Re: USB converters and old hardware

["Mike McCarthy, W1NR" <lists@w1nr.net>]

There are many PCI and PCI-e cards with both types of ports that respond
like "real" serial and parallel ports. I generally buy the cheapest ones
I can find at mwave.com (they all seem to use the same chip) and have no
problems. No go for laptops. Best solution I have seen for laptops are
the legacy docking stations for the Dell Latitude line.

Mike, W1NR

Phil wrote:
> 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.
>
>