I am new in Electronics and I need to build a project that will control a branch circuit of a building or house using a computer and can be control in the internet. The objective of my project is to create a web-based circuit controller for a building or house. Example is to control the lighting circuit of my house through the internet. Can you give me some advice on how to create the circuit that i can connect to the parallel port of my pc or can you give me the circuit if you have . Thank you in advance and God bless

 

I believe several companies make controllers that can be used to turn lights on and off. X10 comes to mind.

To have a control function via the internet, you will have to have a computer at home connected to the internet. Passing instructions through it to control lighting should be fairly simple. The X10 controller uses the serial port for the function.

The X10 controller uses RF as the link to the individual stations. Using the parallel port might imply running wires throughout the house to individual relays. This could be a bit of a challenge, especially is installing in a pre-existing home.

Possibly you could expand on your idea of how you wish the lighting control to work.

 

yes i have read about x10 but we need to create are own device to be interface to the pc and create a web base software that will drive that device to control different things like motor, etc. I proposed to control the lighting circuit and my prof agreed that lighting system is what i should control using the device and the software. My plan is to create a program that can pre set the time of which the circuit is enable to use and like a switch i can control the lighting whenever i want through the internet. My problem is that i cannot decide on what circuit i will use for the device controller. I need a safe device that will protect the branch circuit and especially my pc because of the high current that is passing to the branch. Thanks for the reply i'll be waiting for other idea about my problem. God Bless

 

The electronic circuit to use a parallel port data pin to drive a relay is fairly simple. However sending data to the parallel port is likely to be the most difficult part of your project. Try searching for inpout32.dll which is designed to allow Visual Basic or Visual C++ to access the parallel port, however there are problems using it with windows vista.

There is info about it at

http://logix4u.net/Parallel_Port/How_Inpout32.dll_works_.html

Steve.

 

The electronic circuit to use a parallel port data pin to drive a relay is fairly simple. However sending data to the parallel port is likely to be the most difficult part of your project. Try searching for inpout32.dll which is designed to allow Visual Basic or Visual C++ to access the parallel port, however there are problems using it with windows vista.

There is info about it at

http://logix4u.net/Parallel_Port/How_Inpout32.dll_works_.html

Steve.

Thanks for the reply sir, so you mean i can use the circuits given in some site about parallel port to drive a relay? can i use this even in higher current? Is it safe for my pc and the driver circuit? Sorry for the question i'm new in electronics . God Bless

 

Googling "parallel port projects" brings up 1,910,000 hits. The site here - http://www.electronickits.com/kit/complete/elec/ck1601.htm - sells relay kits for the parallel port,