CompuServe Thread

Until your last message I hadn't thought of the peripherals applications. I was thinking more of home control. But now that you mention it…. To finish the job, the box can switch itself, the Chipmunk and the security system to battery power if the A.C. goes off. I've been planning for a long time to modify the power jack on the 100 to do that with a little internal relay, and that change might be necessary anyway (to get the auto-transfer). Think of the security applications! The CMOS chips and relay drivers should be cheap, but the relays will add up fast. Any good sources for pc-mounted relays? The relay box will be portable, by the way. Will operate by either battery or AC-adaptor. (A big battery, of course.) I'm hoping we can find some sort of latching relays that won't need much power. But the battery should still last a long time even with a constant (low) current draw. Using a UART instead of a simple shift register would allow status feedback from the relay box, but I'd like to find a way to avoid that need. I'd be getting in over my head. I'm not even positive yet that a shift register can be used for this. Any comments? Thanks for the OUT 200,X suggestion. I had (apparent) success with OUT 192,X and INP (192). It seemed to get it in and out the door ok. But I don't know what's goin' on in there, either. I'll see what 200 does. "PORTS.100" was a life-saver, though. It lists 192 as UART data, and 208 as UART status/ command. No explanation of what's at 200 or elsewhere between the two. This is getting interesting! Thanks again for the relay box idea! Pete.