Simple and Clean Remote Laptop Power Switch

Hi Wardriver,

Thanks for the pics of your mod. Believe it or not I pulled my laptop part yesterday to start a mod similar to this but haven't done any soldering yet as I didn't know which points on the switch to solder to. The interesting thing of me is that your laptop is identical to mine and I no longer need to find a multimeter to work out which two points to solder to.

BTW, do you know what the other 2 points on the other side of the power switch are there for? I was going to wire all 4 points to my useless modem socket and work the rest out later.

Thanks

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Originally Posted by MyPetFly

BTW, do you know what the other 2 points on the other side of the power switch are there for?

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You know...off hand I don't. Good luck with the mod.

WD

I'm new to this forum and to fabricating a carpc. I'm planning to use a Dell Latitude P3 laptop, and this schematic definitely is going to be of help. My question is, is a momentary switch the only possible means of controlling the laptop's power? I'd like to install a single pole, single throw switch into my dash to control the laptop's power. Is this possible, and, if so, would you happen to know what additional parts, if any, are needed?

Thanks

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Originally Posted by lastlittlelife

I'd like to install a single pole, single throw switch into my dash to control the laptop's power. Is this possible, and, if so, would you happen to know what additional parts, if any, are needed?

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A SPST switch would be the same as holding your finger on the button of your laptop while you try and work on it. All it would do is complete the circuit and hard stop the PC. You could flip the SPST switch on the off real fast to get it to kick on, but that would defeat the purpose of its design. If you are going for a certain look in your car like that row of lighted fancy switches you might want to think about putting one on your DC to AC inverter unless you are going to Frankenstein some sort of 12v automotive dell adapter...in which case I would put it on the hardwired ac adapter.

I'm not sure what other parts you are thinking of....then again, I've been VPN'ed into work for the past several hours and my brain is fried...

Hope this helps. Please feel free to ask any other questions.

I recently tried installing the the solution in this thread. The issue I'm having is that when I hit the Momentary switch the laptop power on and power right off like the actual power button is still being held down. If I hold down the momentary button the laptop power rights up until I let go the button. My technical guess would be that I'm using the wrong leads because I guessed it because I left my multimeter at work. Could it be possible that I need another type of switch. Any help here would be greatly appreciated.

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Originally Posted by wavetek

My technical guess would be that I'm using the wrong leads because I guessed it because I left my multimeter at work.

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You should check the contiguity of the original laptop switch....that should tell you rather quickly.

Great write up! I am trying it right now but have run into a problem. I have two pins on on side of the switch and two on the other. If I touch both pins in one set on either side and press the button I get a beep. So since this is happening on either side, I know both sides close when I press the button. Does it matter which side I use as long as they close when the power button is pushed?

Is it safe just to randomly try one side to see if it works or do I risk frying something?

Both sides on my laptop did the same thing. You probably could use either side. I had an issue using a momentary switch. My system would shut right back off after hitting the switch. I used a SPST on/off swtich and it's working great. The only setback is that you have to click it on then click back off again for the laptop to stay powered on. My soldering sucks so that was a major pain in the butt.

I wonder if the fact that both sides closed caused the problem you were having?

I am going to try tapping off a random side tomorrow and see what happens.

Works great!

Nice write-up Wardriver. :) Thanks for the effort!

Wavetek, I had the same problem as you at first. My laptop would come on and turn right off again. I found that the tiny circuit board my switch was connected to was the problem. I just de-soldered it from the board and repositioned it so it wasn't making contact anymore. I had a circuit board because it was on of those push button shifter knobs which lights up so maybe this information isn't relevant to your situation.