Is it possbile to connect a PIC and PC based software

[maxster03]

Hi All,

I am working on a current project and i am a little stuck

The project which i am doing is on Home Alarm system. The purpose of the project is to protect the house from Inside and outside threats, natural or man made.

For outside i am using a Camera and a DVR (RapidOS USB 2.0 Mobile Surveillance) which would protect and monitor the activity going outside the house which is a PC based software.

For inside i am thinking of installing Smoke detectors, CO detectors, and a micro controller based thing which could differentiate between a pet animal and a human being.

The problem is, I have been told that the User should be able to control everything through one system, now i don't know how to connect a micro controller based circuit and PC based software to make one system. is it possible to do something like this.

If you can help that would be really great of you

CHEERS !!!

 

[ericgibbs]

hi,
The easy way to interface a PIC and PC are by using the PC's serial or parallel ports.

 

[valve]

An Infrared Beam passing close to the floor can detect the interrupted signals within a certain interval(programmed).
If the count is four it will be a notorious pet animal.
Otherwise it should be you.

 

[maxster03]

alright
but how would i control the micro controller through tht ???

 

[maxster03]

i know how to differentiate between a pet and human being
i want to know how can i connect a PC based software and a micro controller based circuit so i can connect both through tht system ??

 

[ericgibbs]

The easy way to interface a PIC and PC are by using the PC's serial or parallel ports.

Repeated post, this is the way.

What 'valve' is talking about is anybodys guess, you will have to decide.

 

[maxster03]

alright
well thts the way i would connect it, but do you have any suggestion i could control the both, i mean do i have to make a new interface or something for tht ????

 

[ericgibbs]

alright
well thts the way i would connect it, but do you have any suggestion i could control the both, i mean do i have to make a new interface or something for tht ????

hi,
Use a PIC with an inbuilt UART, most have this feature.
Connect the PIC UART pins /TX & /RX to a line driver/receiver say a MAX232.
Attach a 9 way 'Dee' type connector to a 3 core cable, this end plugs into the PC's serial port.
Attach the 3 wires at the other end of the cable to the MAX232 TX & RX and 0Vcommon.

Use a PC program, say Visual Basic to write a Comms program for the PC.

Do you follow OK.?

 

[SMUGangsta]

do you have existing software that you NEED to use, if so things get a bit more complicated. If however you are going to write your own software then things are a lot easier (assuming you can program a pc, or are willing to learn)

Visual basic is easy to learn, and can be easily programmed to talk to your PIC using the MSCOMM control.

Some topics to research might be

**broken link removed**
Mscomm Control and Visual BASIC
**broken link removed**

They should give you the basics for talking to the PC from the PIC, what you do once it gets their is up to you.

I did a project like this a while back (unfortunatly i dont have the code anymore) it was a DirectX model of my house (3D shadowy/wireframe) with all the sensors on it, and they flashed red when activated, it was connected to a PIC16F877 via a serial port.

The pic interfaced with the sensors and the PC made it look good!

I used 2byte pairs for the sensors, the first byte was the ID of the sensor, the second was either a 0 or 1 to indicate if it was 'triggered' or not.

It was one of they cheezy moments when you watch a film and they have a super cool security system with the dots showing where in the building people are - and think 'I could do that!', i never got the locators working but I couldnt afford the longrange RFID tags and readers at that time.