Powering on/off cabinet with WeMo switch?

[pomme]

Hey gang. I've got a home arcade and I've been using the WeMo power switch to turn the games on and off. This is really handy because some of the classic arcade power switches can be hard to get to.

I have a few MAME cabs running hyperspin and I'm wondering how I might incorporate them into this system. I can set each machine to boot after power loss in order to turn them on, but obviously I don't want to do a hard shutdown on the machines by cutting the power. I'm wondering if there's some way I can do this so that I'm not using one button on my cell phone to turn on/off my arcade, then manually hitting the switches on my MAME cabs, or motioning through the shutdown process.

One thing I thought of would be a script I could run to shutdown (or hybernate) when a wemo switch is turned off. The Mame cabinet would not be plugged into this switch of course. But then, how could I get it to turn back on?

Anyone doing something similar? Anyone using home automation to turn their Hyperspin cabs on and off?

[pomme]

Ahh, Great suggestion. I actually started digging a little deeper and found the Belkin has released a WeMo device with a built in relay that can be used to mimic a momentary or contact switch. Perfect. Gonna get one of these and see how it works. Thanks for the info.

http://www.belkin.com/us/p/P-F7C043/

[32assassin]

$100 to have the ability to turn your arcade ON/OFF with your phone seems like an overkill for me. if you can afford it go for it.

what you should is get a smart power strip

http://www.amazon.com/Take-Charge-Smart-Power-Strip/dp/B005DTBCD2

connect your PC to the: Controller outlet

all other devices to : switched outlet

your Belkin relay to: always on outlet

The relay to your PC momentary power switch........ problem solved.

Your monitor, amp and other devices(connected to the Switched outlet) will only receive power when the PC is on. And your PC ON switch will be controlled by your phone.

[pomme]

what you should is get a smart power strip

Yep. Already got a smart strip and your instructions here are exactly how I'd planned on setting this up. I'm kind of a home automation geek so I don't mind dropping $80 to make this happen. I have all my arcades set to power up with one buttton... except for the 3 MAME cabs. I'm just OCD like that. I appreciate the info... great minds.

[jtslade]

Got any pics of your classic vids? Any pins?