PC Modding

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A place for Modders to show off their PC mods that they have made or found online, discuss new mod ideas for their rigs and look for help getting their dream mod project off the ground.

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communick@hardware.watch

Use switch as button (alien.top)

submitted 9 months ago by Henry_reddit88@alien.top to c/pcmods@hardware.watch

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Hi! So, the power button on my case isn't working properly, and I wanted to try to replace it. I accidentally bought some capacitative switches instead of buttons, and I'm wondering if I can do anything with them to make them work.

Thank you!

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[–] tenacious_mucus@sh.itjust.works 1 points 9 months ago

Maybe, but probably not. Standard case switches are just momentary circuit closing. Basically just temporarily shorting out 2 pins on the motherboard, purely mechanical, nothing digital or electronic about it. You can mimic this with anything conductive by directly shorting the 2 power pins on the motherboard (after unplugging the power switch wires).

Depending on the switches you got, there might not be enough continuity across the 2 pins to close the circuit based on how capacitive switches generally work- your finger or something else being the conductive circuit closure. Good thing is, you wont really hurt anything to try it, your PC just wont turn on. But if you wanna be real safe- unplug the power switch wires from the motherboard and hook the 2 wires to a multimeter and see what kind of resistance or continuity you get, the lower the better. Ideally 0 ohms, a full “short”. Realistically you should just buy the right parts, but i tried to answer your question anyways!