RE: PIR's

["Paul Gordon" <paul_gordon@xxxxxxx>]

Alex,

Obviously, you need a way to interface the PIR's to one of the PC's input
ports. There are several ways you can aproach this:

DIY electronics, or off-the-shelf modules, and various PC ports can be
used: 
Serial, Parallel, Joystick, USB...

off-the-shelf tend to be restricted to the serial or parallel ports, mostly
serial in my experience, as parallel port interfaces are (I believe) 
restricted to 8 input lines (unless additional control lines are available
for use as inputs? I dunno)...

DIY electronics projects exist on the web to make interfaces for both those
ports, and for the joystick port as well, although the joystick port 
interfaces I am aware of only allow 4 input lines per joystick port

I believe there are a few devices starting to appear for the USB port as
well now, - ISTR a post on this list a few months ago with a link to a site
making USB interface products, but Im afraid I can't remember the link...
:-(

Serial port seems to be the major choice at the moment, this being used by
things like Comfort, Homevision, Ocelot, etc. etc.

There are many ways to achieve what you want, - it just comes down to how
much you want to spend.. :-) - do you already have any of the
abovementioned 
HA controllers? - if so, you could use any of those as input
interfaces...

If you just want a straightforward interface to connect PIR's directly to
your PC, then I'd say you can't go far wrong with a VIOM. - this has enough
inputs for your needs (it has 16 in, and 16 out), uses only a single serial
port, and also has local intelligence as a bit of a bonus, and only costs
about 50 of your english pounds.

PIR's are a simple contact closure input, and so are very easy to read.

Check out the VIOM at ww.phaedrusltd.co.uk

HTH

Paul G.


>From: "Alex Monaghan" <alex@xxxxxxx>
>Reply-To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
>To: <ukha_d@xxxxxxx>
>Subject: RE: [ukha_d] PIR's
>Date: Fri, 30 Aug 2002 16:29:30 +0100
>
>Any advise on how I can read the PIR status etc... on a PC ?
>
>

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