[sane-devel] USB to parallel port converters

[Julian Stacey]

Reference:
> From:		Neil Youngman <ny at youngman.org.uk> 
> Date:		Sat, 8 Dec 2007 14:20:20 +0000 
> Message-id:	<200712081420.20137.ny at youngman.org.uk> 

Neil Youngman wrote:
> On Tuesday 27 November 2007 13:05, Neil Youngman wrote:
> > I have a Mustek 1200CP parallel scanner, which appears to be supported by
> > SANE, but no parallel port on my system. I do have a USB to parallel port
> > converter, which works fine with my printer, but I can't get it to
> > recognise my scanner.
> >
> > sane-find-scanner -p -vv /dev/usb/lp0 doesn't find any scanners. Is there
> > something else I should try, or won't it work with a converter?
> 
> No answer to this so far. Should I just give up?

I'm no scanner/sane specialist, but do remember a printer will even
work with a unidirectional parallel port, data just going computer
to printer, whereas a scanner feeds a lot of data back, (PC BIOSes
have various EPP/ECP etc modes, some modes support nibble mode too,
ie 4 bits each way for a PL-IP connection etc),  So maybe your USB
to parallel device may need to support bidirectional (if it can), &
may need to be told to configure itself in bidirectional mode etc.
How you might set about doing that I cound't advise, but 
would depend on your device manufacturer & which Unix you are using,
& whatever it's USB control vagaries might be.  Good Luck !

-- 
Julian Stacey. Munich Computer Consultant, BSD Unix C Linux. http://berklix.com
	Ihr Rauch = mein allergischer Kopfschmerz. Dump cigs 4 snuff.