Control device (Air Conditioner) from PC ..

L

Thread Starter

Liung012

Hi, May you tell me what should I do to control a device (Air Conditional/AC) from PC ?? the control means is just turn it on/off..
I have an old AC that has not remote control and I want to turn it on and off at certain time.
I'm using VB, I wanna make an application to schedule to control the AC.
What hardware should I have ?
Relay ? how to make a relay ? where can I find the references about relay and anything about control device from PC ?
Thanks for your attention..
Hopefully all of you can help me..

Regards


Liung012
 
M
> Liung012

You can try sending a logic signal to a infared xmitr, the rcvr would them drive a suitable solid state relay to turn the ac on and off at the programmed times.

Matt Hyatt
 
Thank for your reply Mr. Matt Hyatt,

I think my AC has not infra reciever. It's an Old AC without the remote. I heard that I can control it via relay connected to my pararel or serial port, that can trigs the signal to on/off. May you or any else tell me how to build a relay for this case?

Thanks...

Liung012
 
C

Curt Wuollet

X10 stuff works well for this and is inexpensive.
Google X10 and I'm sure you'll find what you need.
The last setup I used was an RF link from the PC to
a plugin unit which did the line carrier control.
I don't think the whole thing was more than $ 40
with a hand remote thrown in.

I wouldn't use this for life-safety, but for non
critical stuff it should be fine.

Regards

cww
 
Hai... Hey sorry I am not going to provide u with an answer but it's rather a question which I too had in mind of controlling motors. Do u know a software named Labview? u could try with it rather than VB.

Bye...
 
E

Emery Premeaux

Yes, either the serial or parallel port can easily be used for this situation.. I would recomend the parallel port, as it would require the least amount of hardware. Why decode serial for 1 bit state, when the parallel port already does this? ;)

lets see if I can draw this:





Warning... if your computer explodes it's not my fault:

first you need a good relay to operate the ac unit... I would highly recomend a contactor (industrial version of a relay) as your direct link to the ac unit, and a smaller relay to drive th contactor, and a transistor to drive the relay.
 
M
The idea is to use the serial port to talk to a IR device (you can build up a basic 1 and 0) type unit from a radio shack prto-kit, then usea IR rcvr to decode the 1 and 0 states, the rcvr circuit then will turn on a solid state relay to activate the AC power. Better yet, get a programmable timer relay and have it switch the power on and off as desired.

Matt Hyatt
 
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