[mythtv-users] Harmony 700?

[Tortise]

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Gabe Rubin" <gaberubin at gmail.com>
To: "Discussion about MythTV" <mythtv-users at mythtv.org>
Sent: Saturday, October 23, 2010 1:10 PM
Subject: Re: [mythtv-users] Harmony 700?


On Fri, Oct 22, 2010 at 4:57 PM, Tortise <tortise at paradise.net.nz> wrote:
>> If it also solved the standby power consumption issue I'd probably agree. I don't believe it does though?

>Are you talking about "phantom" power draw, when you turn a device off, but it is not really off?

Yes

>How would your solution solve that?

A mains relay (part of what I described) completely disconnects the power, including the standby (as you call it "phantom") power 
drain.

> I thought short of actually unplugging a device it will always draw some power

True. That's what I am talking about, using a relay to effectively unplug them.  I measured some of my FE PC's draw 25W in standby, 
when off.  (Pentium 3000 class machines, later C2D machines typ pull less and the ions will likely pull less again, however it all 
adds up...) That is the PC only, before the TV (+17.5W) and sound system drains (+2.4W) are also added in is about 45W all the time. 
Gets worst when you clone and scale this setup around the house.

>which is negligible.

Is 250W all the time negligible?   Five front ends become 250W drain all the time.....doing nothing other than holding a suspended 
OS (ready to resume) and making WOL functionality available.  I typically forget to turn the sound system off, which then 
continuously pulls 70W.  I have a few other all the time connected pc's also pulling the same power waste stunt.   I suggest quite a 
signficiant hidden cost lives in our ATX / standby systems.

> If not, the Harmony will shut off all my devices when I press power (except my mythbox, which I leave on at all times, but you 
> could certainly have it shut that off as well).

I believe it shuts down into suspend mode only, and often pulls more power than one realises, unless of course you regard the above 
power use as negligible?   The setup I described would pull truly negligible power, a few milli amps at a few volts ~ 0.06W.  Now 
that's what I call negligible.