[rescue] Network aware power switch?

[Geoffrey S. Mendelson]

Lionel Peterson wrote:
> Ideally, a network aware power switch could be a zero U solution,
> whereas a UPS solution as yuo describe would be a multi U solution,
> since both the UPS and the computer/terminal server would each occupy
> space...

Thinking about this, you could make a nice box from an old PC, or an
off the shelf development board that was the equivalent. Some examples:

Joystick port: a standard PC joystick port has 4 a/d converters that
read 0-255 from 0-5 volts.

Serial port: control lines DTR, RTS, which give +-12volts, and DSR,CTS
which read them.

Parallel port: At least 4 lines in and 8 lines out, RTL logic (remember
that?)

Most of them come with Linux, but there are xBSD ports for many of them.

What would be neat is to get a board with ethernet, 4 serial, and 4 USB.
It could be a terminal server for 4 serial consoles and control 4
USB interfaced UPSs.

One such board I'm interested in has an 266mHz x86, 64m ram 64m flash and
sells for about $400 off the shelf here. Buying it in the U.S. would
probably cut the cost to $200 and if you bought 10 of them $150.

Using an ARM processor would also cut the cost, but not here due to 
"funny" pricing by the vendor unless you by 100 or more.
(They want a minimum profit before they provide support).

If you had contacts in Tiawan, you probably could get them for a lot
less, especialy with an ARM processor.   

Geoff.

-- 
Geoffrey S. Mendelson gsm at mendelson.com 972-54-608-069
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