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Bypassing the on/off button on TV question
Trebeck:
Hey all,
Here's my issue...
On one of my cabs I have to use the remote to turn on the TV. In another cab I have to hit the power button on my speakers. I would like to bypass this step and have them turn on as soon as the master power switch is hit. Now, I haven't started to tear these two apart so what I'm wondering is if someone can perhaps explain a little about what I will need to do or look for when I do crack them open. I'm pretty good at a soldering iron so I'm not afraid to attempt this myself but I guess I'm just looking for some theory or tips before I begin.
Thanks!
CoryBee:
On a conversion cab I did a while back I used one momentary switch that was wired to both the Monitor's power button and the Computer's power button.
My $0.02 :dunno
PL1:
--- Quote from: Trebeck on July 19, 2012, 11:14:42 pm ---On one of my cabs I have to use the remote to turn on the TV. In another cab I have to hit the power button on my speakers. I would like to bypass this step and have them turn on as soon as the master power switch is hit.
--- End quote ---
You can wire the first cab this way using a Double Pole Single Throw (DPST) momentary switch where you add the red wires and green switch in this diagram to your current setup.
If the speakers on cab 2 use a momentary (not latching) switch you can wire it like above. If 3 items require a button push to switch on, use a 3PST (Three Pole Single Throw) momentary pushbutton. They are hard to find and rather expensive compared to DPST's.
If the speakers use a latching switch, you can use a "smart strip" like this one or the home-built equivalent. (3rd thread below, see last post by yaksplat for details.)
Several related threads:
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=118776.msg1277363#msg1277363
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=120605.msg1283352#msg1283352
http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=121356.0
Scott
nickbuol:
I have 3 swtiches on my cab, but they could be reduced down to two. They are all on the top of my cabinet, out of sight.
One is an on/off toggle for the marque light. Nothing to do with your question though.
The other two are just regular "arcade" buttons. Since they are "momentary" switches, they work perfectly. I just connected up one to the motherboard of the PC where the power switch would normaly connect. Easy peasy....
The TV just got the other switch connected to it as well. This took a little more work but was easy too. Just had to carefully remove the front bezel of the tv, and locate the power button. Mine was one with easily to follow circuit board traces. I just soldered the small wires that ran to my arcade switch right to spots on the circuit board that were already exposed (not imbedded into the "green" board itself). The trick was getting just a tiny amount of solder, but it wasn't too bad.
I would assume that you could do the same with any momentary switched device (speakers, etc). I used speakers that have a hard power switch, but go to "sleep" when the computer is off. It still uses a tiny bit of power even in sleep mode, but was the easiest for my install.
Trebeck:
Thanks guys this is great info.
I'd much rather add on to the electronics than modify existing and I completely understand what you all are getting at. I have a momentary switch (Master on off) attached to the mobo and the comp is plugged into a smart strip. Everything else (light, speaker, tv) is connected to the strip and it all turns off nicely but not everything turns on until I figure this out. I'll just run cable from the tv to the master switch and all should be well. I'm going to do a little more reading on switches and I should be good to go.
Beck