On Sun, Feb 05, 2006 at 04:49:51PM +0800, Xiaofan Chen wrote: > On 2/5/06, Wouter van Ooijen wrote: > > > > A big (literally) disadvantage of usb-parallel converters is that all > > versions I have seen have a cnetronics-male connector, which is bulky, > > and the corresponding female connector is not as easy to find as a DB9. > > A slight advantage is that usb-parallel conveters are somewhat cheaper > > than usb-serial converters. > > Are USB-parallel converters common at all? To be honest, I have not > seen a physical one yet. USB-seral converter is much more common. Ebay has a ton of them. Here's a sample: http://cgi.ebay.com/Dynex-6-Foot-USB-to-Parallel-Printer-Cable_W0QQitemZ6844731084QQcategoryZ51286QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem > > I will say to buy a usb-parallel to just build a cheap programmer is a > very strange idea. ;-) The scope goes beyond that. With the impending death of parallel and serial ports on PC hardware, there's no effective way for hackers to control signals directly from their PC. Folks like James, Bob, and myself do not necessarily think it's a good thing to be dependent on others to supply extra hardware in order to have some measure of hardware control from a PC. You yourself have seen the struggle to get prebuilt hardware to work with Linux for example. If all hardware is out of your control, then you are stuck with only with others supply. USB to serial (and parallel) hardware is hardly unique. I'm pretty sure I could drive out to the Walmart just this minute and find at least one such adapter. With some simple hardware attached, some measure of control can be reacquired. Now truly the point is somewhat moot at this point. Parallel nor serial ports haven't been buried yet. However, the need for them will dissapate as more and more hardware becomes USB attached. BAJ -- http://www.piclist.com PIC/SX FAQ & list archive View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist