HTPC RC/IR Power On/Off

[Collider]

Working on a HTPC build and would like to have a remote control on/off feature. Any suggestions on how to get this done?

 

[piasabird]

This company features some mini-keyboards with ir + Wireless.

http://www.riimini.com/

I guess you have to have some kind of IR receiver that plugs into usb or something like that. It is designed to work with TV's and other devices.

 

[Collider]

This company features some mini-keyboards with ir + Wireless.

http://www.riimini.com/

I guess you have to have some kind of IR receiver that plugs into usb or something like that. It is designed to work with TV's and other devices.

Yeah I saw this on Engadget - cool device, but I'm looking for remote ON/OFF feature not sure how this gets done.

 

[doesn't_compute]

Veris EZ will do it pretty inexpensively. You can also program other remotes for it.

 

[Collider]

Veris EZ will do it pretty inexpensively. You can also program other remotes for it.

But how would you set it up to power ON/OFF your PC? It says its a USB device, that means when the computer is off the device is off as well since there's no power. I would assume you'd need something that connects to the motherboard..

 

[krnmastersgt]

Actually motherboards can supply power through their USB ports even when the system is powered down. I'm not entirely sure of remotes for powering on/off a PC but if you just use sleep/hibernate you could always have it wake via USB activity. Hiberate barely uses any power so it wouldn't affect your power bill too much compared to fully shutting it down.

 

[doesn't_compute]

But how would you set it up to power ON/OFF your PC? It says its a USB device, that means when the computer is off the device is off as well since there's no power. I would assume you'd need something that connects to the motherboard..

I haven't had mine for long so I don't know everything about it. I do know it will shut a pc down since I have accidentally shut mine off a couple of times with it. I can check and see if it will turn it on. I just did a new build and haven't used it with this pc yet.

 

[wirednuts]

most motherboards, BUT NOT ALL, support power on sleep over usb. its all up to the motherboard.

the windows media center remote kit has a power on function. it works just like any tv or dvd player. it will even turn on your pc from hibernation. again though, the motherboard has to support the function so that remotes and such can utilize it. the only catch is, of course, if your computer is fully shutdown then you must use the button on the case.

 

[mfenn]

Really, anything that acts like a USB keyboard or mouse will allow a computer to wake from sleep. Actually powering the machine on from a completely cold state would require Wake on Lan or some sort of baseboard management comtroller implementation.

 

[Collider]

most motherboards, BUT NOT ALL, support power on sleep over usb. its all up to the motherboard.

the windows media center remote kit has a power on function. it works just like any tv or dvd player. it will even turn on your pc from hibernation. again though, the motherboard has to support the function so that remotes and such can utilize it. the only catch is, of course, if your computer is fully shutdown then you must use the button on the case.

Would you happen to know any mobo's that have that?

 

[Collider]

This is great so I can actually get away but just using sleep instead of shut down.

 

[Zap]

This is great so I can actually get away but just using sleep instead of shut down.

Yes. That's what I do with my HTPC. I have an IOGear RF keyboard with trackball that uses a USB dongle. Just flipping the power switch on the keyboard to "on" wakes up the computer out of S3 sleep mode. I can let the computer go into sleep mode on its own, or I can manually go start>shutdown>sleep and then flip off the keyboard.

 

[truckerCLOCK]

Simerec PCS-2...this the easiest way I know of. Here is a link so you can just use a single generic USB IR instead of having 2 IR's. Single IR for PCS-2.


I use the PCS-2 and it works flawless.

 

[mfenn]

This is great so I can actually get away but just using sleep instead of shut down.

Yep. Realistically, there is very little difference in power draw between sleep and shutdown. As an added bonus, a computer will resume from sleep faster than it will boot.

 

[Collider]

Thanks for the suggestions all, I think I will just settle for sleep option dont feel like drilling holes in my cases any more