[SOLVED] Advice on using a simple wifi switcher to remotely control the physical power button to a PC.

[RMeade87]

Hey All,

I don't know if anyone out there who has some experience rigging up things like I'm thinking about has any input/advice. Specifically on whether it can be executed in the way in which I am thinking or not. Also, I hope I am posting in the the right section for this, I wasn't quite sure what section would be best for this specific kind of question. Also, this idea may be crazy and you can totally educate me on why that would be the case if it is.

I was thinking of using this emylo wifi switch which is mainly a simple switch that can be controlled via wifi to complete a circuit like a light switch, and I was going to cut the button off a basic PC power switch like this. So fundamentally replacing the physical power button on the pc so that it can be controlled via wifi to manually turn on an off machine or do a hard reboot of a machine remotely. So basically the two pin would connect to the motherboard the same way the physically button does but this switch would complete the circuit remotely allowing you to power it on if its off or hard reboot it if its stuck remotely from a far off location, like a work from home scenario.

I'm not sure if I'm thinking of this too simply and there isn't something I am thinking of which may make this an absurd idea or no. Also, it seems like this device is powered by the power source of whatever device it would complete the circuit for so I'm not sure if it could pull power through the motherboard that way to power itself. Any advice for accomplishing something like this would be helpful thanks.

 

[Alabalcho]

You cant use this switch to cut into power button of the PC - it will simply not work, as it uses mains power flowing thru to power itself. So, this would go into the mains power cable (120/220VAC), and you probably don't want to do that.

There are better altrnatives for that, with WiFi switches plugging directly into an electrical outlet, with powered defice plugged into them.

However, cutting the power is half of the task - you must set your PC BIOS to power ON whenever mains power comes on, and I am not sure all BIOSes support that.

 

[RMeade87]

You cant use this switch to cut into power button of the PC - it will simply not work, as it uses mains power flowing thru to power itself. So, this would go into the mains power cable (120/220VAC), and you probably don't want to do that.

There are better altrnatives for that, with WiFi switches plugging directly into an electrical outlet, with powered defice plugged into them.

However, cutting the power is half of the task - you must set your PC BIOS to power ON whenever mains power comes on, and I am not sure all BIOSes support that.

Thank You, this answer was helpful. Since not all BIOSes support that I did find another solution. I used this switch:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0752P57ZG/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

Which is self powered with a Micro USB Cable, and the entire device can be kept inside the computers case.