Rebooting a Soarers?

[Inxie]

I know the answer to this is probably going to be no, but I built in a Soarers converter into my PC, installing a 5-pin DIN socket in the case, soldered straight to a Teensy after using one of those eBay converter, and finding them to not be quite as stable (moving the USB port causes the keyboard to type). Besides, this frees up a USB port externally by using the pin header inside.

However, I noticed a snag. If I plug in the keyboard AFTER I switched on the PSU, but not turn on the computer, it turns out the Teensy is already powered up since the USB pin headers have power all the time. Obviously this means the keyboard has to be plugged in BEFORE the computer's PSU is even switched on.

Well, ran into a funny issue today, I re-mapped by power button to be sleep, and not power, so once the PC booted up, I was left unable to type or enter BIOS because I esentially plugged in the keyboard AFTER the Teensy started. This means I can't log into Windows, but, I can't shut down either. (For some reason my lock screen has no power options). In case I do this again, is there another way around this, other than popping the hood and just cycling the Teensy manually?

I know the answer is probably no, since the keyboard isn't active thus no way to really command it anything, but I figured I'd ask, since it's a habit for me to start plugging things in no specific order, and I know I'll probably get in this situation again.

[Inxie]

Btw, THIS home made Soarers has been far more reliable than the eBay one (from the one approved seller). I don't think 1k pullups are used in his converters, and it's my understanding that coiled keyboard cables can have capacitance, which is probably the unreliability when wiggling the USB cable.

EDIT: Actually, I'm surprised Soarers doesn't have a form of hot swapping built in. I was thinking since the clock should always be present when a keyboard is plugged in, it could be that this signal can be used to determine if a keyboard is unplugged and plugged back in?

[Willy4876]

You could probably just put a toggle switch out through the back of the case. Connect the toggle switch to the power for the teensy. With the switch on the port would be powered and on. With the switch off the power would be disabled and the teensy would be off. If you ever had to reboot the Soarers then just flip the switch on and off again.

Also, that is an awesome case mod. I have just now decided that the next PC that I build will have an integrated pro micro for an ADB converter.

[Inxie]

You could probably just put a toggle switch out through the back of the case. Connect the toggle switch to the power for the teensy. With the switch on the port would be powered and on. With the switch off the power would be disabled and the teensy would be off. If you ever had to reboot the Soarers then just flip the switch on and off again.

Also, that is an awesome case mod. I have just now decided that the next PC that I build will have an integrated pro micro for an ADB converter.

Ahh good idea actually, and I could probably use a momentary push button as well, which is normally closed, and pressing it actually opens the circuit, essentially making it a reset button for the Teensy.

Thanks btw. I went ahead and programmed the internal Soarer's to use bits of legacy.sc for my XT keyboard (break, pause, print screen), along with Shift F1-F9 for F11 to F20. That way I regain MOST of a standard AT keyboard (minus the Windows keys, I have no reason to ever do that since Ctrl+Escape opens the start menu, and just typing into the Windows 10 start menu can act like Run as well.)

[gipetto]

Is there any way you could detect when there's a load present and use it to power on the teensy, or stop pulling the RST line to ground. Put a transistor or a relay on the vcc DIN plug pin.

[Willy4876]

Is there any way you could detect when there's a load present and use it to power on the teensy, or stop pulling the RST line to ground. Put a transistor or a relay on the vcc DIN plug pin.

Long story short yes but it would be more complicated. You do make a good point though that I didn't think about in my previous post. If the only goal is to restart the Teensy then a momentary switch on the reset pin would work as well.

[Inxie]

Ah ha! I found a BIOS option which powers down the USB ports when the computer is shut off. "ERP" in Power Management.

When I enabled that, as soon as the PC turns off, the Teensy looses power. But when ERP is disabled, the Teensy remains powered up.

This might be the ultimate fix rather than a workaround. Apparently with ERP enabled, it disables my motherboards ability to let the keyboard or mouse power on the computer, but that's fine, I didn't want that anyway, that's laziness, I'll just hit the power button.

[gianni]

Ah ha! I found a BIOS option which powers down the USB ports when the computer is shut off. "ERP" in Power Management.

Does this mean that if I don't have this option on the firmware I have to turn off the UPS each time that I switch keyboards??? Does this happen with all the soarer's (orihalcon, thinkerboy etc)?

[JBert]

Other converters might also suffer from this problem, but you would be able to unplug them if you can reach the USB plug.

[Inxie]

Ah ha! I found a BIOS option which powers down the USB ports when the computer is shut off. "ERP" in Power Management.

Does this mean that if I don't have this option on the firmware I have to turn off the UPS each time that I switch keyboards??? Does this happen with all the soarer's (orihalcon, thinkerboy etc)?

This is only an issue specific with my setup, since I built the converter into the computer where I can't unplug it. Any normal converter you use is likely outside the computer and can be unplugged.

[gianni]

Ah ha! I found a BIOS option which powers down the USB ports when the computer is shut off. "ERP" in Power Management.

Does this mean that if I don't have this option on the firmware I have to turn off the UPS each time that I switch keyboards??? Does this happen with all the soarer's (orihalcon, thinkerboy etc)?

This is only an issue specific with my setup, since I built the converter into the computer where I can't unplug it. Any normal converter you use is likely outside the computer and can be unplugged.

My setup is so crammed that it's easier to turn off the UPS! And maybe not even that could work because the psu may still have some tension in the capacitors

[Inxie]

I mean, if you have an external Soarers converter and you have need to worry about hot plugging, it sounds like you can reach it then.