerCenter HTS 1000 MKII
5. Baytech RPC3 or RPC4
6. Niles AC-3 Voltage Triggered AC Power Strip
Lets start our discussion with Smart Strip Power Strip. Its cost is in $30 - $50 range depending upon the model that you like. I've shown a picture of LUG4 Smart Strip with a control outlet and USB port. What I liked about it is that it has an adjustment for sensitivity.
After designing it the makers realized that there were several teeny-weeny laptops that did not draw enough current to activate switched/slave outlets. Therefore, they decided to add a sensitivity control, which allows you to change the sensitivity (sensitivity to detect small amounts of current or amps) to suite your equipment. The problem is that if you set the sensitivity too low and your PC draws tiny amounts of current in quiescent state, then the rest of the equipment on the slave/switched outlet will not turn off. But you control sensitivity, therefore, you can change it. There is one more benefit. 
LUG3 and LUG4 models of Smart Strip have a Type B USB connector or receptacle. You can connect this USB receptacle to your PC's Type A USB port using a standard USB AB cable. USB ports provision 5 volts, which is enough to activate a relay. Therefore, as soon as you turn on your multmedia server PC, this USB port on Smart Strip will detect that the multimedia server is turned on and turn on rest of the equipment connected to switched outlets. If you are using control outlet as well as the USB port on Smart Strip, then the Smart Strip will turn on switched outlets if either of these is turned on. The Smart Strip will turn off switched outlets only when both control outlet and USB port are turned off. Since receivers and amplifiers draw tons of current, I would be careful about using too many outlets on this strip. You certainly don't want to create an overload situation. You may want to check its manual to find the maximum wattage.Craftsman Auto Switch sells for a penny under $20.
It has just the right level of sensitivity that as soon as it detects that multimedia server PC is turned off, it turns off the other two switched slave outlets. On the Sears website you will notice that this auto switch has received lots of positive reviews.Next in line is the review of DGC i-socket 110m. I noticed that this one has one or two possibly minor issues. First of all there is no sensitivity control. Secondly, it will not detect the load on "Tool", which is the master or control outlet unless the draw of current on the control/master outlet exceeds about 0.5 amps. In other words the load on master outlet has to be higher than 55 watts in order for the switched outlet called (VAC on i-socket) to be turned on.
However, there is one feature that I really liked about it. After the equipment on the control/master outlet is turned off, it waits about 7 seconds before turning off the slave switched outlet. This is one heck of a great feature. For example, if you have your multimedia server PC running on the control/master outlet and external hard drives running on the slave/switched outlets, then after you turn off your multimedia server PC, the disks will have plenty of time to go quiescent before being powered off. This will substantially reduce chances of disk failure.I was a little bit dismayed by low sensitivity level of DGC i-socket. Therefore, I disassembled it to understand what was going on. I had a mixed reaction after reviewing its design. On the positive side I noticed that it used an Atmel ATtiny13 microcontroller for controlling the circuit. This software-based control clearly provides a lot of flexibility.
On the other hand, I was disappointed that it was not using opto-isolators. It uses a current sensing transformer in the dual role of current sensing and circuit isolation. It uses a solid state relay (Triac) BTA-24, which is quite fast and if I recall correctly this triac can safely handle current output of 15 amps. In fact, it is rated for much higher.Though, I have not measured it but it is likely that these devices introduce tiny bits of distortion or phase-shift in the current that passes through their electronics. Though I have not noticed it but I cannot discount the possibility that this distortion could become noticeable if you cranked-up your receiver/amplifier volume. I think this is what has provided Monster an entry into building and marketing high-end power supplies. Though CFL bulbs, refrigerators and other equipment can also distort theoretical power characteristics, I've never noticed such power distortions in the sound output. Perhaps my ears are not sensitive enough. But I'm unwilling to spend $1200 to buy an audio power filter dedicated to my receiver/amplifier.
But if you are one of those purists who spend $200 to buy audio cables, then there is an alternative.
You could use the switched/slave outlets on these master/slave current sensing devices to power up a 3V 50ma (3 volt 50 milliampere or higher but you don't need more than 10 milliampere to activate switched outlets on Monster HTS 1000 MKII) step down power supply/transformer and use that 3v 50ma power to turn on switched outlets on Monster HTS 1000 MKII Home Theatre PowerCenter. 
The link that I have given above is actually Monster HTS 1000 MKIII Home Theatre PowerCenter and its manual does not show input for relay activation but the manual says that audio outlets are switched outlets. Therefore, I'm assuming that like its older brother MKII, HTS 1000 MKIII also has an input jack for relay activation of switched outlets. Since I own a couple of MKIIs, I can confirm that MKII series does have a 3.5mm female jack for relay activation. 
You will need to make sure that the low voltage power supply that you use have a 3.5mm mono male pin at the other end. In fact, I have several cell phone chargers in my electronics junk box. I connected a 3.5mm pin to one of those cell phone chargers to activate the relay on Monster HTS 1000 MKII power strip.There are several receivers, which have 3.5mm relay control (or triggers) output jacks at the back. These relay control outputs can be programmed through the receiver to turn on or turn off HTS 1000 MKII power strip. All you have to do is to get a 3.5mm mono male pin to 3.5mm mono male pin (Please note that 3.5mm stereo will have three wires and one of them will be redundant, therefore you just need a 3.5mm mono cable.) cable to connect the relay control jack in your receiver to the 3.5mm input jack of HTS 1000 MKII. Now depending upon how you have programmed your receiver, when you select DVD on your receiver, the receiver will activate DVD relay control (or trigger) and turn on switched power outlets on HTS 1000 MKII.
Our discussion of remote power control will be incomplete without a review of Baytech RPC3 and RPC4 power supplies.
RPC3 and RPC4 can be controlled remotely using telnet and a modem terminal respectively. 
You can connect to RPC3 using a telnet session. RPC4 has an RS-232 serial DTE (data transmission equipment) interface. In techy language, this is called out of band power management. 
I've connected RPC4 to COM2 port of multimedia server PC using RJ-45 null modem cable that I prepared. It has RJ-45 connectors on both ends. I use a RJ-45 to DB9 female converter to connect it to COM2 male DB9 port behind the PC. 
I'm running a "COMPort/IP Server" software from Fogsoft (looks like this software company shut its door but there are several other COM port to IP redirection software) that serves one of the COM ports through a telnet session. Therefore, as long as my multimedia server PC is on, my RPC4 has full functionality of RPC3 at half the price. 
I can telnet into the COMPort/IP Server and give commands to the serial port to inquire status of RPC4. As you can notice from the attached screen print, RPC4 provides a lot of functionality as well as metrics for management of power. It shows that the maximum current drawn has been 10.6 amps. In addition, it shows the ambient temperature too. It allows me to check the status and all the critical parameters remotely from any laptop that has access to the network on which multimedia server PC is running. Piece of cake!AC-3 Voltage Triggered AC Power Strip is a nice little low-voltage triggered device made by Niles Audio Corporation for activating switched power.
You can use it to manage up to 1500 watts of power through two switched outlets and one unswitched outlet. 
I'm attaching a stock photo and a diagram that shows how you can use this AC-3 power control device in your home electronics setup. This diagram is available in Niles AC-3 manual.In my next blog, we will be discussing about infrared remote control, which is the most popular method for home entertainment systems.
At the end of this discussion, we will have a fully functional multimedia entertainment system ready in some hidden location inside your home and you will be able to control it remotely using simple IR commands on your remote control.
Note: There are several other remote power management systems that provide a web interface for management of power. For home multimedia systems, generally, my recommendation is to achieve power control through infrared. You can add talkback and status checking through a home automation control like Insteon or Z-Wave. However, if you are interested in looking further into remote power management using web interface, here are a few leads:
- ServerTech Remote Power Systems
- Dataprobe iBootBar Remote Power
- Raritan Dominion PX Power Management
