Whatever happened to the "off" switch?

Thread Starter

ApacheKid

Joined Jan 12, 2015
1,533
Increasingly these days I'm seeing fewer and fewer hard on/off switches on many electronic devices and appliances.

This is because so many of them are designed to go into a standby mode so the assumption is no need to really ever cut physical power except in rare situations like moving house etc.

However this approach fails in the case of many devices because many of them are - frankly - faulty, that is the software does not work. Often when the device gets into a problem state it becomes unusable, sometimes even a reboot won't work, this happens with modern TV sets, network routers and extenders, sometime cell phones and so on.

In my house when our Android TV "acts up" it can only be rectified by removing physical power, but the power cord is hidden behind the TV and goes into an outlet on the wall behind the TV, unreachable because the TV is mounted in the wall with limited space, Therefore I must go to circuit breaker and pull that, which shuts off power to the TV outlet plus several other outlets that have lamps, my router, etc plugged in.

The result is a Kfkaesque world, where something that was once trivial, standard, basic is no longer available, we are so "advanced" that we must run around fiddling with circuit breakers and stuff just to get a TV to work.

Of course the motive is likely money, switches that - mechanically - turn off power do sometimes fail and that means warranty and repairs and so on.

My attitude is becoming that if I can physically switch something off, I'm already disinclined to buy it !
 

crutschow

Joined Mar 14, 2008
34,283
My attitude is becoming that if I can physically switch something off, I'm already disinclined to buy it !
I assume you mean if you can't turn it physically off.
Well, that would seem to seriously limit what electronic item you can buy these days. :rolleyes:
 

SamR

Joined Mar 19, 2019
5,031
Euphemistically termed, electrical vampires. With everything "turned off" the wheel on the kWH meter still goes round and round.
 

Thread Starter

ApacheKid

Joined Jan 12, 2015
1,533
Pull the plug.
Or use a power bar with ON/OFF switch.
Won't work, the main pain is the items mounted on walls where the outlet is hidden (as are all the cables) behind it, pretty much inaccessible. If these TVs had a simple on/off switch somewhere on the rear this would be a non-issue.
 

Deleted member 115935

Joined Dec 31, 1969
0
I think the question is ,
why do things not have a power switch
 

MaxHeadRoom

Joined Jul 18, 2013
28,617
Entertainment equipment does not have a on/off switch because the remote operate ON/OFF etc has to have power available for the remote use.
Go into most rooms in any house when its dark, with the light off, all you see is LED lights looking back at you!
 

MrChips

Joined Oct 2, 2009
30,711
You can wire the wall outlet on the same circuit as the room light.
Turn off the wall switch and the wall outlet is off.
 

MrSoftware

Joined Oct 29, 2013
2,188
Many (most?) devices with only soft power buttons can be recovered from a funky state by holding the power button down for a period of time. This can be designed to be a hard power off by using an analog delay circuit that turns off a transistor, which would be similar to a physical power switch. Next time your Android TV acts up, try holding the power button down for a period of time (20-30 seconds) and see if it powers off.
 

Thread Starter

ApacheKid

Joined Jan 12, 2015
1,533
Many (most?) devices with only soft power buttons can be recovered from a funky state by holding the power button down for a period of time. This can be designed to be a hard power off by using an analog delay circuit that turns off a transistor, which would be similar to a physical power switch. Next time your Android TV acts up, try holding the power button down for a period of time (20-30 seconds) and see if it powers off.
I'll try that, if I can find the manual power button...
 

bertus

Joined Apr 5, 2008
22,270
Hello,

When I hold the on/off button on my remote of my android tv to long, the text "do you want to powerdown ?" with the "yes and cancel" under it.

Bertus
 

BobaMosfet

Joined Jul 1, 2009
2,110
Increasingly these days I'm seeing fewer and fewer hard on/off switches on many electronic devices and appliances.

This is because so many of them are designed to go into a standby mode so the assumption is no need to really ever cut physical power except in rare situations like moving house etc.

However this approach fails in the case of many devices because many of them are - frankly - faulty, that is the software does not work. Often when the device gets into a problem state it becomes unusable, sometimes even a reboot won't work, this happens with modern TV sets, network routers and extenders, sometime cell phones and so on.

In my house when our Android TV "acts up" it can only be rectified by removing physical power, but the power cord is hidden behind the TV and goes into an outlet on the wall behind the TV, unreachable because the TV is mounted in the wall with limited space, Therefore I must go to circuit breaker and pull that, which shuts off power to the TV outlet plus several other outlets that have lamps, my router, etc plugged in.

The result is a Kfkaesque world, where something that was once trivial, standard, basic is no longer available, we are so "advanced" that we must run around fiddling with circuit breakers and stuff just to get a TV to work.

Of course the motive is likely money, switches that - mechanically - turn off power do sometimes fail and that means warranty and repairs and so on.

My attitude is becoming that if I can physically switch something off, I'm already disinclined to buy it !
You are correct- and sadly, in many cases (game consoles for example), sometimes, you absolutely MUST remove power, and then power-cycle the device unplugged, before plugging it back in to get it dump capacitor energy and reset out of whatever state it's gotten itself into. I'm on your side on this one.
 

Tonyr1084

Joined Sep 24, 2015
7,853
May be a bit of remodeling, but I'd consider putting a wall switch near the TV. Control that one outlet via the wall switch. Put it high enough so the grandkids can't reach it so you can turn the TV off whenever you want. And mount the switch upside down so they can't push the switch up with a broom stick.
 
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