Remote control ATX power supply from an another computer

I want to turn on and off a desktop via other PC from 150km away.

I found PiKVM

https://blicube.aliexpress.com/store/1101755276?spm=a2g0o.store_pc_home.1000001.12.5c0050ae6aIIul

Remote Controlled Timer Switch Card for Turn On/Off Computer

https://www.amazon.com/Controlled-Computer-Starting-Software-Compatible/dp/B084WWC9NS/ref=sr_1_9?keywords=remote+pc+power+switch&qid=1685075630&sr=8-9

I was thinking you could just use a dirt cheap “smart plug” and set the BIOS to turn on after power loss, but I’m not sure it would still turn on after a clean shutdown followed by a power cycle. :thinking:

Generally I think the BIOS settings restore last state rather than blindly powering on, but a cheap smart plug might be the best solution for the “off” part.

If you’ve got something else on that network you can probably use Wake-On-LAN to handle the “on” part. You might also be able to reprogram something like a Sonoff smart plug to do both the actual power control and send a Wake-up packet after power on.

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I set the BIOS to turn on after power loss.
I don’t know what happened. I guess I will find out Tuesday.

I need to be able to force power cycle, If the computer hangs.
For now, I think a way to power cycle from another device would be sufficient.


I can set up another computer there and have them recover each other.

The computer is set up using btrfs to auto-boot correctly.
But if errors occur I would need to boot from a previous snapshot.

This would require USB input and HDMI input to the second computer and the second similarly providing USB input and HDMI input to the first.

A simple USB to GPIO is enough to control the ATX buttons. They probably need to be open collector so the existing case button can be used.

https://community.element14.com/technologies/embedded/b/blog/posts/simple-usb-control-of-gpio-automating-device-resets-and-bootloader-mode-buttons

The reason I prefer an ATX control is

  • A short tap causes a clean shutdown
  • A long hold forces power off.