Build Your Own Arcade Controls Forum
Main => Main Forum => Topic started by: cmoses on March 28, 2009, 05:12:51 pm
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I have been working on my control panel and hooked up the light for the trackball today. I noticed when I shut down the cabinet the light for the trackball was staying on. I have everything running through a smart strip with the computer as the main power point. I am using a powered USB hub for my U360's, trackball and Mini-PAC. I didn't notice before but they are all still getting power even when the computer is off. The hub is plugged into a controlled outlet and is going off, but is still on because it is hooked up to the computer through a USB port. I tried hooking up the trackball usb directly to the computer both to a USB on the motherboard as well as a USB off the board but it is still getting powered.
Is there a setting in the BIOS that I need to change so that the USB's do not get power? My USB mouse light goes off when the computer shutsdown.
Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated. There must be a way to fix this as I am sure you all don't have your trackball lights on all the time.
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My USB stuff turns off when I put my cab into standby mode (or power off). There may be an option in your BIOS. Only way to find out for sure is to go there and check...
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i dont know about the electric ice trackball, but i powered the LEDS for my utrak from the 5v on the pc power supply instead of from the usb..that way it shuts off when the pc turns off.
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I did the same thing for my cab as well. I tried using a hub but I had no luck with it.
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This has been brought up in the past. Many new name-brand PCs and some newer motherboards default to leaving USB ports powered in soft-off. The original intent of this was to allow USB devices in a very low power state to wake the system up, but some devices now co-opt this behavior (against the USB spec) to charge batteries in portable devices.
A fully compliant USB device will shut itself down almost entirely (the spec is rather stringent about how much juice one can draw in standby) when the system is in soft-off, but, for various reasons, many of these "arcade control" devices ignore that part of the spec and stay fully powered and running.
Some PCs have a BIOS option or jumpers on the motherboard to configure this behavior, but apparently many new ones do not (that would cost a few cents, after all). See if you can find one. Often, it will be labeled somewhat confusingly as "USB Power Source" and provide options of "5V" and "5VSB". "5VSB" causes them to be always powered, while "5V" would cause them to be powered only in full-power.
The "solution" proposed by many is a shutdown task in your OS that tells the device to turn off.
Others install a USB add-in PCI card. These ports will power-off when the system is in soft-off.