Capturing Parallel Port Data

Mr CW mrcomputerwiz at hotmail.com
Thu Dec 14 11:02:57 PST 2006


Hi Guys,

I have been reading the ppi man page and have searched Google but have not 
found an answer to my problem:  I work at a business which uses cable 
testers that output plain text to a dot matrix printer (any old DMP will 
work).  (Cirris cable testers)  The paper trail is getting huge so I am 
trying to write a program that does the following:

Prompts the user for the cable part number
Reads data from the parallel port, which is connected to the parallel output 
of a Cirris tester
Prompts for any notes regarding the cable
Inputs the data into a database table

Now, my real question is:  how do I read data from the parallel port on the 
FreeBSD computer that is coming from the tester which is trying to 'print' 
to the FBSD computer's parallel port?  Is there a suggested pinout for a 
parallel crossover calbe to accomplish this task with ppi?  Is the crossover 
cable even required?

Finally, is there a FBSD-sanctioned parallel port driver for use with Perl 
instead of using ppi and C?

Any and all help is welcomed and apriciated.

-J. Hunt

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