External computer power button mod

[kiwasabi]

Hey guys,

So I read on here a while back that some of you have wired an external power button for your PC onto your cabinet. Are there any guides or resources on doing this? Any particular button anyone would recommend? I'd also be interested in knowing of any techniques to wire it so that the computer isn't essentially hard-wired to the cabinet. Maybe using a wire connector like arcade games do for control panels so they're removable (see image below)?



Also, so you can set it up with a smart strip so that when you turn on the computer, it causes everything else (marquee light, speakers, etc) to power on? Any particular smart strip you'd recommend for price and reliability? Thanks in advance for any advice guys.

Adam

[Seith]

Actually, I found this part of my arcade build to be quite easy.

What you need:

A box of Male 0.187 Quick Disconnects:



A box of Female 0.187 Quick Disconnects:



A crimping tool:



A Spool of wire (~ 22 - 24 AWG for your button should be fine)

Then, just have a look at the attached image below, essentially you take your computer (fig. 1), take the front panel off of it which will reveal the power button wires, then snip them (fig. 2), wire male quick disconnects to the ends of the wire and run two lengths of wire that will reach to your button and crimp female ends onto those (fig. 3), then crimp another set of female quick disconnects to your button as shown (fig. 4).  The black wire should go to the bent prong if you are wiring to a microswitch, and the other wire (may be yellow or sometimes PCs have them in different colors) goes to the lower of the two prongs coming out of the back.

If you are looking to keep the PC intact where you can restore it to how it once was before you started hacking away at it, simply wire some female QDs to the other two ends of the wire that you snipped from the front panel.

[kiwasabi]

Great response, thanks for the visual aids. I'm a wiring newb so this gives me confidence I could do this without many problems.

[tahn]

or you can use an RF remote button. http://www.rfpcremote.com

[yotsuya]

Although I personally would decase the PC, the concept listed above is pretty sound.

[PL1]

If you don't want to cut the wires, you can connect the new wires in parallel with the old ones at the computer case power button terminals.

You can also unplug the power button .1" header at the motherboard and use a different .1" header like this one from Paradise Arcade Shop.



Scott