Parallel Port (Lpt1) direct control possible?

Hi. I would like to know if it would be possible to control the Parallel Port (Lpt1) directly in Basic4PPC (Desktop only)? I want to be able to control individual pins (i.e. on and off) of the parallel port like we used to be able to do under DOS and BASIC. Is there some library for this? I want to make a 3D printer with stepper motors and I want to access a Breakout Board that is plugged into the parallel port. Is this possible? I did a search for "parallel port" and "Lpt1" but found nothing relevant.

Regards.

Lorne Wilkins

There is no parallel port library in Basic4ppc (as far as I remember).

Parallel port access is messy under Windows 7 and later, especially 64 bit, as you need a protected mode driver that Windows doesn't seem to provide. I would suggest using an Arduino via a USB port. They seem simple to use and are probably a better technical solution as directly driving a stepper at low level from Windows will probably be slow and a bit "choppy". Having an Arduino control the stepper and having the PC tell it what to do at a more abstract level should provide a higher performance solution.

agraham said:

Parallel port access is messy under Windows 7 and later, especially 64 bit, as you need a protected mode driver that Windows doesn't seem to provide. I would suggest using an Arduino via a USB port. They seem simple to use and are probably a better technical solution as directly driving a stepper at low level from Windows will probably be slow and a bit "choppy". Having an Arduino control the stepper and having the PC tell it what to do at a more abstract level should provide a higher performance solution.

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But wouldn't one still be unable to drive it using B4PPC?

Mike.

No, an Arduino looks like a Com port so you use can SerialEx to talk to it. Windows knows about FTDI USB serial chips so some Arduinos that use those for communication will automatically be recognised and a driver installed. Later Arduinos will need a different USB driver that is supplied in the free Arduino SDK together with the FTDI driver in case that is needed.

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Thank you gentlemen for your quick response.