How To Detect Sleep State On GA-X58A-UD3R

[algorhythm]

Hello x86ers.

I'm modding a Fractal Design case and replacing the blue led with an rgb one so that I can show hdd activity etc. using a microcontroller. This is working now, but I also want to mimic the mac pulsing sleep light and I can't figure out how to detect sleep... I am using a ga-x58a-ud3r and I can't figure out if it provides any indication of sleep.

On this board the usb gives +5v during both sleep and off, the 'msg' led does not light up in S3 power mode, and I don't know if anything else is different during sleep vs. off.

Does anyone have any tips? Pins to look at?

Thanks in advance.

 

[SnapMan]

I have a different Gigabyte board as noted in my profile.

The manual shows that the Front Panel Header has a MSG/PWR/SLP LED pinout. That said I did try it for an indicator and it didn't blink, though that might be I either didn't configure something or it is unsupported by Snow Leopard as the manual says it only blinks in S1 sleep and the BIOS setup information says to use S3. You could try S1 and see if it works.....or hoses everything. Though worst case is you could go back into BIOS and go back to S3.

Those are the only pins on the motherboard that indicate sleep as far as I am aware.

 

[algorhythm]

@SnapMan thanks for the reply. My motherboard also has a 'msg' header which is supposed to indicate sleep by blinking an led, but this unfortunately only works in S1 mode, so it won't work for my install which needs S3 mode.

Does anyone know of non-led-header ways to detect sleep? Are there any pins on a motherboard that have different voltages during sleep vs. soft-off?

Thanks again.

 

[SnapMan]

The S1 blink is firmware controlled. So unless you can convince Gigabyte to update the BIOS to add an option you would need to find a pin that changes voltage on S3 and then use it to power a little blinking circuit.

I don't you will have much luck finding an already blinking signal on any pin you could directly use for the LED.

But, on my computer the fan immediately goes off when I put it to sleep, so you might check those pins for starters.

If it goes off on your computer, it wouldn't be hard to switch on a 555 or 3909 flasher when the fan powers down and run it to the front panel LED through a 10K resistor.

 

[algorhythm]

@SnapMan thanks again for the quick reply.

. . . you would need to find a pin that changes voltage on S3 and then use it to power a little blinking circuit.

Right. Does anyone else know of non-led-header ways to detect sleep? Are there any pins/circuits on a motherboard that have different voltages during sleep vs. soft-off?

I don't you will have much luck finding an already blinking signal on any pin you could directly use for the LED.

I'm not looking for a blinking signal to directly drive an led. As I said in the initial post, this is microcontroller controlled and I just need some indication of sleep vs. soft-off.

But, on my computer the fan immediately goes off when I put it to sleep, so you might check those pins for starters.

The fans are also off when the motherboard is powered down, so based on the state of the fans, the state of the motherboard is indeterminate.

Does anyone else have any suggestions of how to detect sleep vs. off?

Thanks!

 

[SnapMan]

Okay, in more detail.....

Fan off and most 5V/12V PSU busses OFF when computer is off

Fan off and at least some 5V/12V PSU busses ON for sleep

Power the flashing LED from some 5V bus that is off when computer off

Use fan 5V line to trigger blink circuit or if it has a low resistance to ground during sleep, you might get away with hooking the blinking circuit between the PSU line and Fan line.....if the fan is 5V otherwise use a 12 V PSU line to the 12V fan.

This is a grab the voltmeter and an LED with a series 5K resistor exercise. First measure the PSU voltages on a standard 4 pin connector that goes to an IDE drive (if you had one), then check the fan circuit on the MB.

Use caution, so you don't short anything or smoke your MB.