Dead monitor just saved me $20.

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 projectors), and other sensitive places  to monitor the temperature. The premise is that you do not want overheated equipment or even have the possibility of a fire hazard. The temperature sensors will send data back to the host computer and then software on the host computer can take action accordingly. Home automation software usually comes into play here. From that point of view that cable could save you thousands of dollars!!! (not just twenty dollars).



There are many many articles on how to implement the i2c bus, so I will not dwell on it here, Your favorite search engine can allow you to access the articles by searching on i2c. Often overlooked is what can we do with our computers besides just running our favorite computer programs. So, what about that VGA cable? Had a dead computer monitor in the garage. I needed a cable to build an i2c interface. Which means you need a cable that can be torn apart.  Cut off the cable from the back of the monitor and then made the cable. Another reuse for dead equipment! Going green....



Building of the basic cable can be found at :
http://www.instructables.com/id/Vga-breakout-cable/

You can also use other ports on a computer for controlling other equipment and collecting data.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Computer-controlled-OTA-TV-antenna/
http://www.instructables.com/id/No-solder-parallel-port-break-out/
http://www.instructables.com/id/DB9-serial-break-out-cable/

Comments

  1. cairosonleeJuly 28, 2012 at 3:52 AM

    That's an informative post review. I was looking forward to get such a post long time. It is that I wanted. Thanks mate for sharing this post.
    http://houstoncustominstallers.com

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Guiless?

Image
You actually can do a minimal windowing from the command line in Linux with dvtm. Dvtm is excellent for low end machines where graphics are not a priority. In the picture shown we have a working clock, SC a spreadsheet that you can easily export data to your favorite desktop spreadsheet such as Libreoffice, Links2 a web browser pointed to www.google.com, and finally nano a pretty decent basic text editor. I prefer vim, but nano has more of a user interface. Cheatsheet: `dvtm` is one simple, easy-to-use terminal multiplexer. Commonly used Options:     -v         prints version information to standard output, then exits.         -m <mod>   set default modifier at runtime.         [cmd...]   Execute cmd after dvtm is started. KeyBoard Shortcuts:     Mod    Each keybinding begins with Mod which defaults to ^g but can  be               changed in config.h or with the -m command line option.                       Mod-c  Create a new shell window.            Mod-x  Cl
Read more

MSOffice vs Libreoffice

Image
From https://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Feature_Comparison:_LibreOffice_-_Microsoft_Office Contents 1 Introduction 2 General office suite: LibreOffice vs. Microsoft Office 3 Word processors: LibreOffice Writer vs. Microsoft Word 4 Spreadsheet applications: LibreOffice Calc vs. Microsoft Excel 5 Presentation software: LibreOffice Impress vs. Microsoft Powerpoint 6 Database program: LibreOffice Base vs. Microsoft Access 7 Extensions: LibreOffice extensions adding outstanding features to LibreOffice 8 See also Introduction This page compares the features of LibreOffice 5.0.0 ( download ) and Microsoft Office 2013 . It separates major and minor feature differences and also includes notes on LibreOffice extensions. The comparison highlights differences and therefore does not display any features which are present in both office suites. The feature comparison table is continuously being updated and is work in progress It is a compilation by users and no
Read more

Raspberry pi zero.

Image
Instead of getting the rpi zero w, I will just add a usb female to my existing pi for the time being.Have lots of leftover cables for the cause.. Can always plug in a wifi or bluetooth module.   Various notes: Simplest configuration to connect to an unsecured wireless router knowing it;s essid: #linux auto lo iface lo inet loopback auto eth0 iface eth0 inet dhcp allow-hotplug wlan0 auto wlan0 iface wlan0 inet dhcp wireless-essid router-essid  Improvisational solder less header pin for the rpi zero Original pi zero fully decked out. with bluetooth, wired m and wireless. Basic setup ----------------- install jessie os do updates install vim mc Wifi ------ Check Ethernet & Wifi Before continuing make sure the Ethernet cable is connected in and you can ping out from the Pi: ping 8.8.8.8 You will also want to set up your WiFi dongle. runsudo shutdown -h now and then plug in the WiFi module when the Pi is off so you don't cause a
Read more