Parallel port control with USB->Parallel converter

[Diez B. Roggisch]

Soren wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> I want to control some motors using the parallel port.. however, my
> laptop does not have any parallel ports (very few do). What I do have
> is a USB->Parallel converter... I thought about using PyParallel, but
> the USB->Parallel converter    doesn't actually map to the LPT port ..
> and PyParallel only looks for LPT ports?
> 
> Has anyone tried doing this? What are my options for controlling
> parallel connections on a laptop with no parallel port?
> 
> I also thought about controlling the USB natively.. but since I dont
> have any instructions on how to do this with my Velleman USB->Parallel
> port converter... i guess I would be totally blind.

You could try and see how far you get with pyusb, the wrapping for libusb.
However, any decent usb2<somewhat>-adapter should register itself as device
of the mapped kind. For example, usb2serial-converters appear as
COMx:-ports. 

So I *guess* you are having driver-problems if the converter doesn't show up
as parallel port.

Apart from that, you might consider using products like atmel's USB-Key or
similar to attach a microcontroller to the USB-port that then will use it's
own ports to control the motors.


Diez