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Author Topic: Anyone point to an installation manual for usb to parallel breakout board?  (Read 4519 times)

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I found a zillion boards, so I dont really care which one.
Basically, they seem to have in common a USB, a parallel port, and a lot of individual signal wire connectors.

I assume I have to plug the usb and parallel cable in.

Beyond that, and maybe power for the board, is that it?
I am guessing the boards are flexible to work in lots of situations, but that if you are
just dealing with the fact that your PC does not have a parallel port, I would tend to assume
those other connectors are for when you dont have a parallel port.

Most of the boards i can afford come from china and basically dont have instructions.
The "manual" i finally tracked down for one of the better documented options
... is a picture of the board with the connectors labeled. (not joking)
So the usual have a look at the web site isnt working out.

I'd just like a sanity check to know what I want to do is reasonable.
Buy a breakout board plug to my pc with usb, my (also from china) cnc, driven by parallel port, plugged port to breaker board port.

It is a very simple desktop cnc, 4 axis, and no end stops feedback, just a zero probe.
So is keep it simple likely to work?

Has anyone tried these cheapy boards with success?
Re: Anyone point to an installation manual for usb to parallel breakout board?
« Reply #1 on: February 09, 2014, 06:28:12 PM »
If it doesn't specifically say it will work with Mach3, and include plug-in software, it will not work.

John Champlain
« Last Edit: February 09, 2014, 06:29:49 PM by Picengraver »
Re: Anyone point to an installation manual for usb to parallel breakout board?
« Reply #2 on: February 09, 2014, 07:37:02 PM »
If it doesn't specifically say it will work with Mach3, and include plug-in software, it will not work.

John Champlain
They do say mach3, software is probably the same place the manual is :-)

Offline ger21

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Re: Anyone point to an installation manual for usb to parallel breakout board?
« Reply #3 on: February 09, 2014, 07:42:18 PM »
If they are less than $100, then they most likely only work with the parallel port.
Gerry

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Offline RICH

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Re: Anyone point to an installation manual for usb to parallel breakout board?
« Reply #4 on: February 09, 2014, 08:26:36 PM »
boards i can afford come from china and basically dont have instructions

So how do you expect to get the boards working if there is no documentation?
If there is no support?
What is your tolerance level for frustration?
Suppose the board dosen't even work or the pin out or description is incorrect?

Some things to think about.

That said........
The Chinese make some drive, sell it cheap, sometimes pure junk, then expect someone else to adress the issues a purchaser is faced with,sell or provide pirated software,....should I go on?

May I suggest you save a few more bucks and maybe look at the the lower cost Gecko drives.

RICH
 


Offline kolias

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Re: Anyone point to an installation manual for usb to parallel breakout board?
« Reply #5 on: February 10, 2014, 01:12:10 AM »
If you are not good in electronics, dont bother with boards from China.
Nicolas
Re: Anyone point to an installation manual for usb to parallel breakout board?
« Reply #6 on: February 10, 2014, 03:24:35 PM »
Good with electronics. bad with ESP.
Re: Anyone point to an installation manual for usb to parallel breakout board?
« Reply #7 on: February 10, 2014, 05:14:11 PM »
mrbi11,
Please post links to the boards you have found, and we can give better answers to your questions.
Regards,
John Champlain
Re: Anyone point to an installation manual for usb to parallel breakout board?
« Reply #8 on: February 11, 2014, 06:31:25 AM »
It may be possible that the usb connection is only supplying 5v to your board.  The actual communication is taking place via the parallel cable.
Re: Anyone point to an installation manual for usb to parallel breakout board?
« Reply #9 on: February 11, 2014, 04:43:28 PM »
Bob's point is almost certainly correct.  I have 2 BoBs, the one on the lathe uses USB only to get the 5v supply for the opto isolators from the PC.  That came from a uk source with full instructions and I built it myself from a kit.

On the other one, IIRC, that 5volts is derived locally (at any rate there isn't a USB from the PC).

As John says, post a link to the site where you bought the board.  I think there is only a limited set of BoB designs from china, I can see if it's like the one I have.