Power management - or the lack thereof...

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

Hey guys,

What is everyone doing these days to deal with the power needs of all the stuff in your workstation? I have at least ten pieces needing power at my desk, including the phone, speakers, subwoofer, monitor, USB expander, two desk lights, etc. etc.

When we bought our first computer almost 20 years ago, it came with a desktop power director like this:



Basically your monitor sits on top of it, and all the peripherals plug into the back of it. (Naturally, it doesn’t have enough outlets, so there are a few three-ways added.) There is a switch for each plug, and a master switch. I modified mine to have one of the switches separate from the master switch, for my desk lights. I don’t need them on during the day, and I can use them at night even with the computer off.

The thing is getting old and a few of the switches are getting funky, and I’d like to replace it. But no one seems to make this kind of stuff anymore. I really only use the master and the light switch, but it’s really handy to have them right there in front of me, not down on the floor somewhere.

So, what is everyone doing these days for their power management? With my wife’s desk, I ended up bolting a power strip to the bottom of her desk in easy reach, for lack of something better. Naturally, all these plugs and wires are hanging off of it. I hate exposed wiring. There has to be a more elegant solution!

Regards,
Wayne

[Danny]

The closest thing i've seen to what you're talking about is a rack mount power distribution system - but that only has 1 master switch

[Otto]

Hi Wayne,

I think you're looking for something like this. Looks like it has five individual switches, and one master. $16 at amazon.com.

http://www.amazon.com/POWER-CENTER-W...6?ie=UTF8&s=hi

Hope that helps!

[khellandros66]

Wayne,

Grab yourself a nice APC Battery Backup system. Stuff like Speakers, etc can be plugged into the "surge only" side and your PC, Monitor, Printer, Router, etc that holds settings go into the "Battery Backup" side.

I use an APC 350va one for my HT. I have my PC, Receiver, 400disk DVD changer, and Comcast box on it I have no issues at all.

~Bob

[lcaillo]

Otto wrote:

Hi Wayne,

I think you're looking for something like this. Looks like it has five individual switches, and one master. $16 at amazon.com.

http://www.amazon.com/POWER-CENTER-W...6?ie=UTF8&s=hi

Hope that helps!

I'd look twice at this. It has a joule rating of only 90 and only modem line protection. You want a lot higher energy dissipation rating and protection for every line entering the system. Look at the surge suppressor thread that I started. There are some good values there.

[lcaillo]

khellandros66 wrote:

Wayne,

Grab yourself a nice APC Battery Backup system. Stuff like Speakers, etc can be plugged into the "surge only" side and your PC, Monitor, Printer, Router, etc that holds settings go into the "Battery Backup" side.

I use an APC 350va one for my HT. I have my PC, Receiver, 400disk DVD changer, and Comcast box on it I have no issues at all.

~Bob

Be sure to check the specs on the surge suppression on a UPS, and look carefully at the power rating. They often have insufficient xurge suppression and don't cover all of the lines connected to the system. Make sure the va rating is sufficient for all of the equipment. Also, be aware that some devices don't like the power that they produce or interact badly with them. Our advice is always not to use them unless you really need battery backup and stick with good basic surge suppression. You will likely save money, headaches, and better protect your system.

[Otto]

lcaillo wrote:

I'd look twice at this. It has a joule rating of only 90 and only modem line protection. You want a lot higher energy dissipation rating and protection for every line entering the system. Look at the surge suppressor thread that I started. There are some good values there.

Agreed. Plug this thing into a nice surge suppressor, and just use this for power management.

[brucek]

Wayne says:

I hate exposed wiring. There has to be a more elegant solution!

Mmmmm, better stay away from my house then... What do you suggest?




brucek

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

brucek wrote:

Mmmmm, better stay away from my house then... What do you suggest? brucek

Hee hee – Nice try, brucek! If it’s all behind the gear and not readily visible, then I don’t consider it “exposed!”

Otto,

Thanks for the link. I may look into that (I’m not worried about surge protection at all.)

khellandros66 wrote:

Wayne,

Grab yourself a nice APC Battery Backup system. Stuff like Speakers, etc can be plugged into the "surge only" side and your PC, Monitor, Printer, Router, etc that holds settings go into the "Battery Backup" side.

Actually I do have an APC – I have another thread on this Forum about finding replacement batteries for it. However, it says it’s only rated for computer loads. Plus it only has a few outlets.

Actually, it occurred to me shortly after I opened the thread that I could easily use a pro-audio conditioner/power strip, like this (I think this is what Danny was talking about?):






Furman’s PL Plus web page

The black switch on the left side of the front is for the built-in rack lights, complete with a dimmer. It wouldn’t take much to re-wire the switch to one of the rear plugs, and bypass the built-in lights (the don’t serve any purpose in this application). Then I’d have my separate switches for the computer and peripherals and the desk lighting.

Sad thing is, I had one of these things laying around doing nothing, and gave it way just last week!

I may look at Panamax; I know they used to make similar units for home theater power management. They probably still do. The upside there would be no rack ears, but I’m sure they don’t have the light switch...

Regards,
Wayne

[Wayne A. Pflughaupt]

A belated update. I actually did this quite a while back – finally got a picture of it for everyone to see what I did.

I managed to get my old Furman back (don’t ask) and did some internal rewiring for the task at hand.

Basically, I separated one of the rear outlets from the Master switch (the lighted one on the right). The “Lights” switch (on the left) is supposed to be for the slide-out rack lights (the two round things on either side of the LED voltage meter). They were useless for this application, so I disconnected them and connected the separated outlet to the switch.

Since the rack lights are only a few watts each, and the switch doesn’t look terribly substantial, so I was worried about it carrying a couple of 60-watt bulbs. But the labeling on the side of it said it was good for 200 watts, if I recall. So we were good to go there. There is a dimmer for the rack lights, but I couldn’t find a rating for it, so I played it safe and just bypassed it. It’s pretty dinky-looking, so I’m sure that was the right thing to do. Too bad – that would have been a nice feature to have!

In the meantime, Sonnie turned me on to the BFD 1124 with the living room system downstairs, and after trying it out on my Swans and baby M&K sub computer system, I decided I had have one up here, too. So I eBay’d an older 1100. While I was at it, I also made some custom cabling using Canare stock and Neutrik RCAs to connect it to the system, which includes the Soundblaster card I got for REW (hey, might as well do something with it when I’m not measuring subwoofers!).

I had always intended to mount the Furman under the desk, so after I got the BFD it just made sense to mount them together. So, I fabricated a pair of faux rack ears out of some aluminum flat-bar stock I had in the garage. All the wiring is tie-wrapped up under the desk, behind the “rack.” Nice and clean and out of sight.

Also while I was at it, I did a little modification to my desk to deal with the pile of wires that was underneath it. You can see in the picture, not a wire in sight under the desk any more. So, I’m a happy camper!

All in all, I’m very pleased with the outcome. The only downside is that my leg bumps the “rack” every now and then, but I’ll be going with a new desk in the next few weeks that’s a foot wider, so that will take care of that.

Regards,
Wayne

Computer desk set up 2.jpg