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So after a ton of dinking around with WOL over the internet and having varied levels of success/failure, I got fed up and decided I would try this. I don't have a Pi currently, but I have heard that they have several I/O pins that can be controlled through software to do various things. I'm pretty sure I can figure out the basic stuff myself, but what I was wondering is whether the Pi can withstand the voltage that is used across the power pins on most motherboards. For example, I hook two of the Pi's pins to the power switch pins on the mobo, (the same way the physical power switch is connected) and use some kind of software to (eventually remotely over the internet) connect those two pins (acting as if I pressed the power button) for a second or so. This seems like it would work, but I am just afraid of possibly frying the Pi (maybe it can't handle the 5 volts or whatever it is that's at those power pins?) Does anyone know what the voltage I'm dealing with here (would find out myself, but I don't have multimeter right now) and if so, can the Pi handle that kind of current? I can't imagine it's a ton, but possibly too much for the Pi's internal circuitry? Any help is greatly appreciated.

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  • What is your intended purpose for this? To turn your PC on and off remotely?
    – tlhIngan
    Jun 22, 2016 at 0:14
  • en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid-state_relay
    – goldilocks
    Jun 22, 2016 at 1:02
  • While the duplicate refers to actual mechanical switches, the concept is identical and you will probably find 10,000+ pages online about electrical relays, their purpose, how to use them, etc. etc.
    – goldilocks
    Jun 22, 2016 at 1:07
  • There are other options, such as a simple as various forms of transistor, depending on the nature of the "several I/O pins" you are referring to; that is a mystery you'll are best off trying to solve somewhere more appropriate, such as our larger sibling site our larger sibling site, Electrical Engineering. In any case, yes, a pi could be used.
    – goldilocks
    Jun 22, 2016 at 2:07

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Most Pi applications are best kept at 3.3 V. That being said, if your application involves higher voltages, you can always build a circuit to handle it.

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