Laptop start up, trying again and failing...
After recent contemplation and some hack sawing, decided to ditch my docking station.
So now I need a new power on. Gave "Wake On Ring" a try. Not much luck. Details are scarce from everyone who says they've done it.
I decided to see how hard it would be to jump out the power button. Luckily enough, the laptop I have came with a service manual that tells you how to take everything apart. It mentions an optional internal modem. I then see the removable slot for it. Perfect place to put a molex plug so I can still remove the laptop.
You barely need the manual for taking it apart. Don't know if it's common or not, but I was suprised how nicely it was layed out for disassembly. Every screw actually has a label telling what it's for. "D" for display, "P" for palmrest and "K" for keyboard.
This is going to be too easy! ... or not :(
The laptop comes apart pretty easy. I see the power button. It's buried and I don't feel comfortable taking the laptop totally apart to reach it. It's also really small.
My hands shake quite a bit and I'd hate to ruin the motherboard.
So I'm going to take another look at WOR. I wish someone had something better to say than short pin 5-9 out. Didn't work for me and WOR is enabled.
For instance, do you need a modem installed? Is the WOR a function of the modem or the board? I'm guessing the board but who knows.
Also, my understanding is that without a common ground, the RS232 signals won't be seen. I can't remember the exact details, but I thought that's why you had to use a MAX232 or other chicanery when interfacing a microprocessor to the serial port.
Maybe someone else can shed some more light on the details?
7 October, 2005 - 08:48 Further to my previous comment
The pinouts I mentioned are taken from the point of view of looking at the computer-facing end of the plug. If you're looking at the computer itself, the pinouts are obviously mirrored. Also, from the point of view of soldering wires onto the plug, the pinouts would be mirrored too.
If you're confused, drop me a line!
B.
7 October, 2005 - 09:57 Using WOL Instead
Of course, if your laptop has a WOL socket on the motherboard somewhere, you can use that.
The WOL socket is usually a small, white, three-pin socket. (please don't confuse it with a fan socket though!)
Pin 1 is +5v, pin2 is ground, pin3 is WakeUp.
To wake your computer, simply short pins 1 & 3
HTH!
B.
7 October, 2005 - 10:58 RE: Wake On Ring tech info
Thanks!
That's actually what I did. I have some 9-pin serial connectors that break out to .100 spacing for my PIC projects. I only tried it with a 9v battery though. Maybe it's just not enough. I'll try 12v later today.
As far as the BIOS, I have WOR enabled, but there is no option for selecting what wakes it up or any modem options for that matter.
I might have found another option. It seems like there might be yet another docking station to try. Never saw it before and it's tiny and cheap :)
Apparently much less popular as I've never come across it in all my searches.
Only about 2" high and 3" deep. Could probably fit both under the seat. Just waiting on verification of compatibility.
7 October, 2005 - 11:37 Is WOL that easy?
I do have WOL. I thought you needed to send a magic packet, etc. I'm guessing when you do, this is what the NIC does?
Thanks for all the help. Much appreciated.
7 October, 2005 - 11:43 I would be tempted to try
I would be tempted to try "suspending" your laptop, and triggering the WOR feature from the COM port.
It might be that your laptop will actually only wake on suspend - some mobos are annoying like that.
B.
7 October, 2005 - 11:46 The LAN card will intercept
The LAN card will intercept the magic packet (which is usually 0xFFFFFFFFFFFF followed by the MAC address of the lan card, repeated several times) and upon receipt will trigger a short across those connectors.
Taking the LAN card out of the equation - you could use a simple relay to short those pins. WOL is also more likely to work than WOR because there are differing "implementation" of WOR depending on motherboard, whereas WOL is a pretty well defined standard by now.
As before, ensure WOL is enabled in your BIOS. And try it from a suspend as well as a full power-off.
B.
7 October, 2005 - 12:02 I did actually try that but
I did actually try that but still, it didn't work.
7 October, 2005 - 12:04 Again, thanks so much...
Again, thanks so much for the help. I'm going to take it apart later and look for the header. Though it looks like that tiny dock will work too. So I may just end up modding the power button.
I still want to try the WOL too though, just to see if it works.
7 October, 2005 - 08:16 Wake On Ring tech info
Hey man,
WOR is a function of the motherboard.
Usually, you turn on the WOR function in the bios, and point it to the relevant COM port (or IRQ for internal modem) that your modem is on. When your modem then receives a "ringing" tone (powered through the phone line itself) it signals the "Ringing" pin on the com port.
That being said, you can "pretend" to be an external modem and wire up directly to the Serial port. If you have a 9-pin Serial port, set your BIOS to expect a WOR signal on COM1 (usually). Then, you need to get a bit funky with a soldering iron!
Get hold of a 9-pin plug to fit your serial port. Then, you will need to wire up pin 5 to your ground, and pin 9 to a switched 12V supply (Amp-on from a Head Unit would be a good choice).
This should work exactly as you want.
Be aware though - there are issues with some versions of Windoze resuming from Hibernate using a WOR signal. I think later versions (2k+) are fine, but earlier versions just... don't work.
HTH
Barry.
p.s. Pins on a 9-pin connector run from right to left (intuitively!), something like:
5 4 3 2 1
9 8 7 6