Timed on and off type stuff

Post by **Joose** » August 8th, 2006, 13:51

I know there are little programs that can make your machine power down at a certain time, but is there any way of getting your machine to power *up* at a certain time. Im thinking probably not, without involving servers. Any ideas?

mrbobbins · Post by **mrbobbins** » August 8th, 2006, 13:52

Traditional style alarm clock with cleverly fashioned hammer button pushing attachment?

Post by **Dog Pants** » August 8th, 2006, 13:56

mrbobbins wrote:Traditional style alarm clock with cleverly fashioned hammer button pushing attachment?

This

Involving bowling balls, massive rubber bands, mice in cages and boiling kettles.

Woo Elephant Yeah · Post by **Woo Elephant Yeah** » August 8th, 2006, 14:08

You'll need a Wake On Lan capable network card/motherboard, and something that's able to broadcast a wake on lan command, which would need to be turned on all the time, which kind of defeats the point of it.

mrbobbins · Post by **mrbobbins** » August 8th, 2006, 14:14

Dog Pants wrote:boiling kettles.

Like this custom hot water tap?

http://safetycenter.navy.mil/photo/imag ... o195-2.jpg

Stoat · Post by **Stoat** » August 8th, 2006, 14:26

I think Power-Off has a remote Wake-On-Lan feature... I've only used it to.. erm.. power off... so far though.
<a href="http://www.warrens-anus.co.uk" target="_blank"><img src="http://www.sayagain.co.uk/b3tapix/images/poweroff.gif" title="Image hosted in Warren B3tas Anus - click for free B3ta image hosting"></a>

spoodie · Post by **spoodie** » August 8th, 2006, 14:44

You might be able to do something with one of those timed plug adapters and taping your power button in the on position, depending on how your power button/supply works. Have the machine shut itself down at the required time and then the timed plug adapter cuts the power sometime after. Then when the adapter makes the power available again the PC detects the power button is pressed and powers up the PC.

It's a horrible bodge but it might work or your PC might just start itself up again straight away and wait for the power to be cut which would not be good.

pixie pie · Post by **pixie pie** » August 8th, 2006, 14:51

I don't actually know, but it might be a good idea to try using "Sleep" functions, because then the computers not completely off.. might be able to "Wake" itself..? Meh..

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » August 8th, 2006, 14:52

spoodie wrote:You might be able to do something with one of those timed plug adapters and taping your power button in the on position, depending on how your power button/supply works. Have the machine shut itself down at the required time and then the timed plug adapter cuts the power sometime after. Then when the adapter makes the power available again the PC detects the power button is pressed and powers up the PC.

It's a horrible bodge but it might work or your PC might just start itself up again straight away and wait for the power to be cut which would not be good.

That should work.

computers don't usually reboot automatically when they have power after shutting down.

but they can be set to start after a power drop (in the bios)

All you need is the machine to shut down at midnight, power off at 00:30, then power back on at 7am.

pixie pie · Post by **pixie pie** » August 8th, 2006, 14:53

*Checks settings*
Ahah. Just so you know, it can be done on a mac.
*Happy with self*.

Edit:

spoodie · Post by **spoodie** » August 8th, 2006, 15:04

pixie pie wrote:*Checks settings*
Ahah. Just so you know, it can be done on a mac.
*Happy with self*.

That's the advantage of proprietary hardware.

Also in the style of topic tangents: I was looking at the preview videos of the next OSX version earlier and the pointlessness of some of the features offended even me.

Post by **FatherJack** » August 8th, 2006, 15:17

Some BIOSes have 'Wake on RTC' option (Real Time Clock) in the Power Management section where you can set a date/time. Some also have POWER ON on mouse or keyboard actions (cue bowling ball).

Other methods are on PCI card, modem or LAN - although you have to use some external device to trigger it (like a wake-up call if using a modem, or a timer on the mains of something externally connected via PCI, ie: SCSI tape drive). The wake-on LAN actually sends a string of specialised traffic including the card's MAC address, so just having a little circuit sending some random crap at it won't work.

Another method would be to not shut it down, but merely go into suspend mode - then it can be awakened more easily, such as by putting the mouse on top of a vibrating alarm clock.

Any method which involes shutting off the power might need additional BIOS setting to make the machine come back up, but if you really want to go overboard there are remote power controllers

Post by **Joose** » August 8th, 2006, 15:27

hmm. Nope, sod the environment, I'll just leave the thing on.

Hehulk · Post by **Hehulk** » August 8th, 2006, 15:36

Joose wrote:hmm. Nope, sod the environment, I'll just leave the thing on.

How very mature of you sir.

Also, I demand pic of the beard!

Post by **FatherJack** » August 8th, 2006, 16:02

spoodie wrote:Also in the style of topic tangents: I was looking at the preview videos of the next OSX version earlier and the pointlessness of some of the features offended even me.

I thought they were okay, nothing technologically new in computing (the dashboard is just Konfabulator/Yahoo Widget Engine) but presented in a pretty, easy-to-use way.

Ideal for people who want to use computers, but don't give a shit about how they work, or refuse to put any sort of effort in learning how to do stuff. The downside is that once you've been through all the templates, the leap to customising your own is often too great for this type of user.

wyrd · Post by **wyrd** » August 8th, 2006, 17:36

all of the nforce and via BIOSs i've used recently have an option to power up at a certain time or date even

Post by **Joose** » August 8th, 2006, 19:24

wyrd wrote:all of the nforce and via BIOSs i've used recently have an option to power up at a certain time or date even

alas, my machine is anything but 'recent'

wyrd · Post by **wyrd** » August 8th, 2006, 19:25

still worth a look though