[linux-dvb] Re: Hardware timer or controller for Power On/Off??

[Usenet-372110@zocki.toppoint.de (Rainer Zocholl)]

werner@suse.de(Dr. Werner Fink)  17.08.01 10:33

Once upon a time Dr. Werner Fink shaped the electrons to say...

>   does anyone have experience with something like a hardware
>timer (addon card or something else) which his able to control
>a mainboard with soft power off.  I'm seeking for a solution
>to switch a DVB/VDR station automagically on and off _and_
>to have as less as possible power consumption during power
>off phase.   

Once there were a TS2000, then TS3000 switch by ELV (Leer, approx 100DM)
It had the advantage that it could turn off the PC entirely
and wake em up on:
Power return
a specific time
a modem ring
a telefon ring
any key pressed.

It would have been easy to attach a TSOP 1738 IR-Sensor
so using the remote control automagically turns power on...

The PC can turn off it self, beeind taken entirely isolated 
from 230V.


It has 2..3 Problems:
It was invented in 1998 and failed in 2000 (ouch).
The protocol is not documented
ELV was never very cooperative(maybe they learned meanwhile?)
It it controled entirely by software loops(dos or windows!), 
so the software do not work anymore with modern hispeed CPUs.

The advantage is that a Atmel-8051 uC is inside which could be
easy be erased and reprogrammed.
The hardware is documented.
The hardware is sufficient relyable.
(It is not easy to built such a thing connected
to 230V and not to get unwanted power on)

>This may require a battery on board of this addon 

This device has no battery!

>or a seperate power line and may loop through the power
>control connector from the mainboard to the power switch of
>the case.  

Yes. As long as power is there the clock runs.
If power fails, no clock is required: How/Why should it
turn on the PC without? :-)
When power returns, the PC is turned on and has the chance
to see if the switch must be reprogrammed...



>Clearly this addon should have the possibilty of being
>programmable but not necessary by Linux but self-supporting piece
>of hardware.

>Maybe a electronic and programmable timer used for power lines
>may help.

I would think that "ACPI" gives the solution/API on modern CPU?



But:
In standby 1,5W to 3W are used for "Standby"
("Wake on lan" requires a lot power)
The ELV-switch was better(i assume). But when turned on, 
it used 8W alone. That's much too much. 
A PC with no power management an 2 DVBs neds "only" 50Watts.
An analog VCR requires upto 20W, in standby!
(Very modern TVs are at 0,01W)




Rainer


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