ATX power supply (PC) twist to make question

[Graham1982]

Dear all:

I am currently building a PC into an old 1940s/50s TV cabinet having re-veneered it. My plan is to use one of the rotary switches on the control panel to power the PC on so it looks as original ish as possible.

I was just thinking of extending the wires from the connector on the board to the relevant connectors on the rotary switch. I understand this will stop the 'hold for a few seconds and PC will switch off' function however, other than this, will this work or am I missing something?

Thanks

Graham

 

[galantida]

Hello Graham,

I don’t know if this helps but I have done similar projects, for example put a PC in an arcade machine or an old juke box. What has worked best for me was to install a surge strip and wire its plug to the power switch. I would then simply plug the PC power cable in the surge strip and the go in the BIOS and set the PC to automatically turn on when it receives power. If your using the original power switch it may not be designed to carry that much power. In that case you may have to use a relay or transistor.

The reason I like the surge strip way better is because for these types of projects is that I usually have additional speakers, lights, or even a monitor in the box that I want powered on and off as well. Not just a computer.

To answer your original question though, I would test holding the power button in on the actual mother board you intend to use. Since they implemented the soft power on functionality I think almost all computers treat holding the button down as additional functionality such as hibernate or forced power off. I would not want you to end up with a computer that continually reboots.

Dave

 

[CocaCola]

IMO you would be better off putting a large momentary switch in there, you can still use the original turn knob dial on the momentary switch, but instead of turning it you just give it a slight push in... Appearance the same, function slightly different...

 

[Graham1982]

Hi both options seem interesting and both were helpful replies although option two does sound a bit easier - also as there arethree switches on the front of the machine I could put two of those types of switches in - one for the monitor and one for the PC and away it goes.

Thanks very much - will keep you posted.


Graham