EU Baytech RPC-3A Remote Power Control @ Ebay 35 Euro

[DanAnd]

There is a german hosting provider selling all the Baytech RPC-3A 8-port power controls. They have Ethernet and RS232 serial ports on board.

Patrick reported on them 4 years ago: https://www.servethehome.com/baytech-rpc3-deal-remote-switched-8port-pdu-50-windows-app/

A few additional details on it:
https://forums.servethehome.com/ind...o-remote-managed-pdu.12855/page-2#post-125447

Ebay-Link: BAYTECH RPC-3A REMOTE POWER CONTROL stromversorgung fernsteuern | eBay
Accepted: 35 Euro for one piece.

The seller does free shipping inside Germany, but selling worldwide.

 

[fnurr]

cheers snag 1 for testing

 

[maze]

Might grab one.. just to have it handy

 

[maze]

Accepted 25€ for one

 

[hlhjedsfg]

Thank's for the deal, take two at 25€ each !

 

[anoother]

Hmm, didn't accept 1@25eur from me. Accepted 30, though (+ shipping to the UK)

Looks like price has gone up to 60eur now.

 

[jbrukardt]

For those of us in the US, do any of the other baytech PDU's have an ethernet? Looking at their documentation, it seems a -N in the model # indicates ethernet, but that doesnt seem to reflect accurately.

 

[sovking]

Hmm, didn't accept 1@25eur from me. Accepted 30, though (+ shipping to the UK)

Looks like price has gone up to 60eur now.

They didn't accept 1@25Eur from me too. After raising the price to ~60eur, they counteroffer 39Eur, but the shipping in Europe is still high at 15.
IMHO, 30 + 15 Eur is enough for these used ethernet controlled outlet.

 

[poutnik]

My offer for 1@25Euro was accepted, I placed it yesterday afternoon when the BIN price was already 59.95E...

 

[DanAnd]

Wow! It looks like they saw the quick sells now and raised their price.

Awesome to see that people got them for 25 and 30 Euros!

 

[poutnik]

Well, 40€, as noone will refund me the postage (15€) - the total is what counts

 

[Mishka]

Just grabbed one myself.

Sounds stupid but anyone know what the power connector is on the thing to connect it to the mains? EU? C14?

Pictures on the net seem to mostly show 2 pin EU/US style

 

[sovking]

Got 1 @ 30 + 15. Let's see if it will be good

 

[tomaash]

Received my two (at 30 ea.) today. The're actually quite ghetto, with rack ears on left side only - as can be seen on ebay pics.
Mains plugs are different on each unit, both two pin Euro though. Will most likely replace those...
Got to see if they are working.

 

[anomaly]

The seller refused a 30 eur offer. He knows about this post and is hyping up the prices... I will leave negative feedback when I can since he canceled the order I got when my 40 EUR offer got auto-accepted.

Edit: sent him a message, I suggest people stop buying them unless he accepts reasonable offers again. At 40-50 EUR these are much more expensive than any US based sale. They are missing one of the rack ears and are otherwise really old tech. Don't run these over insecure channels as the management comms are not encrypted... and especially don't administer these over WiFi. All it takes is sniffing the exchange once.

 

[Mishka]

The seller refused a 30 eur offer. He knows about this post and is hyping up the prices... I will leave negative feedback when I can since he canceled the order I got when my 40 EUR offer got auto-accepted.

He accepted my offer of 40 Euro and it has been despatched via DHL

 

[bateau]

Indeed, the deal has become a lot less interesting: at 60 EUR, plus 15 EUR shipping.
Ordered mine before the price hike. Arrived with German/Dutch plug, without one of the rack ears. You'll have to do a factory reset, the system is still configured, with unknown passwords on ethernet. Serial requires a custom cable, but can be accessed without password.
Don't expect it to be precise in controlling the timing of the outlet on/off actions.
The unit does not support DHCP, nor encrypted communication, and allows only passwords smaller than 8 characters. If you want more security, you are better off hooking it up to something like a Raspberry Pi, via serial, thereby effectively doing an 'upgrade' of the ethernet part of the unit, or better, replacing the main processor board, as it looks it wouldn't be too hard.

Power use:
all outlets off: 3W
all outlets on: 9W

 

[anomaly]

The power consumption figures are a bit outrageous... I think if you have the time, adding an embedded Linux board, with AC current sensing (for metering) modules via I2C, or such, and other tidbits, would be a worthwhile small project. The shell is nice and it is hard to machine things nicely, and having them made as a prototype costs a kidney (ordering custom cutouts and what not for a rack case is very expensive... front panels are prohibitive most of the time).

You can try replacing the AC-DC converter/PSU with something like a MeanWell LRS... or similar RSP unit, with PFC. Idle consumption with no load is near zero.

Could you take pictures of the insides?

 

[nephri]

at 60€ + 15€ it didn't worth anymore a try.
At 25€, i would be in for 2.

 

[bateau]

Well, here you go.

(sorry, out of sequence, cannot move easily in this editor)


Zoom on power supply:


Power supply and relays:




Processor and relays:




IR image of processor and relays




IR image of power supply roughly matching the "zoom on power supply" image.




It is a mix of relays eating a lot (about 1W per relay), plus a bit power supply inefficiency.

To lower power consumption, you'd have to replace the relays, adapt the power supply (now: mix analog/switch via regular transformer + UA78S40) and driving circuit (now: ILQ30 quad opto).
And you'd have to replace the processor if you want more secure communications.

Can be done. Is it worth it? Don't know.