Cabinet power questions.

[2slk]

Folks,

 Trying to figure out the best way to power my cab while taking into consideration that I'm not really good with, and pretty much terrified of electricity. I already found this page - http://home.bendcable.com/werstlein Looks like it's a little more than I want to go through.

 Eightbit, I found a thread where you mentioned "I use a power strip that has a remote switch, the switch is mounted on top the cabinet. The Marquee and monitor is plugged into the switched side of the strip. I then wired a arcade button to the power button on the PC to turn it on. Its plugged into the always on side of the power strip. This way I can turn the monitor and marquee off but leave the PC on in case I want to send updates to it over the network.'
 
 How is this working out? Have you found a better solution recently and where did you find a power strip with a remote switch? Got any pics?

 I also contacted the guy who made the strip you mentioned in the same thread (While looking for an example of the power strip that I have I located this on ebay- http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=2071762526
It looks pretty cool, its even better than my setup. Turning on and off the power on the computer turns the power strip on and off. ) but I haven't heard back from him.

 What do you think about mounting a rackmount powerstrip in the cab, connecting everything but the PC there and wiring an arcade power switch for the PC??

 If anyone else has any interesting solutions or would just like to share their existing power solutions, I'm listening. Thanks in advance.

[waveryder]

I power mine directly from the main switch on top of the cab. I run a power lead up the inside of the cab to the switch and then a cable back down connected to the pc's power supply. I use the other connector on the pcs power supply to power the monitor. The marquee light is powered using a cable splitter so when i hit the switch... The PC is set to restart after power loss in the bios, so everything starts at the same time. After I shut the Comp down from my frontend I power off the main switch. I hope this helps (or am i just rambling  )

[waveryder]

I power mine directly from the main switch on top of the cab. I run a power lead up the inside of the cab to the switch and then a cable back down connected to the pc's power supply. I use the other connector on the pcs power supply to power the monitor. The marquee light is powered using a cable splitter so when i hit the switch... The PC is set to restart after power loss in the bios, so everything starts at the same time. After I shut the Comp down from my frontend I power off the main switch. I hope this helps (or am i just rambling  )

[eightbit]

I don't power mine with the remote switched power strip any more. I can't find a picture of the power strip that I used to use. Basically its just a normal power strip only the switch isn't on the strip its attached to a wire and you can mount it anywhere you want. I use a automatic switched strip like the one you linked to at ebay or the relay hacked one that you also linked. Don't pay the ebay guy $60 for a home made one. Check out this thread- http://www.arcadecontrols.org/yabbse/index.php?board=1;action=display;threadid=4681;start=0

The automatic strip is far superior to the relay hack since you don't have to get 12v power from the PC to power the relay. Also the relay hack is going to be tough to do for under $20 unless you have all the parts laying around and you feel confident in your soldering skills. I've also hear that you should have a diode in the relay hack that is not mentioned in the werstein writeup to prevent damage to your PC but I never got any confirmation or details on that.

I've bought 2 of the sears automatic strips for both my cabs and absolutely love them. The more expensive, "smartstrip", power strip in that thread is probably better but I haven't ordered one. You could try messaging one of the guys that said he ordered one. The problems with the Sears one is its not a surge surpressor and it doesn't have enough outlets. I fixed this by plugging it into a single outlet surge protector on the wall and a cheap power strip on a switched outlet to give me enough outlets. If I didn't already have those it would have been cheaper and better to go with the smart strip one. The advantage to the Sears one is its $20 and the wife doesn't question things bought at Sears showing up on the credit card bill since she assumes its usually something she bought. I also read a rumor that someone found a similar product at Walmart but several of us haven't found it there.

I do have a arcade button remotely wired to my motherboard. All I did was pull the button harness off the motherboard then shove wires from the remote button into the harness and push it back onto the prongs on the motherboard. No cutting, no splicing, no soldering.

Now my 4 year old neice can turn the cabinet on and off. Push the button and the pc powers up. The switched outlet turns on the other outlets and the monitor, speakers, and marguee all power up. When she's bored with playing she hits the pc arcade power button and the PC closes open applications, exits windows and powers off. When the switched outlet senses the PC is off it shuts off everything else. It works beautifully.

I'm trying to find a different front end now to hide Windows even more and to make it simpler. I'll change the start up and shut down screens to not be microsoft. Then launch the front end as the Windows shell and other than the PC post you won't know its a PC. I might even be able to hide the PC post if my bios allows it.