[ale] APC UPS at Sams :P (1100VA for $118)

[Mike Panetta]

PC Parallel port and a bunch of latches?  If you use the parallel port in EPP mode you can address up to 256 bytes worth of IO, thats 2048 bits worth of IO.  And it can be done pretty cheaply with some simple 74 series logic and a small piece of perf board.


Otherwise, go to http://www.digilentinc.com and buy their FPGA development board for $100 (I have the one based on the Xilinx Spartan 2E chip) and write some FPGA software to turn your parallel port into an IO expander that could do almost anything you can think of.


Mike

-------Original Message-------
From: Christopher Ness <mness215 at attbi.com>
To: ale at ale.org
Sent: 05/21/03 07:19 AM
To: ale at ale.org
Subject: Re: [ale] APC UPS at Sams :P (1100VA for $118)

> 
> On Monday 19 May 2003 06:22 pm, Dow Hurst wrote:
> The APC SmartUPS has a "smartslot" or two depending on the size of the
> UPS.  You can add a module for measurement of stuff like a
> temperature/humidity sensor, plus there are contacts that will sense a
> circuit being closed or open.  

Another result of the Microsofting of America. Microsoft thinks everyone's 

needs for a computer are the same and fall into a very few categories - 
Office (word processing/spreadsheet/database/presentation), graphics,
games 
or A/V.  25 years ago the Apple ][ was better at dealing with state 
monitoring and controls. Now for device monitoring we've got X-10 and
UPS'es 
and that's it?

*ix-es are not noted for being realtime machines (with the exception of
the 
Masscomp Real-Time Unix some years ago), but if timing isn't too critical, 

Linux ought to be able to read and write to a multiport card quite easily. 
If 
you only can find one in a reasonably human price range. An Accelport
board 
is $1300 to watch/latch two bytes - 16 i/o ports! There's got to be
something 
better/cheaper. 


>
> Courtney Thomas wrote:
> > Is there any way to rig a SmartUPS to act as fire alarm ?
> >
> > What is required and who has it ?
> >

-- 
Chris Ness
mailto:cness at earthlink.net               All jobs are equally easy to
<a target=_blank
href="http://home.earthlink.net/~cness">http://home.earthlink.net/~cness</a>           the person not doing the work.
   	   	   	      	   	   	    Holt's Law


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