[time-nuts] OT - USB to LPT Adapter - Does it exist?

Wed Jan 16 06:08:03 UTC 2013

Work has allowed another brief entry to this project.

I opened the SS3 and removed the small PCB that appears to be a USB to
Parallel Port adapter.

It's part number is WWAVUSBEPP, an interesting choice.  I took some pictures
of the unit and I can send them to anyone that is interested.  I do not have
a means of 'posting' the pictures.

It has 4 IC's, U1 through U4.  U1 is a CY7C68013-56LFC which appears to be a
Cypress EZ-USB FX2 USB Microcontroller High-speed USB Peripheral Controller.
The data sheet is here:

http://mdfly.com/newmdfly/products/FX56/cy7c68013a.pdf

An evaluation board is available.

http://www.mdfly.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=4_56&products_id
=107&zenid=at30m3698fqnnoq42ffmgnmrv1

It uses a 24 MHz crystal on the board to drive a 480 MHz oscillator to run
the microcontroller and there is a part on the WWAVUSBEPP labeled '24.000
DALE 6K'. 

U2 appears to be an LT 176333 500 mA Low Noise, LDO Micropower Regulator for
converting the 5 VDC power supply, coming from the main board of the SS3, to
3.3 VDC.  It's data sheet is here:

http://cds.linear.com/docs/Datasheet/1763fg.pdf

U3 is a mystery.  It appears to be an SOT device with 5 pins with 'SATRIP'
labeled on the top.  I can not find any information about this chip.

U4 appears to be an ST 24C64WP SOIC 8 pin EEPROM.  It's data sheet is here:

http://www.st.com/internet/com/TECHNICAL_RESOURCES/TECHNICAL_LITERATURE/DATA
SHEET/CD00259166.pdf

I called BP Micro today and the WWAVUSBEPP is available, in stock, for
$101.92.  I don't recognize any markings on the unit that might identify who
made it for BP Micro.  Someone else might be able to from the picture.

So, what further advice and/or recommendations are there?

Thanks again for all the help.

Joe

-----Original Message-----
From: time-nuts-bounces at febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-bounces at febo.com] On
Behalf Of gary
Sent: Monday, January 14, 2013 12:52 PM
To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
Subject: Re: [time-nuts] OT - USB to LPT Adapter - Does it exist?

I stayed out as well. I didn't want to get into this, but I suspect if 
you are using the parallel port, bit banging is how they did it. That 
hasn't worked well since win98. Every newer version of Windows made the 
ports harder to "own", mostly because once there was multitasking, it 
became necessary for something to arbitrate what process owned what 
piece of hardware.

Peek and Poke goes way back. You used to be able to read and write to 
the ports directly using those functions.

I hate to be negative, but you wouldn't be the first person to get 
screwed by interface standards changing. Think of those klunker PCs that 
were kept alive just not to buy another National GPIB board.

Bit banging worked really well under DOS. Many hacks were done using the 
interrupt lines on the serial ports.

On 1/14/2013 10:31 AM, J. L. Trantham wrote:
> Nate,
>
> I, too, am hesitant to post an OT issue, and that is the reason I 
> tried to ask just the bare essentials without clogging up the list 
> with too much stuff.  However, when I want to know something, I like 
> to ask the smartest people I know, and this has certainly proven that 
> point.
>
> I think you are giving me way too much credit for my abilities to 
> 'dissect', 'peek', 'bitbang', and 'VID/PID'.  However, if I am able to 
> accomplish this, it will be a PhD in 'computer', at least from my 
> perspective.
>
> You have given me a lot of places to start and I am sure I will have a 
> lot more questions that I can take off list if someone is willing to 
> lend a hand.  I'll start with removing and inspecting the USB to 
> Parallel adapter in the SS3 to see if I can get an idea about the 
> chipset used.  The BP Micro software is easily downloadable from 
> www.bpmicro.com.  You have to register but it is free.  I will explore 
> that as well but there is where I will very likely need help.  I know 
> the software works with WinXP and later (at least Win7, I don't know 
> about Win8).  Perhaps earlier versions as well.
>
> Thanks again to all who have responded and apologies for the OT posts.
>
> Joe
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: time-nuts-bounces at febo.com [mailto:time-nuts-bounces at febo.com] 
> On Behalf Of Nathaniel Bezanson
> Sent: Monday, January 14, 2013 9:55 AM
> To: Discussion of precise time and frequency measurement
> Subject: Re: [time-nuts] OT - USB to LPT Adapter - Does it exist?
>
> I always feel guilty replying to off-topic threads, but this one just 
> got interesting! At least most mailers make it easy to mute threads, 
> so...
>
> J. L. Trantham  wrote:
>> My goal is to connect a BP Micro BP-1600, parallel port connected 
>> Universal Programmer, to a computer using USB.  BP Micro makes the 
>> BP-1610 which does just this.  It appears to be the same programmer, 
>> uses the same software, but connects via a USB port instead of a 
>> parallel
> port.
>
> Ahh, well there's the part you didn't tell us previously! Mainly, that 
> the PC-side software already knows how to abstract those calls and 
> send them over USB -- it's not hard-coded to bitbang the physical 
> parallel port. That was the major stumbling block, and it's not a 
> block at all.
>
> Odds are that BP Micro wanted to do as little work as possible to 
> update their design, so they probably used standard silicon in front 
> of the old parallel-based programmer circuit, with OEM drivers and 
> just a custom USB VID/PID to make it enumerate properly. If we work on 
> this assumption, the hack might be trivial indeed.
>
> Dissect the USB drivers that come with the software -- there should be 
> hints in there about the chipset which it expects to see inside the 
> 1610. Simply right-clicking all the DLLs and stuff should reveal a few 
> signed by a silicon company, likely Cypress or FTDI. There may be 
> hints as to the part number. Get your hands on that chip, preferably 
> by finding a premade USB-to-parallel cable based on it. (These are 
> usually just the datasheet example circuit.)
>
> You can find the expected VID/PID by peeking into the INF included 
> with the 1610 software.  Use the chipmaker's dev tools to reflash the 
> USB chip with the appropriate VID/PID, and see if BPWin will talk to 
> it. (Alternately, edit the INF with the existing VID/PID of the 
> adapter you're using. This will make every similar USB-to-parallel 
> cable enumerate as a BP1610, which is obviously the dirtiest hack 
> ever, but may work just fine.)
>
> If the drivers load but the programmer won't initialize, then the ID 
> parts are right but the connections are wrong. Likely the data lines 
> are connected straight, and it's just the handshaking lines that might 
> do things differently than the datasheet example. Working from the 
> chip datasheet will be your guide as to the possibilities.
>
> Rots of ruck!
> -Nate-
>
>    I have not had a
>> chance to see the inside of the BP-1610 and would really appreciate 
>> some pictures if anyone has one, particularly the corner of the PCB 
>> that connects to the USB connection.
>>
>> All I have is an Actel Silicon Sculptor 3, also made by BP Micro, 
>> that looks like the BP-1710 (with the 'START' button) but connects 
>> via a USB port.  On the main PCB of the BP-1600 and the SS3 are two, 
>> 2 row, 26 pin, connectors, one toward the back edge of the PCB toward 
>> the back panel and the other just inside the first connector.  The 
>> inside connector directly connects to the parallel port on the back 
>> of the BP-1600.  On the SS3, there is a small PCB that plugs into the 
>> same connector, takes a power input, and also has 6 pin connections 
>> to the other 26 pin connector.  This small PCB has a USB connector 
>> that is
> connected to the back of the SS3 as the USB connection.
>>
>> These observations lead me to believe that it is possible to do a 
>> 'USB to parallel' adapter to make the connection.  Of course, I don't 
>> have a clue about the onboard firmware that might be different to 
>> allow the unit to be recognized as a USB instead of a parallel port 
>> connected
> device.
>>
>> So, some 'experimenting' seems in order, after first trying to 
>> closely inspect the small PCB and try to reverse engineer it a bit.
>>
>> In the mean time, I have a collection of laptop's and desktop's with 
>> parallel port connectors so keeping the programmers humming is not a 
>> problem.  Just would like to make the 'jump' to the 'modern era'.  A 
>> project that has been in the back of my mind.  I will probably try 
>> one of the adapters referred to.
>>
>> Thanks again for all the info.
>>
>> Joe
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: time-nuts-bounces at febo.com [time-nuts-bounces at febo.com] On 
>> Behalf Of GandalfG8 at aol.com
>> Sent: Friday, January 11, 2013 5:38 PM
>> To: time-nuts at febo.com
>> Subject: Re: [time-nuts] OT - USB to LPT Adapter - Does it exist?
>>
>>
>> Hi Luis
>>
>> No problem, and it's much better anyway to hear from someone  who's 
>> used
>> it:-)
>>
>> I only took a quick look at the web site before and didn't see the 
>> self build instructions at that time, but having seen the SMD chip 
>> he's using I think asking for a price might be safer:-)
>>
>> I see from your earlier comments that you've used it ok with old 
>> programmers but on the page you've linked do he doesn't recommend 
>> that, have you come across any problems with this?
>>
>> Regards
>>
>> Nigel
>> GM8PZR
>>
>>
>> In a message dated 11/01/2013 20:15:15 GMT Standard Time, 
>> ct1dmk at gmail.com
>> writes:
>>
>> Hi  Nigel,
>>
>> I missed your post before my reply to Joe, so I made no mention  to 
>> your suggestion. I have those and they are not a printer thing, they  
>> really work low
> level.
>> The list of programmers and bit oriented  stuff that was reported to 
>> work well is big and surely there are  more stuff that works that is 
>> not in the list...
>>
>> Joe,  take a  look a check if you app is reported  good:
>>
>> http://www-user.tu-chemnitz.de/~heha/bastelecke/Rund%20um%20den%20PC/
>> U
>> SB2LPT
>> /liste.en.htm
>>
>>
>> Cheers.
>>
>> Luis  Cupido
>> ct1dmk.
>>
>>
>>
>> On 1/11/2013 5:03 PM, GandalfG8 at aol.com  wrote:
>>> Hi Joe
>>>
>>> As per other replies I was going to  suggest this won't work because 
>>> USB adapters are for printing  only and my solution would be to buy 
>>> an old
>> 486 or
>>> early pentium  laptop and use that, I've bought several over the 
>>> past
> few
>>> years   for really silly money on Ebay for this very reason, but I have
>> come
>>>   across what  might be a possible solution....
>>>
>>>
>> _http://www-user.tu-chemnitz.de/~heha/bastelecke/Rund%20um%20den%20PC
>> /
>> USB2LP
>>>   T/index.html.en_
>>>
>> (http://www-user.tu-chemnitz.de/~heha/bastelecke/Rund%20um%20den%20PC
>> /
>> USB2LP
>> T/index.html.en)
>>>
>>>   I can't vouch for this, just found it via Google, and although the
>> drivers
>>> are downloadable you need to buy the adapter and have to email  for
>> prices,
>>> but it might be worth a try.
>>>
>>> My  preferrred solution would still be the old laptop:-)
>>>
>>>   Regards
>>>
>>> Nigel
>>> GM8PZR
>>>
>>>
>>> In a  message dated 11/01/2013 13:09:45 GMT Standard Time, 
>>> jltran at att.net
>>>   writes:
>>>
>>> Not sure  where to ask this question but thought  I would start 
>>> here.
>>>
>>> Is  there a way to connect a parallel  port to a computer via USB? 
>>> Not  a device that shows up as  'USB Print Support' but, instead, 
>>> shows up in Device Manager  as an LPT port?  I have been able to do 
>>> it via PCMCIA  to
>> Parallel
>>> Port adapters but I have never found a USB device that would  do 
>>> this.
>>>
>>> My goal is to connect a parallel port chip  programmer via USB but 
>>> the software only looks for LPT  ports.  It works with PCMCIA to 
>>> parallel
>> port
>>> adapters but  I haven't solved the puzzle yet with a USB  connected
>> device.
>>>
>>> Thanks in advance.
>>> Joe
>>>
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