INFO: Recommended Parallel Port Adapters for Machines without a Parallel Port [18031]

This article applies to:

E-Prime 3.0

E-Prime 2.0

E-Prime 1.x

Detail
Users who wish to facilitate parallel port communication on desktop machines without an on-board parallel port can do so by purchasing a PCI or PCI Express add-on card. PCI and PCI Express add on parallel port adapters are available on many sites such as http://www.newegg.com. While PST does not currently recommend a specific PCI or PCI Express add-on adapter, we have seen good results from SYBA, SIIG, and Sunix chipsets.  It is important to note that nearly all PCI and PCI Express add-on adapters will use a base address that is higher than the standard values typically assigned to LPT1 (i.e. 888).

Users that have newer laptops with ExpressCard expansion slots should use Quatech's SPPXP-100 26 pin parallel express card or other express cards that use similar chipsets. More information is available here: http://www.quatech.com/catalog/expresscard_parallel.php. Users with laptops made before 2005 are likely to have PCMCIA expansion slots. These users must facilitate parallel port communication through a specific (Quatech SPP-100 or TransDigital TransPC) PCMCIA parallel port adapter for laptop users. We have not seen acceptable results from any other PCMCIA parallel port adapters. There are other cards on the market that are designed for printing support that will appear in Windows as USB Printers. Since these cards are not compatible with E-Prime, we only recommend the use of the cards that have been explicitly mentioned.

It is important to note that USB to Parallel cables are NOT compatible with E-Prime or any application that requires DMA access to the parallel port memory. Unlike the USB to Serial cables that install a driver to exactly mimic the serial port, the USB to Parallel cables use the "Microsoft USB Printer" driver which is designed only for printing support. PST has purchased over a dozen different brands of the USB to Parallel port cables in an effort to find one that would be compatible with no success.

NOTE: Users have reported issues with Asix branded parallel ports. Occasionally, these parallel ports will not allow E-Prime to use the device for output. We suggest using a different branded parallel port.


Legacy End User Comments