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The Ultimate Reset Button

Posted by CowboyNeal on Sat Jun 02, 2007 10:59 AM
from the no-not-the-cosmic-nullifier dept.
Hardware Hacking Toys IT
Gary writes "The gigantic red switch looks more like a mushroom straight out of Super Mario. It can be connected easily using two wires and can be activated in any direction. To get rid of the blue screen of death all you have to do is hit it with something (like, a fist)."
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  • Just amazing (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 02 2007, @11:03AM (#19363535)
    Wow, this is just amazing....almost rivals the development of the polio vaccine.

    • Re:Just amazing (Score:5, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 02 2007, @11:40AM (#19363827)
      This is the lamest 'hack' I have ever seen on Slashdot. You can get industrial panel/remote buttons from just about any industrial or electrical supply store. Then you wire up two leads to your reset button.

      I can't wait to see what innovative tinkerer's project comes next on Slashdot. Maybe an LED with brightness control?

      • Computer controlled LED (Score:5, Informative)

        by Simonetta (207550) on Saturday June 02 2007, @01:47PM (#19364815)
        Real men don't fool around anymore with digital potentiometers and op-amps when it comes down to the nitty-gritty task of controlling an LED.

            Now it's far cheaper to use a microcontroller with pulse-width modulation to guide the LED into it luministic destiny. Get an 8-pin AVR (like the Tiny11) or even a 6-pin PIC microprocessor for less than 50 cents US, preferably one that is in a new surface-mount package much smaller than the LED and fits underneath it. Then write the code that gently awakens the LED from its inner darkness. Be guided in your code by the idea that just as the LED is being raised from its inherent chaotic darkness, so too is man raised from his internal chaotic darkness by the direction and focused energy of Jesus, God, Jehovah, Allah, Buddha, Krishna, Great Spirit, or Whoever (grammar goblins, note the proper capitalization of the indirect pronoun that refers to the deity).

              The point is that now it is cheaper to effect a hardware solution with an ultra-cheap microcontroller than it was in the 20th century to do with cheap 555 timers coupled with resistors and caps or to do with TTL clusters. It does require software skills that weren't needed previously. It's a whole new frame of reference for electronic designers. This trend will continue as very fast, (50 MegaHertz system clocks, fast for microcontrollers), very powerful 32-bit microcontrollers with large internal memory continue to fall in price [the 50MHz/32K FlashROM ARM controller has broken the $5 barrier].

              Will we ever use a 32-bit microprocessor to control a single LED? Don't laugh too hard. Using a chip that has more internal resources than the original IBM PC to control a few LEDs is not rare now. If some future 128-bit CPU has the ability to be programmed just by talking to it, and it's cheaper than an LED, then why not?

      • Re:Just amazing (Score:5, Funny)

        by YouTookMyStapler (1057796) on Saturday June 02 2007, @01:57PM (#19364887)
        It's amazing that the article is supposed to be fore a reset button for the "blue screen of death" and all I get when I click the link all I get is a blue error page.
        • Actually they're dead easy to make. Get a digital potentiometer (variable resistor) and connect it as a current source. Hook your LED up to the current source and there you have it. If you want schematics, try this article [elecdesign.com].
        • A stepper motor to control LED brightness?? Stop breathing the solder fumes.

    • Re:Just amazing (Score:4, Funny)

      by galaad2 (847861) on Saturday June 02 2007, @01:17PM (#19364587) Homepage Journal
      what is amazing is the error message that the former site shows now:

      [...snip...]

              SQL/DB Error -- []
      Error executing error template.

      ROFL, even the error generator causes errors.
  • Could I get one of these fashioned as a Colt 45 or other such instrument of death? I gotta tell ya, sometimes just beating the hell out of something doesn't leave you with the cold, hard final satisfaction that you killed something.
  • It's a button that is used in industry for stopping various machines

    Can anyone provide a link to where one can be bought? The blog and linked source blog provide no info, not even a name to Google.

  • Yet another excuse... (Score:4, Funny)

    by Idbar (1034346) on Saturday June 02 2007, @11:07AM (#19363567)
    ... to buy Windows! ;)

    Page was /.'d, or perhaps they used the button on their webserver?

  • Unix guys prefer... (Score:5, Funny)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 02 2007, @11:07AM (#19363571)
    Thats for Windows users. Unix guys would rather like to have a pedal under their desk that is mapped to Escape. Imaging how much fun vi could be...

    • Re: (Score:2, Interesting)

      by mulvane (692631)
      If I could get one pedal for escape and another for ":", I think vi could rival most anything for speed.
    • Well, he did place the button at a perfect position for a good head slam.
    • Heeeyy... get one of those rudder-pedal or car-pedal sets and rig it up for Emacs. No! Even better -- jigger up an old pipe organ console for Emacs.

      As to the amount of fun: I remember reading back in the old days of foot-powered sewing machines, a woman who positioned herself just so could be masturbating just from the movements of her leg. So yes, your idea with the pedal *could* be fun for geek girls. :-)
  • That site stayed up all of what... two minutes? There has to be a better way.

  • the ultimate? (Score:5, Funny)

    by ArcSecond (534786) on Saturday June 02 2007, @11:12AM (#19363613)
    You ever wonder if servers have thoughts and feelings? Sometimes I think it is cruel the things Slashdot does to them.

    Reset button indeed. More like LITTLE BLUE LINK OF DEATH.

  • As always, Mirrordot (Score:5, Informative)

    by Necroman (61604) on Saturday June 02 2007, @11:14AM (#19363629)
    Since the website is already starting to die:
    http://mirrordot.com/stories/32d28c3271b0bc44f0124 8f67896ca8f/index.html [mirrordot.com]

  • WHACK-A-MOLE (Score:5, Funny)

    by no_pets (881013) on Saturday June 02 2007, @11:16AM (#19363639)
    Imagine a Beowulf cluster of these.

  • To get rid of the blue screen of death all you have to do is hit it with something (like, a fist).
    Or... you could just fix the problem. Really, a hard reset will only fuck things up in the long run.

  • Hey!! I have one of these! (Score:4, Informative)

    by Khyber (864651) <khyberkitsune@gmail.com> on Saturday June 02 2007, @11:32AM (#19363765) Journal
    *looks at the big "OFF" switch on his power strip.*

    I think we already had these for a couple decades, now...
  • TFA says "it uses just two wires". So how come the bottom picture shows four? (Red, yellow and two black.) Decoration?

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Sparr0 (451780)
      I am going to hazard a guess that the two blacks are both grounds and the red and yellow are opposite signals, one for when the switch is pressed and one for when it isnt. This opens up more possible uses, since some hardware wants momentary-open for reset instead of the PC standard of momentary-close.
    • Maybe that's so it can reset two PC's at once? I have to admit, I was scanning the comments to see if there was a "two wires?" one and if there wasn't I was going to add one. Got beat to it though.

      I don't know much about emergency stop buttons, but maybe this one is multiple pole and has two for normally closed and the other two close when the button is pushed? For example the NC would complete a circuit for normal operation and the other two would activate an alarm? Otherwise, "I got nothing".

  • Guard (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Dachannien (617929) on Saturday June 02 2007, @11:34AM (#19363787)
    You should really add a mushroom-head pushbutton guard [rockwellautomation.com] to this, so you don't frob it accidentally.
  • Looks like someone hit the Ultimate Reset Button on the webserver.

  • Online version (Score:3, Informative)

    by suv4x4 (956391) on Saturday June 02 2007, @11:49AM (#19363907)
    Use with caution [turnofftheinternet.com], as it will shut down the internet.

  • More impressive (Score:4, Interesting)

    by stg (43177) on Saturday June 02 2007, @12:05PM (#19364035) Homepage
    I think http://www.thinkgeek.com/computing/accessories/911 6/ [thinkgeek.com] would be much more impressive, if it could be set as a reset button.

    I'd be a bit worried about being arrested as a terrorist, if I had one of those in a office, though...
    • Oh man, someone needs to take that thing and make it a reset button right now...I would so buy if it served a useful purpose. That would be so amusing...
      Fellow Worker: Hey dude, your computer froze up on me
      You: Okay, just reset it
      FW: How? (Expecting the location of the reset button)
      You: Do you see the box on your right? Flip the top switch
      FW: Okay...
      You: Now flip the bottom one
      FW: Okay...you sure this is the reset?
      You: Yep, now insert the key on the desk next to it into the keyhole on the left and turn it t

  • The ultimate GDO (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday June 02 2007, @12:06PM (#19364043)
    The switch looks pretty dumb sitting on a desk. Realistically whos computer not suffering from hardware problems spontaneously crashes anymore?

    Wire this sucker up in your garage instead and you have a very cool looking and very useful garage door opener. I might even replace my door bell with one. Although it would look painfully stupid outside my front door it might give the javahoas and dish network goons second thoughts about pressing my ESO.

    Also if your going to bother making a computer reset switch like this I'd damn well make it useful. Instead of taking 5 minutes to wire it to the reset pins on your motherboard...

    There should be a watchdog driver to go with it, if it stops sending keep-alives to the switch it should have an option to press itself. It could also light up in different colors or patterns to indicate various error conditions...

    Low/No mem, something spinning the cpu, Disk I/O queue full, watchdog failure, drive timeout, network down..etc.

    There should be an "enterprise" edition of the same switch only it would be ethernet based using SNMP traps and host MIBs to monitor servers and devices and then issueing reset signals to a managed RPB when pressed.

    Is anyone interested in a cell phone that looks like a mineature DHD? The first 100 people who hack the neilson database in order to dramatically improve SG1's ratings get a complimentry DHD phone with lighted chevrons and big red glowing button in the center in their choice of unlocked GSM/UMTS or CDMA models.
  • the emergency button for when mom walks in... [gearfuse.com] quickly closes the browser window and brings up a minimised screen...

  • That's pretty cool, but (Score:3, Funny)

    by Mikachu (972457) <mikazuchi@@@gmail...com> on Saturday June 02 2007, @03:11PM (#19365365) Homepage
    I think I'd call THIS [pbfcomics.com] the ultimate reset button.

    • Re:Awesome! (Score:5, Funny)

      by ktappe (747125) on Saturday June 02 2007, @12:17PM (#19364129)

      I hope this can be installed on any computer! Just think, rather than coming to the network admin to take out their frustration, the users could take it out on the reset button.
      Nooooo!

      I don't know about you, but a notable portion of my day is spent responding to users' woes with "Did you try rebooting?" If users learn to reboot their own computers, that would cut the need for us admins in half. This button thingie will lead to mass unemployment. It's evil! Kill it! Kill it!

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