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Windows XP printer port question
I have a program that runs on Windows 98 to control a relay device
attached to the printer port and was wondering if I upgraded the computer to Windows XP Professional, could the program run in a window and continue to control the printer port and allow me to connect a USB printer to a USB port? Or, else, I am running Windows 7 on my main system and can not use the features on my HP Officejet v40xi Printer/Scanner/Copier/Fax machine and need to either connect it to the other system and install the software on it to fax/scan/copy. Can I network the system with Windows 98 with my desktop with Windows 7? Or, if the answer to the original question works, can I access the printer on the other machine with the Windows 7 system? Software running the relay control box and printer/scanner/fax/copier on Windows XP or Windows 98 and Windows 7 on main system, network them together to access all software? |
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#2
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Windows XP printer port question
On Aug 18, 3:52*pm, Robert Bodling wrote:
I have a program that runs on Windows 98 to control a relay device attached to the printer port and was wondering if I upgraded the computer to Windows XP Professional, could the program run in a window and continue to control the printer port and allow me to connect a USB printer to a USB port? Or, else, I am running Windows 7 on my main system and can not use the features on my HP Officejet v40xi Printer/Scanner/Copier/Fax machine and need to either connect it to the other system and install the software on it to fax/scan/copy. Can I network the system with Windows 98 with my desktop with Windows 7? Or, if the answer to the original question works, can I access the printer on the other machine with the Windows 7 system? *Software running the relay control box and printer/scanner/fax/copier on Windows XP or Windows 98 and Windows 7 on main system, network them together to access all software? Windows XP and 7 does not allow the direct access hardware port. This is by design so as to make Windows more secure. As for getting a printer to work correctly in Windows 7, you must install the correct Windows 7 drivers, provided by the printer's manufacturer. |
#3
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Windows XP printer port question
Robert Bodling wrote:
I have a program that runs on Windows 98 to control a relay device attached to the printer port and was wondering if I upgraded the computer to Windows XP Professional, could the program run in a window and continue to control the printer port and allow me to connect a USB printer to a USB port? Or, else, I am running Windows 7 on my main system and can not use the features on my HP Officejet v40xi Printer/Scanner/Copier/Fax machine and need to either connect it to the other system and install the software on it to fax/scan/copy. Can I network the system with Windows 98 with my desktop with Windows 7? Or, if the answer to the original question works, can I access the printer on the other machine with the Windows 7 system? Software running the relay control box and printer/scanner/fax/copier on Windows XP or Windows 98 and Windows 7 on main system, network them together to access all software? It might be better, to break a question like this up, into separate posts, as it makes it easier for people to answer. ******* The answer to the first question, will depend on the relay program itself. There would be a temptation, on an older OS like Win98, to "talk" directly to the parallel port. Later OSes don't allow that, and some kind of driver and software interface, act as intermediaries. A program that needed to move from one OS to another, would need to be talking to that kind of driver. For example, I have some CAD software, and as part of its installation, it installs a parallel port driver. That is how it "punches through" the protection model of newer OSes. In the past, it would not have used a parallel port driver, and instead, when you went to use the CAD software, it would have talked to the parallel port directly at a well known I/O space address. Also, while you can buy USB to printer adapter cables, they only support printing features, and not general purpose I/O such as the relay box might have been using. (It looks like a parallel port physically, but not all protocols are supported at the driver level. Only printing is supported.) If the new computer doesn't have a parallel port on it, in the I/O plate area, you could try a PCI parallel port card. But you're also going to have that software issue, where the original control program will be stopped dead in its tracks, when it attempts to talk to I/O address 0x3BC or whatever. A newer OS would probably report some kind of "access violation", as soon as the relay program tries to reach the parallel port on the PCI card. If the relay product is a simple enough design, it might be possible for you to use a general purpose I/O program with the parallel port. The idea there would be, the GPIO program would be kept up to date for the latest driver model, so could punch through the protection model. The idea would be, you'd need to know which bit of the parallel port, controlled a relay, and what sequence of events was needed to trigger it. So it is possible you could use a third party piece of software to control the relay box. Note - this only works, if there is a relatively simple mapping from parallel port to hardware. The relay control could have a very complicated "key sequence", to prevent accidental triggering or the like. A software like this, is only suitable for the most naive kind of hardware implementation, where a bit on the parallel port, directly controls a relay channel. If the relay control has more than eight channels, then it likely has a more complicated control method, not suitable for single bit twiddles. It would have to be a cheesy, hobbyist style, one-to-one mapped relay controller, to easily be controlled by this. http://download.cnet.com/Lalim-Paral...-10442590.html ******* The v40xi is USB based, and software goes up to at least Win2K. http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...&product=60631 HP offers something called a Universal Printer Driver, which may allow you to sit on your Windows 7 box, and communicate with the other machine which has the printer connected. This is purely a guess on my part. ttp://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/DriverDownload.jsp?prodNameId=4157320&locale=en_US &taskId=135&prodTypeId=18972&prodSeriesId=50354 8 There may be some threads around, about enabling networking between the OSes. This is for WinXP and Win98, but it's possible the same kind of technical issues will exist with Windows 7. http://www.theeldergeek.com/forum/in...howtopic=13489 ******* It wouldn't really matter who made the OSes - OSes spanning 12 years are bound to be a bit cranky, when you attempt to interwork. You could try controlling the Win98 machine remotely. I don't know what the best and cheapest option would be. There are many kinds of software available for that. I used to use software like that years ago, but haven't used any of it lately. I used VNC and Timbuktu on some of my older machines (mixed Mac/PC environment). Remote control software would allow you to keep the Win98 box running, leave the screen turned off, and just drive it from the Win7 box. As long as you could get file sharing working for example, you could run the All-in-One from the Win98 machine, and transfer the files needed using file sharing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_desktop_software Paul |
#4
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Windows XP printer port question
On Aug 18, 11:22*am, Paul wrote:
Robert Bodling wrote: I have a program that runs on Windows 98 to control a relay device attached to the printer port and was wondering if I upgraded the computer to Windows XP Professional, could the program run in a window and continue to control the printer port and allow me to connect a USB printer to a USB port? Or, else, I am running Windows 7 on my main system and can not use the features on my HP Officejet v40xi Printer/Scanner/Copier/Fax machine and need to either connect it to the other system and install the software on it to fax/scan/copy. Can I network the system with Windows 98 with my desktop with Windows 7? Or, if the answer to the original question works, can I access the printer on the other machine with the Windows 7 system? *Software running the relay control box and printer/scanner/fax/copier on Windows XP or Windows 98 and Windows 7 on main system, network them together to access all software? It might be better, to break a question like this up, into separate posts, as it makes it easier for people to answer. ******* The answer to the first question, will depend on the relay program itself.. There would be a temptation, on an older OS like Win98, to "talk" directly to the parallel port. Later OSes don't allow that, and some kind of driver and software interface, act as intermediaries. A program that needed to move from one OS to another, would need to be talking to that kind of driver. For example, I have some CAD software, and as part of its installation, it installs a parallel port driver. That is how it "punches through" the protection model of newer OSes. In the past, it would not have used a parallel port driver, and instead, when you went to use the CAD software, it would have talked to the parallel port directly at a well known I/O space address. Also, while you can buy USB to printer adapter cables, they only support printing features, and not general purpose I/O such as the relay box might have been using. (It looks like a parallel port physically, but not all protocols are supported at the driver level. Only printing is supported.) If the new computer doesn't have a parallel port on it, in the I/O plate area, you could try a PCI parallel port card. But you're also going to have that software issue, where the original control program will be stopped dead in its tracks, when it attempts to talk to I/O address 0x3BC or whatever. A newer OS would probably report some kind of "access violation", as soon as the relay program tries to reach the parallel port on the PCI card. If the relay product is a simple enough design, it might be possible for you to use a general purpose I/O program with the parallel port. The idea there would be, the GPIO program would be kept up to date for the latest driver model, so could punch through the protection model. The idea would be, you'd need to know which bit of the parallel port, controlled a relay, and what sequence of events was needed to trigger it. So it is possible you could use a third party piece of software to control the relay box. Note - this only works, if there is a relatively simple mapping from parallel port to hardware. The relay control could have a very complicated "key sequence", to prevent accidental triggering or the like. A software like this, is only suitable for the most naive kind of hardware implementation, where a bit on the parallel port, directly controls a relay channel. If the relay control has more than eight channels, then it likely has a more complicated control method, not suitable for single bit twiddles. It would have to be a cheesy, hobbyist style, one-to-one mapped relay controller, to easily be controlled by this. http://download.cnet.com/Lalim-Paral...sic/3000-2085_... ******* The v40xi is USB based, and software goes up to at least Win2K. http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/d...04601&tmp_task.... HP offers something called a Universal Printer Driver, which may allow you to sit on your Windows 7 box, and communicate with the other machine which has the printer connected. This is purely a guess on my part. ttp://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/DriverDownload.jsp?prodNameId=4157320&locale=en_US &taskId=135&prodTypeId=18972&prodSeriesId=50354 8 There may be some threads around, about enabling networking between the OSes. This is for WinXP and Win98, but it's possible the same kind of technical issues will exist with Windows 7. http://www.theeldergeek.com/forum/in...howtopic=13489 ******* It wouldn't really matter who made the OSes - OSes spanning 12 years are bound to be a bit cranky, when you attempt to interwork. You could try controlling the Win98 machine remotely. I don't know what the best and cheapest option would be. There are many kinds of software available for that. I used to use software like that years ago, but haven't used any of it lately. I used VNC and Timbuktu on some of my older machines (mixed Mac/PC environment). Remote control software would allow you to keep the Win98 box running, leave the screen turned off, and just drive it from the Win7 box. As long as you could get file sharing working for example, you could run the All-in-One from the Win98 machine, and transfer the files needed using file sharing. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Remote_desktop_software * * Paul Thank you Paul, the information was well deserved and needed. |
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