Laptop Auto Power-On / Turn-On Module - Page 19

W3bMa5t3r · 04-19-2008, 03:59 PM

Quote: Originally Posted by jonessc

Hi W3bMa5t3r

Ordered a kit bout a year ago and its still going well. Thanks for making these available to the community

What im after is way to trigger a power on, while my laptops outta the car in the house (maintainance or software upgrades.)

Maybe just a wire similar to your startup kit with a switch on the end to trigger the start, I dont mind buying another kit if thats not possible, just don't want the needless wires

I actually made exactly what you're asking for back when I was running off the laptop. How long of a cable would you like? The one I had was about 3-4" with a switch on the end and a plug on the other end to jack into the laptop.

Gibson99 · 04-20-2008, 11:17 AM

Did you remove or disable the factory original power button on your laptop? Mine still works, and so should yours.

Or, like you said, you can just put a SPST momentary (normally open/ NO) button on the end of 2 wires, and connect them to the plug you added to your laptop... though i think that's overly complicated for just bench testing or updates.

scotty562 · 05-17-2008, 03:30 PM

I just got my kit the other day and I decided to hook it up the other day. I thought installing this would be simple which is probably part of the problem

. Anyway, I'll give you a little background on my setup. I have a laptop installed in my car and I already have a button run that turns it on.
I connected the power and ground wires that came with the kit and I turned the power on to see if I could hear the relay go and it clicked so that's working fine. Next I disconnected the wires that ran to the button I previously had installed and I connected them to the gray and white wires. These are the ones that come out of the jack.

I expected the next time I turned on the power that the laptop would start up, but it didn't. I removed the gray and white that came with the kit and shorted my power button to make sure it still worked and it did. So my power button still works. I tried reattaching the gray and white wires and then shorting my power button manually. When I did this the laptop didn't turn on, I had to remove the gray and white wires and then it powered up normally.

The next step I was going to take was to just remove the gray and white wires along with the jack and wire it directly to the green and yellow wires.

Hopefully this is just something simple.

xelz · 05-17-2008, 07:08 PM

Should have done this a long time ago for my setup. For 2 years i was pressing a button every time i started my car. I guess it takes practice to make the circuit look good, mine looks pretty ghetto. Thanks!

James

ghanchi · 06-17-2008, 03:05 PM

thanks for the idea W3bMa5t3r. i built the circuit following your schematics on the first page but w/o the USB portion. now, the laptop turns on with the key as well as go into hibernation when i take the key out.

kostyanj · 06-30-2008, 08:49 PM

Hey guys, I have a question/request. I need help with the soldering of this thing. I tried soldering it onto my board to no avail. The problem is that the power button has TINY leads and is surrounded by a million other things. So the one time that I managed to successfully get the wires to stay and work to power on the laptop, it shorted the video card. So if anyone is willing to help me or give me advice, it'd be greatly appreciated.

These are pictures of my power button and the surrounding board:

Gibson99 · 07-01-2008, 08:31 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by ghanchi

thanks for the idea W3bMa5t3r. i built the circuit following your schematics on the first page but w/o the USB portion. now, the laptop turns on with the key as well as go into hibernation when i take the key out.

How did you make your laptop hibernate when you take the key out? mine only hibernates after approx 15-20 minutes. I set the power control panel to hibernate at like 80 or 90% battery life remaining so that it would hibernate shortly after power loss (my inverter is on a key-switched relay so that it won't drain my battery), but it's not even close to hibernating as i take out the key. ie: I can stop to refuel and when i get back in and start the car again, it's still running just fine - it never stopped playing.

Gibson99 · 07-01-2008, 08:33 AM

Quote: Originally Posted by kostyanj

Hey guys, I have a question/request. I need help with the soldering of this thing. I tried soldering it onto my board to no avail. The problem is that the power button has TINY leads and is surrounded by a million other things. So the one time that I managed to successfully get the wires to stay and work to power on the laptop, it shorted the video card. So if anyone is willing to help me or give me advice, it'd be greatly appreciated.

If you can desolder/remove the power button, there are probably larger pads underneath that you can solder to. If you add a jack on the outside of the laptop, you can then make a simple button to plug into that jack and be your power button when bench testing.

kostyanj · 07-01-2008, 08:42 AM

There aren't larger pads underneath, I've checked. The only pads underneath the button don't have anything to do w/ the power button. So i'm stuck right now

Gibson99 · 07-01-2008, 10:29 AM

what about taking apart the switch itself to see if you can solder to something inside the switch body rather than the PCB below?

what make/model is this laptop? maybe someone else here has one that can help

kostyanj · 07-01-2008, 07:27 PM

It's an Acer Travelmate 8104. I'm afraid to take the switch apart since the parts are so tiny I may not be able to piece it back together.

Gibson99 · 07-02-2008, 08:43 AM

on my dell's docking station, there is a separate power button. maybe your laptop's dock or port replicator has one too. If you can find a schematic (or even a dock to take apart) maybe you can find out which pins on the big docking station plug get shorted for power. In many cases, it's just one pin that gets shorted to ground.

Heck, you might even be able to use a meter to test for continuity between the existing power button and pins on the dock port. just make sure all batteries/etc are removed from the laptop when probing the connector. the first thing i would test is to see if either of the power button's pins are already a ground by checking one side of the switch against the metal shields inside the laptop, then start probing the dock connector against the other side of the switch.

kostyanj · 07-04-2008, 10:56 AM

The laptop is a few years old and the dock isn't made for it anymore. The ones that I found online go for about $400. The reason that I used my old laptop for this project in the first place was so I wouldn't have to fork out lots of money to complete the install.

skuller · 07-05-2008, 11:49 PM

W3bMa5t3r, thanks for the schematic.
I just built one for myself, work greats!

rizaydog · 07-13-2008, 07:59 AM

Can the usb loop be pluged into a hub?