Here is the icing on the cake. It is a low cost 12 volt input
  switching power
  supply for mother boards. You can run you PC in an airplane or a car.

  Paul Lamar



Paul -

That is so ... YESTERDAY. (Re-attached you original "VIA-power-
supply.jpg" pic.)

Try this one on for (small) size: a 12V DC-DC power supply for Mini
ITX boards that's only slightly larger than the power connector
itself!  (Smaller pic attached below yours.)

http://www.mini-box.com/DC-DC
    or
http://www.logicsupply.com/categories/power_supplies/dc_converters

Might as well save space when building PCs for aircraft.

-Vince Orton

Wow! Cool Vince. Thanks.

-------------------------------------------------------
After a week of screwing around trying to get the bidirectional
printer port to work. I gave up. Apparently there are no
real standards for this out there as it was implemented
only on the PS2 and nobody copied it exactly. The low cost
solution was staring me in the face. Craig Smith suggested
this awhile back but it had to gestate in my feeble mind.

http://www.hytekautomation.com/iDAQDownload.html

Not only does it have 8 channels of 12 bit A to D but 16 bits of
digital I/O AND a counter for RPM. This will off load all the real time
stuff. MAF, MAP, coolant temp, oil temp, etc., etc..

This device has all we need and it only cost $90 bucks.
Now I have to get it working under DOS using Power Basic.
Can anybody translate this cryptic C source code into english for me?.

/*********************************************************************
 *
 *                  single reading of 1 ai channel
 *
 *********************************************************************
 * FileName:        ai1single.c
 * Dependencies:    None
 * Compiler:        C++
 ********************************************************************/


#include <stdio.h>
#include "iUSBDAQ.h"


int PrintError(int code)
{
    char errDesc[256];

    iUSBDAQ_GetErrorDes(code,errDesc);
    printf("Error: %s\n", errDesc);
    return -1;
}

void DisplayResult(float* buf, int Chnlnumber)
{
    printf("%d: %.3f V\n", Chnlnumber, buf[0]);   
}

int main(int argc, char* argv[])
{
    int chan = 0;
    if ( argc > 1 )
    {
        chan =  atoi(argv[1]);
    }
    else
    {
        chan = 0;
    }

    unsigned long devcnt=0;
    // Device type for iUSBDAQ is 0 according to user manual
    int rt = iUSBDAQ_EnumerateDev(0, &devcnt);
    if ( rt != iUSBDAQ_NOERROR)
    {
        return PrintError(rt);               
    }
    DevSession dev;
    rt = iUSBDAQ_OpenDevice(0, 0, &dev);
    if ( rt != iUSBDAQ_NOERROR)
    {
        return PrintError(rt);               
    }
    

    float dat[1];
    rt = iUSBDAQ_ReadSingleAnalogIn(dev, chan, 0, dat, 0);
    if (rt != iUSBDAQ_NOERROR)
    {
        iUSBDAQ_ReleaseDevice(dev);
        return PrintError(rt);   
    }
    else
    {
        DisplayResult(dat, chan);   
    }
    
    iUSBDAQ_ReleaseDevice(dev);

    return 0;
}

Paul Lamar


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