Well windows 7 never gives me an issue with hard reset and I know it inside and out. I can't even f'in change software in linux, so for me, it's a no brainer.
Besides, when I sell off my stuff I Will be building all the gear into gaming rigs and a super badass rig for my home theater dream set-up.
Topic: Is there any interest in a hardware board which will allow remote power cycling - page 3. (Read 19541 times)
March 04, 2012, 12:03:38 AM
March 03, 2012, 10:25:53 PM
I have about a dozen surplus solid state relays like this one in 10A and 20A. They are used for industrial control, and are sized (and priced) more for controlling an entire circuit than just one machine, but the 10A ones would be appropriate for a 1000w rig. They are off by default and need 3-32V to turn them on, so a simple parallel interface would need to hold them high, or with a 12v power supply running them with pull-down resistors, you could design a circuit that turns them off with a momentary +12V signal input to ground.
PS I have melted those little blue circuit board relays into goo before, they might say 10A, but they arc inside when they turn off, which a zero-cross solid state relay doesn't do.
Heeeeeyyyyy..... those are expensive. You selling them? PS I have melted those little blue circuit board relays into goo before, they might say 10A, but they arc inside when they turn off, which a zero-cross solid state relay doesn't do.
March 03, 2012, 09:55:50 PM
I have about a dozen surplus solid state relays like this one in 10A and 20A. They are used for industrial control, and are sized (and priced) more for controlling an entire circuit than just one machine, but the 10A ones would be appropriate for a 1000w rig. They are off by default and need 3-32V to turn them on, so a simple parallel interface would need to hold them high, or with a 12v power supply running them with pull-down resistors, you could design a circuit that turns them off with a momentary +12V signal input to ground.
PS I have melted those little blue circuit board relays into goo before, they might say 10A, but they arc inside when they turn off, which a zero-cross solid state relay doesn't do.
PS I have melted those little blue circuit board relays into goo before, they might say 10A, but they arc inside when they turn off, which a zero-cross solid state relay doesn't do.
March 03, 2012, 08:25:09 PM
If someone does an cost-effective and easy solution for hard power cycling, i would not hesitate to spend several hundred euros immediately for just testing gear 
So if someone finishes that Arduino design and makes it easy to order complete units i would buy several immediately.
Even if i have to solder the 230V (110V) power cables onto the relay board wouldn't really matter.
Another thing i'm looking for is something which can switch from power source to another, say network power goes out, it changes to inverter operated from a bunch of car batteries kept charged by a cheap 40€ trickle charger.
So if someone finishes that Arduino design and makes it easy to order complete units i would buy several immediately.
Even if i have to solder the 230V (110V) power cables onto the relay board wouldn't really matter.
Another thing i'm looking for is something which can switch from power source to another, say network power goes out, it changes to inverter operated from a bunch of car batteries kept charged by a cheap 40€ trickle charger.
March 03, 2012, 07:35:23 PM
I run into hard power cycle problems in Windows far, far more often than in Linux. I can't remember the last time Linux gave me any issues about a hard power cycle. Windows has certainly gotten better about it in recent years, but when something goes south, Windows usually requires a reinstall, whereas Linux requires a manual fsck and it's good to go.
March 03, 2012, 07:31:57 PM
I'd be interested also. I'll be building my cluster off a windows network, so this would be great since power cycles don't cause as much issue in my experience with windows as opposed to linux.
Not starting a linux war, just saying for ME, this would work great. All my machines are hard wired on an ethernet network at my house and I'll have them running through a home server or some type of RDP soon.
If I could power cycle and restart remotely that would be great.
Not starting a linux war, just saying for ME, this would work great. All my machines are hard wired on an ethernet network at my house and I'll have them running through a home server or some type of RDP soon.
If I could power cycle and restart remotely that would be great.
March 03, 2012, 05:20:56 PM
D&T,
I was looking into purchasing 9 of these:
http://pdusdirect.com/power-distribution-units/switched/pdu-cw-8h2-c20m
If you can save me $350 a pop, I would buy enough for my entire farm, and future farm.
This is the last piece missing for me being able to leave town for an extended period of time.
Best,
gigavps
I was looking into purchasing 9 of these:
http://pdusdirect.com/power-distribution-units/switched/pdu-cw-8h2-c20m
If you can save me $350 a pop, I would buy enough for my entire farm, and future farm.
This is the last piece missing for me being able to leave town for an extended period of time.
Best,
gigavps
Arduino with relay board and ethernet shield works out to something like 275$ for around 40 ports. 160$ of which is relay boards, 8 of them.
Tho requires a bit of work to get running, but ought to be rather easy after that.
Not a perfect solution, but half way there.
If you use small fet's instead of relays you can cut that cost down. If you build your own boarduino you could probably get the cost down to less than $20.
March 03, 2012, 05:19:39 PM
I've done quite a bit research on this for servers, namely how to build a cluster of cheap servers on the cheap.
One option is to use Arduino with a Relay board and Ethernet Shield.
That will give you maximum of around 40 relays, depending upon model of Arduino used etc.
Parts can be sourced from: http://arduino-direct.com and eBay
Some information: http://arduino-info.wikispaces.com/ArduinoPower#4-8
As for finished product i ended up choosing IP Power 9258T and Avocent Direct PDU for initial setups for it's low buy-in price.
For KVM i ended up choosing Belkin Omniview for larger setups and Aten CS1716i for smaller setups.
For big setups Belkin Omniview works out somewhere around 30-40$ per node, depending upon do you get your gear from cheap or expensive place.
Aten CS1716i is a few $ more expensive per node only, but the Belkin also provides saner setup by the means of using CAT5 cabling
One option is to use Arduino with a Relay board and Ethernet Shield.
That will give you maximum of around 40 relays, depending upon model of Arduino used etc.
Parts can be sourced from: http://arduino-direct.com and eBay
Some information: http://arduino-info.wikispaces.com/ArduinoPower#4-8
As for finished product i ended up choosing IP Power 9258T and Avocent Direct PDU for initial setups for it's low buy-in price.
For KVM i ended up choosing Belkin Omniview for larger setups and Aten CS1716i for smaller setups.
For big setups Belkin Omniview works out somewhere around 30-40$ per node, depending upon do you get your gear from cheap or expensive place.
Aten CS1716i is a few $ more expensive per node only, but the Belkin also provides saner setup by the means of using CAT5 cabling
Back in July I built an arduino resetter that hooked to both reset and power. Had feedback to show when the computer was on/off. Temp monitoring for ambient and room temp. I wrote the GUI to interface with a control computer (yes, parallel port would probably have been easier but I had the arduino).
Right after I got it done I never needed it again. I got my rigs to the stable point where they do not shut down unless the power is lost. I was going to do an instructable but I got busy with other things.
March 03, 2012, 05:17:00 PM
D&T,
I was looking into purchasing 9 of these:
http://pdusdirect.com/power-distribution-units/switched/pdu-cw-8h2-c20m
If you can save me $350 a pop, I would buy enough for my entire farm, and future farm.
This is the last piece missing for me being able to leave town for an extended period of time.
Best,
gigavps
I was looking into purchasing 9 of these:
http://pdusdirect.com/power-distribution-units/switched/pdu-cw-8h2-c20m
If you can save me $350 a pop, I would buy enough for my entire farm, and future farm.
This is the last piece missing for me being able to leave town for an extended period of time.
Best,
gigavps
Arduino with relay board and ethernet shield works out to something like 275$ for around 40 ports. 160$ of which is relay boards, 8 of them.
Tho requires a bit of work to get running, but ought to be rather easy after that.
Not a perfect solution, but half way there.
March 03, 2012, 04:51:15 PM
D&T,
I was looking into purchasing 9 of these:
http://pdusdirect.com/power-distribution-units/switched/pdu-cw-8h2-c20m
If you can save me $350 a pop, I would buy enough for my entire farm, and future farm.
This is the last piece missing for me being able to leave town for an extended period of time.
Best,
gigavps
I was looking into purchasing 9 of these:
http://pdusdirect.com/power-distribution-units/switched/pdu-cw-8h2-c20m
If you can save me $350 a pop, I would buy enough for my entire farm, and future farm.
This is the last piece missing for me being able to leave town for an extended period of time.
Best,
gigavps
March 03, 2012, 04:32:12 PM
I've done quite a bit research on this for servers, namely how to build a cluster of cheap servers on the cheap.
One option is to use Arduino with a Relay board and Ethernet Shield.
That will give you maximum of around 40 relays, depending upon model of Arduino used etc.
Parts can be sourced from: http://arduino-direct.com and eBay
Some information: http://arduino-info.wikispaces.com/ArduinoPower#4-8
As for finished product i ended up choosing IP Power 9258T and Avocent Direct PDU for initial setups for it's low buy-in price.
For KVM i ended up choosing Belkin Omniview for larger setups and Aten CS1716i for smaller setups.
For big setups Belkin Omniview works out somewhere around 30-40$ per node, depending upon do you get your gear from cheap or expensive place.
Aten CS1716i is a few $ more expensive per node only, but the Belkin also provides saner setup by the means of using CAT5 cabling
One option is to use Arduino with a Relay board and Ethernet Shield.
That will give you maximum of around 40 relays, depending upon model of Arduino used etc.
Parts can be sourced from: http://arduino-direct.com and eBay
Some information: http://arduino-info.wikispaces.com/ArduinoPower#4-8
As for finished product i ended up choosing IP Power 9258T and Avocent Direct PDU for initial setups for it's low buy-in price.
For KVM i ended up choosing Belkin Omniview for larger setups and Aten CS1716i for smaller setups.
For big setups Belkin Omniview works out somewhere around 30-40$ per node, depending upon do you get your gear from cheap or expensive place.
Aten CS1716i is a few $ more expensive per node only, but the Belkin also provides saner setup by the means of using CAT5 cabling
March 03, 2012, 04:00:45 PM
Reset switch is not sufficient to reset some dead cards. Only a power cycle works. A reset watchdog board is not anything I'd be interested in as it would be completely useless in most situations where I need to remotely restart a rig.
I've experienced this as well (particularly after a power brownout).
I don't think you are talking about the same thing. I have experienced cases where the power switch is more reliable than the reset switch at fully restoring a machine to working condition, especially when GPUs get into funny states. I have also experienced cases where the motherboard power switch is not enough to bring the machine back up, and cutting power to the power supply is needed. I think that happens when a safety feature in the power supply triggers as a result of some power issue. It is rare enough that I don't worry about it--the motherboard power switch technique works well enough for me.
March 03, 2012, 02:36:09 PM
Reset switch is not sufficient to reset some dead cards. Only a power cycle works. A reset watchdog board is not anything I'd be interested in as it would be completely useless in most situations where I need to remotely restart a rig.
I've experienced this as well (particularly after a power brownout).
March 03, 2012, 11:11:58 AM
I could make a unit with a web control panel that could be used to control up to 8 units via the mainboard power switch pins (or reset) for about $25 retail. I would use a PIC18F86J65 controlling some FETs. It would be about 2"x1" in size. I have these microcontrollers in stock and can get boards made in a couple weeks. Since I already have a similar board design done the only real additional work involved would be the code to host a web interface.
(The similar design is for my fpga miner controller posted elsewhere on the forum).
Could likely do up to 16 computers for another $5 or so. I guess making long jumper wires would be a bit fiddly though so maybe they would be extra. But I could include a small Nokia style power adapter or it could be made to plug into a molex easily enough.
(The similar design is for my fpga miner controller posted elsewhere on the forum).
Could likely do up to 16 computers for another $5 or so. I guess making long jumper wires would be a bit fiddly though so maybe they would be extra. But I could include a small Nokia style power adapter or it could be made to plug into a molex easily enough.
Now we're talking.
That's a reasonable price!
Do yourself a favor and source cables from China, for instance via Winstronics http://www.winsusa.com/ instead of soldering or crimping them
yourself.
March 03, 2012, 09:57:09 AM
Reset switch is not sufficient to reset some dead cards. Only a power cycle works. A reset watchdog board is not anything I'd be interested in as it would be completely useless in most situations where I need to remotely restart a rig.
March 03, 2012, 03:47:02 AM
I could make a unit with a web control panel that could be used to control up to 8 units via the mainboard power switch pins (or reset) for about $25 retail. I would use a PIC18F86J65 controlling some FETs. It would be about 2"x1" in size. I have these microcontrollers in stock and can get boards made in a couple weeks. Since I already have a similar board design done the only real additional work involved would be the code to host a web interface.
(The similar design is for my fpga miner controller posted elsewhere on the forum).
Could likely do up to 16 computers for another $5 or so. I guess making long jumper wires would be a bit fiddly though so maybe they would be extra. But I could include a small Nokia style power adapter or it could be made to plug into a molex easily enough.
(The similar design is for my fpga miner controller posted elsewhere on the forum).
Could likely do up to 16 computers for another $5 or so. I guess making long jumper wires would be a bit fiddly though so maybe they would be extra. But I could include a small Nokia style power adapter or it could be made to plug into a molex easily enough.
March 03, 2012, 03:45:06 AM
Oh god yes dude! I totally support your project, and I'll be the first buyer. 
March 03, 2012, 02:15:28 AM
Please realize that few, if any, people will need 8 individually switched outlets.
Thank you.
Thank you.
There are plenty of people on this forum that have multiple mining rigs. Those USB switched outlets are great for a few rigs, but they'll start getting expensive (combined with the fact that you'd also start needing a USB port for each).
The OP asked if people were interested in a board. I don't recall him asking for snide remarks.
I'd be interested in some boards if the software was right. If we're looking for something that just hits the reset switch on the board though, they can easily be built from parts at iorelay (and they make expandable units).
March 03, 2012, 01:24:27 AM
You could make a little board that has a relay (or multiple relays for multiple machines) that shorts the motherboard reset switch. Make it controlled by a serial or parallel port of another machine, so you don't need high tech network hardware, just log into another always-on machine or a $20 used POS laptop and send the port the reset command.
Here's a page for making easy parallel port circuits: http://www.epanorama.net/circuits/parallel_output.html#relaycontrol
Pretend I just made one, hook up your reset switch leads to each machine here:
Here's a page for making easy parallel port circuits: http://www.epanorama.net/circuits/parallel_output.html#relaycontrol
Building your own relay controlling circuits
The following circuit is the simples interface you can use to control relay from parallel port:
Vcc
|
+------+
| __|__
Relay /^\ Diode 1N4002
Coil /---\
| |
+------+
|
| /
4.7K B |/ C
parallel port >-\/\/\/\/---| NPN Transistor: BC547A or 2N2222A
data pi |\ E
| V
|
parallel port >--------------+
ground pin |
Ground
Pretend I just made one, hook up your reset switch leads to each machine here:
March 03, 2012, 01:16:58 AM
For my remote systems, it's always nice to go issue a remote physical power-on and off reboot should something crash. I was really thinking of how to do this aside from setting up and testing WOL.
If a simple box / interface that is hooked up to the machine(s) could cycle them off and on remotely if necessary that'd be great.
I'm interested to see how this works out. For $100 that's not bad at all to invest in.
OK, PM me how many you want, I'll buy them at Amazon for $24.54 (see my previous post), mark them up to $100 and resell them to you.
Maybe you have trouble reading so I'll help you.
Quote
Can physically power on, power off, and power cycle up to 8 rigs (multiple boards could be used to control more rigs)
So you going to buy him 8 for $200 and mark it down to $100? Your a nice guy.
Please realize that few, if any, people will need 8 individually switched outlets.
Thank you.
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