I think the power button has four pins... Idk what they are... but I'll test it when I take the thing apart next... which is soon......

just solder a wire to one pin to one side of the reed switch, then the other one to the other side... when a magnet hit, it'll trip the  reed switch and it turns on the laptop, very simple...

I just gotta figure out which two pins to use.... this is actually a good idea... I might actually do this, and remove the power button altogether so no one knows how to turn it on but me.... and whomever reading this.... haha

tact switches are usually spst with 1&2 contacting 3&4 when pressed.
the 5th one (in the middle) is just the frame top (earth) of the switch.

the trouble with a reed switch switch is it's not momentary like the tact switch and the eee prob won't respond correctly if the tact (or reed) is held down. I've never tried holding down *after a start up , but you know what happens when you hold it down whilst running.
So unless you're gonna remove the magnet as soon as you've contacted it won't work as required imho

if you want

put the meter to low resistance range (or beep continuity (<200ohms scale) if it has such a setting)

cross the two probes together in your hand and the display will register zero ohms (close to 0.0 on the display), it won't read exactly 0 as the leads have some slight resistance.
With no power attached to the eee and no battery installed, position one probe on 3 4 or 5 (they are all tied together anyway on the pcb) and the other probe on 1 (and afterwards on 2)
when the button is pressed , the meter will (should) read 0 or near enough.
check again with no 2 terminal and the same should happen.

checking across 1 and 2 without the button being pressed should also display 0 ohms.


(If the meter does have beep continuity setting, the meter will beep as well as displaying 0)

HTH ask if you need any more help.. but remember the reed is not momentary, so as I say this ain't gonna work unless you remove the magnet once you have closed the contacts one time.

Last edited by AlmostInvisible (2008-12-26 3:14:33 am)

Yeah, theoretically it should work perfectly for my application. I'll have the reed switch hidden beneath the casing & the magnet hidden within my watch's band so the laptop powers on with a simple swipe of the magnet

Keep us posted about the pin connection, thanks.

Thanks for the short writeup on how to do the test! I'll check, but just not right now. its 4:16 AM over here and I really need to sleep, haha.

Last edited by peregrinefalc0n (2008-12-26 4:17:40 am)

so he can simply swipe his (concealed) magnet over the reed switch location and start (or shut down) the PC without touching it in a james bond stylee ?

Keyless 'ignition'?

Vinhtvu2 wrote:

Redback wrote:

The only question I have is WHY?

I am tired of people asking why in the 'hacks and mods' section.............

The answer is "WHY NOT?"

Because we can.... because it's different.... because it might be challenging..... if everyone asked "Why" and dont just try new things..... we would be far less technologically advance.... probably still in the dark age.....

It's exploration......... it's trying to do something no-one has done.... it's breaking the barrier.....


Okay sometime I ask why also...... but that's only when it's ridiculous like stripping the 901 to save 2 ounce from it..... or try to watercool an Eee....... I guess there is a limit....... this one is still in the sane boundary in my book...

Ditto and kudos to Vinhtvu2.

The_Kid wrote:

This is actually kind of useful. Keeps people from using your computer unless they know how it works.

Isn't that why most of us use linux? 

peregrinefalc0n wrote:

So has anyone made any real progress on this?

what progress do you want !

you open it up, you solder in a reed switch across the terminals I've mentioned, insulate it and put it in a suitible place in the cab, put it back together and voila you're done. It's the most basic of switches.
I'd suggest soldering wires to the reed, stick some heatshrink on the bare leads and don't bend the leads on it at all so you don't break the glass seal and thus ruin the switch.
Just get on with it

Last edited by AlmostInvisible (2008-12-26 4:57:08 pm)

if you read up on peregrine's other thread about the "peregrin3" project you would know WHY he wants to do this, he's attempting to turn the eee into a very *james bond-ish* (not to be confused with bondage) actual *note-book* the magnet you seem to be so puzzeled about would be placed discretely in a watch/wristband/ring of some kind as per what peregrine has posted in the previous weeks in other such threads, with many of us contributing to the process.
so yet again i raise vinhtvu2's question as to WHY NOT?
hacks and mods are about improving/personalizing your device... if this is how someone wants to do it then why not support it? who knows what else this could inspire, and we shouldn't stifel that if we really endrse hacks or mods of any kind.

Last edited by RandyLude92 (2008-12-26 6:27:31 pm)

I've just thought of a minor 'upgrade' to my idea of using a reed switch:

Use the reed switch in series with the main power switch.

That way you hold your wristwatch strap/modified USB key or whatever with a built-in magnet next to where the reed switch is hidden, then you can press the power button as normal - people will automatically assume the power button works as normal. If you just wave your wrist or whatever next to the laptop and it powers on people will may be interested in how it switched on when you didn't press the power button. Plus it means you can't accidentally trigger the power button by holding a magnet next to the reed switch.
You could also wire in a second (or maybe third) reed switch in parallel with the first so you don't always hold the magnet in the same place, another layer of security through obscurity.



AYE-SUS THIS, generally speaker magnets aren't powerful enough to affect a reed switch unless maybe you were to hold the reed switch right up to the cone center or the center-back of the speaker box, magnetism power decreases exponentally, reed switches need to be about 1cm away from a small (ie 4mm sized) powerful magnet to turn on.
Furthermore a lot of speakers sold nowadays are magnetically shielded, notably computer ones and 5.1 setups - I've got a large Yamaha center speaker sitting on my 28" widescreen CRT and it doesn't affect the screen because of it's sheilding.



AlmostInvisible is right about the fragility of the glass, I've broken too many by bending the legs right next to the glass, if you need to bend it then use pliers to hold the leg right next to the glass and then bend the leg.



Redback, you have to remember that most people don't think like us modders/hackers/builders so they wouldn't automatically think of magnet powered switches to covertly switch on a device. And I like that, it means you can do some really neat behind-the-scenes stuff and most people won't have a clue how you did it, but the flip side is most people wouldn't appreciate the effort involved in the behind-the-scenes stuff even if you told them.

Last edited by Haku (2008-12-27 1:44:58 am)

and magnets on the wrist are good for arthritis too!

Nice job peggyjay!! 

Haku wrote:

...........another layer of security through obscurity.

If we wanted to get really obscure, we could bypass the power button and use two mercury switches in series that are mounted on opposite sides of the EEE, opposing eachother in such a way that when you spin the EEE, the centrifugal force will pull the Mercury out to make momentary contact for startup.  But this will have people throwing up their EEE spinning it in the air like pizza dough, or flipping the EEE over on its screen lid and spinning it on the table to start it.