Make a Diabolical "Master Switch"

Intro: Make a Diabolical "Master Switch"

In order to save electricity (and be green), I have set the electric in my room so I can turn everything off using a cheapo wireless switch and extention cords. I have always thought that I could use the remote like a relay to trigger the electric with an extravagant switch (in my case a key switch).
No soldering skills required.

***Warning***
Make sure you are not connecting more to the remote switch than it is rated for.
For instance, I bought a heavy duty (3000 watt) one. Most are only rated for a light or two. Be careful.

Here is a remote like the switch I used (but lower wattage).

STEP 1: Materials:

You do not need much for this,
You will need a remote switch, tape, a switch of some sort (I used a key switch I got from a boating supply store), tin foil, wire, and a screw driver (depends on the remote)

STEP 2: Open the Remote

Open the remote and locate the solder points on the back that correspond to the button.

STEP 3: Short Circut It!!!!!!

Now using some tin foil, short the leads that activate the switch. Make sure you take out the battery.

STEP 4: Tap Into Its Battery.

Take out the battery, in each of the ports for the battery put wires (or tinfoil). Connect one of the wires to the battery and extend the wire from the battery. You now have your two activator leads.

STEP 5: Test It Out.

Test the leads, also make sure that they are secure.

STEP 6: Connect the Switch

Preferably put the remote up high for better range and connect the two leads to your switch.
Here you see the finished switch.

STEP 7: Plug in Main Base.

Set up your house (in my case since mine is small I use extention cords behind furnuture) to use your new switch and install base station. Congratulations, you now have a wireless relay with a switch!

STEP 8: Hurraa!

Please feel free to email me any tips, [http://mailto:[e-mail] [e-mail]]

Comments

[Robot Lover]

Great idea! although I would leave the electronic work on the mains to the pro's, To much risk for me! ;)

[nosut]

First off this is a good instructable in the sense that everything you did is right. However I am an electrician and I can say that I would under no conditions EVER do this. There are a couple of problems that I don't think you know are there. This is a bad idea because you are trying to draw all your power from your room from one circuit. In newer houses you may have one room with 2-4 outlets but what you don't know is normally that is 2-3 circuits. In an older house (which most people live in) there is only 1 circuit in a given room. The problem that comes with this is that if you put enough of a load on you can cause an electrical fire. Having so many power blocks and extension cords is not a good thing you are just running everything off that one circuit even if there are several going to different areas of the room. Also unless you have (which I doubt) looked at the actual wiring of your house you have no idea what gauge wire is there. Just because you purchased a new device that was rated for your load means nothing if the wire in your house can't take it. Now don't get me wrong this may work....for a time while it is slowly degrading the safety of the insulation inside the walls. So just as a final warning I would like to tell you that unless you REALLY know what you are doing it would be a poor choice to copy and try this.

[Callum Snowden]

You could always buy a set of four or five sockets and put one on each applience maybe so it shares the load better :)

[ooklala]

 in response to all the comments about safety:
my bedroom uses about 1000 watts when everything is powered on.
the switch i use is rated for much more than that, something like 3000 watts.

also, i use one outlet because that outlet is on it's own fuse, versus the other outlet in the room, which is shared with the bathroom and microwave (meaning it is completely unusable without bursting the fuse)

[jeremiahthebullfrog]

Oh my Gosh!!! You people are the reason why the law is now stamping down on the electrical work we can carry out in our own homes without getting it signed off by a pro with several certificates and licenses. I wouldn't even set foot in that room for fear of tripping over the cables everywhere, plus as already mentioned (if not happened already) the high risk of an electrical fire because of the huge load on one outlet. Please, please do yourself a favour and those around you and dismantle this contraption before the worst happens!!

[cantthinkof bettername]

Wouldn't that be bad for the electronics? Having the same affect as a power outage.

[computerwiz_222]

Looks like you are using one of those remote controlled light switches to switch an entire bedroom. Seems like a fine idea, although I question your methods. You can buy kits that have wireless remotes or keypads. As for the discussion of wattage. In my bedroom, I have - a 15 watt ceiling light - a 10 watt halogen desk lamp - a g3 powermac (300 watts MAX) - a laptop (70 watts) - an alarm clock (20 watts MAX) - speakers, cell phone and ipod chargers, and occasionally a mixing desk with a mic... (200 watts combined MAX) So if I have everything in my room turned on at the same time, I would be drawing 615 watts, say 700 to play it safe - with spikes and all. As long as the switch you purchase is rated to handle this kind of wattage you should be ok. Seeing as how most of these remote switches only have one outlet, you will also need extension cords and power bars. Ensure that these devices are rated for the correct wattage as well. One side note is that you should never bypass the third prong on an extension cord or appliance. The third prong is used to ground an appliance or device (computer for example) with a metal chassis. I can not express to you how important this ground wire is in the event of lightening, or short circuiting. This ground provides a safer route for stray power to flow. This will send the electricity to the ground and not through your body. As always, when dealing with mains voltage, make sure you know what you are doing and have a trained electrician with you.

[ekulmeekul]

But some of us have computers in our rooms that require ALOT of juice say at MAX 1000watts (yeh thats the PSU) plus everything else

[computerwiz_222]

I know... I upgraded my G3 to a G4... This G4 is heavily upgraded... It has a 2.0 GHz card, Upgraded Video Card, Faster Hard Drive and a DVD Burner.. When I do anything CPU Intensive, I feel my room get slightly warmer.

[cpf]

Make sure your switch can handle a house-worths of load "i'll just start the microwav-SNAP, hmm, I wonder what that is? whats the burning smell?!"

[lemonie]

This isn't wired into your lighting circuit is it? L

[heltones]

I like what you're doing here. One suggestion would be to add some discussion of the power rating of the remote switch. I can envision someone unwittingly plugging a bazillion power strips and heavy equipment (etc) into it and causing lots of bad things to happen.

[trinit]

Huh?

First of all, I have no idea what you mean by 'remote switch'. Without that basic piece of information, all references to parts of the device are completely useless. Could you give at least a brand or model number, so I can figure out what device you're talking about?

Anyway, this is a great idea. I think. Perhaps better if it had pictures other than 1/2" square thumbnails , which don't count. Or if I knew what you were talking about.

Remember, folks. Your description might make perfect sense to you. But without pictures, we can't tell what the heck you're talking about. Also, generic instructions (e.g. "short the leads that activate the switch") aren't that helpful without at least a picture showing what you mean.

Summary: It should be possible to reproduce your hack--with nothing more than some common sense and the words on this page. More description please!

[trinit]

Wait, much better! Disregard the above rant--I was just a bit disgruntled by what looked like another half-completed Instructable. Now I can almost see what you mean!