Parallel port control with USB->Parallel converter

[Soren]

Hey Diez, thanks for your answer!

> 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.

That was my thought too, and that's why I bought one (actually I
bought two), but it turns out that people only use these to interface
with old printers.. and so the converter is listed as a USB printer
port, and does not directly map itself to the LPT port.. Of course,
there must be some way of controlling the USB2PAR the way I want, but
without something like PyParallel or an API for this converter.. im
pretty much in the blind.. :/

> 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.

I thought about it.. this would be my last option however... mostly
because it would take too much time to get acquainted with it. I need
the thing running before the beginning of March among other
things.. :) I do have a LabJack USB DAQ, which is really nice... but
unfortunately it's too slow for running 5+ motors in parallel by
sending pulses. I also thought about extending the labjack with faster
pulse generators that could be triggered from the labjack.

Using the parallel port or USB2PARALLEL on the pc would just be so
much simpler, cheaper and faster... So if anyone know how to hack an
USB-Parallel converter to let me send bytes to it.. I'm all ears!! :)

Soren