I've got a perfectly good laptop, a recent model Gateway, that I carry with me all day long as I travel between customer locations. Most of the time I don't need the machine on site so it just stays in my bag. I might need it twice in one week. Got to thinking that it would be a perfect system for me to get started on my Car PC project without spending a ton of money. That way I'd be able to learn a lot and be well prepared when I build a real Car PC.
I'm thinking I'd start with a setup where I stick the laptop under the seat and get a gooseneck mounted touchscreen display.
The problem I can't solve is how to turn the machine on and off. I think I really need to use Standby because it only takes about 10 seconds to come out of it. It's easy enough to put the machine in Standby mode. Bringing it out is the challenge.
The keyboard has special FN key combos for that, but the lid will be closed and under the seat.
The power button for the machine in on the inside surface and again the lid will be closed and under the seat.
My system doesn't support Wake on Ring. It does support Wake on LAN and I've tested that, it works. I have spent much time here
ing and
ing and it appears that there is no practical way to Wake on LAN.
There is no docking station available for my machine. I don't want to open it up and do any soldering -- the machine is still new and under warranty and I don't want it f-d up.
Two questions:
One: where can I find a magic Wake on LAN black box for $50? Kinda kidding, but seriously, I'm sure one could be made to sell for that much if someone had the resources to design one and there was a market for a reasonable quantity of them.
Two: What kind of creative, non-technical, work-arounds are there? i.e. - should I just leave it turned on all day long, sit it on the seat, use some kind of goofy mechanical device to reach inside and press a button?
Linear Mode
