Webcon 1.0 for win95
GENERAL
Webcon is an Internet
remote control for the parallel I/O port of a PC. Using it, you
can control the state of each bit in the parallel port, and, with
a simple hardware, it is possible to turn on or off up to eight
devices connected to the PC, such as lights, motors, alarms and
other electric devices. From your office you can turn on the
ligths at your home or check the status of your security-alarm,
using a common Internet connection and an easy to use interface.
Webcon operates like a telnet connection, it normally waits listening to a specified port, when a remote PC asks for a connection, Webcon answers with a confirmation string and then waits for commands. A free remote control program Webtx is provided to manage automatically every operation required for connecting and sending commands to Webcon. Webtx appears as follows:
In the picture is shown a Webtx remote control connected to the Webcon running on the PC 192.168.0.2; devices # 1, 4 and 5 are "on". Green input LEDs indicate that the four inputs are all "on". Connection to Webcon has a user defined security password that prevents unwanted connections, this feature is available only in the registered version of Webcon.
QUICK START
To test quickly your Webcon using only one PC, do the following:
1) Be sure that your PC has the TCP/IP protocol installed.
2) Install Webcon and Webtx on your PC using the distribution program wbcsetup.exe. Executing it, program icons will be installed also, including the "Uninstall" icon.
3) Double click the "Webcon server" icon to launch the server application, if a printer is connected to your PC, simply disconnect the printer cable. If you have two printer ports, configure Webcon to use the free one, as described in the "Configuring Webcon" section.
4) Double click the "Webtx remote control" icon. By default, Webtx connects 127.0.0.1 ("this" machine) so, because for this test you are using both Webcon and Webtx on the same PC, no configuring operation is required. Click the "Connect" button, in the status box should appear "Connected to 127.0.0.1".
5) Click some buttons in the "Output" group of the Webtx main windows, the corresponding red "Led" should toggle its status, and the same shoud be the corresponding in the Webcon window. Of course, the output bits in the parallel port are changing their status according to the buttons you are clicking, but nothing happens if nothing is connected (!).
HARDWARE REQUIREMENTS
To run Webcon all you need is a PC operating with Windows 95, a
486 or better is suggested. The PC must have a free parallel I/O
port to wich you will connect the devices to control. Here
follows a diagram showing the pin connections of the parallel
port and a little sample application:
In the picture above, pin 2 is connected through a 330 Ohm resistor (R) to a LED wich has the cathode connected to the ground pin 21. Pin 2 of the connector corresponds to output 0 of Webcon, then you can light the LED clicking on the button 0 of the connected Webtx, to turn it off click again on button 0. To pin 3 is connected a solid state relay, since pin 3 corresponds to button 1 of Webtx, clicking on it you will turn on the solid state relay and then the load connected as shown in the diagram. Be careful to choose the right type of solid state relay, it must accept a control voltage of about 4 Volt and 10-15 milliamperes; the output current capability of the solid state relay depends on the LOAD requirement.
Here follows the complete pinout assignement of the I/O port:
Pin 2 corresponds to output 0
Pin 3 corresponds to output 1
Pin 4 corresponds to output 2
Pin 5 corresponds to output 3
Pin 6 corresponds to output 4
Pin 7 corresponds to output 5
Pin 8 corresponds to output 6
Pin 9 corresponds to output 7
Pin 15 corresponds to input 0
Pin 13 corresponds to input 1
Pin 12 corresponds to input 2
Pin 10 corresponds to input 3
Pin 18-19-20-21-22-23-24-25 are Ground connection pins.
Input pins are considered OFF if
the voltage referred to GND (pin 18 to 25) is 0 Volt, in this
case the correspondig green LED in Webtx will be off; an input
voltage of about 3 to 5 Volt is considered a ON state and the
corresponding green LED will be on.
If you have a PC with bidirectional parallel I/O port, go to the
BIOS setup and configure it as "Standard parallel port"
(no EPP, no ECP).
CONFIGURING WEBCON
The PC on wich Webcon will run, must have a free parallel port,
LPT1 or LPT2.
Once the installation is completed you can start webcon.exe and
configure it.
Picture above is the main window of Webcon, as you can see, all the outputs are off and input 3 and 0 are on. To configure it, select go to "Options/Setup…", the "Webcon setup" window will appear. In the setup window you have to specify the following:
Parallel I/O port: choose
the parallel port you want to be controlled by Webcon, this port
cannot be connected to a printer.
Port: the TCP port you want to use for this service, port 23
is the Telnet port, you can choose any other free port.
Listen: check this box to enable Webcon.
Password: if this box is left blank, no password is required
to connect webcon, to avoid unautorized connections write here
the password required to connect webcon; this feature is
available only in the registered version.
ADVANCED PROGRAMMING
Using Webtx it is possible to connect and control the Webcon
server without having any knowledge about how Webcon works, but
if you want you can write yourself an application that sends
commands to Webcon in the text form.
It is possible to control Webcon using a common telnet client,
like the one supplied with Windows95 (telnet.exe). To do this,
start Webcon on the server PC then start the telnet client, you
can do this on the same server PC or another one connected to it
via a TCP/IP network. Then, from the telnet client, connect the
server PC using its IP address and the port you have choosen for
Webcon (default port is 23), if Webcon and the telnet client are
running on the same PC, the IP address to connect should be
127.0.0.1 (wich means "this machine"). Once connected,
Webcon will answer:
WEBCON REMOTE CONTROL
CONNECTED
OK
Now you can send commands writing them in UPPERCASE only, and terminating a CR-LF pair. You can try this sending the HELP command, Webcon will answer:
**WEBCON COMMANDS**
PASSpassword the password if required
CLOSE closes the connection
INFO gets Webcon version and registration info
NOTIFYON enables notification of input port changes
NOTIFYOFF disables notification of input port changes
RET extended return prefix
ONn sets output bit n (0-7) to ON
OFFn sets output bit n (0-7) to OFF
TOGGLEn toggles the state of output bit n (0-7) to OFF
SETON sets ALL output bits to ON
SETOFF sets ALL output bits to OFF
SETTOGGLE toggles the state of ALL output bits
CHANGED checks if the input state changed
SETbbbbbbbb sets the output bits 76543210 (0=off 1=on)
GET gets the status of output port
READn gets the status of input bit n (0-3)
READALL gets the status of ALL input bits
COUNTn gets the status-change count for input bit n (0-3)
CLEARn resets the status-change count for input bit n (0-3)
CLEARALL resets the status-change count for ALL input bits
OK
This is the list of all commands available in the current version of Webcon.