Looking for a USB-to-parallel printer adapter

[Ken90630]

Hey, All,

A friend of mine has a little backup computer that she just uses to play card games on, type letters in Word, that sort of simple stuff. The computer is about 8-10 years old and doesn't have any USB ports for a printer -- only parallel.

Anyway, she recently bought a cheapy Lexmark ink jet printer for like $30 or something, just to be able to print basic documents at low cost. Prob is that the printer only has a USB cable -- no parallel cable. Since her computer doesn't have any USB ports to plug it into, she can't use it. She's had it for a year, so she can't return or exchange it.

I've seen adapters that let you connect a printer's parallel cable to a computer's USB port, but not the other way around. And that's what I need -- I need an adapter that'll convert her printer's USB cable to a parallel connector to plug into her computer's parallel port.

Anyone know where I can find something like this, that doesn't cost as much as the printer itself? And to complicate matters, it needs to be Windows 95 compatible. :evil:

A tall order, I know. Anyone wanna impress the heck out of me with a link or point in the right direction?

 

[Jeff7]

I was thinking to add a PCI USB card, until I saw "Windows 95." I think that only OSR 2.1 and 2.5 of Windows 95 had any USB support at all, and it wasn't as good as Windows 98's USB support, which also wasn't the greatest.

I've not seen a Parallel -> USB adapter either; one possible option might be to use a printer server, connected to a network card.

 

[Zepper]

You can get such at places like Dalco.com, computergate.com et al. But as Jeff 7 says, you must have Win95 B or C to run USB 1 - for USB 2 you need at least Win 98.

.bh.

b-brrrrrrrrrrrrr....

 

[wseyller]

those are easy to find. You could get one a walmart.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: wseyller
those are easy to find. You could get one a walmart.

Reread the post - he's got a USB printer, and wants to plug it into a parallel port. It looks like what's available does it the other way around - USB PC into a parallel printer. I guess the marketers assume that people will upgrade their PC's more often than their printers.

 

[dullard]

I'm thinking an old ~$25 computer with USB at Goodwill/garage sale/etc may be a better investment than a ~$25 adapter or card to upgrade that old computer.

 

[mmcdonalataocdotgov]

uh, nope.

USB is a Serial device, and therefore passes it's data one bit at a time in a stream.

A Parallel port is a parallel communication device, and therefore passes it's data in a strip of 8-bits/9-bits at a time.

In order to convert the serial (USB) data to a Parallel port, you need a UART chip to buffer the stream and pass the data in assembled bytes.

You can pass the USB to a serial port, but not to a Parallel port without the UART, and they just don't make such a thing.

 

[Ken90630]

Thanks, all. I knew it would be a challenge to find such a device, but figured I had nothing to lose by asking. I appreciate the feedback.

 

[wseyller]

quote:
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Originally posted by: wseyller
those are easy to find. You could get one a walmart.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Reread the post - he's got a USB printer, and wants to plug it into a parallel port. It looks like what's available does it the other way around - USB PC into a parallel printer. I guess the marketers assume that people will upgrade their PC's more often than their printers.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

oops, my bad

 

[Erasmus-X]

There's very few printers still manufactered with a parallel port. As far as the inkjets go, the Epson C86 is one of the only ones.

Since you did mention that she would like to print at a low cost, I would actually suggest hunting around on eBay for a used HP LaserJet 4/5 or similar (these are both old school and use parallel connections). You'll spend like $80 on a toner, yes, but those toners yield upwards of 10 times the pages you'll expect out of your typical $30 black ink cartridge on a little Lexmark. If you do the math, you'll easily see the savings.

Another reason I would go for an older laser is because 95% of all the newer inkjets on the market require Windows 98 SE or above and a much faster processor and more memory than an old Windows 95 machine would have. I knew a guy who hooked up a NEW HP OfficeJet AIO in his old Pentium 100 MHz with 64 MB RAM. How painful...

 

[Arcanedeath]

I'd second the suggestion of just getting a cheap HP laserjet 4 or 5 and using that.

 

[Kenazo]

I second the suggestion of just getting a new computer.

 

[Ken90630]

Another reason I would go for an older laser is because 95% of all the newer inkjets on the market require Windows 98 SE or above and a much faster processor and more memory than an old Windows 95 machine would have.

Hmmm ... yeah, you're right. Even without the USB/parallel problem, her Lexmark might not even run with the Windows 95 she has on the computer! I didn't even get that far before ....

Thanks for the input, guys. Food for thought here.

BTW, anyone know off hand if Windows 95 can be upgraded to W2K in one step? Or would she have to go to Windows 98SE? (Aaaaaack! I hate Windows 95 and 98. BSODs and "illegal operation" messages all day long ....)