Looking at usb relays to switch a hard to access device on and off from a windows computer.
I don't want a complicated interface. I found this
https://info.kmtronic.com/control-kmtronic-relays-via-bat-files.html
And I liked that I could just have a desktop shortcut that runs a batch file.
I'm wondering if anyone has tried this exe file on non kmtronic boards. I'm not familiar with the method they use to control the relays, and if it's something proprietary or if the commands are universal to USB.
Or if anyone knows of a similar inexpensive arrangement that would allow me to control relays via USB simply.

 

Although it's a USB connection it actually simulates a virtual serial COM port. I have not looked at the documentation but I imagine that you can simply send serial strings to this device via the COM port. So you could control the relays with a batch file, a simple C, .Net, or Python program or even using a terminal (puTTY or similar). Easy to have a desktop shortcut that runs any of those. The format of the strings will be shown in the documentation.

Remember that a USB link can only be quite short - a few metres max.

 

Thanks. Are all of the usb relay boards capable of being controlled by batch files?
The computer is next to the device so distance is not an issue.

 

I'm concerned that some of these relay boards mention that the relays will toggle on boot up. This is undesirable. Is there a better way to accomplish controlling 2 devices from a simple windows interface such as a batch file or windows shortcut? I see gpio mentioned, but I'm not familiar with it. Would this do what I desire without the boot up issues?