- Feb 11, 2007
- 506
- 0
- 18,990
This is a very easy, simple and useful mod to do if you have some basic soldering skills.
I meant useful because it is for me, and who knows maybe for some of you.
When i turn off my computer i have to turn off my 2 monitors (so they dont keep the power led blinking for ages till the next i use the computer), turn off my stereo, a little amplifier for my headphone set and sometimes my little chandeleer that i only use when im using the computer. That's a lot of things to turn on or off when i using the computer or not.
The solution is really simple. You'll only need a small device called relay, and it looks something like this:
or this:
(mine looked more like this one)
But it can take various forms for what it's worth, its really unexpensive, mine costed 2€ more or less, and with it you can make a AC power connector like this:
to be turned on or off whenever your computer is working or not.
Let me just explain the pinout of this component:
1- 5Volts or GND
2- 5Volts or GND
3- Power connector interrupt 1
4- Power connector interrupt 2
5- Unused
Pins 1 and 2 are the juice for the component. The polarity is irrelevant, it will work either way. A 5Volt relay would be ideal for this little mod.
Pins 3 and 4 are the switch for your power connector.
Without trying to insult the intelligence of those who already got the ideia or totally understand how this kind of stuff works, im going to explain how this component works under these circumstances for a better understanding of those who don't.
It's pretty easy actually, when the computer is on, it juices the relay in those pins (1 and 2) powering a small electroiman inside of it, creating a small magnetic field like real imans and pushing away the little iron piece that you see in direction of pin 4, making it touch the sorrounding pins (depending on how the relay in question was manufactured) closing a circuit and allowing current to pass through.
When the computer shuts down, the relay stops working opening the circuit and everything connected in the power connector will shut down as well, saving electric power.
For example, most printers even when computers are turned off, they're still wasting small amounts of power because they're still connected (if you touch their transformers you feel them somewhat hot, that way if you connect them too this mod, it will save power.)
This is one possible aplication, but it can have some particular aplications of your own.
You can even have the reverse effect by simply connecting pin 5 instead of pin 3.
The final result would be something like this:
You must make sure that you do a good soldering job because if one of the power connector wires gets loose and touches pins 1 or 2, it can blow the relay or even worse, explode your PSU or the whole computer..
So do this at yours own risk.
If you have good soldering skills but you're still afraid of something like this happening, use some duct tape to trap the wires.
The aplication:
As you can see, there is a wire getting of the power connector going directly to a psu floppy connector, using its 5 volts to power the relay, but i'm about to make this more practical, and connect it to a usb or a com port (i only need a usb or com plug) and get the 5volts from there.
You can connect other power connectors to the one you just modded if you want to make more devices to be dependant on your computer.
But be warned, if you connect too much devices to them, mostly high wattage devices like several monitors or lots of light bulbs you may murder the poor relay.
So this is about it. I know this isn't a subject of interest to most of these forum readers, but i thought it would be interesting to share some easy_to_aquire_knowledge, this it pretty easy to assemble, there is no need for any sort of special software or any geek knowledge and can be very useful in some cases.
Thanks for reading for all of those who had the patience to read this all the way through.
Greets.
I meant useful because it is for me, and who knows maybe for some of you.
When i turn off my computer i have to turn off my 2 monitors (so they dont keep the power led blinking for ages till the next i use the computer), turn off my stereo, a little amplifier for my headphone set and sometimes my little chandeleer that i only use when im using the computer. That's a lot of things to turn on or off when i using the computer or not.
The solution is really simple. You'll only need a small device called relay, and it looks something like this:
or this:
(mine looked more like this one)
But it can take various forms for what it's worth, its really unexpensive, mine costed 2€ more or less, and with it you can make a AC power connector like this:
to be turned on or off whenever your computer is working or not.
Let me just explain the pinout of this component:
1- 5Volts or GND
2- 5Volts or GND
3- Power connector interrupt 1
4- Power connector interrupt 2
5- Unused
Pins 1 and 2 are the juice for the component. The polarity is irrelevant, it will work either way. A 5Volt relay would be ideal for this little mod.
Pins 3 and 4 are the switch for your power connector.
Without trying to insult the intelligence of those who already got the ideia or totally understand how this kind of stuff works, im going to explain how this component works under these circumstances for a better understanding of those who don't.
It's pretty easy actually, when the computer is on, it juices the relay in those pins (1 and 2) powering a small electroiman inside of it, creating a small magnetic field like real imans and pushing away the little iron piece that you see in direction of pin 4, making it touch the sorrounding pins (depending on how the relay in question was manufactured) closing a circuit and allowing current to pass through.
When the computer shuts down, the relay stops working opening the circuit and everything connected in the power connector will shut down as well, saving electric power.
For example, most printers even when computers are turned off, they're still wasting small amounts of power because they're still connected (if you touch their transformers you feel them somewhat hot, that way if you connect them too this mod, it will save power.)
This is one possible aplication, but it can have some particular aplications of your own.
You can even have the reverse effect by simply connecting pin 5 instead of pin 3.
The final result would be something like this:
You must make sure that you do a good soldering job because if one of the power connector wires gets loose and touches pins 1 or 2, it can blow the relay or even worse, explode your PSU or the whole computer..
So do this at yours own risk.
If you have good soldering skills but you're still afraid of something like this happening, use some duct tape to trap the wires.
The aplication:
As you can see, there is a wire getting of the power connector going directly to a psu floppy connector, using its 5 volts to power the relay, but i'm about to make this more practical, and connect it to a usb or a com port (i only need a usb or com plug) and get the 5volts from there.
You can connect other power connectors to the one you just modded if you want to make more devices to be dependant on your computer.
But be warned, if you connect too much devices to them, mostly high wattage devices like several monitors or lots of light bulbs you may murder the poor relay.
So this is about it. I know this isn't a subject of interest to most of these forum readers, but i thought it would be interesting to share some easy_to_aquire_knowledge, this it pretty easy to assemble, there is no need for any sort of special software or any geek knowledge and can be very useful in some cases.
Thanks for reading for all of those who had the patience to read this all the way through.
Greets.
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