How many use "smart" (master/slave) power strips on their vintage gear?

[Chuck(G)]

Title pretty much says it all. About the time that VGA monitors began to appear, the ubiquitous switched power outlet on the back of PC power supplies disappeared. Some monitors could detect loss of sync and power down, but many others just kept right on trucking.
But even if you have a "smart" monitor, there's the not-very-insignificant issue of "vampire power", which can run into the tens of watts.
There are fairly inexpensive things called "master/slave" power strips that sense the current draw through one outlet and switch several "slave" outlets to track that. Very handy if you have a component sound system, but also quite handy if you have a number of peripherals on your system.

How many folks use these? Just curious, since there seems to be no shortage of them in both UK/EU 220V and North American 120V ones.

Just picked up two new ones for $20 shipped off of eBay. They include surge suppresor circuitry as well.

 

[Eudimorphodon]

I wonder if someone like Big Clive has done a teardown of the eBay cheap-ies to see what risks to life and limb are lurking inside. (I mean, I guess there might be less inherent risks to human life than something like a phone charger since you're not relying on decent separation between low voltage plugs and wall currents, but never underestimate the potential fallout of sheer cheapness. I'm guessing at that price the "surge suppressor" is just an MOV or similar...) Other than that concern it sounds like a pretty interesting idea.

How quickly do the slave outlets turn on when you power up the thing on the control outlet? Back in the day some modular home computers had documentation that recommended turning on certain peripherals before the main unit. Which *shrug*, I guess you could handle by plugging one of those peripherals into the control outlet instead of the computer.

 

[Unknown_K]

I think the electric company sent me one of those strips when they sent me some free LED bulbs and nightlights a while back. Have yet to use it.

 

[Chuck(G)]

I'm sure that the "surge suppressor" is nothing more than a MOV; i.e. pretty useless for a real surge. Lots of circuits on the web for these things; I've yet to pop one open to see what's being used. Even thought of making my own with a current-sense transformer, some active circuitry and a relay. But at $10 the each, it's hardly worth it.

 

[commodorejohn]

I just have one of those vintage '90s monitor-stand switchable power-strip things.

 

[Ruud]

All my equipment ends up in one power strip with one on/off button. The moment I leave my room this switch makes sure that no device is consuming power anymore, thus saving money (yes, I am Dutch) and I can claim I am being green a bit. Having a double pole switch, I can be quite sure that I'm save for lightning as well.
As an extra my room is divided in three "compartments": if I don't need any device in such a compartment, this compartment stays off. But the main reason for having these compartments: before my automatic fuse blew so now and then. After the compartmentalization: never.

 

[Timo W.]

All my equipment ends up in one power strip with one on/off button. The moment I leave my room this switch makes sure that no device is consuming power anymore, thus saving money (yes, I am Dutch) and I can claim I am being green a bit. Having a double pole switch, I can be quite sure that I'm save for lightning as well.

Doing exactly the same here.

It's not safe for lightning, however. Even 230v can already arc over a few millimeters. The million of volts from a lightning strike have no issue jumping over the power switch. Note that "double pole switch" has no meaning here, as Earth is still connected and that's where the voltage comes in. It will arc thru the open switch and kill anything connected if you are unlucky.

I switch the circuit breaker if a thunderstorm is too close, or unplug the power strip - depends on the room.

 

[vwestlife]

I go old-school and use one of these:

 

[Agent Orange]

I go old-school and use one of these:

I have a similar Tandy from the 80's and it's still in use.

 

[NeXT]

I have one branded by Staples that is hanging off my Silicon Graphics O2. Saves me having to reach behind the SCSI disk box and Magneto optical drive and it will turn them on and off if I schedule the system to turn on or if I am working remotely.

 

[Chuck(G)]

Much of my equipment is on an older HP PDU--120V 30A in and 4x15A breakers on each of the 7 outlet power strips. I just flip the master breaker on the thing.

 

[ClassicHasClass]

Some UPSes have this, like APC. I still prefer the older "two outlet" PSUs, though. I hang other external devices off them like terminals and optical drives.

 

[Chuck(G)]

When I was running the big fixed-frequency Mitsubishi monitors off of my EGA adapter, I canibalized part of a power strip and added an AC relay, run from the second outlet on the PSU. I didn't trust the power handling of that second outlet.