CrunchBang Linux

mcarni

#! CrunchBanger

Registered: 2009-02-10

Posts: 132

laptop power button - can i reposition it?

i have a laptop that i use as a mediaplayer (it runs openelec http://openelec.tv/)
it sits mainly in a cabinet.
that's the annoying thing, i have to open the cabinet to turn the laptop on.
openelec boots into xbmc and everything else is done via a X10 remote.

i will have to play with the laptop (remove monitor and update cpu fan)
so i was wondering if there is anything i can do to turn the computer on without opening the cabinet.

is it feasible to replace the orginal power button with a custom made which i could place outside the cabinet in a convenient location?

do you guys have any fancy idea?
(i thought about wake on lan, but it means i will have to have a second computer on...)

Thanks
let me know

m

rhowaldt

#!*$%:)

Registered: 2011-03-09

Posts: 4,396

Re: laptop power button - can i reposition it?

well, in theory (never done anything like this myself) you could crack open your laptop, see where the powerbutton-wires go, and hook into those. that would be a pretty technical thing to do i think (for me at least it would, not sure about your level of expertise here). what i'd personally try first is looking for a physical hack; simple example: if you build your laptop into a wooden box, and leave a hole open where the powerbutton would be if it were embedded in the wood (but it is actually several centimeters deeper inside the box), you could reach it with a pencil or something like that. would even be possible to do this sorta thing around corners i think.
of course the success of this all depends on your design, but just giving you some ideas here.

pvsage

Internal Affairs

From: North Carolina

Registered: 2009-10-18

Posts: 13,970

Re: laptop power button - can i reposition it?

Well, the power button on my netbook (probably on most modern PC's) is a simple NO pushbutton switch; in my netbook, it's connected to the motherboard by a two-conductor ribbon cable.  Should be able to simply solder a couple wires to this and run them to a NO pushbutton on your cabinet.  (Make sure it's an intermittent switch and not a latching (push-on/push-off) switch, since most PC hardware is designed for a 5-second press on the power switch to force a hard shutdown.)

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mcarni

#! CrunchBanger

Registered: 2009-02-10

Posts: 132

Re: laptop power button - can i reposition it?

thanks guys,

i will check what they have in the local computer/electronic store
seems doable, just need to find something that looks pretty...

thanks

m