We're all familiar with those days when your modem locks up and you have to unplug it from the wall, but if you're more familiar than most, you can create an automatic power cycler with just a few basic electronics.


While you may want to try getting a new modem first, sometimes your internet connection just doesn't agree with you and you're stuck power cycling the modem much more often than you'd like to. While you may be able to automate the rebooting process using software (since you can probably reboot your router or modem from your browser), that won't always work either. When all other solutions leave you with nothing, blogger Gigawatts shows us how to make your own power cycler that will reboot the router whenever it detects a lack of internet connection.


Depending on your experience and dedication to the project, there are a number of ways to go about building the relay. Gigawatts' original version was a bit simpler and was housed in a peanut butter jar, consisting of a transistor, a relay, a DB-9 connector, and a molex connector, but if you're a bit more experienced with electronics, he has instructions for embedding the relay inside the wireless router itself. Together with a cron task for his DD-WRT hacked router, the relay could detect when the internet connection died and automatically cut the power to the modem—a pretty clever workaround to an annoyance we're all familiar with. Hit the link for more information, and let us know your tips for power-cycling troublesome modems in the comments.

Fonera Automated Reset Technology [via Hack a Day]