Price is estimated at $450. Not cheap and does not do what I would want it to.

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I am going to consider this question answered. And the answer would seem to be no, there is not a software only option that can do this. So that would mean it is time for me to start writing one

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well one could create simple circuit which interacts with linux program through usb port. Which inturn is connected to a relay and can do a physical reset or power reset. Whenever the device hangs and cannot be reset the program can instruct the the circuit to do a power reset. This circuit can be built using a simple micro-controllers such has atmega. The whole circuit can built for 10$.
here is one such product
http://www.ebay.com/itm/5V-1-Channel-US ... 1486776468
Well still the software would lack the features of high end hardware device such has selective head imaging. Has this commands are not present in the ata specification

I paid a bit more than that for my USBMicro U451 (almost $45 with shipping)
http://www.usbmicro.com/
But they had a small amount of source code for Linux on their website for me to work with. I have written a small C program for it that can control the relays. I am also curious about getting a USB device that can do JTAG.

I have also been working on direct IO port operations in Linux which give access to perform a software reset. I am hoping to be able produce a new cloning tool in the future, one that does not rely on the operating system to access the disk.

For now, there is ddrescue. With version 1.19 and using my passthrough patch, it should be possible to write a simple shell script that calls ddrescue, and depending on ddrescue exit code could call a program to power cycle the drive via USB device, then call ddrescue again to resume. As for not being able to do selective head imaging, with ddrescue 1.19 you can adjust the skip size to "skip" out of the bad head, and then get any missed data on the good head(s) on the reverse pass.

When Antonio releases ddrescue 1.20, I will make an updated patch that will work a little bit better for the exit code. Someone has pointed out that it currently does not work well in all conditions.

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Don't skimp on this too much, I recommend starting backward in your research to find a USB JTAG tool..
1. work out what JTAG software you want to use
2. research relevant hardware options and make sure the device you choose is well supported - not partially supported or has limitations.

I need to be able to access it using C in Linux. That is why I spent $45 on a USB relay controller, instead of $10 on one that I couldn't be sure I could write controlling software for. There must be documentation and ability to access the device with raw commands, or I don't want it.

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Found this, may be relevant.:



https://www.ibr.cs.tu-bs.de/users/kurmus/papers/acsac13.pdf

There is so little work done (publicly, aside from the NSA). The first 2 references are amusing...