Parallel ports

I want to make an electronic lock, I mean a lock that I can control from my desktop.....
What I really want to do is to connect an infrared transmitter circuit to my computer and then have a receiver circuit collect the information sent by the transmitter. But i realize that I need a knowledge of control of my PARALLEL PORTS, but I have no idea on how to control this ports....
I would be grateful if anyone with any idea of how to go about this can shed some light for me......

Read overhere: "Your text to link here...(Description)":http://logix4u.net/component/content/article/14-parallel-port/15-a-tutorial-on-parallel-port-interfacing

Equivalent of LPT-frontend (SPP/BiDi mode).

Any reason why you couldn't use USB? There are numerous USB to RS232 converters available that work quite well. Let me know and I'll supply more info.

Ill give you some good advice before you start this one Some years ago Microsoft changed the way that you address parrellel ports This really depends on what operating System you are using, but if you are using xp you need or should I say sopposidly need an extra driver so that you can talk to the parrellel port

Despite downloading this and installing various recomended solutions Ive never got one of them to actually work In fact ive had so many problems with this I gave up with this

So did lots of other people Good engineers as well not second rate engineers by any means of imaginatiion I now use the serial port or a virtual serial port with external hardware and then convert serial data to parrellel data and visa versa

Advantages of doing this You dont have to buy third party software for parrellel port


The serial port always works
You can handel interrupts from external hardware plugged into serial port So that means you could also attach Irda for example :

You can still operate your locks from the same hardware
Parrallel port is slowly being phased out

Ask here how many printers do you see with parrallel port Answer hardly any at all

The only os that will possibly still work with parrellel port is possibly unix linux or possix or windows 98 or dos

This is typical microsoft for you We dont honestly believe it had anything to do with os Most of us believe they did this deliberatley because odley enough this occurred and changes occurred during the Iraq war So we think they must have got scared and realised what people might do with internet related technology with regards setting up a terrorist ring In other words one button press One tcp/ip message one massive explosion

So I would first develop usb or serial external hardware Interface to pc via front end and approach this way

But i definitatley know fact that all purchased software inclusive the so called parrellel port drivers etc have never worked with Xp and i have both and both are bonified liscenced software

Im none to pleased with them either As I could have had numerous projects working years ago if it wasnt for this

What I will do is attach a zip file for you which includes an exe plus installer plus dll file which supposidly enables port access There are also other files with info inside You will need to visit www.7-zip.org. and download the correct exe to extract the zip file but as I said I never got this to work except through good old fashioned dos, c, Qbasic, and windows 98, 95

But you can try it and see who knows you may even be able to dissassemble the file and found out why if so Id be very inyetested in your answers and how you might be able to correct this

Shame I cant write driver files Id be worth a bomb by now

Mark www.harrington.force9.co.uk

hn fact here is another upload you might like try as well Again i could never get this to work either but once again you are welcome to try this too

In fact of I cant think of any one that would go to these extremes to stop you from being productive and creating something interesting and worthwhile but there you go such is our great leadership Everyone as usual has to suffer becuase of thier lust for power Not difficult to see why people cant stand each other is there anymore

Nevermind As they say this has a horrible way of backfiring personally I hope they sue them and make an example out if few of them if not worse

The only reason is because I don't know how to use it at all. so if that would help I wouldn't mind at all, I would like to get the info

You can also refer to this site Very good site
Id like too see someone put up a full tutorial and how to write your own driver files with links to what you have learn to get to that point

That would be very usefull

http://www.beyondlogic.org/blog/

Mark www.harrington.force9.co.uk

Sorry for the late reply

Check these out:

* https://www.sparkfun.com/products/718
* https://www.sparkfun.com/products/9717
* http://www.digikey.com/scripts/DkSearch/dksus...tm=0&fid=0&quantity=0&chp=0&PV493=312&stock=1
* http://www.adafruit.com/products/284
* http://www.parallax.com/tabid/612/List/0/CategoryID/59/Level/a/SortField/0/Default.aspx

All above are FTDI (only have used FTDI)

Below are other vender solutions:
* http://www.amazon.com/Micro-SATA-Cables-Module-Converter/dp/B006JKNWLE
* http://www.amazon.com/PL2303HX-RS232-Cable-module-Converter/dp/B008AGDTA4/ref=pd_cp_pc_0

Basically, what you want is a *USB to TTL*, *USB to Serial* or *USB to RS232* conversion. Try Gooleing these two.

I am kinda a beginner in this stuff... is there no material that takes it easy on me?

You might also like to try this This was the java interpretation of the port driver so you could use java to write and read from parrellel ports but they gave up with this as well, same reasons also had problems with xp drivers for the port

To use this your need to be able to write native methods Again id like to see more people turn hands to this as well A great crying shame that Sun / oracle wont apply reasoning here making this extremley interesting for not only bussiness but also science and engineering

Any way its there if you fancy giving this a whirl

Hi James,

I don't respond to private messages, so I will share what you sent me, here, so the forum can respond:

bq). Concerning my question on using parallel ports, I think
I would like to follow your suggestion of USB. I read your profile,
and couldn't help but notice that you do Java programming, well, I do a
little of Java too, and concerning my project, I would like to make it in
such a way that I would create a simple GUI with two buttons or a toggle
button that does the locking and unlocking for me...... Thanks

It's been a long while since I worked my Java chops Looks like Mark may be more up-to-speed on Java than I. My focus, lately, has been HTML5/PHP and C for PIC microcontrollers.

SparkFun has a great support base:

* https://www.sparkfun.com/tutorials/245
* https://www.sparkfun.com/static/technical_assistance

And, it's really not that hard. Just jump in and as you encounter problems, post here, or find forums specific to your task (such as USB to Serial or FTDI).

OK, time for me to get "old guy" -- back in my day, we had to figure it out for our selves or find a book or magazine article that gave us the help we needed -- we didn't have this new-fangled Internet thingy! Why, you youngsters have it SO easy!! I have dents in my head from all the pounding as I agonized over why my transistors kept going up in smoke or why the flaming OP-AMP summarily ignored anything I shove at it's input!

Tenacity, imagination, daring -- these are the ingredients for success. FAILURE!! Fail over and over! That's how you achieve success. Lots of smoke!!

But seriously, get your feet wet, you may find that the water ain't so bad, the sharks not so hungry. And when they _do_ start nipping at you, you have a grand safety net that we never had -- you can ask, you can search, you can get support like never before!

You can still use the serial port You can have this in java or you can have this in Csharp up to you or via usb

There is a java usb package available but ive not tried this yet Difficult without pc internet access

I only manage conversation on here with mobile phone Thats how I currently upload and comment All done from my hard working android samsung mobile phone

If you look carefully at projects page located on this site You will see a usb serial hardware project using ftdi chip plus pcb layouts plus how too, all written up for you plus a gui for testing the ftdi chip after youve finished making the project Also up on this site for you to download


Link below for you
www.eeweb.com/project/mark_harrington


Also
I need to know command words you are sending to your hardware in byte or ascii format But the gui no problem It would be nice if you can give me also some type of instructions or project pre requisits of what you want the gui to do also perhaps a drawing by hand or with paint shop pro An artistic drawing showing rough idea of layout buttons Any help files that you might want, password fields Gui components such as may be led indicator 7 segment display, scrolling markees, lets what else might you want really just to let me know or give me some ideas of what you want as a visual interface port settings maybe

Some of your thoughts so I construct this for you

Ŧђɑ̤̥̈̊п̥̥̲̣̣̣kƨ̣̣̣̇̇̇̇ a lot, every single word means a lot to me

If you really fancy making this interesting You could also implement smart card readers or media framework which will give you Webcam viewing of area and you could implement ftp upload or live stream Or you coukd turn this into server application through which you might access via mobile phone or from internal gsm modem in a vehicle using touch screen tft Lots of ideas to make this interesting and marketeable or you could opt for rasberry pi as hardware

Im yet to play with this and youve got comp video out

Im sure they can add rgb output Youve got a memory card on this ethernet port, usb port, hdmi out, port io

Anyway lots of things you can do with this nevermind intergrate wireless, bluetooth live stream music content Blimey

Got to be interesting

Its your call isnt it
Depends only on you or you can break down old pcs use motherbourds still good enough to do lots of things

I DONT KNOW YOU TELL ME

Lets try again James
1 Build a circuit using a simple pic micro with either ftdi chip or use a max232c rs232 level converter

Where from can you buy this www.farnel.co.uk
Rs components look it up
Where else
Maplins my favourite enemies Uhm correction no you cant not from maplins they dont keep them in stock, Not to worry

Where else

Ebay

Where else

FTDI.COM EVEN COMES WITH DATASHEET PLUS DRIVERS THE LOT



FTDI PROJECT ON WEB SITE FOR YOU SO THATS CONVERTOR FOR USB DONE FOR YOU

see link in comments above

What else do you need look at the old bourds they throw away

What have you got D type connectors, relays, transisitors really stuck ask we might even have a few you for a tiny price plus postage


You could even make a few of these are go and sell them yourself or ask a pcb mnfr to make them for you Theres the money for your bits and pieces, programmer what ever

Goto my site www.harrington.force9.co.uk

Halfway down the page low and behold is a pcb mnfr for you who will even make them for you Click on the advert

http://www.bittele.com/

Away you go

2 Program the chip to recieve an Rs232 signal from the Pc
3 Write a front end in the langauge of your own choice we have suggested either Java becuase its cross platform, fairly easy to use, and can use javax.comm package, also fairly simple for peer to peer networking as well

Free for download as well No licence required jdk7 is the latest binary

Or use dot net csharp why, same reasons explained

Multi threading not too difficult either, little tricky but can be done


If using linux guess, Yes youve even got mono ide for developing, comma, pause, deep huge breath, ready to commit comakazi

Congrats James.... You can now develop C sharp apps on Linux boxes too

Linux is also free for download as well There is suzi linux, ubantu, Red hat Up to you solves another problem lots of free art packages included etc etc

And what else. .......

Yes James Microchip have given you Mplabs x for linux or windows

And what else James......... Congrats "pulling my hair out " ,

Oracle have a free ide, so do netbeans, so do Codeblocks and so, does Eclipse


A little bit of effort and self tuition in otherwords read some documentation

What can you do with these use them for ava or c or php or ruby or c for micro including atmel or even android for mobile phones or even html or php mysql xml and java beans. And of course c plus plus


Why have we said this because of years of experiance we know there is a problem with parrallel port drivers even explained why


5 If you tell us what you want do some very simple drawings doesent have to be involved we will even help you with this as well

Now whats the problem James. ? ?

There you go no doubt we will have a row over this as well

you can use hyper terminal to configure parallel port. If possible then you can use serial interfacing.

For the GUI (i.e. the software buttons) there's also:

* Visual Basic (VB) [Very easy, quite powerful, great GUI building tool for beginners but expensive -- check eBay for older version {don't necessarily need the latest}, also consider "Standard Edition" {but check to see if it supports serial port access or has USB tools}]
* Delphi [Object Pascal with powerful GUI building tools]
* Tcl/Tk (FREE and easy!) [Tcl {pronounced "tickle"} is a powerful, mature (been around for decades), cross platform, easy to use scripting language and Tk is a GUI "toolkit" for Tcl]
* http://wiki.tcl.tk/447 [serial port on Tcl -- but may have problems -- the idea is to use the built-in virtual serial port {com: port} driver to access the USB port {someone correct me if I'm wrong, it's been awhile since I did this sort of thing}]
* http://wiki.tcl.tk/1838 [another Tcl serial port reference]
* http://wiki.tcl.tk/4307 [Tcl and USB]

That should give you enough to get started

I said that Tcl/Tk was "Free". It used to be, but I took a cursory look and it appears that the uncompiled version may be free, but you may have to pay for a "distribution" (basically, they compile it for you and charge you for the service -- support might be part of the cost, as well), but I don't have time, right now, to dig any deeper, but it's probably worth looking into

OK, I did take a closer look, and there is a free "Community Version" (i.e. support via a forum):

* http://www.activestate.com/activetcl

To get true direct access under the WindowsNT-like OS (also for the DOS task under the Windows) to the ports (Include LPT ports) You can use this toolkit.

For the experiments with the true LPT ports this cool toolkit, but interface in russian language.

Screenshot of toolkit.

Under the WindowsXP don't forge to disable the polling of LPT by Windows!

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESYSTEMControlSet001ServicesParportParameters]
"DisableWarmPoll"=dword:00000001"

But, be sure to backup the Registry before doing things like that (i.e. making changes in the registry). If things go awry, boot up in Safe Mode and restore the registry from the backup.

Also low cost but useful project USB to LPT bridge using AVR's MCU:

http://www-user.tu-chemnitz.de/~heha/bastelecke/Rund%20um%20den%20PC/USB2LPT/index.html.en

This is knowly _TOTAL_SAFE_ registry modification.