sowiecki / lamprey

A tiny Particle Photon program for remote starting a PC. The Photon board is (almost) directly wired to the motherboard headers, perfectly replicating the actions of physically pressing your computer's power and reset buttons.

How it works

Most standard desktop computer motherboards have a set of front panel headers exposed for various purposes. Among these are pins used to boot and reset the system. When a motherboard is installed in a case, wires from the power and reset buttons are plugged directly into these headers. Each button has a + and - pin, and the act of pressing a button simply closes the circuit between them.

This project consists of a WiFi-enabled microcontroller spliced between these headers, giving the capability to remotely initiate a cold boot or hard reboot. The only requirement for it to function is that your system's PSU is switched on and plugged in.

What you'll need

• NPN transistor (x2)

• Particle Photon (x1)

• Some wires 'n stuff

• Breadboard (x1) or decent soldering skills

Setup

If you're unfamiliar with the Particle Photon platform, read their Getting Started guide.

It's highly recommended that you use an NPN transitor as a switch to protect both your motherboard and the Photon from damage.

Disclaimer: I am not responsible for any electronics damaged while following these instructions. Use at your own risk.

If your motherboard's front panel headers aren't labeled directly on the board, consult either the manual or Google.

• Wire the motherboard's POWER + pin to the E end of an NPN transistor. Wire the POWER - pin to C on the same NPN transitor. Wire D7 to the base of the same NPN switch.

• Repeat the same process for the reset switch. Wire the motherboard's RESET + pin to the E end of an NPN transistor. Wire the RESET - pin to C on the same NPN transitor. Wire D1 to the base of the same NPN switch. Note: this step is optional, and best skipped if you don't have a need for remotely hard rebooting your system.

• Wire the computer case's power and reset buttons their corresponding NPN switches, including ground (from the button) to ground (on the motherboard), so that they remain functional.

• Flash lamprey.cpp to your Photon

I recommend powering the Photon using an internal USB header on the same motherboard, if possible.

How to use

See Particle's documentation on calling a Cloud function.

Call the function pc-power with the argument togglePower to trip the power switch on your computer. Note: different operating systems behave differently when the power button is pressed, e.g., Windows has a "Choose what the power buttons do" option under Control Panel > Power Options.

Call the function pc-power with the argument reset to trip the reset switch on your computer.

This project can also be integrated with Pantheon, which is especially handy when set up into a PC used as a home media center. See documenation on how to integrated a Particle function with Pantheon.