Hi all,

(The recent event with the unlocked door has given a bit of new urgency to the HS access system; an urgency that I'm pleased seems to be taken up by several.)

One of the approaches that we explored in this project was to build a system out of a laptop and fingerprint reader and a laptop-controlled relay.  Turns out this last item was perhaps the toughest.  I had gathered the laptop, and the fingerprint reader, and the power supply for the door electromagent, but the USB-controlled relay defeated us.  (Parrallel ports are so easy by comparison.  And I think the access system has moved on but this computer control element is something many of us will be interested in.  USB relays are useful to control lots of things, from lights to motors to electromagnets.)

Last year I casually mentioned this to Senior Lecturer and Busker at SP, Jolyon Caplin, ([email protected]) and despite a very buys schedule he actually pulled this last element together!

He also graciously has agreed to come and give a lesson on how to....

1.     Go from USB to Serial

2.     Serial to PIC

3.     PIC to parrellel

4.     parrellel to relay control

I also beleive that if Jolyon is asked nicely he will do some busking.  For an example of this, please see:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCdt3GYCOaI

Jolyon is a great guy and a real natural for HS, and he has a LOT to teach us!  Re timing for the session, Jolyon is up for anything other than Thursday evenings, when he teaches at SP.  (Ideally I'd propose it to be Saturday early afternoon so that my boys can learn this stuff too.)  So provisionally, how does this Saturday the 30th at 1 p.m. sound?  Jolyon has some darling children and we hope they and his lovely wife would join. 

Jolyon has computer problems right at the moment, but when he gets up again, perhaps he will comment.  Could other interested people also indicate interest?  Here's the start of a interested list:

Would like to attend:

John Y, Max Y, Jonathan Y