How to program controlling of ten 12V solenoid valves by computer

[SDipt]

Hi .... the exact problem is:

There are ten 12V solenoid valves. I want to open the valve1 at t1 time, valve2 at t2 time.....and so on where t1, t2 are variable time depending on my experiment when I want to open them. I know LabView can do the programming part to control this. What I want to know is what kind of hardware do I need as an interface between the ten 12V solenoid valves and the computer??  

After solving this, there is one more problem : that is I want to send one output trigger of 5V from the same computer to another device exactly at the same time when the valve opens.

Thanks in advance ..!

[SnowMule]

What kind of timing accuracy do you need? Is the margin of error in a relay going to be a problem?

Personally I'd drive a relay through a ULN2003A driver (or two) and switch the 12v through the relay.

[SDipt]

An error of 1ms is fine .... I don't know how much delay it takes through relay

by the way, the ten solenoid valves are connected to a wire (serial port wire) having 25 pins. Actually these valves and the wire are predesigned, so I need to control them via serial port (either directly through computer or via an interface between them).

Any suggestions ??

[SDipt]

Below I attached a picture where you may see the white serial port wire ...which is actually coming from the ten valves (and which pins triggger which valves that I can figure it out) ..

[Wetzer]

Hello SDipt,

i dont know if i get it right: The Control Box that can be seen in the Picture has a DSub (25) Pin Plug. But is this a RS232 Interface or is just a similar Plug used and the Valves are controlled by applying 12V Signals to specific Pins?

When choosing Hardware there are a bunch of additional Questions that have to be answerd:

-What Interface do you intend to use? (USB, PCI ...)

-If i get it right there are no analog Signals to be measured here just digital Signals: (10 x 12V and one 5V) is this correct?

Best Regards!

Moritz M.