Ok, I added everybody to this new nice mailing list for better
communication. I also added smiley95 and alteest to project
members at SF. Here we go...
>----- Forwarded message from Bruno van Dooren -----
>Hi,
>thanks for your message.
>so if i understand correctly you toggle lines of the printer port low and
>high to create patterns?
>so that means that you can only address n leds where n is the number of
>writable io pins?
Yup, 8 arrays of leds for 8 data pins in the parport. With my 12V
power, I can put 3 to 5 leds in one array, but they of course
blink at the same time. Think there would be other pins that can
be written to, but data pins were easy to use, and my power source
can't handle much more than 8 arrays...
>how do you feel about the following idea: at this moment i am programming on
>embedded microprocessors. lets say that i can find a cheap microprocessor
>with a free compiler. wouldn't it be more powerful to create a printed
>circuit board (i do that too) with a microprocessor that is able to
>communicate with the serial port of a pc. then the uP could control as much
>logic as you can wire to it. you would then be able to issue series of
>commands that are not limited by the port interface.
Hmm.. yup, why not... if you are up to it :) I was personally
thinking of just a programmable interrupt controller, as printed
circuit boards probably are beyond my electronics skill level...
Even for PIC I would need to buy/build a programmer first, it's
not something I could not do, but probably it's not going to
happen anytime soon.
One advantage with programmable hardware is that you don't need
the PC to control your lights any more ;) Think about a scenario
where you run lightget out of a battery at your cabin - 3W power
for lightget and 80W power for the PC sounds kinda silly. Of
course you could use a laptop or a non-programmable controller
device with parport.
>btw
>-i assume that there is no time pressure on this project? for my job i do
>projects with sometimes very heavy deadlines, i don't want to have deadlines
>in my spare time.
Yes, I was thinking to have little pressure on this project. Open
source in general goes easy on deadlines...
PS. I think I could put up some sketchy circuit diagrams and
building notes, so everybody gets a better view at what the
hardware could be like... maybe over next weekend... I'm having a
flu at the moment, too :(
Varis
>-i am not a linux-unix guy. i work on NT/2K. i could make drivers for those
>OS's though, and i could write software for the uP, and create the print
>design
>
>regard,
> Bruno.
>
>
>----- End of forwarded message from Bruno van Dooren -----
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