Controller to power up a tablet (hardwire)

[Kookie_Monster]

Hello guys,

My name is Nuno, I'm from Portugal and completely new at Arduino, although I have some knowledge on programming, and very curious about all this kind of stuff... electronics and all.

So... here's what I wanna do. I'm installing a Nexus 7 on the dash of my Chevrolet Cruze and wanted it to boot as soon as I turn the ignition.
The tablet will be powered via lighter socket with a 2A USB charger and the OEM USB cable.

Solutions...

Open up the tablet and hard-wire a momentary push button onto the power-button connectors, which I can place somewhere on the console, since I won't be able to access the original power-button;

Or...

Make the same hard-wire but connecting it to some kind of circuit that, powered by USB, detects it received current and triggers something that emulates the press of a physical push-button for about two seconds.

Will someone help me on this? I don't even know if it requires Arduino or something more simple. Anyway... I'm widely open to suggestions.

Thanks!

[MarkT]

A quick thought:  does the tablet have wake-on-LAN or other such functionality in the BIOS?  There might be a way to
configure it to sleep waiting for external event to power it up (ethernet, USB).   

An alternative idea:  use a solenoid to push the power button?  No modification then needed.

[Kookie_Monster]

Thank you for your reply.

That's the thing... no wake on lan. It's an android tablet. A few tablets boot on power OOTB, but Nexus 7 doesn't. And there's no way to change that. On Galaxy Tab2 for instance it's possible to change it so that instead of showing battery charging animation, instruct it power up, but Asus made it in a way so this option is loaded even before the SW bootloader. So... that's a no go.

As for the solenoid... that sounds like a good idea, but is it programmable so that it would only press the button for two seconds (press time required to make the tablet boot)? Otherwise... if it presses longer than that the tablet would enter a boot loop, since when pressed for more than 5 seconds, it resets.

[MarkT]

Well you would be programming it perhaps...