How to power the entire cabinet on..

[Skippydzg]

If your computer's BIOS does not have any way to power on by a single keystroke or double click or any such thing, what is the next best way to power on the entire cabinet with one swith, button, or key?

I've heard that you can wire the motherboard's power button on the computer to another button farther away...how would one go about doing this? I've also heard about power strips that automatically power everything on somehow? Just information or help would be appreciated!

[Buddabing]

Bits Ltd Smart Strip

[SirPeale]

Wire a small cap to the power on pins on your motherboard.

[mccoy178]

Here is what I did to power my system on and off.

http://forum.arcadecontrols.com/index.php?topic=41800.msg382047#msg382047

[Abomination]

Bits Ltd Smart Strip

I'm using this and it works great, plus it saves you money by shutting off everything so no constant drain like you get when a plugged in TV is off.

[AC.]

The motherboard can be turned on and off by connecting the power-on pins on the board. Simply "connecting" the two pins together with a brief touch with a knife or or small piece of metal works.   Any spring switch can be wired to the two pins.   I also use a power strip to turn off the monitor since I can't easily get to it behind the bezel.

[elvis]

I think I've answered this question in one form or another at least 5 times to date now...

In my BIOS I have an option called "power on state after power failure".  It can be set to "ON", "OFF", or "LAST".  Basically it tells the system what to do after a power failuer to the ATX power supply.  I've set mine to "ON".

I then plug everything in my cabinet into a simple multi-point power board, and plug that into the mains.  When I power up the cabinet (by turning it on at the mains), everything inside (including the computer thanks to the BIOS setting) powers up.  When I'me finished playing, I shut my PC down via the frontend, and turn it off at the wall.

That option was the easiest for me, as it didn't require any special hardware, nor any electrical device hacking.  No timing circuits, no smart strips, no playing with dangerous voltages.

[mahuti]

yeah... but how is that any fun??

[Minwah]

I then plug everything in my cabinet into a simple multi-point power board, and plug that into the mains.  When I power up the cabinet (by turning it on at the mains), everything inside (including the computer thanks to the BIOS setting) powers up.  When I'me finished playing, I shut my PC down via the frontend, and turn it off at the wall.

My setup is very similar, except I have a power button for the pc which is an arcade pushbutton on the top of the cab.  I'm going to try to get an 'on timer' to prevent my monitor from coming on for x seconds so post etc. is hidden.

[Skippydzg]

So how exactly does this smart power strip work? Does it automatically power everything on, or what? Do I ever need to do anything other than turn the power strip on to get everything going?

As for the other offered solution, where do I find out how and where to do the external power button thing? Getting a button or switch to do it wouldn't be hard at all, but I don't know even where to start when it comes to connecting it to the motherboard. I'm basically looking for a way to extend the power button so it can be mounted somewhere on the cab, making it so you don't have to open up the cabinet to turn things on.

[Abomination]

So how exactly does this smart power strip work? Does it automatically power everything on, or what? Do I ever need to do anything other than turn the power strip on to get everything going?

As for the other offered solution, where do I find out how and where to do the external power button thing? Getting a button or switch to do it wouldn't be hard at all, but I don't know even where to start when it comes to connecting it to the motherboard. I'm basically looking for a way to extend the power button so it can be mounted somewhere on the cab, making it so you don't have to open up the cabinet to turn things on.

The smart strip has one spot that is power always on (for your PC) that also acts as a switch.  You then plug the rest of your stuff, monitor, marquee light, subwoofer ect into the switched plugs.  When you turn your PC on or off the powerstrip see's the extra drain and then supplys power to the other plugs, very sweet setup for me.

[MameMaster!]

you can't miss with Kevin's review....between my bits strip and recently installed arcade button on the top of the cab (hacked into PC powerswitch....SUPER easy to do!)......this is the perfect solution....

http://www.retroblast.com/video.html

....the bits strip video is towards the bottom of his video list.

ENJOY!
MameMaster! tm

[elvis]

As for the other offered solution, where do I find out how and where to do the external power button thing? Getting a button or switch to do it wouldn't be hard at all, but I don't know even where to start when it comes to connecting it to the motherboard. I'm basically looking for a way to extend the power button so it can be mounted somewhere on the cab, making it so you don't have to open up the cabinet to turn things on.

If you have an ATX motherboard and powersupply (which you will if you purchased your machine in the last 5 years) open the system and follow the power-on switch and wires to where they connect to the motherboard.

ATX uses a "momentary on" switch (not an ON/OFF switch like the old AT power supplies).  This is handy, because arcade buttons just happen to also be "momentary on" switch.  You can easily cut your ATX power on switch wires and connect them to an arcade button (or any other momentary switch which you can buy from electrical component sales stores for a dollar or less).  Then have this on the outside of your cab somewhere.

The beauty of ATX is that if you press your power switch while the computer is running (and if your OS is ATX/ACPI aware) it will initiate a software shutdown of the machine.  This works under Mac, Linux and Windows.  I use this method on my cocktail cab (running Slackware Linux).  Push the button to power up, and when I'm finished playing push it again to do a clean software-driven shutdown.

[SeanCyrusTowel]

The beauty of ATX is that if you press your power switch while the computer is running (and if your OS is ATX/ACPI aware) it will initiate a software shutdown of the machine.

[Elfman]

ATX uses a "momentary on" switch (not an ON/OFF switch like the old AT power supplies).