If you only need audio, I remember using a freeware windows program
that could be set to do an audio recording to the hard drive on the
pc at a specific time for a specific period. I think it could repeat
this daily, even. Don't recall the name - maybe many of them have this feature.
Also, for a true hardware system, many years ago I used my own DOS
program to output to a serial port RTS or DTR line and used that to
energize an AC solid state relay to power up a 120VAC device every
afternoon M-F. You could probably do that these days also with a
BASIC program, but might need a special serial port driver to get
past windows' "protection" (parallel port should work just as well,
with a special driver). The solid state relay hardware was only the
relay plus one 1k resistor, IIRC.
I remember seeing several circuits on the internet to provide a
control system using the PC parallel port. GOOGLE is your friend -
for these circuits as well as BASIC.
Jerry W4UK
At 18:40 1/24/2009, BILL GUYGER wrote:
Hi All
This is totally off topic, but I need to ask if any of you heavy
duty software guys out there know if there is a program that will
run on a windows PC, it could even be a dos application, that is
basically a scheduling program. I need to be able to on some given
day at some given time 24-7 execute a closure. I need to be able to
record satellite programs into another PC for later replay without
spending a lot of money for a real automation system. Such is the
fate of broadcast radio today................
As I envision it, the PC would output a word on the parallel port
that could be decoded to close a relay or turn on an open collector
transistor.
The program will need to be flexible enough that the same event
could be scheduled every day, or a one day a week event could be
executed. The GUI should be "friendly" enough that events could be
entered on the fly. I probably won't need a load of possible events,
since a lot of them will be cyclical, but I suppose if 8 lines are
available on the parallel port 256 would be the upper limit which
would be more than enough (+/- 3 dB).
Many thanks! Please reply off list. Now I'm going to go play with my 5000.
Bill AD5OL
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