Using a mdified TouCam with the new breed of laptops

[seeker372011]

my laptop crashed recently and has been replaced by one of very ancient lineage which i fear may soon also go to the great junk yard in the sky

I would buy a new one but none of these have parallel ports. I need a parallel port to use the TouCam in long exposure mode as I cant find guide stars otherwise especially from my backyard which is where I do most of my imaging from

I know there are usb-parallel convertors, but these show up as virtual parallel ports (i have tried on my son's laptop which is very new) and neither k3ccd nor guidedog recognise this virtual port-these programs look for LPT1 or LPT2 etc.

so is there anything at all I can do to continue using my trusty modified Toucam as a guide camera with Guidedog but with the new breed of laptops?
I really dont want to buy a new guide camera at this point in time
any help greatly appreciated

Narayan

[CoombellKid]

There was a laptop for sale in the trade forum, not sure if it had the port style
you require, but it was only $250.00

regards,CS

[seeker372011]

Thanks but my current laptop has more grunt and does have both a parallel and a serial port -thing is I am not sure how long something of this vintage will run.

..seem to be many sub $800 laptops for sale advertised recently , esp those running XP, but as I said none of them seem to have either parallel or serial ports ?

[Dennis]

Hi Seeker

Have a look here, $1599:

http://www.ht.com.au/affiliate/L25/part/U5524/detail.hts

Interfaces
1 x audio - line-out/headphones - mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm
1 x microphone - input - mini-phone stereo 3.5 mm
1 x display / video - VGA - 15 pin HD D-Sub (HD-15)
1 x modem - phone line - RJ-11
1 x network - Ethernet 10Base-T/100Base-TX/1000Base-T - RJ-45
1 x serial - 9 pin D-Sub (DB-9) 1 x display / video - S-video output - 7 PIN mini-DIN
4 x Hi-Speed USB - 4 PIN USB Type A
1 x parallel - IEEE 1284 (EPP/ECP) - 25 pin D-Sub (DB-25)
1 x IEEE 1394 (FireWire) - 4 PIN FireWire
1 x docking / port replicator
1 x battery

Cheers

Dennis

[sheeny]

G'Day Narayan,

I use a parallel PCMCIA card. The details will be in an old thread somewhere on IIS. I'll do a search and see if I can pick it up. (It's been a while so I can't remember the details;)).

Al.

[sheeny]

Narayan,

Have a look at this thread:

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=6421&highlight=PCMCIA

and

http://www.iceinspace.com.au/forum/showthread.php?t=6897&highlight=PCMCIA

Al.

[seeker372011]

wow that sounds just the ticket!

thanks ever so much for your helpful suggestions
narayan

[JohnH]

New Lenovo (IBM) Thinkpads like most new machines come with only USB ports, however you can purchase an option wit hboth serial and parallel ports that slots into the bay the CD/DVD drive normally occupies.

[Dennis]

Also, my IBM ThinkPad has a Docking Station which provides legacy Serial and Parallel ports that allow me to connect my mount (RS232 9 pin) and ST7E CCD camera (25 pin parallel).

Cheers

Dennis

[AndrewJ]

The HP nx6120 / nx6320 models are relatively new and have real serial/parallel ports.
I got an nx6120, and whilst the screen / video drivers arent the best ( speed/power wise ) they are more than adequate for field work.
Wouldnt try to process large pictures though.
You get lots of interface peripherals built in as well.

Andrew

[seeker372011]

a few options there, so all is not lost-just yet anyway..thanks for the suggestions-

this wouldn't be for processing anyway-just for guiding and capture