CFAXZIF-DEMO: USB-to-parallel adapter recommendation?

[SWB]

Can you recommend a USB-to-parallel adapter that works with the CFAXZIF-DEMO board? It looks like many of these types of adapters only work with printers.

Thanks!

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[cosmicvoid]

Could depend on what software you're planning on using to do the USB communications. I've succcessfully used USB-parallel modules from USB Micro and Elexol, but I was using software that I wrote myself.

http://www.elexol.com/USB_Modules/
http://www.usbmicro.com/

 

[CF Tech]

I would be a bit surprised if the demo board and software works properly over a USB-to-parallel adapter. We wiggle each control line on the port in ways that are not common to printers. My understanding is that the USB-to-parallel adapters only wiggle the control lines in a way that a printer would understand.

 

[SWB]

Thanks ... yeah, that appears to be the case. The CFAX_WinTest software talks to the parallel port through a special driver on one of the standard hardware parallel-port addresses, which even a low-level USB-to-IEEE1284 adapter (if one exists) wouldn't match. Of course, since the source code is provided, one could probably tweak the software to work with such a low-level adapter (if one exists), but out-of-the-box, it looks like the demo board/software combination only works with a real, old-fashioned parallel port.

I dusted off one of my old computers that still had a parallel port and was able to get the demo board/software up and running successfully on that. I have some questions about the LCD itself now, which I'll ask in a new thread.

By the way the CFAXZIF-DEMO product page links to the wrong software. It links to https://www.crystalfontz.com/software/CFAX_WinTest/; it should link to https://www.crystalfontz.com/product/CFAX_WinTest.