I want to be able to turn my PC on and off using an IR-remote sensor that is connected via USB to the PC. The sensor is a custom PCB implemented with an AVR microprocessor and V-USB software USB-implementation.
Now, turning off the PC is no problem with software, but is there any way to turn ON the PC using USB?
(Please note, I'm not talking about booting from USB-stick or USB-power supply ...)
Here is the solution: http://www.my-irshop.de/catalog/product%5Finfo.php?products%5Fid=72
unfortunately, the page is in german, but I guess it will be no problem for you to translate it via google etc.
There seem to be two problems:
Another workaround could be to send the power-on signal to the PC over ethernet. But I guess this will be more complicated than the power button solution and it involves extra cables too.
HTH
Hey, there must be a way to do this with USB, since some PCs can be switched on with the keyboard. I think this will be some looking whether your mainboard/BIOS support it (it may be you need to turn it on in BIOS, this will probably also ensure your device gets power from USB although the PC is switched off), and whether that V-USB (unknown to me) can send the "wakeup"-signal.
good luck !
This Microsoft knowledgebase article describes how to enable "wake on USB" for a USB mouse. I just checked, and my keyboard device entry (on Windows Vista) has the same choice, already checked.
So, if you AVR is emulating a USB keyboard or mouse, it should be possible to wake the computer by sending the proper data.
How "off" does the PC need to be? Is waking from sleep/suspend enough? The USB standard describes "remote wake-up".
Aside from enabling remote-wakeup, like unwind mentions, software on the PC is not involved in making this work.