[TenTec] Help me, I'm dumb.

[geoffrey mendelson]

On May 19, 2009, at 7:23 AM, 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.

That's for sure. I occasionally see requests for parallel printers  
from people with old computers that can not afford to replace them,  
but can't even find a new parallel port printer, while USB ones sell  
here for as low as $50.



> The only two current interfaces being actively supported are  
> Ethernet and USB.

For disks E(external) SATA and FireWire 400/800 are still popular, but  
FireWire is destined to be replaced by USB 3.

The more expensive printers here have WiFI and or Bluetooth, but  
Office Depot last month had on sale a $50 BlueTooth Scanner/Printer  
combination.

> 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.


There are USB to Parallel adaptors. You don't find them often as such,  
they are sold as USB to parallel printer cables. HP and many other  
companies used them inside their early USB devices, many first  
generation USB scanners were parallel port ones with internal USB to  
parallel adaptors and no external parallel port.

The problem with both the USB to serial and USB to parallel adaptors  
is that they are not designed to be used as anything except bridges to  
the devices that match the port. Most of them do not support the  
control or data collection applications that used them because they  
worked as a side effect of their old design.

BTW, unless Microsoft changed their policy, Windows Vista only  
supports Parallel ports on a motherboard, not expansion ones or USB  
ones. Those need drivers from the manufacturer and may not be  
functional as anything except modem (serial) and printer (parallel)  
ports depending upon what the manufacturer wanted to support.

Geoff.



-- 
geoffrey mendelson N3OWJ/4X1GM
Jerusalem Israel geoffreymendelson at gmail.com