Thread: Relay Cards

Easy, Write a small app in vb for example and run it as an external application from within what ever frontend player you use,

within visual basic create a form and use a comm control component to allow port access say on comm 1 (9 pin serial port), and throw command strings at it to get it do what you want while having the climate control hardware connected to external hardware your design possibly D-A's etc digital to analouge converters. there are apps here on the forum i believe wizard pc has made a good app that works with a relay card readily avliable, however this will only turn things on and off, if you want to be more controlling with the climate conrolled system you'll need to i/o comms with the pc and i wouldve said either a dedicated i/o card plus heavy programming, or pic device controlling the climate control that is connected via the comms on the pc

A pic device is a small IC, it is basically a IC that can be programmed to do certain funcitons when run, it can accept data on its inputs and output data on its outputs, some people call them microprocessors.

if you have an lcd and buttons already functional with your a/c why would you want to control it via the car pc unless your really competent in programming and electronics its proberly not wise to go that way... easier way you could just wire the buttons on your a/c to a relay card via the pc and use wizardpc's app to turn them on and off but as for making settings or adjustments on the A/C controlls via the car pc its gonna be difficult, how are intending on capturing the data from the a/c lcd?

Originally Posted by DjBac

I just had an idea of moving out my A/C controls and only keep its LCD.. I could doit with a relay card but the controls are sth like push on/off buttons.. With the app you mention I cannot do it like this, or am I wrong??

Is there an AGP graphics card with 3 VGA outputs?

yes you could do it with that app i mentioned i dont see why not if the switches are latching on and off then a relay would be fine for controlling theses buttons. i was under the impression you was intending of capturing hte lcd data and feeding that into the pc so you colud have the software control that too.

if you speak to wizrd pc about this im sure he may be able to give you assistance in using hes app try this thread

Parallel Relay control for XP coming soon
http://www.mpja.com/productview.asp?product=6074+KT
hope this helps with the relay card issues

as for the vga with 3 outputs id say that would be hard to find for a cost effective solution try searching on google
heres one i found with 2 vga plus many other outputs

http://www.cyberresearch.com/store/product/1196.2.htm

why would you want 3 outputs? you intending on 3 different images or just splitting the signal 3 ways? in which case a splitter would be sufficient

Originally Posted by DjBac

I need 3 different images in case I replace my A/C controls...
One as my main LCD, another one near the dashfor the OBD software and gauges and the 3rd for the A/C..

Thanx a lot for your help!!!!

In which case your gonna need 3 car pc's then, simple as that, there are some graphic cards that will allow you to output one vga signal and one composite or svideo signal but thats purely for video playback as for having 3 different lcds showing 3 different computer generated images 3 pcs will be needed, you could always just switch between the different apps running.... and save few hundered pounds / dollars etc