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Interface Strobe Light with PC.. any thoughts??
JK99:
Hey guys.
I recently built a strobe light from one of those electronic store kits to use with the video/mp3 jukebox side of my cabinet.
I'm wondering if anyone has any thoughts on how I could interface it with a PC and custom write software to control when the strobe is turned on and off.
The jukebox software I use is written in VB.
I was thinking more along the lines of making something that will 'flick' on the power to the strobe when there is a trigger received from the PC. Say via the COM port.
Any help, suggestions, thoughts.. would be very much appreciated.
Cheers guys.
JK
BobA:
The serial port takes a bit of electronics to decode an output bit stream. On the other hand the parallel port needs a minimal amount of hardware to interface to. Here is a link to info on interfacing to the parallel port. There are many other links re parallel port interfacing if you use a search engine.
http://www.doc.ic.ac.uk/~ih/doc/par/
BobA
JK99:
Thanks mate
Nice info on the website
In particular this link
http://www.xs4all.nl/~sebdehne/pp_powerSwitch/switch.html
Would do exactly what I need.
I'd be wanting to control the on/off process using VB. Does anyone have methods of controlling the above device using VB?
Cheers
JK
Howard_Casto:
I'm working on something.... be patient :D
JK99:
Sweet. I'd be interested to see what ya come up with.
I bought all the bits and have built what I think will work. Yet to test. Still have the 240V side of things to do from the relay, that shouldn't be too hard, assuming I dont fry ---my bottom---.
I also managed to get the necessary stuff to intergrate it with the video jukebox so if all goes well people will be strobing to the doof doof.