Single power switch idea

[Captain Rotundo]

Has anyone here tried to hook the pc in a cab to a UPS so that when you cut power the UPS can tell the computer to shutdown? (via serial or USB)

I've been trying to think of a non-destructive way to have a single power switch and this seems decent, except for the wear and tear on the UPS, and the fact that one would need a UPS with a connector to due such a thing (ie- not the cheapest UPS in the store!)

[Tailgunner]

If you already had the UPS it would make sense to use it, otherwise a smart power strip will do the job and cost you a lot less. The strip monitors one outlet and controls the rest accordingly. Kevin Steele has a thread about one of these here and a review on it at his site.

[Captain Rotundo]

oh stupid me, I was thinking about the smart powerstip and figured it was bad because it would power down the pc with a proper shutdown, but obviously one would turn off the PC first and have the lights/speakers/etc on the other sockets

[JackTucky]

I used the smart strip and the paper clip wedged in my tv power button for one touch power on.  Almost any input turns on my PC because of that cool bios setting.

For Power off, we have to go through Mamewah's couple of screens  

Art

[plankton]

I bought a 12 volt relay from radioshack.  Connected the coil of the relay to the powersupply of my PC.  I then took a power strip and cut it

[Captain Rotundo]

well the relay sounds like the best option.  then I can power everything down from the frontend, or using the pc power switch. thanks.

[TalkingOctopus]

well the relay sounds like the best option.  then I can power everything down from the frontend, or using the pc power switch. thanks.

The powerstrip found here:

http://www.bitsltd.net/smartstrip/home2.htm ,

does the same thing as the power relay.  If you don't want to mess around with the 120v line or hack up a power supply get one of these.

[grafixmonkey]

it just ocurred to me that if the contacts on the relay bent too much, you might contact your 120v line with your computer's 12v line, and that'd fry everything in the case for sure...   I though of it because a joystick microswitch in my cab was having issues, and I looked under and found that when I'd plugged something in, it had pulled a cable that was hooked around another cable, and bent a contact and shorted the switch.  Guess you can't be too careful.

So, use insulated quick disconnects, or give it a healthy dose of hot glue over the whole contact side of the relay, or use a relay socket, or something, if you hook a relay up to 120v.

[rampy]

fwiw you can get a automatic power strip from sears for 20 bucks if you prefer the "now now now" of a brick and morter store...

*Shrug*  (do an advanced search on  "sears" if you need model number/picture)

good luck!

rampy

[Totallyout2lunch]

I have been searching the web, and have found various programs that let you shutdown your computer with a hotkey, I have not used them, but could you encorporate a hotkey sequence with an IPac?

Does anyone else have a solution like this working?

COST:  EUR 29.92 / USD 32.00  

Shutdown Program

Here is a free program that does the same as the above:

Please cut and paste, as making it a link will not work:

http://www.topshareware.com/Quick-ShutDown-download-2951.htm

[ntjedi]

I dont know if this helps or not but I wired a lightswitch on the back of my cab that goes to a electrical outlet that I wired inside of the cab.  I flip the switch and my motherboard is set to startup when power is set.  Then when I am done (I am using a dos frontend) I get out of the game and I hit the lightswitch.

All nice and neat.

[Analog-X]

Just my 2 cents here.
 
Always remember to unplugg electrical wires before cutting them etc....and unless you are sure you know what you are doing please dont start moding Power Bars or Power Supplys.  You can get killed if you dont what you are doing.
 

[JustMichael]

I did almost the same as ntjedi but I used a black rocker switch.  Blends right into the cabinet.  I have a surge protector plugged into the switched outlet and everything plugged into the surge protector.  I have my computer power on whenever power is turned on and I also have windows NOT run scandisk whenever it starts up.  This allows me just to flip the machine off whenever I am done.