USB to "LPT Printer Port" adapter?

V

V@no

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Mar 28, 2012
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Hello.

Does anyone know if there is a such thing as USB to "LPT Printer Port" adapter?

All I could find so far is USB to Printer (which is "USB Printer Support") adapter.

I need LPT1 port in the computer running Windows 7/8

Thank you.
 
Yes, something like this but with actual LPT1 port. That adapter adds "USB Printing Support" device to the system, not actual LPT1 port
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So far I could only found these "USB Printing Support" adapters.
I need it to for a cutter that connects to two parallel ports, that controls from DOS and requires LPT ports (I'm gonna use VMWare to run DOS, but still need physical LPT ports in the computer)
 
Yeah, I figured you might be looking for a way to connect an old device that wasn't a printer. It's going to be really, really tough to do what you want, due to fact that true LPT is tough to emulate, and trying to do it over USB makes it even worse.
I've looked in this before and it's a giant pain. This old site is the only thing I've found that would probably work:
http://www-user.tu-chemnitz.de/~heha/bastelecke/Rund um den PC/USB2LPT/index.en.htm
But even that might not work to control a stepper motor or similar due to the slow emulation. Not sure how you actually buy it anyway, unless you're supposed to just build it yourself.

Like mentioned above, you're only good options are add-in cards (PCI, PCIe, PCMCIA, ExpressCard). Another option is to take a look at your mobo (if a desktop), and see if it doesn't have LPT headers somewhere, but that's only for something more than a couple years old. And even then, I doubt you'll find more than a single header.

Any chance the cutter also takes a serial input? Many of those old devices take serial or parallel inputs, and there are plenty of USB to Serial adapters that do what you want.
 
JBark said:
Yeah, I figured you might be looking for a way to connect an old device that wasn't a printer. It's going to be really, really tough to do what you want, due to fact that true LPT is tough to emulate, and trying to do it over USB makes it even worse.
I've looked in this before and it's a giant pain. This old site is the only thing I've found that would probably work:
http://www-user.tu-chemnitz.de/~heha/bastelecke/Rund um den PC/USB2LPT/index.en.htm
But even that might not work to control a stepper motor or similar due to the slow emulation. Not sure how you actually buy it anyway, unless you're supposed to just build it yourself.

Like mentioned above, you're only good options are add-in cards (PCI, PCIe, PCMCIA, ExpressCard). Another option is to take a look at your mobo (if a desktop), and see if it doesn't have LPT headers somewhere, but that's only for something more than a couple years old. And even then, I doubt you'll find more than a single header.

Any chance the cutter also takes a serial input? Many of those old devices take serial or parallel inputs, and there are plenty of USB to Serial adapters that do what you want.
Click to expand...

Even if the cutter takes serial input, it only runs in DOS.. right... so a USB adapter is still out of the question.

A real port that will work in DOS is the only real answer unless you want to write a program for it that will work in Windows.
 
cyclone3d said:
Even if the cutter takes serial input, it only runs in DOS.. right... so a USB adapter is still out of the question.

A real port that will work in DOS is the only real answer unless you want to write a program for it that will work in Windows.
Click to expand...

True, depends on how the device passes through with VMWare. I know with VMWare player, I can either pass through the USB to Serial device itself, or pass through the COM port. The first instance only works if something has a driver for it, the 2nd should work with everything. Though I've never tried a DOS VM to see how it works.

Same option exists for parallel ports, so as long as he's got true LPT ports, they should pass through OK, but I imagine they're much more finicky with trying to control an external device than a pass through serial port.
 
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