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Main Page +Info Section +Repair Section +Custom Controls Section <-- Selected! +Programs Section +Links Section |
-Custom Controls Section -+Stand Alone Flasher Controls --[Computer Controls] -+More Power Handling Addons --Boxes For Circuits --Non-Xmas Lights For Christmas |
| Part 1 - Software |
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There are some commercial and freeware programs available for controlling lights. In the future I will list some of the freeware programs here: [if you made a freeware control program, let me know and it will be listed here] If you want to make your own program, you can use a number of programming languages; in any case, you need to use your language's output control command. this section gives a very brief overview of using the output command in a few common languages...it does not tell you how to program the whole thing (it's assumed that you know the basics of whatever language you choose to use. To send something to the port: in 'C' the command would be: outb(value, address); in 'Basic' the command would be: OUT(value, address) If you are using 'Visual Basic (VB)', it will not directly support the 'OUT' command, you will need to get an add on or DLL to use it... ...In my case I used 'Inpout16' by Jan Axelson (will post a URL later when I find one). That one is for 16bit (windows 3.1) apps, and it worked great!. The syntax for VB with Inpout is: 'Out value, address'... in all above cases 'address' is the actual hex address of the printer port (usually 378). and 'value' is the decimal value that controls the lights... 0 = all off 1 = ch 0 on 2 = ch 1 on 4 = ch 2 on 8 = ch 3 on 16 = ch 4 on 32 = ch 5 on 64 = ch 6 on 128 = ch 7 on 255 = all on below is some examples of how to turn all channels on using the standard port address: VB (with Inpout16): OUT 255, &h378 standard Basic: OUT (255, 378h) standard C: outb(255, 378h) [Visual C, and C++ may use something different; consult the the documtation or help that came with your language |
| Part 2 - Hardware | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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DISCLAIMER: USE THE FOLLOWING INFO AT YOUR OWN RISK. I CAN NOT BE HELD RESPONSIBLE FOR ANYTHING THAT HAPPENS AS A RESULT OF USING THIS INFO IF YOU DO NOT AGREE, LEAVE NOW As with software to tell the computer what to do, you need hardware to convert the computer's signals to 'lights on' or 'lights off'... You can buy or build various parts of the control circuit. This section will cover briefly how to make your own control circuit: WARNING: If this is not done right you could do any one or all of the following: * CAUSE PROBLEMS WITH THE POWER IN YOUR HOUSE * DESTROY YOUR COMPUTER AND EVERY DEVICE ATTACHED TO IT * DESTROY ALL LIGHTS CONNECTED TO THE CONTROL * SHOCK (OR EVEN KILL) YOURSELF * CAUSE A FIRE * THERE MAY BE OTHER DANGERS NOT LISTED HERE To reduce the risk of any of the above happening, * Always have someone double check your work * NEVER do anything to the circuit while its plugged in * Do not overload * Never use your main computer for controlling lights * Do not attempt to build a circuit if you do not know about electronics * Follow all directions that came with your Christmas lights * Do not try to control fluorescent lights (unless it is one that is designed to be flashed) * Do not try to control motors with this circuit * Make sure that NO DEVICES (such as printers, tape drives, etc.) are CONNECTED to the parallel port (and this includes devices that have a 'pass-through' type connection)! The only thing that should be connected is a light control circuit. Connecting anything other than a light control circuit will have an unknown result, and may seriously damage or destroy the device and computer. * Make sure the control circuit NEVER GETS WET... * See additional notes at the bottom of this section The part that makes this circuit possible is called an opto-isolator; it's basically a chip that contains a LED, and a PhotoSensor. This allows the computer's low voltage to control standard 120 volt devices with very little risk, because the two are completely isolated from each other. Basically it works like this: the computer lights the LED and the light from it activates the Photo Sensor...along with a few other parts you are basically making a solid state relay [Schematic] 
[parts list]R1 - R8: 180 R9 - R16: 330 IC1 - IC8: MOC3020 D1 - D8: Triac, 4a 200v sockets for IC's heatsinks for Triacs [Info] 'outputs' is where the lights attach nunbers with a 'p' before them are the pins on the printerport that they go to. [triac]  [Pin-Out For Printer Port]
Pins 2 through 9 are the outputs used for controlling lights. Pins 18 through 25 are grounds, any of them can be used to connect to. The rest of the pins are not used for light control. [control boxes] this is really up to you on how to build this... you can put all 8 channels in one box or split them between seperate boxes. what i did is make 2 boxes with 4 channels each & a adapter box (shown below): use a standard 25pin cable to connect the computer to the adapter box, and then cat5 network cables to go to 2 control boxes. 
 [parts for this example] (1) 25 pin connector (DB-25) (4) cat5 jacks (1) std 25 pin cable (not a printer cable) (2) cat5 cables Additional Notes:
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