On Tue, 2009-05-19 at 00:23 -0400, Gary Hoffman wrote:
> Yeah, parallel ports are pretty much done now. Printers used to use them,
> but none of them do any more. In fact (I may have missed one) I don't think
> you can even buy a common printer any more (new) with a parallel port. They
> pretty much use USB. The only two current interfaces being actively
> supported are Ethernet and USB. Sure, you can still find serial ports here
> and there, but they too are becoming a legacy item and are not long for this
> world. The USB to serial converter is about as close as you can come. I
> don't know either, if there is a USB to parallel converter, but I would
> doubt it as one is a serial protocol and the other is a parallel protocol.
>
> 73
>
There has nearly always been serial to parallel converters. Both work in
1 byte chunks because RS-232 serial is usually asynchronous and has 3
handshakes for hardware handshaking. The vintage parallel port has 8
bits out and four back in its classic form but more recent hardware can
change the output register (its TTL levels all the way to the printer)
to an input register for relatively slow bidirectional data, often used
with a scanner. USB works both ways, I don't know about the USB to
parallel cables. With several computers not supporting USB, I've looked
at seeing if one will work parallel to USB, but haven't spent the time
and money to find out. Fortunately I found a laser printer (HP 2550L)
with both USB and parallel ports which I believe was the last one made.
I bought it at an Office Depot off their demonstrator shelf and will
soon have to replace some color cartridges but its run maybe three years
for me on the original small ones.
Vista has not achieved universal acceptability because of its demand for
new hardware and lack of support of working legacy hardware like serial
and parallel ports, plus the need for replacement of nearly all the
applications software with accompanying retraining and cost. It may not
be the best OS for using applications created for the fun and not by a
huge committee with access to the resources needed to meet Vista
interface requirements which means it may not be good for ham
applications at all.
73, Jerry, K0CQ
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