WTI remote power strip: Difference between revisions

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I have a Western Telematics, Inc RPB+ remote power strip. I picked it up on eBay.
I have a Western Telematics, Inc RPB+ remote power strip. I picked it up on eBay.


Currently I control it from Bellman to remotely power up [[Dart]], which is set to "power up after power failure" in BIOS. That means I can use "sudo poweroff" to cleanly shutdown and then use the powerstrip's BOOT command to power  
It's a power strip with an RS232 port on it.
cycle it when I want to bring it back online. Since this server is big, and I don't use it all the time, this makes
my power bill lower.


On the outside:
On the outside:
* 5 switched AC outlets, individually controllable
* 5 switched AC outlets, individually controllable
* Can switch up to 15A on one port, up to 15A for all ports.
* Can switch up to 15A on one port, up to 15A for all ports.
* 9 pin RS232 port (you need a null modem cable to connect)
* 9 pin RS232 port (use a null modem cable to connect)
* Dip switch for setting baud rate
* Dip switch for setting baud rate
* An LED for each outlet on the front panel to indicate power on state.  
* An LED for each outlet on the front panel to indicate power on state.  
'''MORE''' LEDs, Julie will ''not'' love that. My equipment rack has more LEDs than a Yule tree.


Inside it has:
Inside it has:
Line 29: Line 25:


To substitute a flash device I could drop in a 16F628A, then I'd get
To substitute a flash device I could drop in a 16F628A, then I'd get
3.5k of RAM and 224 bytes of RAM.
3.5k of RAM and 224 bytes of RAM. To do that though I'd need to understand
what it's doing. Instead I plan on removing the ADM232, and adding an ESP32-Wrover-IE.
I can drill a hole in the front panel to fit an external antenna; otherwise no signal
will be going through the aluminum case. This will give me WiFi control of 5 devices.


== Operation ==
== Normal operation ==


Manual [[File:wti_power_strip.pdf]]
Manual [[File:wti_power_strip.pdf]]

Revision as of 05:17, 1 January 2022

I have a Western Telematics, Inc RPB+ remote power strip. I picked it up on eBay.

It's a power strip with an RS232 port on it.

On the outside:

  • 5 switched AC outlets, individually controllable
  • Can switch up to 15A on one port, up to 15A for all ports.
  • 9 pin RS232 port (use a null modem cable to connect)
  • Dip switch for setting baud rate
  • An LED for each outlet on the front panel to indicate power on state.

Inside it has:

  • a PIC 16C56 microcontroller, in a socket
  • 5 nice relays and associated drivers to interface to PIC
  • a 555 timer
  • an ADM232 on the serial port
  • a power supply

A PIC 16C56 has:

  • 18 pin DIP
  • 1.5K memory
  • 25 bytes of RAM (whew! takes my breath away!)
  • 1 8-bit timer
  • It's OTP = one time programmable

To substitute a flash device I could drop in a 16F628A, then I'd get 3.5k of RAM and 224 bytes of RAM. To do that though I'd need to understand what it's doing. Instead I plan on removing the ADM232, and adding an ESP32-Wrover-IE. I can drill a hole in the front panel to fit an external antenna; otherwise no signal will be going through the aluminum case. This will give me WiFi control of 5 devices.

Normal operation

Manual File:Wti power strip.pdf

There are DIP switches to set serial port rate. I keep it at 9600.

From bellman,

minicom --device /dev/ttyS0

The prompt is RPB+>

The menu should come up. If it does not try typing "/S", that gives you status.

  1. Dart

The basic command is "/n ON | OFF | BOOT", where "n" is a port number 1-5.

BOOT powers down, pauses, then powers up.