Remote Activation..

Thinking of using an Aspire One as an in-car PC. Am trying to find a reliable way to turn the laptop on remotely, so that I can then keep the laptop out of sight when its in the car.

There is one option, which involves soldering a relay onto the points underneath the current switch... and I really dont want to do that to my new netbook!

So I am down to the alternatives...

Is there a docking station compatible with the AAO, that has its own power button to activate the laptop?

Alternatively, does the AAO support Wake on LAN, or similar? I may be able to use this instead.

Or perhaps does anyone know of any alternatives? I would really like to keep the aspire in one piece, cos its such a nice netbook I'd like to be able to use it out of the car too!

Thanks guys.. hope you can help me

 

Oh, for further info, I need the remote activate mainly for when I first start the car in a day, as I doubt the aspire battery will survive overnight on standby mode. So the machine will either be shutdown, or in hibernate.

So if anyone knows an alternative way of starting it up from hibernation, other than pressing the power button, It would be very useful too. But I suspect hibernate on a laptop means the same as being shut down... Though I rarely use hibernate on my current laptop so I dont know.

Thanks again

 

The switch on the AA1 (like any other newer PC or laptop), is a momentary switch that simply "shorts" to turn on and off. You could simply solder some thin gauge wire to each terminal and then run it to a momentary push button switch on the dash. There is no need to even remove the switch that is on the board now, it can remain there. Heck, you could even put a connector on your AA1 so you could easily remove it from the car and put it back

 

This is they way other people have done it with other laptops... But wont this involve completely taking the AA1 apart? I mean its a huge job just to get to the ram slots on this thing lol.
And if I do this, even if I make it detachable somehow, it means I'll always have some sort of wiring sticking out the back of it? Or am i missing an obvious tidy solution?

 

You haven't mentioned why you want to use the AA1 as in in-car PC. Surely a permanently installed SBC (Single Board Computer) would be a better solution?

 

making a mini-itx box costs twice as much as buying a netbook... at least everywhere ive found that sells mini components ends up being really expensive.

£60 for a case
£60 for a power supply unit
£80+ for a motherboard

Thats already the price of a AA1... and thats without any hard drives, or a processor, or RAM. Im sure im forgetting other components id need too.

And with an AA1, I also end up with a notebook I can take with me anywhere I go.

Cheaper, more versatile, more useful. Im not sure why I *wouldnt* want to use a netbook as a carPC lol

Edit:
The only downside, is that theres no built-in way to activate the laptop from a distance. And I plan to have it hidden so that it isnt necessary to remove it from the car every time I go.
The samsung NC10 has a power button on the outside of the laptop. It doesnt work when the laptop screen is down, but there must be a way round that, and it wont involve having wires hanging out the back of the laptop forever. Its currently my second choice.

 

ok... I have found this way... It ends up leaving the laptop tidy and still removable, by wiring the power switch up to a female stereo jack port. So then the external button is wired up to a male stereo jack, plug it in and voila!

http://www.mp3car.com/vbulletin/how-pow ... witch.html


however, it does mean either having space to fit a new stereo jack port in the AA1, which im unsure about as its a netbook, so I would assume space is minimum. However, I could wire it up to the headphone jack port instead, as I doubt I would ever use it.

Does anyone have any pictures of the AA1 opened up? Or know first hand if there is space for this mod to work?

 

I had a bit of a weak moment, and actually bought myself a AAO!

120gb HDD, only has 512mb of ram but I have already purchased a 1gb stick.

I am still curious, before I actually open up my new machine myself, if anyone knows how difficult it is to get to the 3.5mm Microphone jack port? I would like to wire up my momentary switch to this if I can, as I am not going to be using it.

This would be preferable to drilling a new hole in the AAO, and installing a new jack point!

If anyone can help I would be very grateful, thankyou