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Reverse Engineer the PowerKey by Sophisticated Circuits?

olePigeon

Well-known member
I have this really nifty and cool surge protector by Sophisticated Circuits called a PowerKey. It has 4 power plugs and an ADB port. When used in conjunction with the software, you can program the power plugs on it (such as turn completely on/off.)

This is extremely useful on machines that don't have an auto-power circuit like the LC or SE. But it's also just as useful in general as it can turn off any peripherals, too, eliminating any annoying LEDs or turning off LCDs that like to stay on when there's no signal detected (I'm looking at you, HP.)

My PowerKey had one of the plugs die on it (other three still work,) and it appears to have some internal clips that will need to be broken for me to get inside it to even attempt a repair. Since I don't have anymore, I'm worried about never being able to get another one. It's such a good and useful product, I'd hate to see it disappear into oblivion.

If it's going to need to be broken into, I'd rather donate it for a worthy cause.

Anyone interested in reverse engineering it?
 

360alaska

Well-known member
If one just wanted to control plugs via the power key(without any software) on an ADB keyboard the process would be fairly simple. Because the ADB keyboard grounds the power pin whenever the button is pressed you could just use a set of relays in a holding circuit like this (but with ground and power reverse compared to this diagram):
articles-articles-39-1366409640.jpg

Then you have to connect those relays to some high-voltage relays to control the flow of 120v. Not something that interests me honestly, but fairly simply to execute.
 

cathealer

New member
I have this really nifty and cool surge protector by Sophisticated Circuits called a PowerKey. It has 4 power plugs and an ADB port. When used in conjunction with the software, you can program the power plugs on it (such as turn completely on/off.)

This is extremely useful on machines that don't have an auto-power circuit like the LC or SE. But it's also just as useful in general as it can turn off any peripherals, too, eliminating any annoying LEDs or turning off LCDs that like to stay on when there's no signal detected (I'm looking at you, HP.)

My PowerKey had one of the plugs die on it (other three still work,) and it appears to have some internal clips that will need to be broken for me to get inside it to even attempt a repair. Since I don't have anymore, I'm worried about never being able to get another one. It's such a good and useful product, I'd hate to see it disappear into oblivion.

If it's going to need to be broken into, I'd rather donate it for a worthy cause.

Anyone interested in reverse engineering it?
I realize that this is an old thread, but I have a PowerKey Model No. PK-1 if you are interested...
 

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olePigeon

Well-known member
@cathealer I'm interested in getting it reverse engineered, but I don't have those skills. It would have to be up to one of the geniuses on here.

I, too, have one I can lend out for reverse engineering. Mine even has 1 unresponsive plug. I used to have a new one still in the box somewhere, but I appear to have lost it. :(
 

Trash80toHP_Mini

NIGHT STALKER
Interested in this too!

Obligatory featuritis TLDR:
I've got the PowerKey Pro as well. Looking at that at the same time might prove fruitful. IIRC it can handle powering on individual (or sets?) of outlets with the entire thing waking up to a phone call (to be converted to a remote switching mechanism) and might be interesting to look at. Thinking in terms of developing a combination Power On feature for a combined, modularized Power Center/KVM setup? Not thinking of switching live, more to Power-UP any individual Mac for use from one of the displays in a daily driver setup.
 

tashtari

PIC Whisperer
Does anyone own a PowerKey PK3M1 (the subvariety with six outlets)?

One just popped up on ebay this morning for $20 and I don't think I've ever clicked 'buy it now' so fast...

Trouble is, it doesn't come with the cable. The PowerKey has one of the not often seen 5-pin mini-DIN plugs on it, which leaves me wondering what the pinout of the original cable might be. I could crack it open and see if the multimeter and I can have an educated guess, but if someone out there has one of the original cables and could beep it out for me, that'd be much nicer...

Anyone? Bueller?
 

Fizzbinn

Well-known member
I have one of these too, also without the cable... I did get the manual with mine, not that it has anything like a cable pinout in it. It does show what the cable looked like. It's a Y-Cable, male ABD for your Mac with a short female ADB for your keyboard and a longer "SCI" cable to the PoweKey. As mentioned that SCI connector is Mini-Din 5. I got as far as ordering some of those but now it looks like we're both after that pin-out. Part of me wonders if that 5 pin does nothing, maybe only there for keying the device as one not meant for use with regular ADB cables.

By the way the manual refers to the PK3M1 as the "PowerKey Pro Model 200", it also lists a model 600 which provides independent software and hardware (via buttons on the unit) control of all the outlets.

IMG_5226.jpegIMG_5227.jpeg
 
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tashtari

PIC Whisperer
Hmmm... the warning that "the keyboard must be connected to the branching connector on the SCI cable" might be a clue. ADB keyboards (as everyone here probably already knows) pull the soft-power pin to ground whenever the power key is pressed, and the PowerKey will need to monitor that pin in order to know when to close its relays.

Perhaps the Y-adapter serves mainly to redirect the soft-power pin to the PowerKey rather than the Mac and, as @Fizzbinn suggested, the 5-pin DIN is just there to make sure you plug it into the PowerKey and nothing else? If they used a standard ADB port/cable, there's the danger that someone might connect it and the keyboard to different USB ports on (for example) an SE, meaning the soft-power pin wouldn't be connected to the PowerKey and it wouldn't work as intended... though that warning is necessary in either case. I don't know.

@CC_333 @LaPorta @Trash80toHP_Mini Would one of you be so kind as to settle the question? =)
 

tvj

Member
A IIfx I acquired came with one of these power strips. I have never used it, so I don't know if it works. But I toned out the cable for those interested.

powerkey.jpg
 

tashtari

PIC Whisperer
A IIfx I acquired came with one of these power strips. I have never used it, so I don't know if it works. But I toned out the cable for those interested.
Thanks so much for doing this!
  • A - soft power pin from keyboard to PowerKey
  • B - ground (common)
  • C - 5V from Mac to keyboard
  • D - ADB (common)
  • E - soft power pin from PowerKey to Mac
Not sure why they did it this way, it seems like they could have just as easily had a common line combining A and E and used a standard 4-pin mini-DIN, I'm pretty sure that it's pulled up with a resistor and detects being pulled to ground by pressing the power key on the keyboard. Perhaps they wanted to be able to have some kind of special support for soft power Macs - but why would you use the PowerKey with a soft power Mac anyway? Anyone's guess.
 

tashtari

PIC Whisperer
Perhaps they wanted to be able to have some kind of special support for soft power Macs
Thinking on it for a second longer, I suppose if you're plugging a soft power Mac into the PowerKey, what you really want is for the relay to be closed and the soft power pin to be pulled down a second later, which would require that the PowerKey could control it separately.
 
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