parallel to USB

[koyote]

hello everyone. i apologize in advance if this is in the wrong forum but i was unsure where to place it. i am an electrical engineer. ive never built a cnc before and this is my first try at it. i have no problem to build the hardware (eletromechanical or circuit boards) but my laptop does not have a parallel port. i want to use a usb port instead. i can easily design a conversion from usb to parallel or serial on the pcb but i am unsure how to go about this with computer. i was looking at mach3 software and the manual goes into parallel ports and how it uses them. it states that i cannot use a usb to parallel conversion cable. is there a way i can have like a "virtual parallel port" through software that the mach3 application could communicate to and i would build the usb to parallel conversion myself on the stepper driver side?

thank you in advance.

[ger21]

is there a way i can have like a "virtual parallel port" through software that the mach3 application could communicate to and i would build the usb to parallel conversion myself on the stepper driver side?

No, you can't.

You can, however, use an external motion device that connects with USB. Look at the Smoothstepper from www.warp9td.com

But it's cheaper to buy a $50 PC on Ebay to run a machine with.

[koyote]

thank you for the link to warp9. the thing is that i do want to build it myself and in the future be able to rework the design to my needs. this hardware does however run off of usb and as such it is possible to perhaps code a driver. whether it runs off of a pic or fpga is can build and program the firmware for it but i would need help coding a driver for the usb. are there any resources for this. i know basic c++ but am not very savvy when it comes to doing things that interact with the os like a driver. i am also unclear how mach software implements this.

[ger21]

What you'd probably need to do is write a Mach3 plugin for your custom device. The SDK is here, and there's more info on the Machsupport forum.
http://www.machsupport.com/downloads.php

[ger21]

Here's another device that does NOT work with Mach3, but an sdk is available to write your own software for it.
http://www.planet-cnc.com/