first off, let me give a bit of back ground: my friends and I build haunted houses every year for the community center in our area, and we get a bit more hi-tech each year. This time around, we'd like to computerize the whole process. For one thing, we're recording a burning a CD with sounds timed on it and different channel effects, but that's not the point here. What we'd like to do is hook up a computer to a set of switches to control the lighting. What I'm looking for from all of you guys is a program that allows me to send a current through a pin on the serial port (or LPT port) to a relay to flip a switch to turn on a light. I'd like to use as many switches as a port will allow, and I'd like to have a pretty little VB program that has buttons I push to activate each relay. Any thoughts on this matter would help out alot, as we are stumped right now. Thanks guys.