computoman

Vga cards are slowly being replaced by HDMI interfaces. What a lot of people do not know is that some vga cards come with a special port that allows us to attach devices known as i2c (I squared c) to the vga cards. That allows a personal computer to be attached to a host of devices from all kinds of sensors to other input devices. In fact you can connect Arduinos and other microprocessors to the vga port. Since most traditional personal computer motherboards allow the attachment of more than one vga card to the system, that allows for some interesting setups. Data is sent and received over two wires (aka serial) to make interfacing rather easy.  Temperature sensors can be interfaced to the vga ports to detect dangerous sutuations insde and outside servers or other valuable equipment. The SDA and SCL connections are the key points of interaction.   If we can connect sensor devices to the vga port, they we can go one step further and add microprocessors to control other devices....

Vga cards are slowly being replaced by HDMI interfaces. What a lot of people do not know is that some vga cards come with a special port that allows us to attach devices known as i2c (I squared c) to the vga cards. That allows a personal computer to be attached to a host of devices from all kinds of sensors to other input devices. In fact you can connect Arduinos and other microprocessors to the vga port. Since most traditional personal computer motherboards allow the attachment of more than one vga card to the system, that allows for some interesting setups. Data is sent and received over two wires (aka serial) to make interfacing rather easy.  Temperature sensors can be interfaced to the vga ports to detect dangerous sutuations insde and outside servers or other valuable equipment. The SDA and SCL connections are the key points of interaction.   If we can connect sensor devices to the vga port, they we can go one step further and add microprocessors to contro...

Old hardware can be used for doing electronics just like the Arduino, Raspberry Pi, and etc. Parallel port can be used for digital interfacing. You can use the joystick port for analog input just like the Arduino. (less accurate though). The serial port allows you to do communication.   Some vga cards even have i2c interfaces http://www.instructables.com/id/Electronic-Guides/

Huh? What do you mean that dead VGA monitor just saved you money?  That is what I did not have to go to the electronics store to purchase an overpriced VGA cable just to be cut apart. Why would I want to do that? Most personal computers now have what is know as the i2c (pronounced eye-squared-see) bus coming from the video port. Even the better touchpads and tablets have this port. This means you can connect all kinds of sensing devices to your computing equipment. Let's dig a little deeper. The most traditional sensors used are what is known as temperature sensors. They are electronic thermometers. So you could connect one or many of these sensors to the i2c bus off the computer's video port. Even some hdmi cables support this. Of course, you would need a special interface for your touchpad or tablet. But it is there. What can we do with the temperature sensors. The sensors can be placed in computer server rooms, around entertainment equipment (especially projecto...