extending power switch from pc?

[briktop11b]

  Ive searched and couldnt find a clear answer. This might be a dumb question. Im making a jukebox and i want to extend the power switch and wire it to a pushbutton on the cab for an on/off button. I cant for the life of me find the right wires to attach to the push button. Its a dell optiplex that is a year or two old. The switch has a 15pin connector to it but 16 wires in the connector.The wire on the end is pink the rest are grey. It looks like the pink one is going to the little pushbutton and i thought I found the ground but its just not working. Am i going about this the right way. PLease help me out. Thanks.

[Lutus]

picture of the where the power button makes contact?

Are disconnect the connector you are unsure off and place a multi-meter on two of the wires then press the button.  If it shows a short after you press the button then those are your two wires.

[paigeoliver]

Other option (way I do it) don't start looking at the end where the harness plugs into the PC, start looking at the button itself, and yr problems will be solved quickly.

[The_Tyler_Black]

I have this in my mame cabinet that i just finished, let me grab pics and post them for you.

[The_Tyler_Black]

Here is a computer made design, the 2 circled in red are the power. My digital camera couldnt focus on the actual board detail so they were blurry. hope this helps! If not let me know and ill try something else!!

[ghettodish]

The top pin in each column (above picture) is what you want to use. I wrapped a wire around the base of each of those pins, then taped them in place. I then reinstalled the ribbon cable and routed the wires through a hole I drilled under the floppy drive.

Optiplex GX 260

[Zebidee]

I think that this is your complete pinout:



From the pin-side:

PIN ---- DESCRIPTION --> CONNECTS TO FNT_PNL Pin #

1 Removed and blocked on the connector

2 PWR SWITCH LEFT SIDE (Both) --> 20

3 GND --> GND

4 HDD LED NEG --> 22

5 PWR LED GREEN POS --> 23

6 HDD LED POS --> 5 thru R19

7 GND --> GND

8 ESUP SWITCH RIGHT SIDE (Both) --> 28

9 PWR LED YELLOW POS --> 27

10 N/C

11 GND --> GND

12 N/C

13 ESUP LED NEG --> 24

14 ESUP LED POS --> 5 Thru R20

15 GND --> GND

16 GND --> GND


I've rewired some Dells (270N) previously for some projects.  I did some documentation of the pinouts etc. as I was hacking the front panels a lot.  For more information one what it all means, try clicking the picture or the link below.   

click here to see my documentation


You can also check out one of the projects I built the Dells into here:




Cheers, Zebidee

[ghettodish]

Good info, but that pinout seems to be mirrored. Your picture is for the I/O card inside the computer(behind front USB ports), not the one on the front panel under the power button.

It is good to know what all the other pins are for!

[Zebidee]

Good info, but that pinout seems to be mirrored. Your picture is for the I/O card inside the computer(behind front USB ports), not the one on the front panel under the power button.

Yeah, that's right.  It is exactly what you need, the same cable & wires, just that the pinout is laid out for the pin header on the "I/O card" rather than the power-switch card.  You can simply mirror it to work out what the pins do from the power-switch card's perspective.

I worked this out as I wanted to redirect the USB and audio to USB & audio ports I built into the front door of the cabinet.  Turned out to be a real pain, but I got there in the end.

BTW, you can use the LED pins to wire-up your own cabinet LEDs! This adds a professional touch.  Have an LED on whenever mains power is present, another indicating hard disk activity, etc.