Help with small refurb ViewSonic i5 Gen6 small computers.

[MichiganBroadband]

You can find these on eBay and Amazon and other places for the low low price of only $85 and free shipping.  

Model is a  VPC10-WP-2  Just search for it.  I could throw in a link but please just look on eBay or Amazon.


( ViewSonic VPC10-WP-2 128GB Windows 10 Slot-in PC for Interactive Flat Panel )

Looks like a great deal and I quickly nabbed one no-brainer without even thinking. 
Can always return it no hassles. 
What the catch? 
No power switch.

As somewhat expected seems that it only works with it's respective slip in flat panel display..  
But the device looks totally stand-alone even has an AC power supply built in and takes a standard AC power cord.  
Has all the connectors as "normal PC VGA HDMI Displayport USB ethernet and 1/8" audio jacks..  

I just need to know where on the bother board or special external connector -- where is the power switch contacts to turn this baby on?  
I have not been able to find any information on the Internet yet for these. 
There's a lot of them out there for sale and it seems like a steal of a deal if you could just actually -- power them up.
I've not busted it open yet to look around on the board. 
Mine came brand new never been opened or used. 

Was just casually hoping someone out here might have some familiarity with the product or type of product. 
And if anything and there is a way to turn these on I just alerted some of you to a good deal on a convenient sized i5 gen 6 general purpose box. 
Perfect for so many things. 


 
 




 

[MichiganBroadband]

Opened it up no headers no anything and no hope for an easy power switch apparently. 
Only possibility is this TINY little 120 pin connector and maybe figuring out if grounding one of the very tiny pins might signal it to turn on.   

Such a bummer.. and maybe a clue why it's only $85. 
But there must be some way to simply turn it on.

 

[MichiganBroadband]

There is a tiny "reset" style pinhole switch in the front next to the ethernet port and the power/SSD activity LEDs.
But it does not power the unit up. 
I'm guessing it clears the CMOS battery. 

 

[Arika]

 

[MichiganBroadband]

Hi Arika,  

I'm not sure how you are so awesome to have found this while I searched for days using technical terms. 
I must have not tried something obvious. 
This a GREAT start as now I know the two contact pins I was suspecting would work are in that area on the connector. 

I assure you that scraping a screwdriver across the connector randomly like that is a BAD idea. 
Some of those pins DO go directly to the LIVE 19V power supply that is on and active even when the unit is off  

So I am still looking specifically for where the contacts are so that I can wire up a momentary switch. 
But this is a good start, if the guy in the video is not actually trolling. 
I'll read the video comments next. 

Thank You!! 

I wonder how I did not find this.
I posted here after a couple of day of looking. 
I have emails out to the manufacture and sellers and zero replies or answers so far.

-SteveG






 

[MichiganBroadband]

I'll try some side by side pins first with a 100ohm resistor. 
Or to ground.  
 
 

[MichiganBroadband]

Yep I got it to power up wit ha single pin contact to chassis ground through a 100 ohm resistor. 
 

[MichiganBroadband]

Thirty one (31) pins in from the bottom left - ground that and it turns on.

I used two 33 ohm resistors (66 ohms) in series while testing so that if I happened to touch any of the 19V rail pins (if there are indeed any) and I think that there is-
It would not burn any traces on the board.
Holding it down for 5-10 seconds like a normal power switch does not turn it off.
Also there's no option in the bios to power on any time AC is applied like you find on a normal motherboard bios. 
That would have been too easy and probably didn't mate well with it's intended application (laptop ish bios) and 19V supply that is always hot. 
Wake on LAN is the next slick thing to try but probably a no-go if not in some kind of sleep mode. 
Tracing that pin on the tiny connector while trying to keep something in contact with it while trying to find it somewhere accessible on the board is going to be a bitch. 
And this 120pin thing seems to be a proprietary connenctor of sorts where I can;t just order some kind of a breakout cable.. 
That would be nice..
There's more USB and Another Intel Gbe on that connector. 
Would be nice to get a power switch reset switch and that extra ethernet off of there. 
Could be a perfect little gigabit firewall//VPN/router box with two NICs and hardware AES instruction set in the CPU.

 

 

[BoardSlotUser]

On 11/29/2022 at 7:17 PM, MichiganBroadband said:

Thirty one (31) pins in from the bottom left - ground that and it turns on.

Thanks, I'll give that a shot.

You find anything else out about this unit?  I have a VPC16-WP-4 (8th gen intel) that I purchased to put inside a device that takes an OPS-standard PC, which this is apparently not!  OPS is 80-pin from what I've gathered.