IDD announces the release of the IDD Port Monitor software. With this software and an Amiga computer, you can wire sensors from doors, windows, or anything else to your computer. The software runs in the background, scanning the sensors and reporting its readings. The software runs on ANY Amiga computer (AmigaDOS 1.3, 2.x, 3.x).
You can use any of the sensors sold in electronics and home security shops that are designed for wired security systems. These include reed switches for door and windows starting at around a dollar each. You can also use vibration and glass breakage detectors, or even infrared and ultrasound sensors to detect motion in an area. In fact, you can use digital keypads and lock & key switches to activate or disable the the system remotely. You can find all of these devices at electronics and security shops, including Radio Shack.
You connect the sensors to the computer through the joystick controller ports. This leaves your serial and parallel ports free for your modem and printer. Note that no hardware is included with the Port Monitor, it is up to you wire an interface to your sensors. This isn't hard to do, and the documentation tells you everything you need to know.
Using the included configuration program, you can tell the software to respond to a sensor by playing a sound file, speaking with the Amiga's voice, recording the event to disk, sending output to your printer, dialing a phone number with your modem, sending an ARexx command, and more.
You can use the IDD Port Monitor as a home security system, or use it just for the fun of having your computer respond when someone opens a door or walks into a room. The software allows you to choose to have it respond differently at different times of day. It also reports the time of sensor events with accuracy of one hundreth of a second, making it suitable for scientific measurement.
The IDD Port Monitor sells for $34.95 and is currently only available directly from IDD. For more information see our web page at http://www.pobox.com/~idd/.
IDD Software, 209 Brom Bones Lane, Longwood, FL 32608 idd@pobox.com
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