Hello,
My goal is to control the lights in my room using my PC's parallel port along with a program. The lights are currently controlled with a Lutron Maestro dimmer. The dimmer has 3 buttons/switches on it: dim, brighten, and on/off toggle. I'll be using all 3 with my PC. So, I soldered some wires onto the leads of the buttons.
When I tested the lines, I found they vary between 3V and 9V AC. I found some info online about using 2n3904 NPN transistors as control switches instead of using relays, but the tutorials were for DC switches, not AC. I wonder if the AC will damage my computer. So, I thought of using a diode to ground in order to prevent back-flow of current. Will this work? Or would I be better off just using relays? It seems like it may be simpler.
Please go easy on a newbie. I'm attaching a diagram of my circuit.
Thanx in advance!
My goal is to control the lights in my room using my PC's parallel port along with a program. The lights are currently controlled with a Lutron Maestro dimmer. The dimmer has 3 buttons/switches on it: dim, brighten, and on/off toggle. I'll be using all 3 with my PC. So, I soldered some wires onto the leads of the buttons.
When I tested the lines, I found they vary between 3V and 9V AC. I found some info online about using 2n3904 NPN transistors as control switches instead of using relays, but the tutorials were for DC switches, not AC. I wonder if the AC will damage my computer. So, I thought of using a diode to ground in order to prevent back-flow of current. Will this work? Or would I be better off just using relays? It seems like it may be simpler.
Please go easy on a newbie. I'm attaching a diagram of my circuit.
Thanx in advance!
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