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We are using THIS USB CONTROLLED POWER STRIP[^] to control a household appliance. (We are simulating a power outage)
According to the specs, the device can handle 8 amps.
Our appliance can draw that much at one time.
This device was about the only thing I found from searching the internet (at which, I am admittedly, NOT the world's leading expert)
Boss told me to go find one that can do 16.
I suppose 19.9 would be the ideal.
Anyway, I welcome suggestions from those who have knowledge and experience with other similar devices.
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You already have a 8 amp source that you can control with a USB port; use it to control a larger relay. You'll have to build a box, probably, and buy a large relay (called a contactor, often), but they're readily available. Any electrical supply house can provide you with a box, power cord, an outlet for your appliance and a contactor. An ideal solution would be an inexpensive single phase motor starter. Connect your appliance to the contactor or starter, connect the coil to your power strip, and use the USB port to switch it on and off. The advantage of using a starter rather than a contactor is that the starter usually comes with an overcurrent protection circuit built in, and usually sports a couple of auxilliary contacts you can use to turn indicator lights on and off for status monitoring. But you pay for that, of course.
Will Rogers never met me.
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I can imagine the look on his face as your telling him all this: He'd be staring at you, not moving, maybe the eyebrows raise a bit here and there. You finish and the stare lingers for a heartbeat before he turns back to his computer and types
https://google.com?q=18.9V+USE+Power+Stri<blink>_
cheers
Chris Maunder
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You forgot to mention the trickle of drool from one side of the OP's mouth.
But that's okay. It will all become clear next lesson when we discuss thyristors triggered by Josephson junction-based super-conducting qubits. The obvious advantages far outweigh any cost considerations. The step from there to relay logic and ladder programming is quite simple, after all.
Will Rogers never met me.
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Does anyone use relay logic and ladder programming anymore?
Heck, do today's kids even know the meaning of these terms?
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Yes, I have to once in a while. It's a bit fun if you have the time to study it.
Will Rogers never met me.
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It's very much alive and well. I never saw it in my life until our company took over management of the tribe's water and sewer operations. Everything in those businesses is run by relays and programming is documented on ladder diagrams. It's baffling until you learn to view it as a pseudoschematic of a logic circuit.
Will Rogers never met me.
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A company called Steeplechase Systems developed a complete replacement for Programmable Logic Controllers (PLCs) using a PC as the controller and using a flowchart to describe the operations. The flowchart directly compiles to code.... no need to code in faaaarkking Embedded C or any such crap.
They were based in Ann Arbor, MI and were trying to sell them to automobile manufacturers who have huge assembly lines controlled by hundreds of PLCs.
The sensors and actuators and have to be there but the logic of operating the latter is abstracted into a program. The relays through which signals cascaded were replaced in the 1960s by PLCs and in the late 1990s by software.
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You sound like all my old Maths professors: "The step from there to relay logic and ladder programming is quite simple, after all. The proof is left as an exercise for the reader"
cheers
Chris Maunder
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How do you manage to get any?
I'm very curious as to how you mentally discipline yourself. Put another way, convince yourself...
Charlie Gilley
<italic>You're going to tell me what I want to know, or I'm going to beat you to death in your own house.
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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When I first started as a contractor back in 1847 I steadfastly refused to take any time off; reasoning that time off == money lost. The most I would do was a week and then only if at least one of the days was a public holiday that I didn't get paid for anyway.
But then I realized that time off == better work. Besides, I got to the point where I had an annual budget which aimed to work at least 44 weeks in any year; more if possible but I would be okay at 44.
So started to take more time off; first 2 weeks, then 3 then 4 at a time and it made no real difference. I still made the money I wanted to and had some great vacations.
Moral of this tale: take time off: it will make you a better worker. 
"If you think it's expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur." Red Adair.
Those who seek perfection will only find imperfection
nils illegitimus carborundum
me, me, me
me, in pictures
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I'm there. It's taken a while, and its eerily similar your thought process to mine - 1 week off == expense of paying for the vacation, plus the loss of billing time.
I live near a large lake, and I love to sail. I'm at the point now where I happily dream of taking a week or two or three off and just sail back and forth.
Charlie Gilley
<italic>You're going to tell me what I want to know, or I'm going to beat you to death in your own house.
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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I'm exactly at that point. Started early February last year. So far I managed to take one week for christmas and new year's celebrations. But I don't see taking another week any time soon.
But I do plant to get where you are, eventually.
To alcohol! The cause of, and solution to, all of life's problems - Homer Simpson
----
Our heads are round so our thoughts can change direction - Francis Picabia
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It's pretty easy. I tend to work by front loading my hours so that I ramp up a couple of months before a holiday so that I can clear off my desk and get rid of a lot of the crap work. Then I mark the time in the schedule and make sure that this is down as "Do not disturb time". For instance, I'm off to Tenerife this Friday for a week - I have one more reasonable task to do this week and then that's it - I log off on Thursday at 5PM and any issues can wait until the Monday I get back to work.
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Every hour spent not making money is a wasted hour.
I have my main day job, and run two personal businesses, a stationery company (although it now has 60,000+ lines of products including PPE, Security Equipment, Site Materials, Tooling, Janitorial and Premises Management Supplies and more), and a CCTV and Premises Security Company.
I also have investments and rental properties.
I realise at the moment I cannot take any time off, and it is likely to be that way for at least another couple of years.
Once I get to >£1,000,000 I shall start motioning toward winding down the hard work and taking it easy.
Until then it is Work Work Work.
---------------------------------
Obscurum per obscurius.
Ad astra per alas porci.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur .
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I used to think more like this. But life is very uncertain. What you put off may never happen. With that in mind I'll be on vacation in Aruba 10 days from now
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Have a great time, Aruba is fantastic.
---------------------------------
Obscurum per obscurius.
Ad astra per alas porci.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur .
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I work straight for 6 months then take 3 year vacation 
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6 months planning the heist.
3 years in prison when it goes wrong?
---------------------------------
Obscurum per obscurius.
Ad astra per alas porci.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum videtur .
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I've done something similar a time or two. Course the state called it unemployment.
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You have to be looking for work to be unemployed
and most unemployed are not worth a couple million, and have multiple 1000+ acre properties
I own three companies
My companies are setup so I only need to monitor them
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Colborne_Greg wrote: You have to be looking for work to be unemployed
Well by that definition I was only unemployed for about 2 weeks then.
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That is the definition is which defines the unemployment rate
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Colborne_Greg wrote: You have to be looking for work to be unemployed
and most unemployed are not worth a couple million, and have multiple 1000+ acre properties
I own three companies
My companies are setup so I only need to monitor them
Skite...
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