mtmsol

I'm using an MSI Concerto PC, which is a proprietary motherboard and power supply. There is a jumper on the motherboard labelled 'ATX Power Switch'. I looked this up in the manual (not much of a manual, really) and sure enough it said that you can connect a switch to this jumper and pressing the switch will toggle the power supply between on/off mode. My thought is to purchase a momentary push button form radio shack and wire this button to this jumper. Here's my question: the computer is in the trunk and the switch will be on the dash, so how should I wire this? Because the wires will be about 20ft. long, will I need to run any voltage through this? My thought is that the motherboard must constantly be running a small current to this jumper to monitor for a switch being pressed, so I'm not sure if just running 20ft of wire to a switch will work or not. Any thoughts?
Here are the specs on my motherboard:
Hardware Specs (the limitted amount of info about the jumper in question is on page 22).
I'm hoping to get this working because I don't want the PC powering up automatically when I turn the car on, so this way the PC will stay off until I press a button on the dash.
One other option I've been toying with is havin gthe PC turn on when I turn on the inverter. Is there any way that I could use this jumper on the motherboard to start the PC when the inverter is powered on? This way as soon as I plug the inverter into the cigarette adapter the PC would power up, and I would not even need to switch on the dash. The PC automaticaly powers down when I issue a shutdown, so I would only need the switch for powering up.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Mike.

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bh76

Based on what the book says, the power supply is probably an ATX or a close cousin.


Yup, just one long pair of wires. Voltage will run through the wire when the switch is closed. The voltage and current will be low.


It should work, and since the current will be low, you'll be able to get by with thin wire. Heck, phone wire would probably work. All you need is 2 conductors. If you go to Radio Shack, look for N.O. (normally open) momentary switch.

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Aaron Cake

I say this with some trepidation, but you should be fine running a long wire. Use twisted pair phone/network cable to cut down the possibility of interference.

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mtmsol

Thanks for the help, I will try this and let you know how I make out.

Mike.

TheDingo

You don't really need to work about interference too much. I've wired power and reset buttons from the back to the front of my car by twisting up a long strand of small gauge, run of the mill wire and it's always worked perfect.
The amount of current in the wire is very low (I think it's 5v) and just needs a bit of power to reach the other pin for the switch to go off.

Tony S

Use 12 or 14 gauge wire and you'll be fine. Just remember to buy as many of the power and audio cables shielded as you can.

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