Hello. I used to be a frequent visitor to this site, and it was instrumental in helping me build my own arcade MAME machine. I especially enjoyed the remarkable willingness to help other people that exists on this site; it's really a great community.
I've built a second machine, but I ran into a problem that I didn't foresee.
I used a regular computer monitor for the screen, but I didn't realize that the power button on the monitor isn't very friendly for this type of project. It has a "one touch" power button, rather than an on/off toggle power switch. I might not be explaining it very well, but basically it means, the monitor power button is just that, a single operation button. If the monitor is off, pressing this button will turn it on, and if the monitor is already on, pressing this same button turns it off... it's not like a two-position toggle switch in which one position meant that the monitor could always be on, as long as it's getting power. So this means, when I kill the machine's power, everything shuts down (which is what I want), but when I turn on the main power, the computer monitor doesn't come on by itself, you have to push the power button on the front of the monitor to get it to turn on.
This wasn't like the first one I built, which had the regular two-position on/off toggle power switch, which meant that I could just leave that power switch in the ON position, and when the monitor receives power, the monitor comes on, when it's off, the monitor is off... simple.
I was wagering that somebody MUST have come across this type of situation before, and might know a work-around for this. Is there some sort of hack into the electronic power switch on the monitor, or am I missing some setting that can be found in most PC motherboard BIOS to auto-power-on the monitor on start-up? There's got to be some way to fix this? But, I've already got the monitor well installed in the game cabinet and I DO NOT want to take it out to fix this. I can probably reach most of the monitor guts, as I installed it without the plastic shell, but left the front plastic bezel on.
Forgive me if this question was answered somewhere on this site already, but I did do many searches and couldn't find the answer. Can someone help?
The monitor I'm using is a ViewSonic A90f monitor. model # VCDTS23307-1R. Input : 100 - 240V AC, 1.5 A, 50/60 Hz
Thank you!