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General => General Technical Chat => Topic started by: clonecrp on October 14, 2011, 02:32:45 am

Title: Parallel Printer Port to USB Printer Converter
Post by: clonecrp on October 14, 2011, 02:32:45 am
Hi all:

I have a piece of test gear w/Parallel out and I want to print to a USB Printer instead of a parallel.

Thoughts anyone ... ?  :)

Thanks!
Doug
Title: Re: Parallel Printer Port to USB Printer Converter
Post by: IanB on October 14, 2011, 02:40:17 am
Quote from: clonecrp on October 14, 2011, 02:32:45 am
Hi all:

I have a piece of test gear w/Parallel out and I want to print to a USB Printer instead of a parallel.

Thoughts anyone ... ?  :)

Thanks!
Doug
You're screwed?

Basically, you can't do this with an off the shelf solution. USB has taken over the world. Your only options are to buy a printer with a parallel port, or replace the test gear with a newer model that has USB output.
Title: Re: Parallel Printer Port to USB Printer Converter
Post by: joelby on October 14, 2011, 03:49:57 am
Does the test gear have a GPIB port? You might be able to use that to download data to your computer, though unless you need to do a lot of printing, it'll be cheaper and easier to rescue a throw-away parallel printer.
Title: Re: Parallel Printer Port to USB Printer Converter
Post by: Bored@Work on October 14, 2011, 05:25:29 am
DIY: http://www-user.tu-chemnitz.de/~heha/bastelecke/Rund%20um%20den%20PC/USB2LPT/lpt2usb.en.htm (http://www-user.tu-chemnitz.de/~heha/bastelecke/Rund%20um%20den%20PC/USB2LPT/lpt2usb.en.htm)
Off the shelf: Scroll to the end of the above page.
Title: Re: Parallel Printer Port to USB Printer Converter
Post by: IanB on October 14, 2011, 05:35:33 am
Wow, some people have been very creative! That's a lot of work for a thing that is rarely needed.
Title: Re: Parallel Printer Port to USB Printer Converter
Post by: clonecrp on October 17, 2011, 12:04:21 am
HI Guys:

I can name several applications of converter. I originally considered a UART latch the data then stream to an CP2101 to convert TTL to USB.

To have a completed device is dinomite ! Looks like BoredAtWork has the Idea...  ;D

BTW the PLL out is for avery expensive hunk-o-gear ... to USB printer is supreme!

More thoughts anyone ?