Printer Interface

If your printer is a parallel port, go out and buy a parallel port card for your computer, open it up, and install the card. Converting USB to parallel is not a good idea. I found this type of conversion to not be reliable. As for building your own converter, this I have no idea of, or would even bother to go that far.

The other alternative, which is more expensive is to put an Ethernet to parallel converter on your computer network. Then you can have the printer work as a network printer.

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Jerry G. =====

I want to be able to use a USB printer on a machine that has a Centronics printer output port. The printer port on the machine is not a 25 pin parallel socket, it is a Centronics socket.

The machine provides the option to select types of printers, eg: Epson, B&W, Color, IBM etc.

If anyone knows of a readily available piece of hardware, that would be great. Otherwise a circuit or circuit ideas.

Thanks in advance,

Cheers.

!!! HAPPY & PROSPEROUS 2005 TO ALL !!!

All of the parallelUSB converters seem to be for a USB on the PC side and parallel on the printer side.

The simplest, most reliable solution would be for you to get a USB interface card for the machine if you can find one for the motherboard's bus structure. ISA?

Another alternative would be to hang the printer off of a second machine, configured to share the printer, and network the two machines together.

A bespoke solution wouldn't be impossible, with a microcontroller or FPGA in the middle taking care of the protocol conversion.

The problem is this. The 'machine' is a US$0.3M piece of industrial plant, not a PC, and has a Centronics printer port attached for use with a centronics type printer. Practically all modern available printers are USB. We would like to be able to run an 'off-the-shelf' USB printer from this 'machine'.

for

parallel

As

B&W,

"Dingus" schreef in bericht news:fnDAd.3499$ snipped-for-privacy@news.xtra.co.nz...

Does your 'machine' have an operating system?

Then this might help...

But why not just get a parallel port printer? They're still available.

...Jim Thompson

"Dingus" schreef in bericht news:fnDAd.3499$ snipped-for-privacy@news.xtra.co.nz...

The interface you want requires the building of a USB host. This can be done and is done but AFAIK not for a printer interface. Cypress - for instance - has the SL811SH which contains almost all of the hardware required. You have to add a good micro and write some pretty special software.

Another solution is using not to old a PC running WIN98SE. You can use an EEP printer port to interface with your computers Centronics port and a USB interface for the printer. Nevertheless it also requires some special software to be written.

Simplest solution is using another printer. Except for the cheapest ones, most of the better printers still have a parallel interface.

petrus bitbyter

Does this specialized machine have Ethernet capability?

If so and you want only to use a USB printer, your only solution would be to get a simple PC machine that can run Windows that has USB ports, and use it as a network printer server. Any good IT man can set this up very quickly, as long as he can know the setup for your source machine that you say is specialized, and that the printer you buy is network compatable between the two machines.

Also, you should consider that HP, and a few others still make parallel port type printers for industrial applications.

Jerry G. ======

I don't have any solution.

You need is so rate that propalbly the cheapest and most relaible solution would be to still find a printer that has parallel port interface. Those exist still... For example check laser printers from HP.

Get thee to the local computer shop in the lovely land of Zu. Standard product, probably find one for $9.95 (no-name whitebox).

Yup.

Centronics

... unfortunately will not be able to load the driver, as the machine does not have a HDD, keyboeard or Windows operating system. It is not a PC, its a great big piece of industrial machienery.

"JeffM" schreef in bericht news: snipped-for-privacy@c13g2000cwb.googlegroups.com...

I did not check all of the converters mentioned but the ones I checked were meant to connect a printer with a parallel interface to a computers USB port. *Not* the other way around which is what the OP asked for.

petrus bitbyter

"petrus bitbyter" wrote

To connect a USB printer to a computer w/o a USB port one adds a USB card. The Centronics port on the computer is not used.

Getting the printer driver for a USB printer to suddenly start using the Centronics port may be problematic.