Best way to turn on/off MAME cabinet

[mytymaus007]

I did search on this topic and found many opionions, this is the reason why i felt to start a new up to date topic on turning on/off a cab. At this point im confused. What im looking for is to turn on and off my cab with a flip of a switch. Im using Hyperspin for front end. So when it boots up i would like to see Hyperspin intro video and nothing before that "no bios or windows start up screen. When it turns off what ever the best way for the PC without harming it. Ive read you can exit out of hyperspin and it turn off everything but it seems like it wouuld be better to flip a switch at anypoint inbetween games. Also what would be needed hardware wise

[Donkbaca]

Get one of these:
http://www.amazon.com/Smart-Strip-Protector-Autoswitching-Technology/dp/B0006PUDQK/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1309555313&sr=8-1

plug pc into the blue one, everything else in the non-red ones.  Hack your PC power button and connect it to a arcade button.  Mount button to the back/ top of your cab.  That takes care of the hardware.

Go into windows, go to control power, power management, set your power button so that it shuts down windows when it turns off.

get instant sheller.  Do a search for it.

Not sure if you can hide the bios screen, you 'll have to check your bios options for that, but you can hide the windows boot screen as long as you aren't using windows xp.

Do this right and here is what happens:  You press the button, you bios flashes on screen for a minute, then the screen boots to your FE without you seeing windows at all.    When you want to turn the cab off, you simply press that same button, it safely shuts down your pc and turns everything off.

[Scott84]

But what turns on the rest of the stuff plugged into the power strip. Monitor? Speakers? Marquee light?

[Vigo]

But what turns on the rest of the stuff plugged into the power strip. Monitor? Speakers? Marquee light?

Smart strips are designed to power on everything on the strip (in a non red slot) when the master device (computer) is powered on, and power off when the master device is powered off. So when you turn your computer on or off, everything else will go on and off with it. It's a smart device!  

[Donkbaca]

Yup.. Computer is the master of it all...

[Scott84]

That is so awesome. I am ordering one right now! 

[mytymaus007]

nice just ordered a smart strip

[The 80s Man]

Wal-mart carries these "Green" Philips Power Strips in stock. I bought one in store.
http://www.walmart.com/ip/Philips-Energy-Saving-Surge-Protector-Black/16829051

They work the same as the Smart Strips, when the device plugged into the Master slot is turned off all the other plugged in devices lose power.

[DCsegaDH]

I have the Philips power strip, it works great.

[Gray_Area]

Or this one:

Cyber Power 7050SG Energy Saving Surge Suppressor 15A 7-Outlets

[clickhea]

will a normal arcade pushbutton work for this? or is a switch needed

[Donkbaca]

Regular arcade, or any momentary switch

[Maarek Stele]

I know this thread is aging, but I don't have experience using the smart strips.  My question is for monitor power.  Even if a strip applies power to the monitor plug when the PC turns on, won't the monitor come back to an "off" state and you'll need to hit the power button on the monitor to turn it on?  Are people hacking that power button as well and hooking to the same arcade momentary switch on the outside of the panel?  I'm going to build my first project soon and have been wondering about this.

Regards,

Maarek Stele

[WindDrake]

99% of LCD's out there go into power-up when AC power is applied. No hacks needed.

[paigeoliver]

I know this thread is aging, but I don't have experience using the smart strips.  My question is for monitor power.  Even if a strip applies power to the monitor plug when the PC turns on, won't the monitor come back to an "off" state and you'll need to hit the power button on the monitor to turn it on?  Are people hacking that power button as well and hooking to the same arcade momentary switch on the outside of the panel?  I'm going to build my first project soon and have been wondering about this.

Regards,

Maarek Stele

A lot of monitors remember their on-off state. While arcade monitors don't even have power switches to begin with.

[Vigo]

If the monitor is not like that, I know that some people have wired both their PC and Monitor to the same momentary button to push button for power on. Most of the time, it is like what was mentioned above. The monitor will power back on as long as the monitor was on when the power was cut.

[EMDB]

I just use a real power switch which switches on all the electronics (PC, monitor and a 12V adapter for amplifier and marquee lighting).



I have set the PC's BIOS to startup on power. Most of the modern PC's and even my not so new my DELL Optiplex 745 (Core2Duo 1.87Mhz 2GB Ram) have this option .

[UFO]

I just use a real power switch which switches on all the electronics (PC, monitor and a 12V adapter for amplifier and marquee lighting).



I have set the PC's BIOS to startup on power. Most of the modern PC's and even my not so new my DELL Optiplex 745 (Core2Duo 1.87Mhz 2GB Ram) have this option .

Hmmm... haven't got my SmartStrip yet - might look into this option. The BIOS I'm using may be a good 5 - 7 years old though.

[roknrol]

EMDB - Do you not have any issues from not shutting down the PC "properly" using a PC power button?

[Maarek Stele]

I was going to ask the very same question.  I wonder how long it will take before shutting down like that corrupts windows???

[EMDB]

I was going to ask the very same question.  I wonder how long it will take before shutting down like that corrupts windows???

I never said I use the power switch to shut down the PC. On exit of my frontEnd (Hyperspin) the PC shuts down. Only after that is finished I use the power switch to switch off the whole cab. But that is not different with a smart powerstrip...

[Maarek Stele]

I was going to ask the very same question.  I wonder how long it will take before shutting down like that corrupts windows???

I never said I use the power switch to shut down the PC. On exit of my frontEnd (Hyperspin) the PC shuts down. Only after that is finished I use the power switch to switch off the whole cab. But that is not different with a smart powerstrip...

My understanding is that with a "Smart power strip" it would be different.  Shutting down the PC in that case would then turn off the cabinet and you would not use the power switch to turn it off.  So in your case if you used a smart strip with the PC plugged into the control slot then exiting your frontEnd (Hyperspin) would power off the whole cabinet as soon as the PC shut down all the way.

[EMDB]

I was going to ask the very same question.  I wonder how long it will take before shutting down like that corrupts windows???

I never said I use the power switch to shut down the PC. On exit of my frontEnd (Hyperspin) the PC shuts down. Only after that is finished I use the power switch to switch off the whole cab. But that is not different with a smart powerstrip...

My understanding is that with a "Smart power strip" it would be different.  Shutting down the PC in that case would then turn off the cabinet and you would not use the power switch to turn it off.  So in your case if you used a smart strip with the PC plugged into the control slot then exiting your frontEnd (Hyperspin) would power off the whole cabinet as soon as the PC shut down all the way.

I do understand how a setup with a smart powerstrip works. I just wanted to share my solution. I think my solution is more authentic though and that's what we (at least I) are trying to do achieve...

[JDFan]

@EMDB -- so what setting do you use in windows for the system to boot back up when you turn the switch on ?? -- Ie do you have another momentary button that you press to start the system after turning the switch on ? IIRC turning on the switch if windows was shut down before the power was turned off would not make the system boot up but just stay off until you press a momentary switch to start the boot process. (ie. do you have to set windows to restart instead of shut down when powered down and then turn the switch off in between the time it shuts down and restarts ? )

[DaOld Man]

JDFan, I think the setting is in your PC's BIOS, not in windows.
While PC is booting (before Windows logo appears), hit F2 or DEL key. (Some PCs use a different key, maybe F10, but F2 or DEL is the most common.)
This will take you into a simple menu. This is BIOS.
Search in there until you find power down options.
If it's not there, then you cant use this option.

I use my front end (Mala) to shut down the machine when it exits. This insures windows shuts down properly.
I use a button wired to my PC pwr on button to turn the PC on.

[roknrol]

I never said I use the power switch to shut down the PC. On exit of my frontEnd (Hyperspin) the PC shuts down. Only after that is finished I use the power switch to switch off the whole cab. But that is not different with a smart powerstrip...

Just read in an earlier thread that some FEs can be used to shut down and exit Windows. Didn't realize that was a possibility. (Still learning!)

Planning on a bartop and wasn't thinking there'd be room for a SmartStrip. The switched solution sounds appealing. Thanks.

[JDFan]

JDFan, I think the setting is in your PC's BIOS, not in windows.
While PC is booting (before Windows logo appears), hit F2 or DEL key. (Some PCs use a different key, maybe F10, but F2 or DEL is the most common.)
This will take you into a simple menu. This is BIOS.
Search in there until you find power down options.
If it's not there, then you cant use this option.

I use my front end (Mala) to shut down the machine when it exits. This insures windows shuts down properly.
I use a button wired to my PC pwr on button to turn the PC on.

That is the same as I do.
But was just wondering if EMDB had a way to set it up where the power on switch (rather than a momentary button press) also started the boot of the system from a shut down state -- ie. you flip the power on and the PC starts to boot from shut down rather than having to press a second button to actually start the system (As I would think it still requires a button press to actually boot the system or shut it down), since the switch would be a continuous not momentary button and continually sending the power on the PC start button would cause the system to constantly turn on and then shut down since the button would always be in the pressed state (like holding the power on button on a PC case). So was just lookiing to clarify whether that switch he posted was just to turn on power and then a separate button was used for boot and\or shut down or if the switch was the only thing needed.

I know the PC can be set to boot once power is restored but normally that is only if the power was lost, so that the PC was in "on" mode and would not work if the system had been shut down properly before the power was disconnected.(though I guess you could use restart rather than shut down and turn off power in between the restart process so that when power was restored it would then finish the restart -but seems that would require timing the turning off of the switch properly) - So was wondering how he would make it work if properly shutting down before turning off power as he seemed to suggest he was doing.

[DaOld Man]

Well, you use the same maintained switch to turn the PC on and off. So that way the PC thinks the power failed.
Of course in case the PC doesn't think the power failed and shut down due to a windows error or whatever, you will need access to the PC power button to restart it.

roknroll: Most frontends do offer the ability to shutdown on exit. I know mala does.
If your frontend does not offer that, I have a program you can use to start the frontend on Windows start, then properly shut down the PC when it senses the front end has ended.

[roknrol]

I was targeting MaLa for the front end anyway.

The other thread mentioned GameEx and Hyperspin as capable, but good to hear that MaLa can do it, too.