Pete Smith wrote:
> I bought an Ameritron RCS-10 antenna switch at Dayton, particularly
> because of its BCD control protocol. My thought was to use the BCD band
> data output from my shack computer, running N1MM Logger, to control the
> remote relay box in parallel with the manual controller. But in order
> to do that, I will need 3 relay drivers to supply the needed current,
> and presumably, will also need a level shifter because the relays want
> 12 volts, while my LPT port is 5.
>
> Has anyone already been down this road, so I won't have to reinvent the
> wheel? Is there a way to use traditional PNP transistor source drivers,
> but with 5 volts on the base and 12 volts on the collector?
>
I had similar issues driving a RCS-8V, and finally went with the
Velleman K8056 kit that has 8 relays and drivers on it. You can hook up
the relay contacts anyway you want, and it has the ability to do
parallel, serial RS232 or TTL, and other interfaces (e.g. current
through an optoisolator)
I got tired of cobbling up something new each time, and the Velleman kit
is cheap, has a very simple schematic and undense circuit board that
lends itself to all sorts of modifications. The "serial ASCII to
parallel" function is done by a PIC, which one could easily substitute
with an differently programmed one. Leave the PIC out, and you can use
it as a parallel interface.
The only thing missing is an Ethernet interface(<grin>)...
You might also check sites like http://www.sparkfun.com/ there's tons of
sort of generic interface stuff.
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