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I have to simulate a LPT Printer for a legacy PC on 16b running MS DOS, from another host pc running windows, in order to capture the print job and further process it. There is no access to the legacy PC. Only physical access to the LPT port.

The connection between them is done with a LPT2USB tool. http://www.lpt2usb.net/

As I googled, printfil seems to be nearest as a solution. But I did not managed to simulate LPT printer with it.

I would like some ideas how to achieve this. (Commercial solutions or not).

Thank you for your time,

Vladds7
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  • Sounds like you need to capture output of a legacy hardware system, one option is something from: http://www.photologic.ca/cap.html – Brian Jun 25 '14 at 11:30
  • These look like overkill. We have to edit the print and then print at a printer connected to the host. This process will be automatic. – Vladds7 Jun 25 '14 at 11:35
  • Is it hardware or software that forces you to use a legacy system? If software, I would use a VM, where you can redirect DOS LPT output to a file. – AFH Jun 25 '14 at 11:54
  • Hardware. Its a production unit using this pc. – Vladds7 Jun 25 '14 at 12:11
  • Reading data from a parallel port is hard enough without adding a USB converter into the mix, as they are designed for output, not input. On the other hand, I believe the parallel post uses open collector outputs, so you cannot feed data from one PC LPT port to another. – hdhondt Jun 30 '14 at 00:44
  • @hdhondt: Thank you for your comment. Unfortunately for me is not very clear your ideea. – Vladds7 Jul 01 '14 at 06:45
  • @Vladds I suppose I'm saying there is no simple way to do this. I know of no hardware to do it and any software would have to be installed on the old PC. Using a USB-parallel adapter won't work either as they're not designed to take in input. – hdhondt Jul 02 '14 at 10:55

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One way you should be able to achieve what you want is with a Parallel-to-Serial Converter. Attach the device to the parallel port of the old PC, instead of a printer. Then connect the other end to the serial port (remember those?) of another PC. If necessary, install a Serial Port PCI card. Then all you need is some software like a Terminal Emulator to read from the serial port.

hdhondt
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You can capture the output of the legacy PC Parallel LPT port with hardware. Use a LPT cable to a capture PC, or parallel data recorder box hardware. Such cables/hardware is made by Photologic Ltd.

Example: Photologic Ltd. Model CS-ZN and Cables-To-Go Part#26886 lets you capture everything elegantly to a PC folder using Tera Term terminal emulator. It will save everything on the cable including graphics and protocol escape sequences. The transfer is quick as there is no mechanical printer burden.

There is a youtube video at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFOqP_CU5sI

Rick
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