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Motherboard power switch

kudzu

Feb 16, 2011
5
Joined
Feb 16, 2011
Messages
5
I need to remotely control a computer motherboard to power on and/or reset. To power it on I simply need to short two pins for a second, and reset is a similar procedure. I believe the pin is +5V and of course the other is ground.

I have an idea to use a serial port of another computer which is TTL and has several pins that I can control which are +5V. Can I safely connect one of those +5V lines to the ground of the power trip? Or is it maybe that the motherboards dont respond on +5V on the ground but instead to current being drawn down on the +5V pin?

I'm a digital person, not analog so I apologize if I use the wrong terms. But if thats not possible, can I use some sort of solid state version of a relay so that when I send a +5V from the serial port that it somehow closes the circuit between the other two pins? Can I do this with a transistor?
 

kudzu

Feb 16, 2011
5
Joined
Feb 16, 2011
Messages
5
I know that I can use wake on LAN to start the computer, but I still need the ability to power it off and/or reset it, which is why I need a physical connection as described above.
 
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