I sort of have it working, but it is incredibly slow...

I have set up a Generic / Text only printer on my Win7 machine and am
reading the data on my XP machine via a USB input output device.

The /Strobe is normally high, but flicks low to tell the printer that data
is on the bus.

It seems that strobe is held low until a busy (high) is received. However,
as I am polling my I/O device (no other way, as it doesn't have an
interrupt), I appear to be missing the strobe, but I have worked another way
around it. (What I ended up doing is I needed to know I was in the same
character, the only way I could do that was electronically rather than
programmatically, I ended up tying the BUSY (output line on my USB) to a
spare input line (on my USB), so that I know that while I have a high on my
local busy, I don't attempt to poll the next character)

I was getting something like....


TTTTTThhhhiissssss isssssaaaaa eeeest

(This is a test)

However, I am now getting the proper text, but for some reason, it is
incredibly slow. I will look at speeding it up somehow.

--
Best regards,
Dave Colliver.
http://www.AshfieldFOCUS.com
~~
http://www.FOCUSPortals.com - Local franchises available


"Fred McKenzie" wrote in message
...
In article ,
"David" wrote:

Does windows require any signals coming in to let it know that a printer
is
there?

I have connected just 11 lines... namely,
/STROBE
D0 - D7
BUSY
GND

David-

As I understand it, the computer uses the STROBE line to signal the
printer that data on D0 - D7 is valid. The printer then uses the BUSY
line to keep the computer from sending more data while it is processing
the current data. When the BUSY line is reset, the computer can send
more data as soon as it is ready to do so.

If the BUSY line is never active, the computer might be programmed to
wait for a time-out period in case the printer is not connected.

I don't know the polarity of STROBE or BUSY. Does /STROBE indicate it
is active low?

Fred