My file server project using an Odroid XU4 is coming along nicely and since it's all going into a HDD enclosure that I already have, the XU4 board will not be accessible and along with it, its power button. This article shows how I've added an external power button to the XU4.

This is what I was going to use for my new power button. It's a 3 pole rocker switch that goes back to the off position when the lever is released. It's mounted on a piece of acrylic and protrudes out the front of the HDD enclosure.


I looked up the XU4 schematics and found that its existing power button has a couple of it's pins wired together...


Using a multimeter I found which of these pins were connected on the board...




Since the rocker switch went up and down and I only needed it to work as a momentary switch in either one of these up/down positions, I decided to connect both the up and down poles together so it didn't matter which way the lever was positioned.


After the wiring on the switch part was completed, I soldered the other end of the wires onto the XU4 board to the non-connected contacts of the XU4 power switch.


This is what it looked like with everything in place...


...and here's a video of the rocker switch in action. It shows that when the lever is pulled up or down, the shutdown dialogue box pops up, as expected.


-i