Serial/Parallel Interface

[mchan1111]

I currently have a laptop with only a 25-pin ecp parallel port. To program our school's Robovation kit, we need a serial interface. I bougth a really cheap port adaptor, but I'm not sure how to interface the parallel port to the serial port on the robot. Does anyone know how to solve this problem?

Thanks,

Milton

-Westerly High School Robotics Team President

[Nate Smith]

Unfortunately, you can't convert parallel to serial without some real fancy hardware and drivers, what you can do, however, is get a USB->Serial converter that will turn one of your USB ports into a serial port which will work for programming your Robovation or FIRST Robot Controller. Check Innovation First's web site, I believe they recommend one there...

Originally Posted by mchan1111

I currently have a laptop with only a 25-pin ecp parallel port. To program our school's Robovation kit, we need a serial interface. I bougth a really cheap port adaptor, but I'm not sure how to interface the parallel port to the serial port on the robot. Does anyone know how to solve this problem?

Thanks,

Milton

-Westerly High School Robotics Team President

[Rafi A]

make sure you get a USB adapter that's reliable. We had some issues with ours last year. It's like an old carbureted car: it works, you just have to use it juuuust right.