GustavoMcSavy:
…I do get the boot message only when expected, so you're probably right about it being the remote. There's an indicator LED that turns on when the button is pressed, but the transmitter may not necessarily be active while the light is on if its a crappy product. If I could find the right pin on the right IC in the remote, that would be ideal.
I already have it set to press the buttons multiple times, but it seems that if it's going to fail, every level of redundancy also fails. I'd rather get to the root of the failure rather than try to circumvent it with redundancy anyway.
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The lamp on the remote could flash, even if you find the right pin on the remote it could still be a communication failure, unless by remote you mean the wall socket part, that might could be a place to hot-wire, although Danger Will Robinson as they say. If it can be made reliable, you have a huge benefit in isolating the smarts and the power stuff.
Do you mean to say here that once there has been a failure, nothing works again? So that saying "on" every minute would never eventual get through? If you are having to (or have by coincidence) somehow reset the receiver(s) and/or transmitter after a failure it could mean some kind of lock-up there. I feel the remote/plug combo is your, er, weak link.
I appreciate and approve of wanting to find the root issue here. Having done, there is no shame in adding redundancy and feedback. Where would rock and roll be without feedback?!
a7