Connecting things to vvvv

vvvv offers several ways to communicate with external devices. Besides the possibility to use your midi-interface and serial-port the most common way to communicate with other computers is via the network. vvvv includes nodes to communicate via raw TCP or UDP messages.
Additionally the OSC and pd's own netsend (fudi) protocol are supported. for several devices vvvv implements special nodes. Among them are nodes for touchscreens, DMX and 3D trackers. see the Category Devices? for a complete list.

See the various HowTos in the following section.

If a device requires a special driver (like an activex control or dll) it´s still be quite easy for us to modify the source of vvvv to include a node for that purpose, but it is not possible for users. (yes open source is an option here, an sdk another one). we can provide custom node programming for commercial projects.

Connecting obscure things to vvvv

Controlling devices with the parallel port

With beta8.1 comes the Port (Devices) node. It offers direct access to arbitrary hardware ports. Using this node you can write to/read from the parallel port. To be able to use this feature you must download the io.dll.

For an introduction to parallel port interfacing see:

• short wikipedia article
• parallel port central
• introduction to the parallel port
• Parallel Port Interface Reference Materials

samples/tools can be found here:

• parallel port monitor software
• controlling stepper motors via the parallel port
• a digital joystick to the parallel port
• relay control
• simplified io interface

further links:

• links - parallel port

Connecting increment counters to vvvv

Yes, the somewhat hacked Dial node in the current beta will work together with the cinetix sensorbox to connect an increment encoder.

The cheaper method would be opening up a mouse, replacing your encoder with the builtin one, and use the mouse node in incrementcycle mode. We successfully avoided increment encoders at all by mounting a optical mouse directly over the moving axis of the wheel. The new Logitech Wireless Laser mouse is excellent.

Controlling telephones with vvvv

The Bell (Devices TAPI)node will allow you to ring the bell on any telephone.
The hayes command set (for examplehttp://www.cellular.co.za/hayesat.htm) is an quite old standard for controlling modems over with rs232. it should be easy to use vvvv to receive and place calls if you have a standard modem connected. Basically a modem is a telephone which can be fully controlled via the computer. So picking up calls, playing calls, generating sounds etc is easy. For details see the hayes command set. An isdn card or capi driver could be able to emulate a modem.
A lot of mobile phones also implement that old hayes command set. This would lead to many other interesting applications -- mobiles have usually additional commands to send short messages etc. You would need a serial cable for your phone (or a bluetooth connection)