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Dell Optiplex 380 SFF second power button and lower led
Hi all, new here and not very technological so be gentle.
I have bought an old Optiplex 380 SFF to use for a homemade arcade cabinet project and need some wiring advice / help. Basically I want to add and illuminated arcade button to act as the power switch when the cabinet is built as the computer will be inside and not accessible. As these computers do not have traditional headers / pins for the power switch I am stuck as how to achieve this. Looking at it I believe that the ribbon connector that connects the power audio USB front panel to the motherboard would be a good place to look, dell part number UM941. Ideally I would like to isolate the + and - for both the power switch and the power led within this ribbon. Does anyone have a wiring diagram for this part number? Or a pinout for the motherboard and the front panel? Motherboard part number is R64DJ and front panel is XW055
Thanks
Tetsuo1981
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December 16th, 2016 11:00
Ah that's a shame. I've had that suggestion on some dedicated arcade forums which looks like the easiest option so far. I'm planning on using a custom frontend that will have a PC shutdown control built into it so it won't just be a case of pushing and holding the power button negates the use of a keyboard or mouse.
Back to the drawing board for me I think. Still toying with buying and trying to mod the ribbon cable. How much trouble could that get me in?
Thanks for the reply
RoHe
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December 16th, 2016 11:00
Dell doesn't make front panel wiring diagrams or the pin-outs public. So unless somebody else has mapped that connector, or you can do it yourself, you may be out of luck...
Will the keyboard be accessible once it's in your cabinet? If not, how will you exit Windows and shut down correctly? If you just push the power button to force shut down, you may create errors on the HDD that could prevent Windows from booting the next time. And any data not already saved will be lost.
Assuming the keyboard is accessible for normal shutdowns, here's a suggestion:
Look in BIOS to see if there's an AC Recovery option. If there is, you could set that to "reboot". Now you're free to plug the PC into a power strip or a switch box of your own design. After the PC shuts itself down through Windows, turn off the power strip or press your fancy button to disconnect the PC from the AC.
Next time you turn the strip on or press your button, the PC will think it's recovering from a power failure. And with AC Recovery in BIOS set to reboot, it will automatically reboot the PC.
Sure sounds easier than what you're contemplating... :emotion-3:
here!
EDIT: And if you plug your monitor, speakers etc into that same power strip, you only have to press one switch to turn everything on all at once.
RoHe
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December 17th, 2016 17:00
Who knows..??
But if you just push a button to power off, you're not really exiting Windows correctly and that could cause software and HDD problems. But if you use a touchscreen, you could shut down normally via touch and not need fancy buttons.
And rebooting would be automatic when you turn the power strip back on, assuming BIOS is set correctly....