Building a computer - power button question

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The Jinx · #1 Post by **The Jinx** » Fri 23 Nov 2007, 16:33

Hello,

I am planning to create a personalized case for my new puppy linux pc, but i dont know what to do with the power button. I am basically asking if anyone knows how to add a button to power on the computer. I dont know how i would connect a power button that i can find at Radioshack to the motherboard's power button header.

Thanks,
The Jinx

headfound · #2 Post by **headfound** » Fri 23 Nov 2007, 20:53

just solder the wire on or if its the right size, get a couple of hard drive jumpers and put a wire into each of them and onto the m'board. I just use a flat head screwdriver!

Sage · #3 Post by **Sage** » Sat 24 Nov 2007, 07:00

Why not embed the board within some furniture or a wall or under concrete and convert a TV remote or model radio-controlled toy joystick to switch on via a relay powered by a tiny solar cell?

The Jinx · #4 Post by **The Jinx** » Sun 25 Nov 2007, 02:34

um i would do something like that but too noobish.... Limited experience and limited finances does not really help. I was thinking of making a cardboard pc case like the one Yoshi made http://www.yoshi.us/forums/showthread.p ... =cardboard. I was thinking about using a Via motherboard so it hopefully wont produce that much heat.

Sage · #5 Post by **Sage** » Sun 25 Nov 2007, 06:40

Show us your homeland, Jinxie. Edit your profile.
Too many folks start babbling about 'buy' & 'spend'. Are you another brainwashed American?! Nothing suggested involves divesting yourself of as much as a bean. How many little relays do you need? Soldering iron - wind yourself a new element from a discarded unit. When did you last engage in some serious skip skimming/dumpster diving? It's not just for kids, you know. Neophyte? No advice is too trivial to find its way onto the Interweb - all human knowledge is out there - free! Then there's books - remember those? Some say there are huge concrete repositories of them - I think they're called libraries? But don't confuse them with a Linux directory.....

willhunt · #6 Post by **willhunt** » Sun 25 Nov 2007, 07:19

the one on mine is a normal open switch so I just took a
old internal speaker and cut the wires off of it and tap them togather when I turn it on as for cases I found old Plexiglas
and Styrofoam work great a very inportant thing to remember
during construction is a ground wire from mb to drv and pwr
supply of course you could look at pizzabox linux they had some great ideas it is no longer but the archives remain

Pence · #7 Post by **Pence** » Sun 25 Nov 2007, 16:17

What power supply are you going to use?

The Jinx · #8 Post by **The Jinx** » Mon 26 Nov 2007, 18:33

currently Im probably going to pull my psu from an old Pentium I pc I have lying around. But if i manage to find a part time job ill probably get a PicoPSU along with a CF card and adapter as the hdd.

RoughitforGreen247 · #9 Post by **RoughitforGreen247** » Wed 05 Dec 2007, 02:38

Does anyone know the distance between the pins for a power or reset switch, or led? I am in the same predicament as Jinx, but I'm too nervous to solder wires directly to my motherboard, and I was thinking of using something like this:

http://www.allelectronics.com/cgi-bin/c ... em=CON-242

And then stripping one end and soldering that to a power switch itself. Is that how its supposed to be done? Will that connector work?

Oh, and I'm using a mini-ITX JetWay J627F if that is relevant.

Sage · #10 Post by **Sage** » Wed 05 Dec 2007, 09:31

Always a brilliant idea in this game to perfect your soldering skills - use ancient motherboards to obtain the necessary practice, both with discretes as well as smc s. However, there's no need to solder anything in this case. Use a moderately robust pair of leads of stranded core. Take an old compass or your mother's bodkin (when did you use that word last?!). Stuff it into the end of each wire about 4mm, waggle it around to expand the orifice and push these onto the header pins. What you do with the other ends is entirely your own affair....

GeoffS · #11 Post by **GeoffS** » Wed 05 Dec 2007, 10:07

Take care with that soldering iron - Sage would probably attack a motherboard with an 8oz iron heated on the gas stove

See if you can find a wire wrap tool and some suitable wire, wire wraps work fine on header pins and no risk of damage.
Cheers
Geoff

Sage · #12 Post by **Sage** » Wed 05 Dec 2007, 10:27

8oz iron heated on the gas stove

- still got one of those in my torture chamber!
Wire-wrap is too much trouble and expensive if you haven't got the wrapping tool. My solution can be made more secure with a blob of Araldite or slightly less so with a smear from the ubiquitous glue gun.

#13 Post by **Flash** » Wed 05 Dec 2007, 13:51

The wire wrap idea sounds good to me, though you should be able to find a socket that fits the pins. I haven't done any wire wrap in over 20 years, but there there used to be a little wrapping tool available that you twirled with your fingers. It took a little practice to get good looking results but it couldn't have cost more than a dollar or two, and worked well enough if all you wanted was to wrap a few pins. The problem will be to find just a few feet of wire wrap wire. A whole roll is pretty expensive. See if you can find someone who will give you a few feet or sell it to you. (And maybe loan you his wire wrap tool while you're at it.

)

veronicathecow · #14 Post by **veronicathecow** » Wed 05 Dec 2007, 17:28

Hi re casing Heres a couple of thoughts..

1. Electromagnetic radiation. (Taken from Wikipedia)

Cooking food with microwaves was discovered by Percy Spencer while building magnetrons for radar sets at Raytheon. He was working on an active radar set when he noticed a strange sensation, and saw that a peanut chocolate bar he had in his pocket started to melt.
A microwave oven works by passing nonionizing microwave radiation, usually at a frequency of 2.45 GHz

Most PC's now have at least some components operating in this frequency range (or octaves of it thanks to the square wave nature of the digital signals.)

2. Styrofoam or any other material full of bubbles is an inherently good insulator of heat, useful in a PC for cooking a veggie burger on your processor but not good for a long life expectancy.

3. This radiation may also lead to malfunctioning of radio, television, radio controlled remote devices, remote doorbells etc.

Therefore for health and safety might I suggest a nice aluminum or steel case. Biscuits tins are always a good start

Where is used to work I rigged up a reset switch on our computer controlled test equipment that worked if you gave it a good thump!
Have fun.

headfound · #15 Post by **headfound** » Wed 05 Dec 2007, 19:44

At the moment my kids pc has to be hotwired to start!
I took two hardrive jumpers (the little black/blue plastic clips on the pins on the back of a harddisk) ran a wire into each (just pushed the wire in one of the sides) and put one jumper on each pin on the motherboard. To start just tap the wires!

GeoffS · #16 Post by **GeoffS** » Wed 05 Dec 2007, 20:23

Flash
Inexpensive ($10) hand wire wrap tools and small rolls of wire are readily available here.
Geoff

Fossil · #17 Post by **Fossil** » Wed 05 Dec 2007, 21:39

headfound

At the moment my kids pc has to be hotwired to start!
I took two hardrive jumpers (the little black/blue plastic clips on the pins on the back of a harddisk) ran a wire into each (just pushed the wire in one of the sides) and put one jumper on each pin on the motherboard. To start just tap the wires!

If that is the case (oops!), any 'push-to-make' switch wired in should suffice. Why not use a microswitch assembly from an old mouse?

Sage · #18 Post by **Sage** » Thu 06 Dec 2007, 06:21

Old mice never die, they just need their balls cleaned! And their rollers. And their tails docked (just beyond the fracture).

Human perversity always shines through! We've offered simple cost-free solutions of push-on wires, jumpers & biscuit tins. And what do we get? Wire wrap! Wire wrap died a decade ago because it's expensive, complicated and generally overkill in spades.

hankyknot · #19 Post by **hankyknot** » Fri 07 Dec 2007, 03:28

About 6 months ago I finished building a mini-ITX based PC inside a 1/10 scale Hummer. I was stuck on what to do for a power switch that wouldnt be obvious and intrusive. After all its supposed to look like the car right?

The Solution

A remote starter key fob.

Just like the real thing my 1:10 Hummer H2 starts with a remote starter, simply press the button and up she fires. No buttons in sight. I simply bought a remote starter and momentary switch kit (ready assembled because I cant solder for toffee) hooked it up the correct pinouts, tapped into a 12v rail and hey presto, instant cool multiplier of 10.

In case you're curious the system currently runs XP Home on a fanless motherboard with 1Gb RAm and an 80Gb Hard Disk, wireless keyboard, mouse and networking as well as bluetooth. The project is 95% complete with only the soldering of the headlight and blinker LEDs to the power on and disk activity connectors respectively. The damn thing is silent so when the screen powers down you cant tell if its on or not, hence the "running lights".

For a look at the remote start in action check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fGjiNArkAMw

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Building a computer - power button question

Building a computer - power button question

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