Interfacing a Bread Board to a Computer

[Kwaj]

I was hoping to teach a 12 year old some basics of programming and computer
interfacing. Is there a basic board out there that lets me hook up a pc to a
circuit/bread board?

 

[quietguy]

Might be worthwhile having a look at these sites

For programming
http://www.freeprogrammingresources.com/

Interfacing with a PC
http://schforfree.seedhost.com/archive/?path=Computer%2FCircuits_using_a_PC

David

Kwaj wrote:

I was hoping to teach a 12 year old some basics of programming and computer
interfacing. Is there a basic board out there that lets me hook up a pc to a
circuit/bread board?

 

[dmm]

On Fri, 11 Feb 2005 22:00:30 +1100, "Kwaj" <k.oteng@REMOVENOSPAMstudent.unsw.edu.au> wrote:

I was hoping to teach a 12 year old some basics of programming and computer
interfacing. Is there a basic board out there that lets me hook up a pc to a
circuit/bread board?

Altronics (http://www.altronics.com.au) have a couple of kits.
An I/O adapter kit for PCs which connects to a serial port . K-2850 @ $59.00
Input buffer and relay driver kit for connecting to the I/O adapter kit . K-2852 @ $34.95
PC stepper motor controller kit that connects to the parallel port K-2835 @ $32.50


The book "Controlling Your World With Your PC" by Paul Bergsman
ISBN 1 878707 15 9 tells how to connect and control various things using the
printer/parallel port.
Some of the items are
7 segment LED displays
LCD display
relays
speech output from a parallel port
audio tones
controlling a DAC
Controlling 5 and 6 wire stepping motors
controlling DC servo motors
pulse-width modulation

and much more.

 

[Gregory Toomey]

Kwaj wrote:

I was hoping to teach a 12 year old some basics of programming and
computer interfacing. Is there a basic board out there that lets me hook
up a pc to a circuit/bread board?

Heres a project that interfaces a few readily available IO modules:
http://www.lemis.com/grog/brewing/temperature-control.html

gtoomey

 

[Dingo]

Sometimes it can be a lot easier to just have a microcontroller on the
breadboard and send it commands via rs232 and have the microcontroller
change the state of its pins based on what the PC sends over the rs232
interface.

Check out the PICAXE range of educational microcontrollers.
www.picacxe.co.uk

Ausralian supplier
http://www.microzed.com.au/




"Kwaj" <k.oteng@REMOVENOSPAMstudent.unsw.edu.au> wrote in message
news:420c9050$0$25095$5a62ac22@per-qv1-newsreader-01.iinet.net.au...

I was hoping to teach a 12 year old some basics of programming and
computer
interfacing. Is there a basic board out there that lets me hook up a pc to
a
circuit/bread board?

 

[manuka]

I was hoping to teach a 12 year old some basics of programming and
computer
interfacing. Is there a basic board out there that lets me hook up a pc to
a
circuit/bread board?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Picaxe microcontrollers have been a down under sensation - refer
the huge takeup in the Oz. "Silicon Chip" monthly mags. Not only are
they easy to use, BUT they're cheap (~$5!) & extremely versatile. Your
12 year old would be like a kid in a toy shop. See my own modest
contribution => www.picaxe.orcon.net.nz