anyone interested in a simple project?

[DanielFl]

hello.

I have no electronic skills at all but looking for some simple solution to my problem and stumbled upon this forum as I think I need a custom made electronic part since I was not able to shop what I am looking for.

basically I need i simple circuit, 1DVI in, 1DVI out, 1power plug in (DC+12V) same plug out, inbetween I need a switch that will turn DVI or power plug on or off. That switch needs to be programmed by RS232 or USB, whichever is cheaper and simpler in control (I will have a simple .NET application that will send a signal with action, example "DVI-on" (DVI signal is passed through DVI in/out), some time later I am sending "DVI-off" (DVI signal is not passed through DVI in/out anymore). The same I need for power plug. This should be simple.

There is, however one extra step that may take some additional work: I need to be able to "tell" that unit when to switch the DC power back on, for example "power-on-0800am".
This probably needs some extra battery (or can be run from that DC power plug that I will control), and some kind of a timer with clock that will watch passing time and switch it ON when the time come.

please let me know how possible/impossible this is to acheive, and what kind of time and budget am I looking at here.

Some additional resources/ideas appreciated.
Thank you.

 

[Dick Cappels]

A clearer explanation of what you want to do might help people give you an idea of what it would take.

Can you make a sketch?

When you refer to "1DVI", do you mean one DVI video connector?

Please explain a little more clearly what you mean by turning the DVI on or off (stop the video from coming out?).

With a high enough volume, USB could cost the same as RS-232. One-off lab project, or a million for the consumer market?

Does this thing get its power from the +12V?

Any detail you can add will really help.

 

[ronsimpson]

A DVI cable is a little complicated. The digital is 160mhz and you need to be very careful with those wire.
Do you want the ‘analog’ signals to work? There are wires for ‘VGA’ video. Do you just want the digital video to work?

You could power this device from the 5 volts in the DVI connector.

RS232 is cheaper but many new computers do not have RS232.

How many of these do you need? One?

 

[DanielFl]

thank you for your replies. I am sorry if my explanation did not sound clear.

All I honestly need is a simple piece of hardware that can let me control VGA/DVI display and power plug being ON or OFF over RS232/USB.

it can be VGA connection, does not have to be DVI (right now) since our barebone PC has both DVI and VGA connection and both give good quality of display.

I need to be able to switch the display off if I need to do some mantenance on this PC through remote desktop connection but the same time I do not want to have this display running that other people will see whats I am doing on it, since the PC and display will be on a remote localisation.

As of the power, the barebone PC does not have options to turn it off automatically and further does not have an option to turn it on. The unit is powered by 12V jack and if I cut this off before it gets to the PC box, PC goes down, but the same time, this piece of hardware needs to have built in some kind of a clock if I ask it to "wake up" (turn the power back) at 8 in the morning, it should do that (this information will be sent from the PC when it is alive, so there is no need for any extra layer how to deliver signal if the PC is turned off). The unit has a regular switch like a light switch on/off it cant be switch off/on automaticaly its has to be flipped thats why I think I need some piece of hardware as a power cutter here.

This is a small project - I need one or couple units up front, but the idea is it will grow and we will need more and more of those units. I am very flexible and we can come up with something in the future like you can keep the "blueprint" and if more units are needed I can come back to you and pay some kind of extra "royalities".

please let me know my options.

 

[DanielFl]

here is some idea for VGA part: PC/HD Switcher 4 input : 1 output w/RS232
only that I need 1 input and two outputs: one connected to the display and second one blind (so it does not go anywhere and simply turn off the display).

 

[mneary]

I need to be able to switch the display off if I need to do some mantenance on this PC through remote desktop connection but the same time I do not want to have this display running that other people will see whats I am doing on it, since the PC and display will be on a remote localisation.

Why do you need to disconnect the video? Can't you just turn the monitor off by cutting its power supply? When the monitor is off, nobody can see it, can they?

 

[DanielFl]

technically, I could but that would require to built an electronic circuit that deals with 110V; my understanding is more complicated than with electricity that goes through VGA/12V DC jack.

however, if you can point me out to the power surge that I can separately control its power plugs with ON/OFF states through a RS232/USB, and set timer to turn the power ON back at certain time X hours later, I would highly appreciate it!!

 

[DanielFl]

ok, so far I got to this: Black Box Network Services - Product Detail
other than the fact I dont need 10 outlets rather 2 and that company is located in Denmark, I would be fine with such a product

 

[mneary]

I am confused. You use the expression "VGA/12V DC jack". I've assumed that you mean there's a jack on the computer which supplies VGA and 12VDC (to the monitor?)

Why do you need to be switching 110V if the monitor has a 12V input?

 

[mneary]

I just looked into the MSDN, and there's an article for doing this in VB; I assume you can adapt it for any of the Visual Studio products. Search "Power ON/OFF Screen Programatically".

Of course if you aren't using Windows, this isn't so helpful.