[Fab] [Noisebridge-discuss] Do we have a USB to Parallel (printer) port converter?

[Corey McGuire]

This all depends on how smart the controller hardware is.  If the
controller hardware is really just a dumb brick that listens to the PC,
then, yeah, you really are stuck solving the parallel port problem in a
robust way.

However, if anyone wants to MAKE a controller box that ISN'T so dumb, that
isn't outside the realm of possibilities.  The hardware on a makerbot isn't
too unsophisticated for CNC milling.

Latency is the key.  Lag is the key.  There's a reason real CNC hardware
comes with PC grade hardware running a realtime OS.  They want nothing, not
multitasking, not hardware abstraction, not heavy computation, nothing,
getting in the way.

I skillful programmer can do that on a small piece of hardware.

This might be within the realm of a beaglebone running a super thin install
of linux.

On Wed, Jun 27, 2012 at 12:11 PM, miloh <froggytoad at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> Is there anything inherant to the raw speeds of usb that prevents a
> parallel port adapter from being designed that actually works?
> usb 2.0 is at least 10x that of the fastest parallel port standards... Are
> you saying this is an impossible engineering feat?
>
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