What about power antenna?

**QuiescentWonder** · 06-24-2007, 10:19 PM

Sorry if I've missed it, I did a search but there is sooo much information to look through (100s of pages worth). Is there any way this can interface with a power antenna? Maybe through software have the radio turn off and on? Does this have this sort of functionality? If not, is there any other hardware/software combo so that when I turn the radio functionality on in the PC (using this tuner) that it will use other hardware to up/down the antenna?

Also, I'm assuming that there is a RR plugin for this board? If there is different hardware to work with a power antenna, does it have a RR plugin?

EDIT: I'm talking about for the HQCT. Also, I think a solution for the power antenna would be this USB relay board: http://www.trossenrobotics.com/store...Kit-0-0-4.aspx

I'm not sure if there is a RR plugin for that also though, if not, I know nothing about building RR plugins, but I have some very basic VB6 knowledge. Does anyone have any info on this?

**stonestatue** · 06-27-2007, 03:28 AM

Yes there is. I can't tell you much about RR plug ins, but there is a way to do it. It is possible to do things like have the antenna go up when you press one button on the PC and go down when you press another. There are multiple ways to achieve this, but the one that sticks out in my mind is through inputs in the PC's parallel or serial port.

It's important to keep in mind the concept of the antenna. You might already know about it, but I'll mention it anyways to provide the foundation of how it will interface with the computer. A power antenna has a motor that has two wires, positive and negative. You connect the wires to a 12 volt source and it will spin. Reverse the connections and it will spin the opposite direction.

Now we get to the computer. Connect the wires to a relay. The relay will get a signal from the pins on the parallel or serial port on your computer. The relay will then apply voltage to the antenna motor, thereby spinning it. The pins on the computer's serial or parallel port will send voltage to the relay from a program on the computer, or through the registry after you hack it. The program tell the serial or parallel pins to send a signal (voltage) to the relay based on actions you perform. This might be pressing a button on a touch screen, which is essentially a mouse click. The button could be one designed for bringing out the antenna or lowering it.

This is a somewhat simplified explanation of the concept behind the interaction of computers and car accessories through serial and parallel ports, but it's not by any means a comprehensive one. I suggest you search for other threads involving using serial and parallel pins to control car accessories. This will at least point you in the right direction.

**stonestatue** · 06-27-2007, 03:31 AM

By the way, you might be wondering why a relay is necessary, instead of sending the signal directly from the pins to the motor? Well the voltage coming out of pins like that are too low to power the motor. The motherboard would risk burning up from the power the motor consumes. The relay acts as an intermediary, or a link if you will. The relay gets the signal, and applies the voltage to the motor. You could call it a pseudo step up transformer.

**Putput** · 06-27-2007, 04:00 AM

The next release of CPCTuner (= compatible with RR) has an option for switching on/off a signal in a serial port of your choice. Delorean Dave has tested a beta version, you can read his comments here, perhaps you can ask Dave how he did the interfacing. I'm doing my best to get this version out but the HQCT_eA compatibility was a lot more then I expected it to be, and my personal live is also consuming more time the last few weeks because of me changing jobs and working in and arround the house. Perhaps I can release a beta without eA support to the public.

Regards,
Putput