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I want to make my computer DO stuff
Zonkytonkman
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So, i want to kinda learn how computers interact with stuff. How would you go about... say, hooking up a light bulb to a usb port and making it shine with the touch of a button? How exactly does this stff work anyway?
Zonkytonkman on
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1) Learn to program. You'll need this skill to write the applications to tell the computer how to interact with whatever you are hooking up. For something like you suggested with the light bulb you'll need a fairly strong understanding of low level programming (low level as in close to the hardware not low level as in easy and basic).
2) Learn about system architecture. This is how computers work internally, how they store data in the cpu itself, transfer data between the CPU and RAM, etc.
1 and 2 combined will teach you a lot about how stuff works on a computer and give you a starting point for doing whatever you may want to do.
Beyond this you're still going to have to learn more stuff as you think of projects... you may have to do some custom wiring of circuits, get a better understanding of how specific things work like usb, serial, ethernet, anything specific to that project, etc.
My understanding is that he is wanting to be able to just rig up any of his own stuff that he wants to be controlled by the computer. Certainly doable, I have a friend who has wired up circuits to control panels of LEDs and written apps to control their brightness. It requires a much broader array of knowledge and at a much lower (closer to the hardware) level to implement and to know where to start than X10 stuff would, though.
The problem with your example of plugging a lightbulb directly into your USB port is that USB ports arent generally designed to work using only a single pin. While I assume its possible, you would constantly be working against the normal operation of a USB port with a windows system, which generally uses all/most of the pins at once. For example the automatic hardware detection which is generally active on most windows USB systems, will be probing the port for a connection, which may result in unexpected signals, even while connected and running a program.
While I assume its possible to eliminate this behavior, it would be far smarter to do this type of project with a port that stays dormant unless you specifically activate it with some type of program. Your serial port fits this description. However, a far more appropriate method of approaching this type of project is to get some hardware designed for this sort of application. You can buy off the shelf microcontroller kits that come mounted on a PCB with on board memory and input/output ports that are more easily connected to individual wires. The kit will come with software to flash assembler or C programs into the memory of the chip, and then the chip can act as a control program for your hardware circuit.
However even once you learn to control your ports to produce the signals that you want, you will need to learn a bit about electronics to do anything useful with those signals. Turning a lightbulb on is fun for all of about 10 seconds. Actually doing something interesting with your electronic control system can require some advanced electronics knowledge.
If you are really interested in learning this stuff, my advice is to study computer engineering or electrical engineering at university. This sort of stuff is the exact purpose of the course.
Seriously, it can't be that complicated. I've got the know how to do some simple circuit stuff, and i've done a single course in c++, where do i go from here?
You've got 1 idea already and some input here on what issues you're going to run into and alternate ways of doing it to look at, so why not start reading up on those things?
Throughout the term we made a programmable clock with it (interfaced the chip to a LCD display and keypad), a ROT13 encoder that used the UART to hook up to a PC and encode letters you sent to the PIC, and for my project I made a learning remote control that let you save infrared button commands from most any remote control you have.
You have no idea how many things chips like this are used in.
Neat stuff dooder. where would i go about purchasing all necessary supplies and/or manuals?