Re: [CAD_CAM_EDM_DRO] Interface options, headless boxen, and remote control ...

Bryan-TheBS-Smith wrote:

> Jon Elson wrote:
> > I have developed a line of boards that connect to the parallel
> > port, using the hardware handshaking part of the 1284 protocol.
>
> Dats what I waz lookin four! Gracis!
>
> > The software protocol required for automatic recognition of units
> > on the bus was not used, as there is no CPU on these units.
> > (They run a lot faster without software overhead.)
>
> Hmmm, we can talk about doing something like that later on. But
> just having port control is nice and sweet!
>
> > See http://pico-systems.com/PPMC.html
> > for some info on what is completed already. I have a backplane
> > that is mostly a multitap extension of the parallel port. This
> > transfers data at about 800 KBYTES per second.
>
> Which is why IEEE 1284 is still nice.
>
> Now only if I could find a PCI parallel port card that has a Linux
> driver. I haven't done much research, but I don't think many do.
> Sure, I can get 2-port ISA cards for $27 so I can have 3 ports on a
> box, but that's only good until ISA dies.

But, you DON'T NEED more than one port. You can VERY easily address
up to 256 device registers with one parallel port. I have pretty much
broken it up so each board gets 8 consecutive addresses. That allows
up to 8 boards to be plugged into one bus.

Jon