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I have a Raspberry Pi B+ set up with OpenElec which I happily use as a media player for movies. What would be the best way to switch it on and off in a similar way I switch my TV or BluRay Player on and off ? I do not want to just leave it on all the time, because I do not use it daily. I can shut it down from the menu and unplug, but that is not really convenient.

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  • Re: Morgan, thanks for the link, that was exactly what I was looking for ! They have two versions, one for the older Raspberry Pi and one for the B+. I have ordered the RemotePi Board for the B+ and will post my experience here once I get it.
    – Max
    Commented Sep 25, 2014 at 16:22
  • You could have a simple bash script that checks if XMBC has closed and, if it has, it would automatically shut down the Pi. You are, however, still going to have a problem turning it on again.
    – Richard
    Commented Sep 26, 2014 at 13:19
  • @Max Just as a heads up, if you are responding to someone in the comments section, prepend their name with the @ symbol. It will give that user a notification, just as mine did you.
    – RPiAwesomeness
    Commented Sep 28, 2014 at 11:49

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The Raspberry Pi (even the B+ model) cannot be switched on/off easily. The easy way is to plug/unplug the RPi, as you already do.

To switch it on/off with a remote, you will have to plug some third-party component in the GPIO. You can either make it yourself if you are into electronics, or buy one of those RemotePi Board (I just found it, maybe other similar products exist).

The other way is to power the RPi with the USB port of your TV. When you switch it off, the RPi won't be powered anymore. But, by switching the Pi off brutally, it could corrupt your data...

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    Hi, I now got the RemotePi Board for my Raspberry PI B+ a few days ago, here my impressions... The board is very neatly made, PCB and components are soldered well. The board fits on the GPIO connector of the Pi and is fixed in place with a little screw and some nuts. Function is straight forward, I connected the USB cable to the board instead of the Pi, then used the learning mode to configure it with the buttons of my Harmony remote I want to use to power the Pi on and off. After installing the script for OpenElec from their website all was set up after a few minutes.
    – Max
    Commented Oct 13, 2014 at 15:41
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    I split my comment into 2 parts, because it allows only like 300 characters... Anyway, I am now happily powering my OpenElec on and off with my Harmony Remote ! All in all the Remote Pi board does what it is supposed to do and does it very reliably, no glitches or problems, better than I had expected actually. Only drawback is that it could be cheaper :) Max
    – Max
    Commented Oct 13, 2014 at 15:42
  • @Max Thanks for your feedback! It is always appreciated :-)
    – Morgan Courbet
    Commented Oct 14, 2014 at 7:47

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