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Can a switch replace my computer's power button?
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javeryh:
On my old cabinet I extended the wires from the motherboard to one of these mini momentary pushbuttons (the top onein this picture):



and it works perfectly.  I push it once, everything comes on.  I push it again, everything shuts off.

Now I'm wondering if I did the same thing but used one of these:



would it still work?  The pushbutton makes contact and opens the circuit immediately but I think the switch would keep the circuit closed until flipping it again.  I like the look of the "on/off" switch instead of just a plain old button...  Any thoughts? 
SavannahLion:
Usually not as a direct drop in replacement. This would appear to the PC as you holding in the power switch in an "ON" state. Some PC's see this as an error and post as such. Most PC's might misinterpret this as shutdown/sleep/whatever command. Others won't do anything at all (My Aptiva had a sticky power switch and it passed POST just fine). You might need to construct a small simple circuit to give the rocker switch the appearance of a momentary switch.

You have some other options before you though.

I've seen switches like the one pictured there that looks like a rocker switch but is actually a momentary switch internally. They don't stay in an on state though. Rock the "switch" and release it and it moves back into its normal state.

The other, more common method around here, is to configure the BIOS to always power on from a power outage then either extend the master switch from the PSU or modify a power strip for the purpose. The danger here is that you're dealing with 120v AC power levels instead of 5v DC power levels. Mistakes are less forgiving here.
ratzz:
This is something I've been thinking of as well, but with a lit power switch.

I imagine the principal would be the same -- but I am completely dumb to this side of my project.

Ratzz
javeryh:

--- Quote from: SavannahLion on November 30, 2007, 02:41:36 pm ---Usually not as a direct drop in replacement. This would appear to the PC as you holding in the power switch in an "ON" state. Some PC's see this as an error and post as such. Most PC's might misinterpret this as shutdown/sleep/whatever command. Others won't do anything at all (My Aptiva had a sticky power switch and it passed POST just fine). You might need to construct a small simple circuit to give the rocker switch the appearance of a momentary switch.

You have some other options before you though.

I've seen switches like the one pictured there that looks like a rocker switch but is actually a momentary switch internally. They don't stay in an on state though. Rock the "switch" and release it and it moves back into its normal state.

The other, more common method around here, is to configure the BIOS to always power on from a power outage then either extend the master switch from the PSU or modify a power strip for the purpose. The danger here is that you're dealing with 120v AC power levels instead of 5v DC power levels. Mistakes are less forgiving here.

--- End quote ---

That's what I thought.  I'm 99% sure it would be read by my computer as holding down the power button which wouldn't be good.  Any ideas as to where to get one of those "rocker" switches that acts like a momentary pushbutton but looks like the black switch I posted?  I'm sure I've seen them around too.

Thanks!!   :cheers:
mountain:
Here is switch that is similar to what you showed above. It is a momentary.
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