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Remote mains sockets


tekkydave

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Hi,

Is anyone aware of any remote-control mains sockets that use the mains wiring to carry the control signal?

There are loads of wireless ones around but I need one that uses the mains wiring to do the controlling bit. The reason is my observing PC will be in a metal shed (google "Faraday Cage") so the wireless ones probably won't penetrate. I want to be able to turn it on/off from the house to access it from my office PC but I don't want to leave it running all the time. There is mains in there already and there will be a network connection of some sort either ethernet or wifi via an external antenna (not tested yet).

Any suggestions gratefully received.

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This reminds me of a time we needed EM isolation for some sensitive equipment we were using at work. Faraday cage we thought. That'll do it. So we lined a small room with aluminium sheets. Useless! Absolutely useless! It made no bloomin' difference to EM interference. We solved it in the end. A little bit of reading revealed that to make a good Faraday cage you need to provide complete electrical conductivity over the whole cage. Bolting aluminium sheets together wasn't good enough. They had to be linked with strips of copper sheet. Then it worked.

So you might be OK. Unless of course you already know you aren't. Can you use one of those mains broadband extenders?

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There are some wifi ones that are cheaper, 30 pounds in maplins. One of those posts above has a 75 pound one but you'd still need an ethernet connection.

I thought 75 pounds was quite resonable! I did a power box running an arduino, 12v power, 8 relays and ethernet shield, and that costs probably about the same.

Sent from my GT-N5110 using Tapatalk

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I will probably end up running ethernet at some point but wifi is a temporary solution. I am typing this inside the shed but I can only connect to the house wifi by trailing a lead outside to a 7db antenna. It is useable but I'll have to make the antena waterproof if I want to leave it out. If I run a cat5e cable I can use a spare pair to talk to an arduino or even use a 1-wire microlan controlling a relay. The project possibilities here are endless. I am hoping to find a simple (and cheap) plug-in and go solution.

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This reminds me of a time we needed EM isolation for some sensitive equipment we were using at work. Faraday cage we thought. That'll do it. So we lined a small room with aluminium sheets. Useless! Absolutely useless! It made no bloomin' difference to EM interference. We solved it in the end. A little bit of reading revealed that to make a good Faraday cage you need to provide complete electrical conductivity over the whole cage. Bolting aluminium sheets together wasn't good enough. They had to be linked with strips of copper sheet. Then it worked.

So you might be OK. Unless of course you already know you aren't. Can you use one of those mains broadband extenders?

No, tried it and zero signal inside the shed even with door open. I already use a pair of powerline devices to connect my office (upstairs) to the BT router (downstairs). I have never managed to add a third device into the network, it just never works otherwise that would be the simplest solution.

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