Re: Any favorite PC I/O for hobbiest?

Thanks for the replies all!  It helps to know about some hardware I didn't
even know existed.

In school people do learning projects such as the typical stoplights, etc.

I like to do home projects that are fun, educational, and it helps if they
are somewhat useful too.  Recently I connected a Fuji temperature control
with ramp and soak.  I've used it with a SSR to control the temperature of
my Brinkman electric smoker.  I can smoke a pork butt for pulled pork BBQ
and not have the temperature shoot up if the water pan runs dry.  Now I'm
just using a thermocouple to keep the smoker temperature at 225 deg. F.  In
the future I'd like to use a probe and use ramp and soak to get the meat
from cold to the cooking temperature (190F for pulled pork) in about 10-12
hrs and soak a little, then ramp down to maybe 140F keeping warm. The
electric smoker does a good job with addition of some wood chunks for
flavor.

The only problem with the Fuji temperature controls for smoking is that the
ramp and soak doesn't wait on the meat to reach the setpoint (AFAIK), it
just advances the setpoint over time, if the setpoint isn't reached, it
doesn't wait.  So, if I would use a PLC with with a thermocouple or RTD
card, I could monitor the smoker temperature to keep it 225F and wait on the
meat to reach done temperature, then turn on a "Done" indicator and allow
the smoker to go to 140F (the safe keep warm temperature).  Good BBQ from
playing with controls!

I also use these Fuji controls (I got a lot of 11 on eBay) for temperature
control on my electric radiator room heaters.  They are great for keeping
cold areas of the house comfortable, I don't have to overheat one room just
to keep the bedrooms comfortable.

My other controls use in my home shop is I use EMC running in a Linux PC to
control a CNC lathe.  I get 3 phase conversion and spindle speed control
from a VFD.  I also have a CNC mill running off of an old control that I
plan to upgrade to EMC in the future.  With additional I/O I could automate
part feeding, coolant and stuff like that.

RogerN