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Originally Posted by alistairsam
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Loving the system. That's what I had sorta had in mind, but a little beyond me.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Barrykgerdes
This means that I need to do away with parallel port control and find another way to talk to the board with my XP system and Windows 7 64 bit. Further the none of the old compiled BASIC programs I have run in a 64 bit system.
Has anyone used Windows XP to drive equipment from a parallel port?
Barry
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Ahhh the new tech vs old tech...... You can still get parallel port infrastructure, but it's very limited now.
There is software to use parallel ports in XP, but you would have to use something like a CNC style of system, or think "industrial".
I have used MACH3 with great success, bit fiddly to setup, it works they way I wanted. However, I haven't got it to allow for variances, so if you needed to move it (manually adjust), it is a little tricky. But the basis of using it, to see if it would drive a stepper system off the PC and it did. Very happy, just the finer adjustments are a bit of pain.
I have a new PC (i7), which does not have a parallel interface. You can buy a Expresscard with parallel port (which I have), but you then have to buy a expresscard slot interface for the PC.
The cheapie USB to parallel ports don't work, unless you have USB software to drive it. I have tried tirelessly to find out about this, not many people produce software on what we want. And not many produce software other than "printer driver".
There is one local guy who sells stuff on eBay (usb to parallel), but his interface is somewhat cumbersome and not supported all that well. His software is used for driving stepper motors, there isn't much adjustment in his code. Just that it works (bare bones)
I think you would have to be a software engineer to code up a software interface. Bit like ASCOM.
Sometimes, I surf youtube insight of inspiration, to see how others have done it. Moreso, if people have done it and how cumbersome the system works.
I know some people hate youtube, but I use it like a tool for everything and anything. It is a great learning tool.