First Mame Cabinet help

[Zrooney]

  I just ordered the controls today for the cabinet when it dawned on me, how am i going to turn the machine on/ off without going in the cabinet to turn it on and pulling out  a mouse to navigate the desktop to safely shut it off?  Should i Just have the Power Supply switch for the PC sticking out, or is there another, smarter way to do it?  I would be open to any  suggestions.

[GregD]

There is all kinds of information in this forum regarding this.  I am using a smart power strip that turns everything on when the pc is turned on.  I wired my pc power switch to a regular arcade pushbutton and I use a sheller program to start right into Hyperspin FE.

[Green Giant]

Simplest is wire an arcade button to the computer power button.

It will boot up fine, and if you don't mess with any default settings, pressing it while running will cause it to safely and cleanly shutdown.

[Dervacumen]

About half way down this page I show some pictures of how I hooked up a switched power supply.  A little further down is also a link to another diagram I found that draws it out pretty well.  I've used this for two cabinets and it works great for turning on everything with one push of a switch wired to your computer's power switch.
For hiding windows, go to the kiwi and check out the topic there.  It's pretty comprehensive.  I've never been one to just turn off the power by pressing the power switch again, but if it works for Green Giant, go for it.

[Green Giant]

About half way down this page I show some pictures of how I hooked up a switched power supply.  A little further down is also a link to another diagram I found that draws it out pretty well.  I've used this for two cabinets and it works great for turning on everything with one push of a switch wired to your computer's power switch.
For hiding windows, go to the kiwi and check out the topic there.  It's pretty comprehensive.  I've never been one to just turn off the power by pressing the power switch again, but if it works for Green Giant, go for it.

You are describing building your own smart strip, device that sends power to specified outlets when the primary unit is powered on.

He was asking about providing power to the actual computer.  I am sure you did the same thing for your computer, but then that computer goes and turns on everything else in your cab.  Even your cab has to have some way of turning on the computer.

All I am talking about is power for the computer, and then how you can power down a computer safely by pressing the power button.