Port status

[wkellen]

Hello,

 

I have a webpage that runs some php code to control electrical devices. One part of it controls outside lights. Another part controls an electric door striker. I keep expanding the functionality of it and need to change one pin of the port without affecting the others. So far I use a different port for each function but I am out of ports so I need to use the different pins of the parallel port.

 

I am using a linux ubuntu server.

From my php webpage I issue this command: <?php exec("/home/setSerialSignal /dev/ttyS0 0 0"); ?> which controls the lights using the serial port. I can control 2 pins but I can't check the status of them so if I make a change to one pin it cancels the other.

 

For another one I use the parallel port with this command: <?php exec("/home/parashell 0x378 1"); ?> which turns on pin #2 of the parallel port.

 

Parashell has an executable called "pin". If you type the command "pin 0x378" it will return a value for the status of the parallel port. "1" for example which tells me that pin #2 is on. Is there a way to pass this value to a php variable?

 

I am looking to be able to read the status of the port and make changes to just the pin I want.

 

Lets say pin #2 is on and I want to turn pin #3 on. I would have to issue <?php exec("/home/parashell 0x378 2"); ?> to turn pin #3 on, but that would turn off pin #2. If I could pass the "1" from the "pin" command I could add it to the "2" and give it the command with a variable as "3".

 

Thanks in advance for any help you can give. I hope I explained it ok and didn't confuse everyone.