Newsgroup: it.comp.hardware
Titolo: PC controlling home electrics, eg lighting, etc...

Hello!
I'm a computer programmer and I'm fairly confident with electronics and home
electrics.  After watching parts of TV Programs of houses that have
automated lighting etc... controlled from PCs, I am inspired to link my PC
to my home lighting.  I want to build my own system, rather than buying an
over priced package from an electronics shop.
What I want to know is...
1) I have never programmed the ports on my PC before.  I am assuming I can
control my PC ports using C, QBASIC or Visual BASIC (Preferably Visual
BASIC)??
2) What can I program my ports to do??? Sending On/Off signals?
3) Can anyone recommend a website or book explaining how to use these??
(Using Layman's terms!)
4) What hardware will I need???  Where can I buy this from??
ANY help would be appreciated!!  A simple pointing in the right direction
would be good!
Many Thanks,
Richard Lloyd
ric...@brwebsites.com
(Worthing, England (UK) )

Ive seen the shows too-and Ive seen other shows where they have complaints about
the systems not working-boob villa and the california house and one of the rich
silicon valley guys both have problems with the ones they installed


 some stuff about home automation.  There is a lot of info out there on this subject; check for "X10" or "X-10"; I've also run into a few online mags on the subject, but don't remember offhand how to get back--ain't search engines swell.
-- 
			Take care,
			Les

 4) What hardware will I need???  Where can I buy this from??
I'm taking a guess at some sort of control interface. What type I don't
know. Sorry.
Hope that helps.

 


 wanna do is possible.
Hello all,
  I Didn't see the original post, so please excuse me if this has been
mentioned.  Get a copy of the book "Controlling the world with your PC"
(Amazon has it).  It is a decent basic introduction with circuits and
control software source code in Pascal, QBasic and C.  If you go to Amazon
and search for it, there are some other suggestions on the page you might be
interested in, depending on your skill level.
Enjoy,
  Bennie

Most of the home automation stuff on the web and usenet is biased
towards X-10, maybe because X-10 stuff is so cheap in the US that you
would probably not want to bother going the DIY route.  Of course here
in the UK it is a different matter :-( 
You could do worse than have a look at
http://www.infinet.com/~dhoehnen/ha/list.html
It has loads of potentially useful looking links.  A lot of stuff is
biased towards X-10, but there is some DIY information.
comp.home.automation is another good source of info, but it is mainly
X-10.
For the UK perspective try 
http://www.ukha.demon.co.uk
  Again this is
mainly X-10.
Hope this helps
Tim 
-- 
Tim Dawe
Cardiff, Wales, UK
to reply by email remove "hormel" from address

 would be good!
For translation, visit:
http://babelfish.altavista.digital.com/cgi-bin/translate
Para controlar a luz, liquidificador, ar-condicionado, etc, você pode
usar a porta pararela (8bits, ou seja, oito objetos). Ou você pode
construir uma placa de 16 bits e usá-la no slot ISA.
Construí umas placas destas para mim.
Qualquer maior informação sobre ela, me envie um e-mail e poderemos
conversar sobre como enviá-las para você.
--
www.redeweb.com.br
Sent via Deja.com 
http://www.deja.com/
Share what you know. Learn what you don't.

Richy,
Try 
smarthome.com
 - they are a catalog company
that carries all sorts of home automation items
(mostly X-10).  You also might want to try
gohomesystems.com
, which is the home site for a
trade magazine for professional home automation
installation companies.
                              Lloyd S.
