<loneclock> My goal was to get a signal from a parallel cable to a computer by means other than a parallal port because the computer doesn't have a parallel port....but the real goal is to learn about these topics !
<Rask> What would be generating the signal to which the parallel cable is connected?
<learath> http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-DB25-25-Pin-USB-to-Female-Parallel-IEEE-1284-Printer-Adapter-Cable-Cord-PC-/181459713525?pt=US_Parallel_Serial_PS_2_Cables_Adapters&hash=item2a3fd77df5
<learath> (or maybe http://www.ebay.com/itm/New-USB-to-36-Pin-Female-Parallel-IEEE-1284-Printer-Adapter-Cable-Cord-PC-/331004455531?pt=US_Parallel_Serial_PS_2_Cables_Adapters&hash=item4d11672a6b )
<Rask> If you're just trying to connect a device that expects a parallel port to a PC, you should use an adapter like those.
* joshontheweb ([email protected]) Quit (Quit: Computer has gone to sleep.)
<Terrenkt> hmm, lessee
<loneclock> I'm not really trying to do anything yet...someone had mentioned something to me about converting a parallel signal to a PC and now I understand it is possible to just buy a cable! But now I'm curious about how all these cables work (USB, parallel, and ethernet) So next time I talk to this person I will ask what they are actualy trying to do
<learath> heh
<learath> the way those cables work is someone wrote a driver, then built a circuit to talk to the driver, then put the circuit on an ASIC, and the ASIC is probably just cob'd onto the connector
<learath> so it's 4 wires (usb) to a tiny board with a chip directly on it, connected directly to the parallel connector
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<loneclock> what does cob'd? mean
<learath> https://learn.sparkfun.com/tutorials/how-chip-on-boards-are-made
<loneclock> thanks!
<learath> (I'd forgotten about that.. google didn't!)