Can you use a power saving power strip with Raspberry Pi?

elsmandino

Hi,

I am looking to try and save a bit of power on my living room set up and was wondering whether a power saver strip would help in my situation.

I have a Raspberry Pi, connected to an A/V amplifier and then to a TV.

Ideally, when the Pi goes into a lower power mode, the power strip will automatically cut the power to the amp and the TV.

Will this work?

The reason I am asking is that the Pi is pretty low powered anyway and I was wondering whether the difference in power draw will be enough to allow it to cut the power to the other peripherals.

Thanks

pappa_golf

define "power strip" , IE: describe what you mean or link to a similar item

elsmandino

Sorry - something like this:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Belkin-Energy-Saving-Smart-Power/dp/B003WK62WU

pappa_golf

I don,t think that a "pi" running thru a 1a charger will trigger that device


however amazon do a return setup so might be worth trying


PS: it kills power when the unit is turned off , not whilst in low power mode

aerostar

Also beware of turning the PI off without shutting it down correctly, doing so can garble the SD card, and you then have booting probs.

paddyrg

I think you're right that the Pi will draw so little current that the power strip won't be able to tell reliably when it's on or off!

Instead you could try one of the remote control plugs?

kwikbreaks

aerostar wrote: »

Also beware of turning the PI off without shutting it down correctly, doing so can garble the SD card, and you then have booting probs.

While this is essentially good advice my own Pis seem to survive power cycling without complaint.

elsmandino

Thanks for your replies.

Fortunately, SD corruption will not be an issue as I wanted to plug the Pi into the socket that monitors power usage (so the Pi would never turn off).

I was hoping, therefore, that the socket would sense that the Pi had gone into a lower power mode and then cut the power to the TV and the amp. Whenever I come to use the Pi again, I would simply wake it with the remote and then TV and amp would flip back on automatically.

As mentioned above, I am starting to have reservations about whether the socket works with drops in powerstates rather than being on or on standby - I did read that it can work with desktop computers going into sleep mode but this might be because of the significantly larger difference in power draw.

The remote control plug is a good option but I was really hoping to have the Pi control the powercut (especially if I fall asleep in front of the TV when watching a film).

It is odd that there is seemingly no elegant solution to this.

The only option I have found might be this:

https://energenie4u.co.uk/catalogue/category/Raspberry-Pi-Accessories

I cannot tell for sure but these accessories seem to suggest that you can control power strips with a Pi but only if you are using it as part of a home automation system.

If somehow the Kodi (Openelec) software on the Pi could utilise this, it could be the perfect (and perhaps only) solution.

This is well beyond my technological knowledge though - does anyone know whether this might work?

paddyrg

So the plan is to watch a film, fall asleep, and let the home electronics turn off the TV and any other devices. It's not a bad plan, but potentially easier solutions - the Pi is a development board and programmable computer - perhaps it could (with the help of an IR LED) just send the remote control 'off' command to the TV? Maybe control a relay for the lamps? Sidesteps the whole proprietary home automation security clusterf that is the current state of the IoT market?

Mirno

If you were based in the US then:
http://www.pwrusb.com/index.html
Would be an option - it looks like an interesting idea for home automation, so hopefully it won't be too long until something similar is available in the UK.

S0litaire

take a look here for ideas :
https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/controlling-electrical-sockets-with-energenie-pi-mote/