PCI-E Parallel port cards

[xorgate]

Just wondering why exactly it is that InpOut32 doesn't support PCI/PCI-E/etc expansion cards?

I've recently decided to get back into my old hobby of parallel port interfacing, but of course my modern PC didn't come with a parallel port built in so I purchased a PCI-E expansion card, just to find out they're not supported, which is a bummer. Would it be possible to write some kind of driver to allow interfacing with these cards? I haven't written a windows driver before, but am most certainly willing to learn if that's what it takes to get my interfacing projects back off the ground.

[phil]

I'm afraid you will have to talk to the author and not me. I only ported InpOut32 to x64 windows. It was a very simple task of recompiling it - i.e. I didn't have to understand it.

All my IO is done via USB these days (and not USB parallel ports but USB IO boards like the velleman board and others, so I'm afraid, while I still offer the x64 compatible InpOut32, I'm not able to answer that question, other than to presume its to do with the way the ports are addressed.

You can try looking at http://www.logix4u.net (the authors) but they seem a little quiet these days so I don't know how much info you will get from there either.

Sorry,
Phil

[xorgate]

Ah, seems like it might finally be time to catch up with the world . I'll probably just have to break down and pick up a USB interfacing board. Any suggestions for a board that has at least 12 outputs and won't break the bank?

[phil]

OK, I have used this: http://www.velleman.eu/products/view/?c ... &id=351346
but it only has 8 outputs. It has a nice and easy to use SDK interface too.

It might be worth looking at the phidgets website http://www.phidgets.com/. I've not used them but I have used these recently Denkovi devices (not sure if there is a 12 output version but the 4 relay output board was really easy to interface with using FTDI drivers on windows x86 and x64).

Thanks,
Phil

[phil]

Oh, and depending of what you want to do, I also use 1wire devices, for things like sensor inputs (temperature etc). http://www.maxim-ic.com/products/1-wire/. The best thing about that is MAXIM tend to provide free samples so I managed to get a USB interface and about 8 sensors for free lol. That was a few years ago though so maybe they don't still do that.