There is a company on ebay that sells several USB to X devices. Softmark. They have a couple of USB to digital I/O but these do not emulate a parallel port. I looked at the 74LV8153 and it would ne fine as a serial to parallel converter but IOPWR still wants to call a parallel port number.

I believe if you can find a USB/parallel adapter that comes with a driver and a LPT-X emulator like all the USB to serial adapters have, that would work. Most of the USB to parallel adapters are designed for printers and don't require the emulator part.

Luckily, all my old Dell Lattitudes have REAL parallel ports!!! It may be cheaper and less hassle to find a D400, D600 or D800 Dell on ebay. Although they have a quirky audio card in them that won't loop audio through.

Terry

----- Original Message -----

From: Tom Mayo

To: RoverLog@yahoogroups.com

Sent: Wed, 1 Jul 2009 12:36:49 +0000 (UTC)

Subject: Re: [RoverLog] USB LPT ports































    

            

      

Hi Eric,





That's the one.





I was hoping that the USB printer port would show up as an emulated

legacy port.





The only small hope I still have with this is that there is some driver

or driver mode for the device that will do this.





Other than that, it'd be a development effort to support a USB printer

port I'm sorry to say.





There may be some other options:





1. I think Sigurd KJ1K has built a serial to discrete output interface

using a microcontroller.  Not sure if it would be easy to duplicate.





2. Here's something else interesting I found:


http://electronicdesign.com/Articles/ArticleID/10524/10524.html





Here's the part:


http://focus.ti.com/docs/prod/folders/print/sn74lv8153.html





It's a pretty interesting part.  I've not come across it before.





3. I bet there is something else off the shelf for serial to discrete

output, but I don't know any off the top of my head.





Anyone else?





Tom.





Eric Watkins wrote:

  

Do you mean this section?: "On most PCs, 378 is the base address

for


LPT1:, but some use different addresses. To find the base address for


your PC's parallel port, visit My


Computer->Properties->Hardware->Device

Manager->Ports (COM and LPT).


In the example below, the base address is 3bc. Check this before you


try it. Do not assume the correct address is 378."


  


The device I have doesn't show up under ports(nor are there any ports


at all under Ports), it shows up under USB controllers. Even then,


there is no I/O range to be found in there, just details about the


USB capabilities of USB0001(power, sleep). This device port USB0001


shows up when I try to add a printer, so I know the OS thinks it's


valid/working.


  


Thanks,


  


Eric


  


At 08:16 PM 6/30/2009, you wrote:


  


>Did you follow the instructions in the manual on how to check the

IO


>address for the LPT port to see if the USB parallel port emulates

an


>I/O address?


>


>Eric Watkins wrote:


>>


>>Hello all,


>>


>>I'm working to increase integration between roverlog and my

xverter


>>stack. After reading several threads about rig integration/automation


>>I got the BCD-10 and I've got it working with a desktop via the

LPT


>>port. This method appears(per the manual) to require a physical

LPT


>>port. This kinda nerfs me on my USB only laptop. I got a few


>>CablesToGo USB to LPT port adapters, but they provide a USB0001


>>interface instead of an LPT interface. Even then the IOPWR.dll

seems


>>to want to directly write to the base address of the LPT port,


>>something the USB interface doesn't seem to have.


>>


>>Am I making this harder than it is? What's the best way to

interface


>>roverlog with the BCD-10 on a USB only LT?


>>


>>Thanks,


>>


>>Eric


>>kr0ver


>