Dedicated Power Button Questions

[Ren Hoek]

Hi Guys,

I’m close to assembling my arcade cabinet and have a few technical (electrical) questions that I was hoping someone could help answer or point me in the right direction.

I read about a one-button start-up (arcade power switch) … how is this installed / how does this work? Currently, I have the following electrical components to set up:

PC
Monitor
Speakers
Marquee Light

The way I see it, all of these things can be turned on at once with one dedicated button - either an arcade button or a ‘power switch’(?).

I know this is a bit of a noob question, and for someone who has been watching these boards for a number of years, you’d think I’d have it figured out by now … but it seems like it’s one of those ‘assume to know’ things and never really explained in great detail.

Are these electrical components (PC, monitor, speakers, light) ever ‘on’ or in ‘standby’ when the power button is off? Are power-surges an issue witha one-button start-up? Is a 'pwer strip' the same thing as a 'power board' (i.e. a board where multiple power plugs can be plugged into)?

I need as much detail as possible otherwise I’m going to have to start designing my cabinet to include manual power for all electrical components (and no one wants that).

Thanks in advance.

[DaOld Man]

This is a very old and very often asked question.
You can use a smart strip, which is a power strip that your computer plugs into, then everything else (monitor, sound, etc) plugs into the other outlets on the strip.
The smart strip senses when there is a current draw on the computer outlet and turns the other outlets on or off.
You can also wire a relay to a power strip that turns on when the computer comes on and off when the computer is off.
The relay can be powered by a molex connector inside the computer or if you use a 5vdc relay it can possibly be powered from a usb port.
If you are not very handy with a soldering iron or have little to no electrical experience, I would suggest you use the smart strip method, because it is fairly simple.
To wire an external button to turn on your PC, you can use any kind of a SPST normally open momentary pushbutton (Happ type pushbutton works great), and wire the switch to the power pushbutton on the PC.
This does require a bit of wiring savvy, but is most likely not as hard as it may sound.
Just search this site for "smart strip" or "power button" and you will probably find many examples. Im pretty sure PL1 has an example on the WIKI also.
Here is an example I laid out in a blog I made on my second arcade build. (This was before I was an active member on here).
I always use relays but it is very simple to me, since I have spent most of my life wiring things up. LOL
http://skennys-arcade.blogspot.com/
Scroll down and find the power strip entries.
Good luck with your project.