A user recently wrote the editors at Search400.com asking if an iSeries or AS/400 can be used to control the ringing of bells in plants for break and quitting times. The iSeries would have to be able to control turning on/off some type of a power switch. Would you have to use sockets to perform this task?
-- Michelle Davidson, editor, Search400.com
Posted on behalf of Tom Wright:
I do this exact thing. I use a Module form HELP/ROBOT called Robot/Client.
I purchased a controller and a switch from SMARTHOME to hook up on my PC.
Then Robot/Client alows me to send a message from my AS400 to that PC and turns on the switch to my bells in the plant.
I have it working in two of my plants. It works very well.
I have a schedule from the AS400 that tells it when to turn on the switch to the PC and ring the bells.
I have been using it for about 4 years now.
Tom Wright
Sockets would almost certainly be the way to go. I suspect that the only alternative would be RS-232. Nowadays, almost every switch that allows remote control is going to be via a sockets connection across a TCP/IP network.
Tom
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