From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Phil Subject: USB converters and old hardware Date: Thu, 8 Apr 2010 15:08:45 +1000 Message-ID: <201004081508.45770.phillor@telstra.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Return-path: Sender: linux-hams-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" To: linux-hams@vger.kernel.org Thank you for reading this. I have two old hardware items that I would like to put back into service. The first is a Baycom style modem that of course does not work with USB to serial converters because of the non-standard way in which the modem interacts with the serial port. An acquaintance told me that genuine USB to serial converters are available but a Google search does not indicate this to be true. Can anyone suggest how I might be able to use this modem again? The second question is more programming related and concerns a hardware item that used to operate via a parallel port. I thought a USB to parallel converter would easily solve this problem but it does not. The converter does allow me to use an old printer and it does cause /dev/parport0 to be generated. The problem is that ioctl(fd,PPCLAIM) now causes the following error message to be displayed: "Parport claim: No such device or address" This indicates to me that the parallel converter does what it is intended to do, allow the use of old printers, but nothing else. Is there an alternative way to programme such a port? I've played with the outport C instruction briefly but I'm unsure of the base address of the port. Are genuine serial and parallel ports available for newer computers? I'm reluctant to build new gear when the old stuff works perfectly. -- Regards, Phil