Disclosure: I work for this company:
www.makingthings.com
USB to wide range of digital and analog inputs and outputs. High current
outputs can directly drive solenoid valves. (You don't need to, but you
can use the inputs for things like limit switches, various sensors e.g. temperature, pressure, position, etc.)
Simple SDK runs on Linux (of course). I use it for my personal projects with gentoo. Uses the FTDI driver which is in the Linux kernel. You can download and play with the SDK right away (although of course you won't be controlling anything real until you buy some hardware). Sample applications. All software is free and downloadable by anyone.
Hardware is very reasonably priced, in my opinion and in what we hear from customers and would-be customers. It's based on a modular network, so you can add more inputs and outputs if your needs grow. The first module you buy has the USB port, $189 for 4 analog inputs, 2 digital inputs, 2 digital outputs, and 2 PWM outputs.
We do have a mailing list for users and would-be users, see link from our website.
Best of all, perhaps, I'm on this list, so you have the ear of one of the engineers there :-)
I'm happy to answer questions either on-list (if there is enough interest to make it on-topic) or off-list.
Michael
On Thu, 5 May 2005, Erik wrote:
Hello, I have an idea to control a hydraulic system with software. Now I would like some suggestions for hardware and software. Sorry for my bad english, but I barely know what these things mean in swedish yet. I have never done anything like this before.
This is what I have: A device that can be moved up and down with a lever that affects a hydraulic valve. There is a marker on the moving device. This marker moves along a fixed scale, so that the height of the device can be read. The lever can be pulled in 2 directions, to move the device up and down respectively. I often have to adjust the device to certain heights. That is a tedious task, because the scale is not so easy to read, and it is not easy to get good precision with the lever.
What I want: I want to set the height numerically and have a program that adjusts the device to that height. All equipment that is attached to the device must resist vibrations, and preferrably also dust, sunlight and rain. The precision should be 1 mm and the measurement range something like 0 m to 1 m
My idea: A sensor that senses the height, a computer controlled hydraulic valve and a program. I have found a sensor at http://www.parallax.com/dl/docs/prod/acc/PingDocs.pdf and I think I can do the necessary programming. I would like to connect this to a laptop with Gentoo, which has USB, IEEE1394, pccard and ethernet available. The cable may have to be 10 m long to keep the laptop away from the unfriendly environment.
If you have done anything like this before, or know where I can find more information or know about some more specialized mailing list, I would appreciate your suggestions. -- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
-- gentoo-user@gentoo.org mailing list
