sending bytes to parallel port

[Timothy Smith]

hello people.

i've been trying to send an 8 byte string to my parallel port under 
freebsd. the purpose is it to control a relay board.
the board simply responds to the output byte coming from the port. eg. 
00000001 will set pin 1 high and flick the relay open.
todate i've attempted this with merely open() on /dev/ppi0 and numpy for 
the byte array, but i just can't seem to get it working.
i know the parallel port works and i know the relay board works (tested 
it with it's own windows ultility) so it's just my crappy programming 
keeping me from success.