How to wake a Mini or clamshelled MBP without mouse/keyboard?

[splitpea]

I've got a new M4 Mac Mini arriving in a few days, and once it arrives will be using my 2019 Intel MBP in clamshell mode for a while. Due to having a teensy desk, I'll be sharing a single bluetooth mouse and keyboard between both of those as well as a 2019 MBA. And I realized that waking the Mini or the MBP from sleep is now going to be problematic.

I've been switching the peripherals between them by turning bluetooth off on one machine so they can easily re-pair with the other. (I've also set up a BTT automation to turn off bluetooth on sleep and reactivate it on wake, which makes this almost seamless.)

Until now, closing or opening the lid has been how I slept/woke the computers, but that won't work in clamshell mode or for the Mini. Furthermore, I wouldn't trust these peripherals to stay connected anyway -- they drop and reconnect their connections seemingly at random (though possibly in sync with the neighbors using their microwaves).

Are there other ways to sleep and wake these computers without a mouse or keyboard connected? Or will I be stuck buying a $5 corded mouse to plug into each one and wasting a couple USB ports?

Edited to add: if the bluetooth keyboard disconnects, is there a way to get it to reconnect before having to type in the password at the login screen, anyway?

 

[Boyd01]

Maybe setup screen sharing? Screensharing wakes up my m4 Mini when I connect, although (IIRC) this did not happen with my old 2014 Mini. For that matter, perhaps you could do everything with screensharing from one machine and not have to switch peripherals?

 

[splitpea]

Maybe setup screen sharing? Screensharing wakes up my m4 Mini when I connect, although (IIRC) this did not happen with my old 2014 Mini. For that matter, perhaps you could do everything with screensharing from one machine and not have to switch peripherals?

That would require one of the computers already be awake, though, right? And that the peripherals haven't randomly disconnected themselves (gotta love bluetooth).

As for everything via screen sharing... I'm pretty sure neither laptop can smoothly run the two 4K monitors I'll be connecting to the Mini (the MBA can barely run one, with a massive amount of lag; and the MBP can run one just fine, but would likely struggle with two).

 

[chown33]

Cheap USB mouse.

You don't have to place them on the desk. You can stick them to a nearby wall, or even under the desk, and simply click the button of the one you want to wake. Treat them as wakeup switches, instead of as cursor positioning devices.

 

[Mrbobb]

SLEEP - let it time out.
WAKE - WOL?