Author Topic: What's this I hear about BIOS, a SmartStrip and the "one button power on"??? (Read 5546 times)

javeryh · « **on:** January 25, 2006, 05:38:58 pm »

OK, I've got a SmartStrip. I'm going to plug the SmartStrip into the wall, the computer into the "hot" outlet and everything else (speakers and monitor) into the other outlets so presumably when I power on my computer, everything else will power on too (my monitor is always on unless it's unplugged and my speakers can be left in the on position all the time). Am I OK so far?

Now what? I want to wire a button on my cab to be the "power" button (hidden from view but easily accessible) meaning I press it and everything comes on and the computer boots straight to my frontend and I press it again and it shuts down. I think I need to mess with my computer's BIOS but I don't even know what that is - can anyone point me in the right direction or explain what I need to figure out?

Thanks!!

Flinkly · « **Reply #1 on:** January 25, 2006, 05:40:35 pm »

hook your regular power button from your comp to a button that is available to push. i used a regular happ button. i press it, and everything comes on, if you've got a smart strip.

Farmboy90 · « **Reply #2 on:** January 25, 2006, 05:43:38 pm »

There is a connector (jumper) coming from your PC power switch and connecting to your motherboard. It'll be a green/white or red/white set of wires labeled "Power Switch".

Leave that connected to your motherboard. Then snip the wires and splice on long ones that you can run to the place on your cab where you want to mount a button.

Then strip the ends of the long wires off and solder them to the ends of a momentary push button that you mount to the cabinet somewhere.

Then when you push that button, it will turn on your PC. This is the "master" in the powerstrip and as such will cause everything else to fire up. When you hit the button again it will shut down your PC. Now the "master" device is off and as such your other devices will be turned off.

thebrownshow · « **Reply #3 on:** January 25, 2006, 05:48:41 pm »

Let me preface this with the fact that I've got my PC in an existing cabinet, but there's a MUCH easier way with a smartstrip

First, check your BIOS and see if you have a setting called "Restore Power after AC Power Loss" or something to that effect. Essentially what that means is that when there's power at the PC's plug, should it fire up your PC?

Now plug your CABINET'S POWER into the monitor outlet of the SmartStrip, so that when the cabinet gets turned on, the smartstrip fires up the other outlets.

Your PC will notice the now-available power, and will fire up your PC.

That way, you don't need an extra button or anything, you can just use the cabinet's existing power supply

SirPoonga · « **Reply #4 on:** January 25, 2006, 05:51:29 pm »

Quote from: thebrownshow on January 25, 2006, 05:48:41 pm

First, check your BIOS and see if you have a setting called "Restore Power after AC Power Loss" or something to that effect. Essentially what that means is that when there's power at the PC's plug, should it fire up your PC?

Now, doesn't that mean you have to cut power to the computer while it is running, you can't use normal shutdown?

Smartstrip, I think, would be the safer route. Also note some computers have a power on keyboard in bios too.

thetaylors3 · « **Reply #5 on:** January 26, 2006, 12:27:05 am »

I don't have a smart strip, I used a relay hooked to the PC power to control the strip but it's essentially the same thing. In BIOS, I've set the computer to "power up on key press", that way I can hit any button on the machine and everything turns on. Some BIOs also have the option to "power up on password". I'm currently using this method. I set the password to one of the buttons. This way you can pick which button you want to turn it on. Also, since my kids like to hit buttons, I set the password to 3 letters where I can just press the same button 3 times to turn on. That way random button presses won't turn it on. I like this set up best because it doesn't require an extra button.

mumbles · « **Reply #6 on:** January 26, 2006, 01:46:32 am »

In my bios setting it lets me turn the computer on by clicking the right mouse button. I have an optipac connected via usb with a right mouse button connected to the optipac from my control panel but when I press the button on my control panel it doesn't switch the computer on.

Also my bios says that it can turn the computer on by a keyboard with a power button or by password but i won't let me change any of these setting to allow the ocmputer to do this.

Therefore how do i change it or do i need to upgrade my bios. I have an ipac4 connected as well by usb and you can set one of the buttons as "power" but I can't change that setting in bios. Would it make a difference if I had the ipac or optipac connected via ps2 instead of usb??

brophog · « **Reply #7 on:** January 26, 2006, 01:57:07 am »

One of two things:

It's set for a PS2 mouse only.

OR

Check your motherboard for a mouse power on jumper.

mumbles · « **Reply #8 on:** January 26, 2006, 02:06:06 am »

if i buy usb to ps2 convertor then and plug the optipac in to the ps2 port instead, could this hten turn on the computer?

nostrebor · « **Reply #9 on:** January 26, 2006, 08:51:04 am »

Quote from: SirPoonga on January 25, 2006, 05:51:29 pm

Quote from: thebrownshow on January 25, 2006, 05:48:41 pm
First, check your BIOS and see if you have a setting called "Restore Power after AC Power Loss" or something to that effect. Essentially what that means is that when there's power at the PC's plug, should it fire up your PC?
Now, doesn't that mean you have to cut power to the computer while it is running, you can't use normal shutdown?

Smartstrip, I think, would be the safer route. Also note some computers have a power on keyboard in bios too.

You don't have to cut the power while running. I use mamewah, which will let you map a button within mamewah to exit and shut down windows.

My setup is like this:

Regular powerstrip - Hack into power cord of the strip and add a switch that breaks one of the wires (black or white. white is the best choice). The switch is a toggle style, like you would find on a typical arcade cabinet for power. It needs to be rated for household current.

Set computer bios to come on at power failure. - This setting works even when the computer is already turned off. The PC senses when the power has been cut at the power supply, like you unplugged the supply. If it loses power, as soon as power comes back at the supply, the computer boots.

Plug all your components into the powerstrip and turn the switch on the powerstrip on and leave it on. - now you are controlling the powerstrip from the switch we hacked into it above.

Flip the switch and all the components come on, and the PC boots

When shutting the system off, I have a button mapped in my frontend that exits and shuts down windows. Then I just reach up and flip the "hacked into the powersupply" switch. This tells the PC that it has lost power, which sets it up to come back on the next time.

There are no hard shutdowns, the hack is extremely simple with a few wirenuts and some HD lamp cord. The entire costs was about $8 for a powerstrip, lampcord(for the run to the hacked switch), and some wirenuts.

thebrownshow · « **Reply #10 on:** January 26, 2006, 10:44:46 am »

Exactly. I use MAMEWah as well, and I use the "Exit and Shutdown" feature from the frontend. The PC shuts down normally, and then I turn off the cabinet's power. It's really quite elegant, and didn't require any hacking of any switches or power strips or rewiring whatsoever. It's just cabinet power into smartstrip's monitored outlet, and everything else just works great.

seanp · « **Reply #11 on:** January 26, 2006, 11:09:22 am »

Some computers can use Window's "hibernate" feature, and you can set it up so that pressing the power button starts "hibernation" instead of just powering down the machine. Just one more alternative to add to the list...

javeryh · « **Reply #12 on:** January 26, 2006, 01:45:24 pm »

Quote from: thebrownshow on January 25, 2006, 05:48:41 pm

Let me preface this with the fact that I've got my PC in an existing cabinet, but there's a MUCH easier way with a smartstrip

First, check your BIOS and see if you have a setting called "Restore Power after AC Power Loss" or something to that effect. Essentially what that means is that when there's power at the PC's plug, should it fire up your PC?

Now plug your CABINET'S POWER into the monitor outlet of the SmartStrip, so that when the cabinet gets turned on, the smartstrip fires up the other outlets.

Your PC will notice the now-available power, and will fire up your PC.

That way, you don't need an extra button or anything, you can just use the cabinet's existing power supply

What is my "Cabinet's Power"? The only things requiring power (from an outlet) that are going in my cab are the computer, speakers and monitor. I am planning on plugging all three into the SmartStrip and the Smart Strip into the wall. I might power some separate LEDs for lights above the P1 and P2 CPs (if I can figure it out) but I will be drawing that power from the computer power supply, right? Is there something I'm missing?

Doc Thirst · « **Reply #13 on:** January 26, 2006, 02:26:00 pm »

I used a regular 110 switch to cut/allow power to a regular 110 outlet housed in the cab as well to the marquee light. I then plugged in all my hardware (speakers, monitor, computer) to a power strip which is in turn plugged in to the outlet in the cab. I set the bios to "Restore Power after AC Power Loss" as mentioned before. I wired an indust extention cord to the switch and wa-la, flip the switch and the whole sha-bang fires up.

Pardon my sloppy pic, but here it is:

thebrownshow · « **Reply #14 on:** January 26, 2006, 02:33:03 pm »

Quote from: javeryh on January 26, 2006, 01:45:24 pm

Quote from: thebrownshow on January 25, 2006, 05:48:41 pm
Let me preface this with the fact that I've got my PC in an existing cabinet, but there's a MUCH easier way with a smartstrip

...

That way, you don't need an extra button or anything, you can just use the cabinet's existing power supply

What is my "Cabinet's Power"? The only things requiring power (from an outlet) that are going in my cab are the computer, speakers and monitor. I am planning on plugging all three into the SmartStrip and the Smart Strip into the wall. I might power some separate LEDs for lights above the P1 and P2 CPs (if I can figure it out) but I will be drawing that power from the computer power supply, right? Is there something I'm missing?

What I said up there was that I have an existing cabinet, meaning a JAMMA cabinet that I converted. Jamma cabinets have a main power switch, usually on the top, that fires up the monitor, coin door lights, marquee, etc. I insert the plug from the cabinet into the switching outlet of the smartstrip. Then when I turn on the cabinet using the cabinet's existing switch, it fires up EVERYTHING.

thebrownshow · « **Reply #15 on:** January 26, 2006, 10:13:36 pm »

So coin doors aren't essential, but being able to turn it off without having to shut down IS?

nostrebor · « **Reply #16 on:** January 27, 2006, 10:29:14 am »

Quote from: pinballjim on January 26, 2006, 04:38:27 pm

Do what Noestrobor did, but use DOS instead of Windows. That way, there's no need "shut down" the computer. Just flip it off.

I personally hate anything that breaks the illusion that you're on a real arcade cabinet. I did draw the line at a coin door, though.

If my cabinet was mame only, I would never consider a windows enviro. It also runs many windows only games and is my testbed for FE's, encoders, and such. Thus, it must be powered by the Devil's OS

It is actually no big deal to shutdown. I just push my pause button and off it goes. Takes 2 seconds. Then, flip the power switch.

All of my MAME only builds are/will be DOS, as long as I don't have to use any USB devices.

ppilot · « **Reply #17 on:** January 27, 2006, 10:35:13 am »

Quote from: Doc Thirst on January 26, 2006, 02:26:00 pm

I used a regular 110 switch to cut/allow power to a regular 110 outlet housed in the cab as well to the marquee light. I then plugged in all my hardware (speakers, monitor, computer) to a power strip which is in turn plugged in to the outlet in the cab. I set the bios to "Restore Power after AC Power Loss" as mentioned before. I wired an indust extention cord to the switch and wa-la, flip the switch and the whole sha-bang fires up.

Pardon my sloppy pic, but here it is:

Question for you. I've done exactly the same thing, and I find that if I let the machine power 'all' the way down, it won't come back online. What I normally do is flip the switch off when I hear the 'power down whine' to make it work.

Does this make sense? 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.

thebrownshow · « **Reply #18 on:** January 27, 2006, 11:09:45 am »

Sometimes I'll shut my PC down, walk away, and come back in a few minutes and kill the power to the cabinet. It always comes back on.

javeryh · « **Reply #19 on:** January 27, 2006, 11:42:36 am »

Quote from: Doc Thirst on January 26, 2006, 02:26:00 pm

I used a regular 110 switch to cut/allow power to a regular 110 outlet housed in the cab as well to the marquee light. I then plugged in all my hardware (speakers, monitor, computer) to a power strip which is in turn plugged in to the outlet in the cab. I set the bios to "Restore Power after AC Power Loss" as mentioned before. I wired an indust extention cord to the switch and wa-la, flip the switch and the whole sha-bang fires up.

Great pic! Here's what I'm thinking of doing:

Will this setup work for one button power on and off? I don't have a marquee (it's a cocktail) and I think this is everything that's going in there...

Any thoughts/corrections would be great!

nostrebor · « **Reply #20 on:** January 27, 2006, 12:41:49 pm »

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.

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 · « **Reply #21 on:** January 27, 2006, 05:00:05 pm »

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 · « **Reply #22 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?

Brax · « **Reply #23 on:** January 28, 2006, 10:25:40 pm »

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?

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 · « **Reply #24 on:** January 28, 2006, 10:35:41 pm »

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

Brax · « **Reply #25 on:** January 28, 2006, 10:42:11 pm »

Definitely not MY page but I followed it along verbatim and it worked flawlessly. I agree with using a relay to control everything though.

I love that I made it. It's one of the things I'm most proud of regarding my cabinet - even though it's behind the scenes. Only the true nerds Ooo and Ahh. and then we have another convert.

javeryh · « **Reply #26 on:** January 29, 2006, 12:22:40 am »

Quote from: javeryh on January 27, 2006, 11:42:36 am

Will this setup work for one button power on and off? I don't have a marquee (it's a cocktail) and I think this is everything that's going in there...

Any thoughts/corrections would be great!

So is this the right setup?

Brax · « **Reply #27 on:** January 29, 2006, 03:25:26 am »

It is as long as your bios supports some sort of 'power-up from any key' or some such. Otherwise you'll want to wire up a button through your computers power button. All the rest looks fine though. It's pretty straight forward.

alank2 · « **Reply #28 on:** January 29, 2006, 09:16:53 am »

I agree, the power button doesn't need to go through the IPAC. Almost all motherboards have a soft on/off power button that is on a couple pins. Just wire these pins up to a button and you will be all set!

Alan

mumbles · « **Reply #29 on:** February 01, 2006, 01:49:30 am »

I connected the power button of my computer to a pushbutton today so i could power it outside of the cabinet. it was all working fine and then my computer made a loud bang and now i no longer get any power at all to the computer. What went wrong and can it be fixed??

Warborg · « **Reply #30 on:** February 01, 2006, 10:14:13 pm »

Quote from: mumbles on February 01, 2006, 01:49:30 am

I connected the power button of my computer to a pushbutton today so i could power it outside of the cabinet. it was all working fine and then my computer made a loud bang and now i no longer get any power at all to the computer. What went wrong and can it be fixed??

o_O


Main	Restorations	Software	Audio/Jukebox/MP3	Everything Else	Buy/Sell/Trade
Project Announcements	Monitor/Video	GroovyMAME	Merit/JVL Touchscreen	Meet Up	Retail Vendors
Driving & Racing	Woodworking	Software Support Forums	Consoles	Project Arcade	Reviews
Automated Projects	Artwork	Frontend Support Forums	Pinball	Forum Discussion	Old Boards
Raspberry Pi & Dev Board	controls.dat	Linux	Miscellaneous Arcade	Wiki Discussion	Old Archives
Lightguns	Arcade1Up	Try the site in https mode		Site News


Unread posts \| New Replies \| Recent posts \| Rules \| Chatroom \| Wiki \| File Repository \| RSS \| Submit news