Wouldn't all of this seem to be better served by a simple USB relay to put the pins of the power switch on the mobo high for the 10 seconds needed to tell it to shut off now, dammit?
Man, I got
options.
That would be pretty easily doable with an arduino or similar, and gets rid of the relay-failure problem. Its also a hell of a lot safer, we miners get enough high-current play in the breaker box!
X10 isn't a bad idea either, I forgot about those
I built one with an arduino. I even wrote a GUI so that you could log into a control computer (Teamviewer) and press power/reset, it even indicates when power turns on. The pins on the power switch just ground when turning on so you can just use a transistor or a relay (I used a transistor).
Also, the design a couple thermistors also so I could monitor ambient temps remotely also (not yet completed in code but very simple).
I am sure you could eliminate the control computer and just wire in a network interface also but it was much easier in my case to just write the program and build the arduino shield.
I have yet to have a miner lock up to the point where I actually needed to cycle the AC to get it to restart, physical reset with the buttons always works.
The plan was to release the code and the design on the forum I just have not got around to it yet. It is a very simple "Processing" code using the Arduino mega with "Firmata" firmware. The most expensive part is the arduino at $65. If you ever felt the need to also cycle the AC power the circuit could be very easily modified to switch SSR's or Mechanical relays.
