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Help a beginner, Parallel port.

Discussion about LCD's and other related hardware

Moderators: _X7JAY7X_, caesar, IFR, mattcro, limbo, Fast351, hydrolisk1792

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Morcego_Xico
Posts: 4
Joined: June 2nd, 2008, 1:28 pm

Help a beginner, Parallel port.

Post by Morcego_Xico »

Hi, I buy a LCD with a parallel port connection yesterday and today I realise that my motherboard don't have any parallel port. :shock:

My motherboard is an Asus P5KC - http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?model ... 3=534&l4=0

The HD44780 20x4 LCD that I buy is like this:

Image
Image
Image

How can i connect this to my pc? If I buy an Parallel PCI Card It will work?
I already read this postbut i don't like to play with electronic.

I have a COM1 Port on the Motherboard i don't know if it helps...

Thanks!

mattcro
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Posts: 590
Joined: March 8th, 2006, 1:58 pm
Location: Scotland

Post by mattcro »

What is the product name/number of your LCD module?

You should be able to get the LCD working with a PCI parallel port card, as long as your wiring is the same as the Smartie standard wiring. Is there a circuit diagram in your manual? It looks like there are some fan connectors on your module. Are the fans controlled by the parallel port or does the module just provide fan power?

Morcego_Xico
Posts: 4
Joined: June 2nd, 2008, 1:28 pm

Post by Morcego_Xico »

mattcro wrote:What is the product name/number of your LCD module?

You should be able to get the LCD working with a PCI parallel port card, as long as your wiring is the same as the Smartie standard wiring. Is there a circuit diagram in your manual? It looks like there are some fan connectors on your module. Are the fans controlled by the parallel port or does the module just provide fan power?
The ebay page of the product is this: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... AQ:GB:1123

I don't recived the Lcd yet, but I belive that in two days I will be playing with my new Lcd.

The seller say that it 'works with famous open source software' like LCD Smartie (for Windows XP / Vista 32-Bit), LCDProc (for Linux), more...

About the fans it says:

"4 fan connectors (3P Molex, 2.54 pitch)
2 connectors are 12V/7V selectable
2 connectors are 12V/5V selectable"

I have to read the manual to know exactly how it works.

Thanks!

mattcro
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Posts: 590
Joined: March 8th, 2006, 1:58 pm
Location: Scotland

Post by mattcro »

Looks like it should be fine for Smartie, and it should work with a PCI card parallel port under Win XP or Vista 32 (but not Vista 64bit). You may have to experiment with the port address settings in Smartie. PCI cards are usually something like $9C00 instead of the standard LPT1 or $378. You can find the address in device manager as described in several posts - search for "PCI" and "parallel".

Morcego_Xico
Posts: 4
Joined: June 2nd, 2008, 1:28 pm

Post by Morcego_Xico »

If i put $9C00 my pc crashes...

In other pc with parallel onboard it works on port LPT1...

mattcro
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Posts: 590
Joined: March 8th, 2006, 1:58 pm
Location: Scotland

Post by mattcro »

I suggested $9C00 only as an example - you need to check the exact address for your system, as you appear to have done in your other post. Try $EC00 as caesar suggests.

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