USB in python

[Grant Edwards]

On 2009-01-23, Astan Chee <astan.chee at al.com.au> wrote:

> Thanks for all the responses but I forgot to mention that I have very 
> little hardware understanding (at least in english) and the device 
> itself it very simple and only needs about 5V power to be active. The 
> problem here is that I want to control when the device is active using a 
> computer so I thought USB might be a good choice since its simple (but
> didn't turn out to be).

USB is definitely not simple.  USB is exremely complicated (and
rather badly designed, IMO).

> I'm open to any other suggestions on how I might achieve this
> hardware and software-wise (as in what interface should I 
> use, etc). Also I'm trying to stay away from (complex) micro
> controllers. Any ideas? Thanks again Astan

Standard IBM PC parallel printer ports offer a bunch of 5V I/O
lines that are fairly simple to control in software.

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