From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: "Mike McCarthy, W1NR" Subject: Re: USB converters and old hardware Date: Thu, 08 Apr 2010 06:20:56 -0400 Message-ID: <4BBDAE08.9010507@w1nr.net> References: <201004081508.45770.phillor@telstra.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Return-path: In-Reply-To: <201004081508.45770.phillor@telstra.com> Sender: linux-hams-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" To: Phil Cc: linux-hams@vger.kernel.org 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. > >