How far can you run parallel port cables?

[Chaos Master]

Hello people.

How far can you run serial or parallel cables? E.g. can I have a printer,
connected with a 5m parallel cable to a PC?

Or will there be a problem with delay or something?

[]s

 

[Ken Taylor]

Hello people.

How far can you run serial or parallel cables? E.g. can I have a printer,
connected with a 5m parallel cable to a PC?

Or will there be a problem with delay or something?

[]s

Five metres is not a problem for either serial or parallel. For anything
more than that I'd be looking to good quality, shielded cable, however.

Ken

 

[John G]

Hello people.

How far can you run serial or parallel cables? E.g. can I have a printer,
connected with a 5m parallel cable to a PC?

Or will there be a problem with delay or something?

[]s

Five metres is not a problem for either serial or parallel. For anything
more than that I'd be looking to good quality, shielded cable, however.

Ken

You only guessed didn't you.
The Specs for parallel say 2 metres and for RS 232 50 metres.
After that they may work but don't expect much support.

 

[E. Barry Bruyea]

Hello people.

How far can you run serial or parallel cables? E.g. can I have a printer,
connected with a 5m parallel cable to a PC?

Or will there be a problem with delay or something?

[]s

Five metres is not a problem for either serial or parallel. For anything
more than that I'd be looking to good quality, shielded cable, however.

Ken

Much over 10 feet with parallel and you'll have problems. I once
tried to run my old HPIII at about 14 feet with a high quality cable
and the printer was erratic. I had the cable shortened and moved the
printer and it was OK.

 

[FutureChild]

exerpt from http://www.duxcw.com/faq/print/print.htm:

Q. What is the "specified" maximum length of a parallel printer cable for a
PC?

A. There are two kinds widely used parallel port printer cables for PCs.
The old "standard" IBM Printer cable and the newer IEEE 1284 bi-directional
cable commonly sold today. The old IBM printer cable was a rather loose
standard having its roots with cables originally designed for Centronics
printers. It was uni-directional from the PC to the printer and had a
25-pin male DB25 connector at one end and a 36-conductor male Centronics
connector at the other end. The "standard-issue" cable was six feet. The
maximum cable length was commonly stated as 15 feet. I have operated
printers with old 20-foot IBM PC cables and some, not many, PC/printer
combinations will work with a quality 25-foot cable. There are devices
which can extend this length significantly.

Commonly available IEEE 1284 cables have a 1284 Type A, 25-pin male DB25
connector at one end and either the older 1284 Type B, 36-conducor male
Centronics connector or the newer 1284 Type C, 36-conductor Mini-Centronics
connector at the other end and are available in 6, 10, 15, 20, and 30 ft
lenghts. The specification also calls for various cable configurations with
different connector genders. The maximum specified length of a IEEE 1284
cable cable is 10 Meters (approx. 30 feet) for data transfers at rates up
to 2 Mhz (of course, this maximum requires that the ports at both ends of
the cable meet the IEEE 1284 spec as well as the cable). IEEE 1284 cables
should work with older IBM printer ports (SPP = Standard Printer Port) and
uni-directional printers.


hope this helps
regards
Jeff

 

[Watson A.Name - \Watt Sun, the Dark Remover\]

Hello people.

How far can you run serial or parallel cables? E.g. can I have a printer,
connected with a 5m parallel cable to a PC?

Or will there be a problem with delay or something?

Parallel is limited by the cable capacitance. You can find printer
cables up to 25 feet or 7.6M. Serial can be run for very long distances
depending on the bit rate. For 9600 bps, it should work for 150 feet or
45m.

Ask this in the more appropriate newsgroups
comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.misc or similar.

[]s

 

[Watson A.Name - \Watt Sun, the Dark Remover\]

Hello people.

How far can you run serial or parallel cables? E.g. can I have a printer,
connected with a 5m parallel cable to a PC?

Or will there be a problem with delay or something?

[]s

Five metres is not a problem for either serial or parallel. For anything
more than that I'd be looking to good quality, shielded cable, however.

Ken

You only guessed didn't you.
The Specs for parallel say 2 metres and for RS 232 50 metres.

No, it is not. For serial, see URL
http://www.lammertbies.nl/comm/info/RS-232_specs.html

For parallel IEEE1284:

Specifications
IEEE1284 Support
Maximum Cable Distance: 5 meters (or 16.5 feet)
Maximum Data Transfer Rate: 2MBytes / sec.
... etc.

 

[Alan]

Hello people.

How far can you run serial or parallel cables? E.g. can I have a printer,
connected with a 5m parallel cable to a PC?

Or will there be a problem with delay or something?
[]s

Five metres is not a problem for either serial or parallel. For anything
more than that I'd be looking to good quality, shielded cable, however. Ken

You only guessed didn't you.
The Specs for parallel say 2 metres and for RS 232 50 metres.
After that they may work but don't expect much support.

I ran 20-foot priter cables without any problems. They're cheap. just
a fewe dollar more than the standard 6-foot ones, just give them a
try.
Otherwise, there are sets of connectors for paralle ports that allow
you to run normal phone cable between PCs and printers over much
longer distances, $30 or so for a kit. Ultimately, get something like
JetDirect and use ethernet, but rather more expensive unless it's
already built in to the printer.

 

[Ken Taylor]

Hello people.

How far can you run serial or parallel cables? E.g. can I have a printer,
connected with a 5m parallel cable to a PC?

Or will there be a problem with delay or something?

[]s

Five metres is not a problem for either serial or parallel. For anything
more than that I'd be looking to good quality, shielded cable, however.

Ken

You only guessed didn't you.
The Specs for parallel say 2 metres and for RS 232 50 metres.
After that they may work but don't expect much support.

On the basis that I've run, and seen it done by others, to 5 metres without
trouble. So yes, I didn't look it up, but it'll work, although maybe, as you
imply, by the grace of God.

Ken

 

[J. A. Mc.]

Hello people.

How far can you run serial or parallel cables? E.g. can I have a printer,
connected with a 5m parallel cable to a PC?

Or will there be a problem with delay or something?

[]s
Five metres is not a problem for either serial or parallel. For anything
more than that I'd be looking to good quality, shielded cable, however.

Ken

You only guessed didn't you.
The Specs for parallel say 2 metres and for RS 232 50 metres.

No, it is not. For serial, see URL
http://www.lammertbies.nl/comm/info/RS-232_specs.html

For parallel IEEE1284:

Specifications
IEEE1284 Support
Maximum Cable Distance: 5 meters (or 16.5 feet)
Maximum Data Transfer Rate: 2MBytes / sec.
.. etc.

After that they may work but don't expect much support.

If you buy good cable, not the "el-cheapo" at Worst Buy ... you can go much
more in a 'real world' enviornment.

Currently I'm running 35, 25 25 and 15 feet to a switch routing at a central
printer location, then 6 feet more to the each of the printers (5). the HP,
one of the fussiest printers, doesn't complain!

 

[Chaos Master]

said:

exerpt from http://www.duxcw.com/faq/print/print.htm:

Q. What is the "specified" maximum length of a parallel printer cable for a
PC?

[snip]

Thanks for the info.

[]s

 

[Chaos Master]

John G said:

You only guessed didn't you.
The Specs for parallel say 2 metres and for RS 232 50 metres.
After that they may work but don't expect much support.

OK. Thanks to all those that helped.