DIYEFI.org Forum

I wasn't too sure how to word the subject but pretty much what i want to do is controll some lighting circuits in my house via my pc, some with timers and just generally have a play with controlling the lights.

I have found this http://www.oceancontrols.com.au/control ... usb_io.htm which i thought was quite cool.

Is there something out there that is reasonably priced? I'm an apprenttice electrician so i would like to keep costs down as much as possible.

Thanks,
Simon

I don't have much to offer you really, except that you can get USB > IO adaptors for fairly cheap. I'm not sure how you program them though. Try this :

http://www.sparkfun.com

It has a lot of interesting electronic toys.

The DSE/Jaycar equivalent here called maplin has some USB > IO devices, but being here they aren't all that cheap.

Hope that helps,

Fred.

If you are not averse to assembling a circuit board - then DIY is the best and cheapest way to go - It is very easy to control 8-12 relays with a parallel port - Be advised you cannot access the ports directly in windows 2k and later -

http://www.rentron.com/pc-relay.htm
http://home.comcast.net/~msargent26/gho ... w%20To.htm
http://www.electronics-lab.com/projects ... index.html
http://www.midondesign.com/RELAY05/RELAY05.html
http://www.electronickits.com/kit/compl ... ck1601.htm
http://store.qkits.com/moreinfo.cfm/QK74A

If you go USB the costs go up as the complexity goes up -
http://www.phidgets.com/products.php?product_id=1017

Fantastic, just what i needed to know.

Unfortunately my computer does not have a parallel port on the back of the case, i only bought it 4 months ago. Would new comps still have parallel ports?

Some do, some don't. Mines not new anymore, but 2 years old now. It has one. Doesn't help much if you can't control the pins directly anymore though anyway...

Fred wrote:Doesn't help much if you can't control the pins directly anymore though anyway...

Where there's a will - there's a way - but its not quite "safe" though ....
http://www.beyondlogic.org/porttalk/porttalk.htm
http://www.writelog.com/support/lpt_por ... ows_nt.htm

There is also some MS recommended ways for accessing the ports - but they are more of a pain and force you to use printer lingo to control the parallel port....

to OP:

if you feel adventurous, why not get into simple microcontrollers (PIC, Atmel, freescale...), get a dev board with proto area (for relays and extra circuitry needed) and hook it up to the PC through Serial port or USB if available. This is of course the long way to solve your 'problem at hand' but is very flexible and useful for future similar projects.
There is A LOT of free support on that stuff online now-a-days. Just need some time and persistence.
check ebay, there are some interesting micro/relay-boards from some seller in Bulgaria

Hey, that controller is pretty fancy.

When I build my new house I do want to implement something like full house control, but I'm not sure that I/O is the solution for that.

I'd want the room controls to be interlinked with the electronic system. So, for example, you can turn lights off and on from both the computer and from the switch. Regardless of which position either is in to start with.

THe easiest way to do this sort of thing is via the X10 equipement.

A wall switch like this:
http://www.x10.com/automation/x10_ws467.htm

along with the basic computer interface here:
http://www.x10.com/automation/firecracker.htm

Gets you some basic control that actually works pretty well in my experience. Of course if you're not in the states, I'm not sure what equivalent exists.