php project to connect to a hardware

i am trying to build a schedule system in php that on pre-specified times will trigger an alarm... the programming part in php/html in order to create a schedule and to connect to a database is easy for me but what i have no idea what is the required har开发者_开发技巧dware that i need.

i think i need some device that will be connected to the webserver and to the alarm that will "translate" php code to an electrical signal that will trigger the alarm. have anyone got any idea what this device is? where can i acquire it? am i on the right track? can i find something that has a php API ?

thanks in advance for your time and help

You may try and use an alarm connected on the serial port(they should be pretty easy to master if you have some electrical skills).

There are relay boards that connect through the serial port, and you can trigger basically anything with them.

• http://www.electronickits.com/kit/complete/elec/ck1610.htm
• http://www.controlanything.com/Relay/Relay/CAT_RELAY16_RS232

Also take a look at http://www.serialporttool.com/RelayTimerInfo.htm

For comunicating with the serial port, you can try and use http://www.phpclasses.org/package/3679-PHP-Communicate-with-a-serial-port.html . I used this class once when trying to interface with a phone via serial commands and it did not work as expected, but i'm pretty sure it was the phone's fault (i had problems with other tools as well)