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Thread: USB to TTL devices

  1. #1
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    Default USB to TTL devices

    I looked on the internet yesterday and there seems to be several USB to TTL output devices out there at low prices. I was wondering if anyone has tried such a thing? Although they would be useless with existing software it would probably be easy to create a little applet that would let you control things or to add to your own software. Unfortunately, I don't have a link to any of them right now that I can share.

  2. #2
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    FTDI has such a device. I have one, but haven't used it yet. To your computer, it looks like a serial port, so it's easy to send data to it.

    When used as a serial port, I think it can be driven up to about 250k bps (i.e., about 25k bytes per second). That might be a bit slow for driving vector graphics. If you use it with a Mac, that's the only way to drive it.

    For Windows, they also provide a DLL, which lets you drive it faster than if you use it as a serial port. Of course, that requires writing some software to drive it.. the DLL has to be linked with a program that you provide. Don't know if it would be as fast as a parallel port.

  3. #3
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    I think I may have seen that. How many TTL outputs (or inputs) does it have. I just want to be able to control devices like lumia wheels, strobes, and fog machines. So, it doesn't have to be fast at all.

  4. #4
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    i believe the easylase board uses ftdi chips, as does the lumax board...
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  5. #5
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    Here is a link to one I found.

  6. #6
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    Rather than add TTL outputs, a better idea might be to add DMX capability. There are a host of simple DMX interfaces for a computer...
    Last edited by dave; 10-03-2007 at 00:38. Reason: grammar
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  7. #7
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    Lightbulb

    Quote Originally Posted by carmangary View Post
    Here is a link to one I found.
    Invisible font huh?
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    allthat... aka: aaron@pangolin

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