USB to Parallel Converter

[TravisGilbert]

Has anyone had success using any USB to parallel port converter?  I've tried 3 different cables including one that supposedly supported the full IEEE-1284 standard, but all of them show up only as a virtual printer port.  Is there a way to get access to this port through LabView?  Are there any cables/converters out that actually show up as a regular parallel port?  I've searched far and wide for one, but had no luck.  I searched the boards to see if anyone had done this, but most of the posts were over a year old and had no resolution confirming whether or not a proposed solution worked or not.  Thanks in advance for any help,
Travis

[Tim Norris]

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@LittlemanTAMU wrote:
Has anyone had success using any USB to parallel port converter?  I've tried 3 different cables including one that supposedly supported the full IEEE-1284 standard, but all of them show up only as a virtual printer port.  Is there a way to get access to this port through LabView?  Are there any cables/converters out that actually show up as a regular parallel port?  I've searched far and wide for one, but had no luck.  I searched the boards to see if anyone had done this, but most of the posts were over a year old and had no resolution confirming whether or not a proposed solution worked or not.  Thanks in advance for any help,
Travis

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What OS are you using? I had the same problem with XP and LabVIEW 7.0 & &.1. But using the same USB-parallel  port converter under WIN2k I was able to access this as a parallel port. In the end my solution was to go to a PCI parallel port which worked fine under both OSes.

Tim Norris

[TravisGilbert]

I'm using Windows XP for development, but the final program will be run on Windows Server 2003.  Unless someone knows of a converter that works, I'm probably going to have to grab a PCI-X or PCI-Express (whichever the server has available) parallel port card like you.  I'm running Labview 7.1.

Message Edited by LittlemanTAMU on 06-05-2006 10:46 AM

[tdurand]

Did you ever find an answer to this?  I'm in the same boat myself now, with the same questions.  The cable looks like a virtual printer port.  Is there any way to access this through LabView 7.1 or 8.x?  I'm on a WinXP computer.  The cable I bought came with no drivers.

I saw the suggestions for the $99 NI board with 24 digital I/O lines.  I really like that idea, and may end up getting it, but if I can get my cable to work, that would save me $99.

Thanks,

Tom

[tdurand]

To answer a part of my question, I found this link to be helpful:

http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/tut/p/id/4478

This helped me create a .inf file so that I could use the VISA open to access the USB's virtual parallel port.  What's next?  I read somewhere about grounding two pins in order to be able to set outputs.  Is this what I have to do?  And what do I send to the Visa Write?  Do I simply set a byte, which gets sent to pins D0-D7?

I'm reading 5V on some of the pins, but it doesn't change, regardless of the data I write.

Help?  Thanks.

-Tom

[TravisGilbert]

I believe I found a cable that worked and just showed up as a parallel port.  I'll see if I can dig up my code and verify this.

[Wayne.C]

Travis,

Which converters have you tried?

[Wayne.C]

Tom,

NI-VISA rev 1.1 or greater should allow you to directly access LPT port.  That includes virtual ports as in the case of your USB adapter.  The first step is to check and see if MAX recognizes your adapter and shows the LPT port.

Here is an example from NI on how to control port.  http://zone.ni.com/devzone/cda/epd/p/id/4213 

[tdurand]

Hi Centerbolt,

I'm using MAX 3.1.0 and I don't see the USB device.  In Device Manager, it appears under "USB Printing Support" and runs with the (Microsoft?) usbprint.sys driver.

A couple years ago, I got an app working that used a regular parallel port.  I think once I understand how to interface with this USB-to-Parallel port cable, and if it then acts like a regular parallel port, I'll be set.

When I followed the instructions from the link I mentioned above, to install a *.inf file and communicate with the device in raw mode, I was able to see the device with LabView, but I didn't know how to control it.

Any help appreciated.

-Tom

[Wayne.C]

Tom,

What version of NI-VISA do you have installed?