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What's this I hear about BIOS, a SmartStrip and the "one button power on"???
nostrebor:
--- Quote from: ppilot on January 27, 2006, 10:35:13 am --- If you shut down (via mamewah or whatever), wait one full minute, then flip the power switch 'off' and back 'on' does the machine come online?
Just wondering. Thanks.
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It works on my PC. If I power down and immediately power back up, sometimes the PC wont boot back up. I assume it is because the powersupply still has some residual voltage left.
If I wait 10 seconds, it always works.
alank2:
I actually built an outlet box that has two AC jacks. One jack is always on and the other jack is hooked to a relay which turns it on or off. The relay is turned on by a 12V power source (which I have hooked the the PC power supply). I plug the PC into the always on AC jack. I plug an outlet strip into the switched jack and my monitor, marquee, and sound system are plugged into that. So, when the computer is on, it provides 12V to the relay which will switch on the other devices. When the computer powers off, the relay disconnects AC and all the extra devices shut off. The computer is in charge of whether everything is on or off. I then simply wired the computer power switch to a power button the top of the cabinet. One buttons turns the computer on, and it turns everything else on. You can use that button to tell XP to shutdown gracefully and then shuts everything off. You can also use Mamewah to shutdown which shuts down XP and turns everything off as well. Note that the computer itself always has AC even when in the off state. I can even "wake" up my cabinet from another room by sending it a wakeup packet and the whole thing will power on.
I went through the work of doing this with a relay because I didn't know about the smartstrip (it was just coming out at the time and this was before I discovered Retroblast!), but a smartstrip does exactly the same thing! You plug the computer into the always on (monitor) jack and it controls whether everything else in the cabinet is on or off. Then you wire up a button to the computers power button and you are all set.
I really don't know why anyone makes this a two step job where they turn the computer on or off and then a master power switch someplace. A single power button that turns on or off with ATX is all that is needed!
Thanks,
Alan
iwillfearnoevil:
the main reason for buying a smart strip is to make things easy. why don't you just plug everything including the computer into the switched outlets and just use a lamp or something else in the control outlet. then you turn on your lamp and your machine starts. what is so complicated about this?
Brax:
--- Quote from: jened on January 28, 2006, 11:54:38 am ---the main reason for buying a smart strip is to make things easy. why don't you just plug everything including the computer into the switched outlets and just use a lamp or something else in the control outlet. then you turn on your lamp and your machine starts. what is so complicated about this?
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I don't see how you could use any device OTHER than the computer for this. An ATX power supply can't be left always on. Unless it's one of those newfangled BIOS things. I'm still with a PIII 1 ghz.
I didn't bother with the smartstrip and built the relay myself. It works amazingly well. When I tell people I built that part TOO, their eyes just glaze over and they consider me god-like. Ok maybe not, but electricity is still pretty intimidating to most people so they're quite impressed.
http://home.bendcable.com/werstlein/
alank2:
Hi Brax,
You did the same thing I did! Your webpage on it is excellent. I really don't know why anyone uses any other technique than the relay technique or smartstrip with the computer controlling the power.
Thanks,
Alan