Folks With Inverters - Switching On PC?

**Max018** · 02-20-2004, 12:09 PM

Hey Y'all,

Just a wee question for all those folks with Inverters instead of those big shiny opus things and their PC out of reach (eg the boot/trunk)!

How do you switch on your PC exactly? I know some PC's have a switch in BIOS to turn on after a power fail but I dont think my mobo supports that, I made a make shift box to stick in the front with me but it means more messy wires (im lazy). How do you folks go about it, short of going to the back and hitting the power button!

Later,
Paolo

**Confused** · 02-20-2004, 12:12 PM

One way I got round it was to get the power/reset/pwr led/hdd led board with cables from an old Tiny system, cut the wires about in the middle, and wire them to either end of a piece of Cat5 cable, which I ran along the length of the car. The connectors went into the motherboard in the right places, and the little board with buttons/lights went up to the dash

Garry

**Max018** · 02-20-2004, 12:17 PM

Lol, yeah cat5 was what I used to build my little box thingy, and it works! Looks like I'll just have to build it a nicer box or mount it on the dash somewheres. Not keen on cutting up my lovely dash though!

**craigyb** · 02-20-2004, 12:43 PM

Do you use your ashtray, what about some switches and leds in there.

Also a shutdown controller will do it.

Craig

**Max018** · 02-20-2004, 12:58 PM

Originally Posted by craigyb

Do you use your ashtray, what about some switches and leds in there.

Also a shutdown controller will do it.

Craig

Excellent idea, I could use the ash tray. Also, see with the shutdown controller, is there any way I could wire in the inverter to the car so it comes on with the car, meaning the PC would basically boot automatically on ignition (this aint a problem, I'd just put the inverter in the front with me otherwise, just for neatness I'd guess)

Thanks,
Paolo

**MeanGT** · 02-20-2004, 01:45 PM

My inverter/computer is setup to all come on with the car's ignition. I did this by taking apart the inverter, and actually soldering a wire to either side of the on/off switch. When the ignition is turned on, it kicks over a small relay which shorts the on/off switch to the on position. I have another relay which runs to the same switch, but is triggered by the +12v of the computer's power supply so that way, once the computer is on, it stays on until I actually shut it down, even if the ignition is turned off.

That way when I get out of my car, I just hit the shutdown button on my remote, and it powers off normally, turning off the inverter as it's last step. Or if I am just running into the store for 5 minutes or so, I can just leave it on and not have to wait for another boot-up.

**toadster123** · 02-20-2004, 07:19 PM

Couldnt u just attach a relay to the inverter... and leave the computer and inverter 'on'.... so after u start the ignition on the car... u can switht the relay which powers inverter/pc.....

**MeanGT** · 02-20-2004, 10:19 PM

Originally Posted by toadster123

Couldnt u just attach a relay to the inverter... and leave the computer and inverter 'on'.... so after u start the ignition on the car... u can switht the relay which powers inverter/pc.....

I tried that at first, but the inverter needs to be hooked up to +12v for at least a couple of seconds before being turned on. If the capacitors aren't charged, and you have a computer and inverter that are in the ON position, the inverter immediately goes into safety mode as soon as power is applied.

**MP3DUB** · 02-21-2004, 12:25 AM

Heh, funny timing for this thread, I'm just cleaning up the wiring in my remote box. At this point, its moved beyond simply switching the inverter on and booting the pc (Heh, theres two cat5 jacks, 7 spade connectors, a rca connector and a usb connector, just a few wires

), but for the current setup I took my inverter apart and simply extended the switch from the body of the inverter to the front of the car. I also extended the bi-colour led to the front as well. But I used a relay at first to interupt the power to the inverter, and moved beyond that as well.