Any way to get 5v output to drive a relay

[toolaa]

I am using a 25" Sony TV in the cab and so far I am very happy with the results.

[Chris]

Parallel port's probably your best bet... should be a ton of articles around triggering a switch through the parallel port...

Start at http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/Bill_Bowden/page6.htm .

--Chris

[toolaa]

Thanks, this looks like it will work.  Great site by the way, lots of cool stuff that I'm sure I'll need next year when my son has to do a science fair project.

[fiscap]

Also check out - http://www.epanorama.net/circuits/rspower.html

Be very careful interfacing any type of home-brew electronics with your computer - you might cause some irreparable damage to the port or even your motherboard. I would suggest using some sort of solid-state driver circuit to trigger the relay since connecting the coil directly to your PC could potentially create a situation of abnormally high current draw or inductive loading. The triggering of the coil would also create noise on the circuit which might have adverse affects on your serial/parallel ports.

[rdagger]

They make relay PCI cards that do exactly what you want.
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=11182&item=5785905634&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

[richms]

Perhaps rather then a relay, you could get one of the USB to IR transmitters that are used a lot in home automation, and just send the codes for video 1 or video 2 at the apropriate time? That would also avoid the tv getting out of sync with what the computer thinks the TV is set on if you are only working with the 1 button on the orig remote.

[toolaa]

OK, Now were cookin' with GAS....

I think USB-UIRT with Girder software is going to do the trick...

I have to ponder this a bit more, for $79 I just want to make sure it's really going to do exactly what I need. 

Anyone have any experience using Girder?