MCP40 on a PC

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Dbug
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MCP40 on a PC

Post by Dbug » Sun Jun 26, 2016 11:09 am

I was wondering: Has anyone tried to connect an MCP40 to a modern PC?

I assume that if the motherboard has a parallel port it's probably just making a cable with the right pins connected, but how would you do it with a PC without any parallel or serial port, like something that only has USB ?
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Re: MCP40 on a PC

Post by iss » Sun Jun 26, 2016 11:38 am

I don't have MCP40 to try it, but I'm using successfully USB to Parallel converter with some old matrix printers.
This is the converter - cheap and chinese - but works.
I succeeded to use it even with an old LPT EPROM programmer.
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Re: MCP40 on a PC

Post by Godzil » Sun Jun 26, 2016 5:45 pm

The only MCP I have have the mecanical part broken so I haven't tested it, but yeah, the connection is basically a normal centronics port, so you can plug it to a PC without any problem.
Apart that you will need a driver... :)
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Re: MCP40 on a PC

Post by coco.oric » Mon Jun 27, 2016 9:47 am

I have one but i've never tried it
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Re: MCP40 on a PC

Post by Dbug » Mon Jun 27, 2016 8:25 pm

Godzil wrote:The only MCP I have have the mecanical part broken so I haven't tested it, but yeah, the connection is basically a normal centronics port, so you can plug it to a PC without any problem.
Apart that you will need a driver... :)
Driver?
Is it not just possible to send bytes to the port?
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Re: MCP40 on a PC

Post by Godzil » Mon Jun 27, 2016 10:30 pm

Dbug wrote:
Godzil wrote:The only MCP I have have the mecanical part broken so I haven't tested it, but yeah, the connection is basically a normal centronics port, so you can plug it to a PC without any problem.
Apart that you will need a driver... :)
Driver?
Is it not just possible to send bytes to the port?
Not directly, I mean with a real Parallel port yeah using the corresponding IO ports, on a USB adapter it's a different story.

By driver I mean some code to send data to the parallel port specifically for the printer.

It's definitely possible of course but a USB adapter is not working the same way as a standard parallel port
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