Physical OC Switch/button

[Meerson]

Hi,

 

I am planing to get a new PC and i want it to be a beast! (at least with my budget and needs) both in terms of visuals and performance. and that gave me the idea of a physical overclock switch!

 

The answers I am seeking is:

- Is it possible?

 

And if it is

- What do I need and how do I do it?

 

If it is to any use here is the parts I am planing to get:

 

Asus Viii Formula

GTX 980TI

i7 6700K

4x4 GB of DDR4

 

And I am planing to water cool and overclock.

 

I have attached a picture of the switch I have laying.

Is it to any use or do I need to get another one?

 

And also if any of you can recommend a case for what I am planing to achieve I would be happy!

 

If you need any further information feel free to ask

thank you for any help you can give and have a great day =)

[Enderman]

well the prebuilt that linus reviewed had one, so it must be possible

idk how though, probably requires some software and some sort of "toggle switch to USB" interface to connect the switch to the software

[Roawoao]

Well one super hacky solution would be to put that switch inline with some unique USB device 5V power that you don't care about using ever but just want it to connect when you power it on and then write some software that enumerates USB devices and turns on/off the overclock.

 

Better solutions would be to use a serial port with a loopback and but the switch inline so that the software just looks for the packets to get through. 

 

Better still would be to have a USB connected microcontroller to look at the switch state and send a serial command to the computer which has some software looking for the correct packet.

 

All would involve some software running on the PC.

 

Other crazy ways of doing it would be to switch a non-important FAN RPM line in and out and find some overclocking software that can respond to RPM changes.

 

Soldering and electronics experience are recommended.

[Meerson]

15 hours ago, Roawoao said:

Well one super hacky solution would be to put that switch inline with some unique USB device 5V power that you don't care about using ever but just want it to connect when you power it on and then write some software that enumerates USB devices and turns on/off the overclock.

 

Better solutions would be to use a serial port with a loopback and but the switch inline so that the software just looks for the packets to get through. 

 

Better still would be to have a USB connected microcontroller to look at the switch state and send a serial command to the computer which has some software looking for the correct packet.

 

All would involve some software running on the PC.

 

Other crazy ways of doing it would be to switch a non-important FAN RPM line in and out and find some overclocking software that can respond to RPM changes.

 

Soldering and electronics experience are recommended.

So can I use this in any way??

[Roawoao]

3 hours ago, Meerson said:

So can I use this in any way??

That will work you need very little to interface a simple switch (resistor and wire is all you need plus that board). That has an FTDI serial chip so you can plug it in via USB and then you just have to tie the switch to some of the digital IO. If the board has weak pullups it is trivial but I would recommend using resistors to make sure you don't accidentally short anything out by mistake. You just have to program the micro controller to spit out serial packets to the PC when say the switch is on. Later on you can add more functions or do things like make your own PWM fan speed controller.

 

I'll post something more detailed if I can get the datasheet/info on that particular model.

[Meerson]

Sounds great! it is a long time since I last programmed on this but I am sure it will come back to me!

 

And it is a Freeduino v1.16

 

Thanks again

[Roawoao]

21 minutes ago, Meerson said:

Sounds great! it is a long time since I last programmed on this but I am sure it will come back to me!

 

And it is a Freeduino v1.16

 

Thanks again

I'm assuming your chip is a ATMEL Atmega 48 / 88 / 168 series chip. Note I mostly do low level programming which would bypass things like the aurdino library but I believe they do expose things like using weak pullups on the digital inputs. So you would do this and then just tie the other end into the ground so that when the switch is turned on it pulls the line down to ground and the board can detect this. Basically the switch would go into one digital input with a pull up and then connect to the ground of the freeduino so when you flip the switch on it pulls the line down to ground and you can detect if it is on or off and fire off serial packets to the computer where another small program switches the overclocking on/off via some software method.

 

For extra safety I would put a discrete resistor inline with the switch to prevent any mistakes by limiting it to the chips maximum current rating so if you miswire it or short something it limits the damage potential. 

 

The pullup for that chip is around 20-50kOhms so a 1kOhm resistor inline to the switch would limit things to 5mA which is well under the 40mA per pin limit not that you even need that but extra safety added. Simple diagram included below.

 

====5Vcc Inside chip

|

20~50k Internal Pullup

|

<input pin is here (5V when the switch is open, ~0.2V when switch is closed)

|

==== Now your outside the chip

|

1k External Resistor to limit current (just protection not required)

|

\ Your switch

|

Ground (0V)