I found a relay in my box of old kit, it was once used to activate my 230v water pump.

I thought of a good use for it...

Here is the epic CMOS swtich...



KEY:

Mobo pins:
1. Reset
2. Com
3. Normal

Relay board:
A. N/O
B. Com
C. N/C
D. GND
E. 12v+

What that does, when the switch (the thing at the top of the pic) is closed it will cause the push button (red top) to light up indicating its ready. The relay then breaks the 'normal cmos' circuit then closes the 'CMOS Reset' Circuit, howeer it isnt reset until the button lit red is pushed.

Then the switch is turned off and everything is dandy again...

What do you think?

PS: I cant overclock yet, but im planning to overclock soon.

looks like fun .. make it work well and start selling them im sure people would pay for that! especially if u mounted it ona drive bay thingy!

Wheres the 12v come from if the pc is off?? I assume this is needed to power the red light and relay therfore you will need an external psu as you cant reset the cmos (or shouldn't anyway) with the pc on correct? Otherwise looks good to me.

i'm liking it allthough it seems overly complicated for a cmos switch i just a 2 way flick switch like yours anbd nothing else.

even more epic would be this:

a lock thing that they use to lock case sides, when key is turned it shorts it and a red light goes on, and under that, is one of the military style "warhead buttons" with the red cap etc

@ Mac... Good point...

UPDATE: This is now powered using a 1.5v AA battery...

@ hugh. Im on it...


Im about to come up with a prototype...

now like all inventors and drug dealers you should not try your own produce so best you post it to me for testing

A reduced version of the prototype...


Things to do:

1.5v is too darned weak, the LED is barely lit and the relay needs a tilt to get it to work. I could add another battrey but that was my last one :/.

The rest of it works ok. It just needs more juice...

i hear cmos batterys are 3v....

cant u take some from one of the lower voltage lines from the psu... 5v?

there is the standby power being supplied, but you'd have to hack into the 20/24 pin psu cable

ONE YEAR LATER:

I was emptying out my drawer this morning and come across bits of this mod. I already have my soldering kit out for another mod (more on that later) so I decided to finish it before a year pases.

Some other things from the drawer:


PP3 9V battery, pulled from dead device
Clip for battery, same as above
270R resistor, circuit needed 300 ohm resistor but meh... close enough
PtM LED Switch, from old prototype
HDD act light, pulled from old case, the LED will be cut off cos' I'm just using the plug and wires.
DPDT toggle switch, I couldn't find a DPST but it'll work anyway.

Here it is assembled, the PtM switch still needs to be soldered on, but that needs to be done after it's been panel mounted. The green button is lit but the camera flash covered it.


How it works:

The green button is used to reset the CMOS but it only works if the toggle switch has been flipped, flipping the toggle switch will light the green button and enable the switch.
Both aesthetically pleasing and practical, no accidental CMOS resetting.

About time

Good job, think the relay was a little bit ott

Looks good I had a similar moment today came across a machine that I had been setting up as a vmware server and given up on for some reason. After a day of fiddling and deep frustration realised it was because the cpu was on the blink and therefor highly unstable!

awesome, now if you mount it nicely on a pci bracket, i will take one !! what price?

No soldering skills? , Only kidding, neither have I

I haven't got any drill bits of the right size to drill metal so I won't be able to mount anything on a PCI bracket.

I can assemble the bare circuit for the price of the parts and delivery which is £5 or less. If you're still intrested I'll find the exact price.