[TowerTalk] Computer control antenna switch

[Pete Smith]

I thought I had read, though, that some new-generation laptops do not have 
an LPT port.

73, Pete N4ZR

At 04:15 PM 3/9/2005, R. Kevin Stover wrote:

>Jim Lux wrote:
>
> > The real problem with using the printer port these days is that
> > a) You're pretty well insulated from the hardware using Windows, so you
> > have to do all sorts of workarounds to talk to the bits.  You can set up a
> > plain printer, and talk to it as if it were a dumb printer, but you don't
> > have any control over strobing, timing, or the ability to readback the
> > port.  Yes, there are a raft of programs and windows drivers that get
> > around this, but since they violate a fundamental part of the design of
> > Windows (i.e. insulate user programs from the hardware), they tend to be
> > "picky" in their functioning.
> >
>
>Agreed. Alas, MS decided a long time ago that their operating systems
>should be designed with "Mom and Pop" in mind rather than power users
>and developers.
>
>
> > b) More and more computers are doing away with the printer port.  It's
> > physically a large connector, consumes board space, etc.  and most 
> consumer
> > (read inexpensive) printers are USB using the PC as a computational host
> > for a lot of the printer function anyway.  When you're selling millions of
> > motherboards at $50 each, wholesale, getting rid of a 50 cent connector is
> > very attractive.
>
>I haven't seen a mobo manufacturer come out with a product without a
>IEEE 1284 port yet.They won't be getting rid of the parallel port
>anytime soon. They are starting to cut out the RS-232 ports.
>Yes, you see a lot of mobos from the manufacturers with multiple USB
>port configurations, the machine I just built has 8, but the current USB
>spec has some serious limitations. The 5m segment length limitation
>being the most notable.
>
>
>
>--
>R. Kevin Stover ACØH
>
>K2/100 #4684
>
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