Personal Computers and Electronics (Productivity Series) - Softcover

Shows you how to interface a PC with anything electronic.
PC & Electronics is a must for the technical hobbyist. Once you've mastered the art of tinkering, it's time to get serious and put the PC to work with other household devices. PC & Electronics teaches you to use a personal computer as a control device and shows you how to create simple circuits that connect a PC to external electronic devices, running them from the PC. PC & Electronics provides all the information you need to create the circuits and describes what you can accomplish with them.

The book is arranged in three main sections, the first covering circuit fundamentals and tasks required to integrate them with household devices, from model trains to home security systems. You'll learn about the components, what they're used for and how they're installed into circuits. You'll find details on interfacing the components with your PC ports and you'll learn a bit about the programming language used. The second part of the book describes the circuits in depth, with a chapter devoted to each circuit. The circuits are simple in function and structure, so that even beginners can build and use them. Detailed, step-by-step instructions lead experienced and beginning tinkers through building, installing and troubleshooting.

Part three takes a step above the beginner level. While a lay person can build these circuits, the tasks required are a bit more complex than those in the earlier chapters, and experience is recommended.

So, if you are interested in creating simple circuits to connect your computer to external electronic devices, this book is for you. It gives you everything you need to convert and use the circuits in easy to understand language.

The companion CD-ROM contains the software needed for running these circuits, detailed circuit diagrams, executable files and the source code for each of the circuits' software.