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Laptop in a truck, not your average radio

caliusoptimus
By caliusoptimus
in Peripherals
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Long story short I've been using a laptop in my truck as an audio DSP and bluetooth receiver. Reason being it completely eliminates the need for a deck and $1k worth of hardware DSP. I don't need access to the keyboard, mouse or screen to perform these functions so I'd like to find a way to tuck it under the seat. Currently the charger is wired to switch on and off with the ignition so that it doesn't drain the battery. This is a perfect method for turning off the laptop, as it is set to go to sleep one minute after going on battery. NOW... the problem is that if the laptop is under the seat I cannot wake it up without hitting a key or hitting the power button.

 

Any ideas for an easy way to wake the laptop with something other than a mouse or a keyboard? Like a simple button, or better yet, something that wakes the pc as the ignition turns on. Not going to mod the laptop itself, so it must be a plug in sorta setup. Any ideas? USB power button? (does that exist?)

 

I don't mind modding a peripheral, of course I'd like to take the most simple route possible. I've considered just getting a small keyboard featuring power buttons... but that's just one more thing I don't need cluttering the cab.

 

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Get a cheap mouse, disable the optics so it doesn't trigger incidentally, then re-route one of the buttons to a button on the dash. The mouse can stay under the seat.

Grammar and spelling is not indicative of intelligence/knowledge.  Not having the same opinion does not always mean lack of understanding.  

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Get a tiny mouse, just rebind both keys to mouse1, and cver up the sensor.

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You could also add a relay to automatically click the switch on the mouse when the ignition is turned on. It would be relatively simple.

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The plot thickens. The laptop will wake from a usb mouse click... but only if you manually put it into sleep by hitting the power button or using the start menu. For some unknown reason... when the laptop times out and goes to sleep it will not wake from a usb mouse. Lovely.

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6 hours ago, caliusoptimus said:

The plot thickens. The laptop will wake from a usb mouse click... but only if you manually put it into sleep by hitting the power button or using the start menu. For some unknown reason... when the laptop times out and goes to sleep it will not wake from a usb mouse. Lovely.

Look into bios to see if there is an option to keep the USBs live when it goes to sleep, some laptops let you choose this. Another way could be to see if it has wake on LAN functionality and use a Raspberry pi to send it a command to wake over ethernet. 

 

Why are you so adverse to alerting the laptop itself? 

 

My Folding Stats - Join the fight against COVID-19 with FOLDING! - If someone has helped you out on the forum don't forget to give them a reaction to say thank you!

 

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Please put as much effort into your question as you expect me to put into answering it. 

 

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5 hours ago, Ben Quigley said:

Look into bios to see if there is an option to keep the USBs live when it goes to sleep, some laptops let you choose this. Another way could be to see if it has wake on LAN functionality and use a Raspberry pi to send it a command to wake over ethernet. 

 

Why are you so adverse to alerting the laptop itself? 

 

Unfortunately the bios doesn't have any usb options. Doesn't even have a WoL option, but I'm going to try it anyway. WoL sounds like a pretty good solution, and I do have an arduino or two with ethernet.

 

I don't really mind modding the laptop... I just can't think of any mods that would help (already pulled the magnet out of the screen so it can turn on/off when closed). I could run some wires to the power switch and relocate it but that just seems ghetto and impractical. The end goal is to have it automatically sleep and wake up... If that fails I'll do what I must.

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6 hours ago, caliusoptimus said:

Unfortunately the bios doesn't have any usb options. Doesn't even have a WoL option, but I'm going to try it anyway. WoL sounds like a pretty good solution, and I do have an arduino or two with ethernet.

 

I don't really mind modding the laptop... I just can't think of any mods that would help (already pulled the magnet out of the screen so it can turn on/off when closed). I could run some wires to the power switch and relocate it but that just seems ghetto and impractical. The end goal is to have it automatically sleep and wake up... If that fails I'll do what I must.

Wires from power button to the relay that's connected to the ignition? 

My Folding Stats - Join the fight against COVID-19 with FOLDING! - If someone has helped you out on the forum don't forget to give them a reaction to say thank you!

 

The only true wisdom is in knowing you know nothing. - Socrates
 

Please put as much effort into your question as you expect me to put into answering it. 

 

  • CPU
    Ryzen 9 5950X
  • Motherboard
    Gigabyte Aorus GA-AX370-GAMING 5
  • RAM
    32GB DDR4 3200
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  • Case
    Cooler Master - MasterCase H500P
  • Storage
    Western Digital Black 250GB, Seagate BarraCuda 1TB x2
  • PSU
    EVGA Supernova 1000w 
  • Display(s)
    Lenovo L29w-30 29 Inch UltraWide Full HD, BenQ - XL2430(portrait), Dell P2311Hb(portrait)
  • Cooling
    MasterLiquid Lite 240
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