USB to Parallel port

[Syd Rumpo]

Hi

I have an ICE Technology Micromaster LV parallel port programmer which I
use for some (old!) legacy devices. This runs fine on an elderly XP box
with some drivers I found, however I'd like to run it from a newer PC,
which of course doesn't have a parallel port.

Anyone know of a USB to parallel converter which is likely to work? ICE
Technology (or their successors) don't.

Cheers

 

[Lasse Langwadt Christensen]

Den tirsdag den 26. november 2013 23.54.43 UTC+1 skrev Syd Rumpo:

Hi



I have an ICE Technology Micromaster LV parallel port programmer which I

use for some (old!) legacy devices. This runs fine on an elderly XP box

with some drivers I found, however I'd like to run it from a newer PC,

which of course doesn't have a parallel port.



Anyone know of a USB to parallel converter which is likely to work? ICE

Technology (or their successors) don't.

most likely none, the timing on USB is totally different so for anything but moving bulk data for something like a printer the USB to parallel converters
don't work

-Lasse

 

[hamilton]

Hi

I have an ICE Technology Micromaster LV parallel port programmer which I
use for some (old!) legacy devices. This runs fine on an elderly XP box
with some drivers I found, however I'd like to run it from a newer PC,
which of course doesn't have a parallel port.

Anyone know of a USB to parallel converter which is likely to work? ICE
Technology (or their successors) don't.

Cheers

The legacy software will most likley address the port pins directly.

So, no there is NO way a USB device can replace a legacy PPort.

Now, writing a custom driver that simulates that parallel port and sends
those signals out the USB device may work.

But, (AFAIK) no one has done it yet.

Also, you can't sell a new widget by fixing the old stuff.

 

[asdf]

I have an ICE Technology Micromaster LV parallel port programmer which I
use for some (old!) legacy devices. This runs fine on an elderly XP box
with some drivers I found, however I'd like to run it from a newer PC,
which of course doesn't have a parallel port.

If the pc isn't a laptop a parallel PCI or PCI-E card would solve your
problem. I've succesfully tested a CNC machine thanks to one of
those cards on a modern PC without parallel port.

Searching for pci+parallel or pcie+parallel yelds some inexpensive cards
at online shops.

 

[sms]

Hi

I have an ICE Technology Micromaster LV parallel port programmer which I
use for some (old!) legacy devices. This runs fine on an elderly XP box
with some drivers I found, however I'd like to run it from a newer PC,
which of course doesn't have a parallel port.

Anyone know of a USB to parallel converter which is likely to work? ICE
Technology (or their successors) don't.

Cheers

Highly unlikely. When you install such a device you won't get a
simulated standard parallel port you'll get "USB Printing Support." No
LPT number, no IRQ, no I/O address.

I just ran into this yesterday, using an ExpressCard parallel port
adapter on Windows 7 (which appears to be an ExpressCard to USB adapter
and a USB to parallel adapter combined together). I also tried running
XP under a virtual machine but this didn't help. Now if you had a
CardBus adapter it would likely work but no new laptops have a Cardbus slot.

If it's desktop then you could buy a parallel port PCIe card, i.e.
<http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16815124083>.

Bottom line is that those parallel adapters will work for printing but
probably not for other stuff.

 

[petrus bitbyter]

Hi

I have an ICE Technology Micromaster LV parallel port programmer which I
use for some (old!) legacy devices. This runs fine on an elderly XP box
with some drivers I found, however I'd like to run it from a newer PC,
which of course doesn't have a parallel port.

Anyone know of a USB to parallel converter which is likely to work? ICE
Technology (or their successors) don't.

Cheers

In my experience USB to parallel converters do pretty well for ordinary
parallel printers but not for other devices. Most of the times there are
timing problems. Especially USB-1 is way too slow and often quits without
any warning. That's why I still have an archaic XT to run those prehistoric
applications.

If your computer has an extension slot you can look for a PCI-e parallel
printer port card (and hope the drivers will work on the new engine).

petrus bitbyter

 

[hamilton]

I have an ICE Technology Micromaster LV parallel port programmer which I
use for some (old!) legacy devices.

What devices are you programming ?

 

[Robert Baer]

Hi

I have an ICE Technology Micromaster LV parallel port programmer which I
use for some (old!) legacy devices. This runs fine on an elderly XP box
with some drivers I found, however I'd like to run it from a newer PC,
which of course doesn't have a parallel port.

Anyone know of a USB to parallel converter which is likely to work? ICE
Technology (or their successors) don't.

Cheers

You may have a problem with that adapter; if the software has LPT1:
or LPT2: "hardwired" in the program, then you are stuck using legacy
hardware.

 

[Martin Brown]

Hi

I have an ICE Technology Micromaster LV parallel port programmer which I
use for some (old!) legacy devices. This runs fine on an elderly XP box
with some drivers I found, however I'd like to run it from a newer PC,
which of course doesn't have a parallel port.

I think your only option is to retain legacy kit for this purpose or
find one of the handful of real parallel printer port cards that are
still made and hang onto it until your programmer finally expires.

The thing almost certainly relies on peeky pokey operations directly on
hardware registers to function and that is decidedly non-portable.

Anyone know of a USB to parallel converter which is likely to work? ICE
Technology (or their successors) don't.

Cheers

I doubt if any will even with a very smart virtual driver. Your best
chance is if the OEM offer support for Win7 operation of their old kit.

And you may run into interesting problems with race conditions in old
drivers for ancient legacy hardware on fast pipelined multicore machines.

 

[Jasen Betts]

I just ran into this yesterday, using an ExpressCard parallel port
adapter on Windows 7 (which appears to be an ExpressCard to USB adapter
and a USB to parallel adapter combined together).

expresscard is USB*, no adaptor needed.

(*) actually expresscard is USB + PCIe

 

[Syd Rumpo]

Thanks for all the replies, I sort of thought that would be the case,
but you never know.

I think the best suggestion is to buy an old laptop with parallel port.
A desktop card is good, but I'd then have to swap it when I get a new
PC, or hang on to a bulky item for very occasional use.

Ebay here I come.

The devices are old ICT PEELs, 32KB UV EPROMS and pre-flash PICs. The
Micromaster LV does the lot.

Thanks

 

[John Devereux]

Thanks for all the replies, I sort of thought that would be the case,
but you never know.

I think the best suggestion is to buy an old laptop with parallel
port. A desktop card is good, but I'd then have to swap it when I get
a new PC, or hang on to a bulky item for very occasional use.

That's what I do for my old LV. As an added bonus you get that wave of
nostalgia as the clunky W95 desktop appears.

 

[sms]

Thanks for all the replies, I sort of thought that would be the case,
but you never know.

I think the best suggestion is to buy an old laptop with parallel port.
A desktop card is good, but I'd then have to swap it when I get a new
PC, or hang on to a bulky item for very occasional use.

If the laptop has a _working_ PCMCIA/CardBus/PC Card slot that will also
work (with XP and perhaps Windows 7).

However I just discovered that my old Dell D630 with a PCMCIA slot
actually doesn't work with any cards. The laptop freezes when you insert
a card. This is a well known problem with the D630, at least with older
ones. Yet my old D610 with a PCMCIA slot works just fine with a Koutech
Cardbus to Parallel Port adapter (but it's not needed because the laptop
already has a parallel port) <http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000MX99KM>.

Dell D series Latitudes also can use a Dell dock which has a real
parallel port if the laptop itself doesn't have one, but it's kind of a
pain to carry that around.

I have some stepper motors that need to be programmed via SPI using the
manufacturer's utility and their parallel port to SPI cable. It would
cost me $163 for their USB to SPI cable with the proper connector that
works with their utility. I was disappointed that the ExpressCard to
Parallel Port adapter didn't work. It's essentially two chips in that
card, a PCIe to USB and a USB to parallel.

However, you can thank me or blame me (partially) for the fact that
parallel ports didn't disappear even longer ago. I attended a meeting in
South Dakota many years ago that Gateway called to discuss Microsoft's
PC98 initiative which would have _forbidden_ legacy ports. If a
manufacturer included the forbidden ports then they would have lost
lucrative discounts on OS purchases. There was push back from computer
and semiconductor manufacturers and Microsoft backed down.

 

[sms]

I have some stepper motors that need to be programmed via SPI using the
manufacturer's utility and their parallel port to SPI cable. It would
cost me $163 for their USB to SPI cable with the proper connector that
works with their utility. I was disappointed that the ExpressCard to
Parallel Port adapter didn't work. It's essentially two chips in that
card, a PCIe to USB and a USB to parallel.

Apparently there is one ExpressCard to Parallel adapter that people have
had some success with but it's not sold in the U.S..
<http://www.ebay.com/itm/Express-Parallel-1P-ExpressCard-ECP-EPP-SPP-/220438537227>

 

[sms]

Last year I bought a new Asus mobo, it has a par port header on it, and embedded graphics,
cost about half that, M5A78LM
https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/M5A78LMUSB3/

Many of the cheap ones have, even the addres is 0x378.
From ebay I got an adaptor cable from the header to a 25 pole connector on the back.

For about 200 Euro you get this board in a complete PC with RAM.

For those that just need a parallel port for programming embedded
devices it's probably a better deal to buy an old laptop on Craigslist
for $100 or so. The thing is that often you need a system that's more
portable than a desktop system. I.e.
<http://sfbay.craigslist.org/eby/sys/4209629528.html>

But if you want a modern laptop with a parallel port the only real
option is to buy a laptop with an Expresscard slot (such as many
Thinkpads) and then carefully buy an Expresscard card that uses the PCIe
interface on the Expresscard interface, not an Expresscard card that
uses the USB interface on the Expresscard interface. This will work as
long as the application uses the logical port (LPT1, LPT2, or LPT3) and
doesn't try to write directly to the I/O address of these ports 0x3BC,
0x378, 0x278) and doesn't require an ISA IRQ. It would have to be a
really old DOS app that wrote directly to the I/O address.

 

[sms]

We have done the same thing.
I *think* I had to do a little fiddling with the driver to make it/them
fall on a "legacy" port address, but it worked.

If the program just requires that you specify a LPT port and then lets
the OS worry about the resources that the BIOS assigns then the driver
doesn't need to know the resources. Windows 7 or 8 will even let an
application write directly to I/O addresses. So if the "newer PC" runs
Windows 7 or 8 some really old devices and applications won't be usable
(though running Windows XP as a virtual machine under Windows 7
professional may work but probably not).

 

[sms]

Hi

I have an ICE Technology Micromaster LV parallel port programmer which I
use for some (old!) legacy devices. This runs fine on an elderly XP box
with some drivers I found, however I'd like to run it from a newer PC,
which of course doesn't have a parallel port.

Anyone know of a USB to parallel converter which is likely to work? ICE
Technology (or their successors) don't.

I did buy an ExpressCard to Parallel Port adapter that works for my
legacy application. It just arrived today. This is a PCIe to parallel
device as opposed to some other ExpressCard to Parallel Port adapters
that area a USB to parallel device (avoid these).

It's this one
<http://www.ebay.com/itm/Express-Parallel-1P-ExpressCard-ECP-EPP-SPP-/220438537227>.

The Shentech 33006 or 33014 would probably have also worked but I didn't
find it until after I ordered the other one
<http://www.ebay.com/itm/shentek-330...rnal_Port_Expansion_Cards&hash=item3f2be8891e>.

The one I bought shows up as LPT3. Here's how it looks in Device
Manager: <http://oi43.tinypic.com/25pn59t.jpg>.

I think that the only way to use a laptop and get a "real" parallel port
is through one of these cards. Of course very few new laptops have
ExpressCard slots anymore, but some do so choose carefully. Look at
Thinkpads.

For a modern desktop use something like
<http://www.shentek.com.tw/en/products.php?index=68&c1=9>

If the application tries to write directly to the parallel port hardware
I/O address then these probably won't work, but if they just need an LPT
port number then they probably will work.