Hello Everyone,
I'm working on a little project at the moment that I'm a little stuck with....
Me and a friend are working on creating a Point-Of-Sale software for selling confectionary.
My friend is doing all of the software (C#) and my only input to this is interfacing the software to a cash draw (I'm not involved with the software so this post is only about the interfacing electronics).
Inside the cash draw is a 24v Solenoid latch along with a microswitch to detect whether the draw is open/closed. I have already sorted out a system for supplying a 24v supply to the solenoid, but this is where my problems begin.....
The PC that we shall be using certainly doesn't have the old style parallel port so I will need to rely on a serial DB9 port or USB.
Money is at an absolute premium hence, why I haven't bought some kind of off the shelf USB interface, as these are generally more complex than we actually need, therefore not worth the price.
My issue, is I need to create a system, that allows the following:
An output that can be used to trigger either a relay or FET for the 24v Solenoid and an input that can be used to tell the software if the draw is open/closed (from the Microswitch).
One Thing I did think about was a usb to parallel port adapter, but I wasn't sure if this would work! If so I think I know who to interface with that (and remebering the 74HC07 non-inverting buffer, or an IC along those lines).
Although I said I am not involved with the C# programming I do need to consider how it could be programmed...
Any help is always appreciated.
Owen.
I'm working on a little project at the moment that I'm a little stuck with....
Me and a friend are working on creating a Point-Of-Sale software for selling confectionary.
My friend is doing all of the software (C#) and my only input to this is interfacing the software to a cash draw (I'm not involved with the software so this post is only about the interfacing electronics).
Inside the cash draw is a 24v Solenoid latch along with a microswitch to detect whether the draw is open/closed. I have already sorted out a system for supplying a 24v supply to the solenoid, but this is where my problems begin.....
The PC that we shall be using certainly doesn't have the old style parallel port so I will need to rely on a serial DB9 port or USB.
Money is at an absolute premium hence, why I haven't bought some kind of off the shelf USB interface, as these are generally more complex than we actually need, therefore not worth the price.
My issue, is I need to create a system, that allows the following:
An output that can be used to trigger either a relay or FET for the 24v Solenoid and an input that can be used to tell the software if the draw is open/closed (from the Microswitch).
One Thing I did think about was a usb to parallel port adapter, but I wasn't sure if this would work! If so I think I know who to interface with that (and remebering the 74HC07 non-inverting buffer, or an IC along those lines).
Although I said I am not involved with the C# programming I do need to consider how it could be programmed...
Any help is always appreciated.
Owen.
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