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Using a timed mains switch

B

Basjoe

Member
I recently went on holiday for a fortnight, and the second night I was away the Humax locked up, and thus the remaining schedule was not recorded. B*gger. This got me to thinking about using a simple mains timer switch to switch off the HDR-FOX T2 at, say 03:00 (I never schedule recordings at this time of night) and back on again a few minutes later. That way, I would only ever lose a maximum of 24 hours of recordings (unless the lock-ups continued of course).

My concern here, is about what people think about how this implementation might stress the Hummy's components. And can anyone see any other problems this might cause ?

Best Regards
Basjoe
 
Might be best to avoid powering it down completely around 04:30 hrs though, as that is when the box is brought out of standby for housekeeping task.
 
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Another suggestion.

I have several Belkin WeMo mains switches. One of which is used to power on/off a device that is very hard to 'get at'.

You can activate these via the Internet using the Belkin app, or by using the IFTTT service.

If you use one of these or a similar device, you don't really need to power cycle the Hummy on a regular basis, just when you know that you have an issue with it. I.E. When you get a message from the RS Service informing you that you Humax has not been 'seen' in a while.

HTH.
 
Some might regard it as a positive advantage to have the power off at 0430 - the "housekeeping" you refer to is only a search for new bugs to download, and not anything vital.
 
Basjoe I do exactly as you describe.
I have a plug-in time switch set to go off at 2am and as I do not have any recordings set during the day, Monday to Friday, come on again at 5pm. On at !pm weekends.

I believe that as the unit is in standby the stress at off time should be minimal. I have been using this method, with various PVRs, for many years without any problems. I also make minor power savings and hopefully the power off hours cancel out any stress caused at power on, maybe someone else can answer that better than I ?
 
I don't think it's fair to use what I might have said on a different forum against me, and it was appropriate in context.
 
Black Hole said:
I don't think it's fair to use what I might have said on a different forum against me, and it was appropriate in context.
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Oh really ? "might have said" doesn't even come into it. I merely quoted what you "did" say in order to highlight just how unnecessary your question was, ( if it was ever intended to be a real question.)
What exactly were you trying to achieve, if not to antagonise ?
Black Hole said:
What housekeeping task?
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Regardless of what you care to call it (I did not choose housekeeping, I believe that is Humax terminology), the box does wake up to perform certain tasks as determined by Humax, at a predetermined time. I merely reminded the OP of that fact (which was also appropriate in context).
It should be me who should be complaining about fairness, not you. I gave advice to the OP, just as you did. It's not a competiton, and there are no prizes for the best answer. You don't have sole rights to give advice on this forum, nor do you make executive decisions about what is good or bad advice. And as to choosing correct terminology, let's not even go there unless you want to start yet another flame war on that subject.
 
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Well, to conclude:
BH responded to raydon's helping the OP totally unjustified by "questioning" the term. Now we all know why he did that . for the newbies benefit, there have been wars between the two. Why do I say unjustified? because it is off topic.
Now
I have received valuable help from both of these: BH and raydon so I do consider them equally helpful.
Now, what would it take to shake hands and move on? a beer? ten?

And now on subject:
I saw in reviews of Belkin WeMo that if the plug looses connection, you've had it for the rest of the holiday. There was a suggestion that some other plugs self heal. Anyone knows of any such a thing?
 
All I can say is that I have got 4 WeMo 'plugs' and never had that issue.

I have had cause to re-jig my network on occasion, including a time when I even replaced my router from an Apple Extreme to a Netgear Nighthawk R7500. The WeMo's recovered OK.

Same for power cycles. No issue.

Perhaps I am lucky.
 
The only reason I mentioned it is because a) Raydon got the time wrong, and b) the term "housekeeping" could be taken to imply some essential process which must not be interfered with, especially as Raydon indicated such in the post. As far as I knew there are no essential processes which run at 3am (or indeed 4.30am), but I am willing to be wrong hence the request for clarification.

It wouldn't matter who had posted, my response would have been similar - we must constantly bear in mind that there could be inexperienced readers unable to filter wheat from chaff for themselves. Even after consideration, I do not regard my quest for clear and correct information to be unjustified, and I object to it being labelled as such.
 
Black Hole said:
The only reason I mentioned it is because a) Raydon got the time wrong
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Oh, I must have missed the part in your reply where you pointed that out.
Black Hole said:
and b) the term "housekeeping" could be taken to imply some essential process which must not be interfered with, especially as Raydon indicated such in the post. As far as I knew there are no essential processes which run at 3am (or indeed 4.30am), but I am willing to be wrong hence the request for clarification.
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Feigning ignorance of something that you're already familiar with is a strange way to request clarification. As I've already said, I did not coin the phrase, but it has long since passed into common usage as to mean any overnight task performed automatically by the Humax family of set top boxes.
Black Hole said:
It wouldn't matter who had posted, my response would have been similar - we must constantly bear in mind that there could be inexperienced readers unable to filter wheat from chaff for themselves. Even after consideration, I do not regard my quest for clear and correct information to be unjustified, and I object to it being labelled as such.
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If there are any inexperienced users reading this thread then at least they are now aware that "something" is going on at 4:30 a.m. Whether it be wheat or chaff, is a matter of opinion. Although the manufacturers seem to think it's essential or they would not have put it there in the first place.
 
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