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Ext Hardware Box to Feed Data to PC/Script


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Okay I'll give you a small scale example of what I've been given.

Lets say I have 3 lights on the wall.

I want to individually throw a wire on the terminals and wire each light to a port on a box/card/whatever...

The box sends the computer an on/off message to the PC for each port.

Maybe the device has a service or a dll?

My script will read those messages and update the devices message accordingly.

__________________________

So what's my question? Does anyone have any experience with a device like this?

I'm not exactly sure where to look.

Thanks,

Kenny

 "I believe that when we leave a place, part of it goes with us and part of us remains... Go anywhere, when it is quiet, and just listen.. After a while, you will hear the echoes of all our conversations, every thought and word we've exchanged.... Long after we are gone our voices will linger in these walls for as long as this place remains."

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Okay I'll give you a small scale example of what I've been given.

Lets say I have 3 lights on the wall.

I want to individually throw a wire on the terminals and wire each light to a port on a box/card/whatever...

The box sends the computer an on/off message to the PC for each port.

Maybe the device has a service or a dll?

My script will read those messages and update the devices message accordingly.

__________________________

So what's my question? Does anyone have any experience with a device like this?

I'm not exactly sure where to look.

Thanks,

Kenny

I don't understand what you're after.

Say you have a box with some lights on it. Do you want the PC to control which lights are on? What messages or information does the box have that has to be sent to the PC?

Serial port communications UDF Includes functions for binary transmission and reception.printing UDF Useful for graphs, forms, labels, reports etc.Add User Call Tips to SciTE for functions in UDFs not included with AutoIt and for your own scripts.Functions with parameters in OnEvent mode and for Hot Keys One function replaces GuiSetOnEvent, GuiCtrlSetOnEvent and HotKeySet.UDF IsConnected2 for notification of status of connected state of many urls or IPs, without slowing the script.
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no the lights are controlled elsewhere, lets just say a lightswitch for simplicity.

I just want a something that:

When i turn the light on the box see's power on the line and send a signal to my PC telling me that light is on.

And if I turn the lightswitch off it detects no power and sends my pc a signal telling me the light is off

I know this stuff exists but I don't know where to look

Kenny

 "I believe that when we leave a place, part of it goes with us and part of us remains... Go anywhere, when it is quiet, and just listen.. After a while, you will hear the echoes of all our conversations, every thought and word we've exchanged.... Long after we are gone our voices will linger in these walls for as long as this place remains."

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Yeah that would work.

But a little pricey on a larger scale.

I just found this too, using it beyond 24 stations would eat up PCI slots like they're nothing.

http://www.web-tronics.com/8reland8isin.html

At least it gives me a better idea about what to look at.

Interfacing with those API's in AutoIT souldn't be a problem right?

Thanks,

Kenny

 "I believe that when we leave a place, part of it goes with us and part of us remains... Go anywhere, when it is quiet, and just listen.. After a while, you will hear the echoes of all our conversations, every thought and word we've exchanged.... Long after we are gone our voices will linger in these walls for as long as this place remains."

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like that avatar BTW :D

 "I believe that when we leave a place, part of it goes with us and part of us remains... Go anywhere, when it is quiet, and just listen.. After a while, you will hear the echoes of all our conversations, every thought and word we've exchanged.... Long after we are gone our voices will linger in these walls for as long as this place remains."

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You CAN set a parallel port to act as 8 digital inputs and 8 digital outputs, though you have to be careful to not damage the computer.

I've used microcontrollers to do I/O stuff. You could teather it to a PC to pass along data. I thing I had ~24 digital I/O ports to work with. Involves a lot of coding.

In both cases if the circuit you want to monitor is 120/240V AC you're going to need additional circuitry to safely feed the signal to your computer.

Have you looked to see if there's any X10 modules that can do what you want? This sort of thing maybe? http://www.james.lipsit.com/tvsensor.htm

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Well I figured it out thanks to you guys.

All I need are bunch of AC relays, a 5V transformer and this board.

http://www.phidgets.com/products.php?categ...product_id=1012

Whenever the 110V energizes the coil in the relay 5V will be sent to the board.

The phidgets API looks pretty easy to work with. I think even I can figure it out on my own lol :D

Kenny

 "I believe that when we leave a place, part of it goes with us and part of us remains... Go anywhere, when it is quiet, and just listen.. After a while, you will hear the echoes of all our conversations, every thought and word we've exchanged.... Long after we are gone our voices will linger in these walls for as long as this place remains."

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