Hello every1,
hope you all are fine. i got a project in which i have to send commands to any port (serial and parallel are not coming any more so the option left is only USB port) of PC using c++ which will switch on/off LED. i have done a project on controlling DC-motors through matlab using parallel port but i think this one is different. i have searched alot on different forums on how to connect it but not found anything good. i just got from that is that i can do it using arduino board. i am new to it and dont have that much idea on how to handle it. could som1 brief me on how to do it and there are lots of arduino boards on web so which one i have to buy (non expensive because just need 5 volts on one pin to activate a relay for my LED project) and what code i will need.
Thanks
The Arduino plugs into the USB port. It comes with USB drivers which present a virtual COM port inside the PC when the Ardunio is connected. Anything written to the COM port can be read by the Arduino. Anything written by the Arduino can be read from the COM port. You will need to write a PC application to open the COM port and write a message to it when you want to switch the LED, and you will need to write code on the Arduino that recognises the message and switches the LED. None of that is hard, and if you can follow the description above I'm sure you'll find it all straight forward.