Control TV on/off through power consumption

[htsource]

Hi guys,

I was wondering if there's an easy way to detect whether a TV is ON/OFF by power consumption?

I have a TV in the hallway - Dell 30" LCD TV and unfortunately, it doesn't have discrete ON/OFF. I've been using a SmartLinc appliance module to control its on/off with DooMotion. As for about a week ago or so, the TV stopped working! It's dead now. Warranty is out by a month, Dell wouldn't do anything about it.

I might still be able to get it repaired through Dell, but I think by killing the power somehow shorten the life of the TV.

At the moment, I can send IR to the TV so I was thinking if somehow I can monitor the on/off status, I can just send the POWER TOGGLE IR code to the TV to put it in standby rather than killing the power source.

Any ideas would be much appreciated.

Simon

[Rupp]

Simon,
Read this thread and it will explain how to use a ~$15 magnet and a powerflash module to detect weather the TV is on or off. I now have 3 setup this way and it works perfectly. Just make sure you have a stable X10 environment as this relies on an X10 powerflash module.

http://board.homeseer.com/showthread...hlight=magnets

[htsource]

Thanks Rupp. It looks like I'll be getting another TV. I posted this to AVSForum and it's ridiculous even to get a written estimate from Dell, let alone repairing the TV. Not in a good mood tonight


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I purchased a Dell W3000 LCD TV exactly 13 months ago, warranty was over and now the TV wouldn't turn on.

Contacted Dell tech support a week after the warranty had expired, told them the issue but the tech was able to get me going back then. It's now totally dead - couldn't turn it on AT ALL, just the LED standby light turns green when power on.

Dell would not do anything to extend the warranty even though it was only out by a week. Fair enough, I didn't purchase the warranty up front!

Now I found out I could make a claim over my credit card company as I get extra year of warranty protection. I was on the phone with Dell for over 2 hours, called tech support first to find out if they could send me a written estimate for the repair, nope, they sent me to parts. Parts told me they wouldn't know what parts to order, transferred me over to customer service, they told me it's probably financing dept, got me there but the financing dept was actually outsourced, so they wouldn't even know what to do with my call.

Called back customer service, this time the guy told me it should have been either parts or tech support as they would know the cost and what to repair. Just before he hit the transfer button, I told him I was already on the phone for hour and a half, waiting between queues and getting bounced everywhere. He went and checked, came back and told me I would still need to talk to tech support to figure out what parts I need to replace, write down the part numbers, call parts department to find out the cost and have a written estimate done.

Called tech support again and told them the story again, this time they told me there is't really anything to replace when it comes to Dell TV. There's absolutely nothing in their database for parts???? I told him what I just went through and I really need something for the claim. They told me they don't have a repair depot for TV's, so to replace it would be to buy a new one. So I told them to write me an estimate is to replace the TV. Then he told me I have to go through parts dept. as they have the pricing information for a new TV. I bet they're going to forward me to sales as I don't think a whole TV qualifies as parts?

I basically give up for the night, what else can I try? So basically once the warranty is out with any Dell TV's, good luck getting it fixed
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