Toggle pins of ethernet port to high / low state?

Question

I am trying to set the ethernet port pins directly to send High / Low signals to light up four LEDs. Is there any way I can simply connect LEDs to the ethernet cable?

What would be the best approach, if using ethernet is not a good option, to light up four LED lights and switch them on/off using a PC.

I am planning to create a command-line tool in Python. So far I have gone through a lot of articles about PySerial, LibUSB etc. and have been suggested to use USB to UART converter modules, or USB to RS-232 converters.

Actually I don't want any interfaces except the PC port and the LEDs as far as possible.

Please suggest!

"USB to RS-232 converters" sounds good. RS-232/Serial controllers allows pin control from software and also supply enough power/voltage for a LED. RS-232 is *not* Ethernet, of course :) — user2864740, Mar 01 '14 at 08:39

score 1 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 01 '14 at 07:20

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No, it is not possible. There is no sane way to affect the PHY in PC software.

answered Mar 01 '14 at 07:20

Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams

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How about using USB, because there are connector cables with two pins to charge mobile handsets? How do they get power directly from USB? What else do you suggest for fulfilling my requirement? – Nj Subedi Mar 01 '14 at 07:23
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They get power from USB because USB supplies power. Use a USB-to-GPIO chip. – Ignacio Vazquez-Abrams Mar 01 '14 at 07:29
Or also you can try exploiting "serial port pins" to toggle leds. – Sumeet_Jain Mar 01 '14 at 11:08

Toggle pins of ethernet port to high / low state?

1 Answers1