Question: serial/parallel port

[JS]

Hi, I am trying to control a simple digital switch using labview and either
my serial- or parallel port. I want to control each individual pin on the
port: to turn on/off +5V on the output pins. Does anybody now how? Is it
possible? I am running labview 6.1 on W2k.

Thanks in advance

[LucaP.]

Hi

I recommend you to use the parallel port. The serial port is not the right choice for your application!
Don't forget that W2k requires additional AccesHW drivers. This page describes very well how to use the parallel port in LV and you can find some examples too. The link to the Accesshw.dll is on this page too:
http://zone.ni.com/devzone/conceptd.nsf/webmain/72C6FC6CE4AD4D1386256B1800794596?opendocument&node=DZ52058_US

Luca P.
Applications Engineer
National Instruments

[Pawel Pocwiardowski]

Go ahad with LPT. It is very easy to use. Remember that the
output is TTL so do not expect to get more thatn 20 mA from one
pin.
I also sow some LPT using VISA, but I tried it and I could not
get it working. Try HWaccess - or soemthing like this - it works
for sure, but without error check.

regards
PP

JS wrote:
>
> Hi, I am trying to control a simple digital switch using labview and either
> my serial- or parallel port. I want to control each individual pin on the
> port: to turn on/off +5V on the output pins. Does anybody now how? Is it
> possible? I am running labview 6.1 on W2k.
>
> Thanks in advance

[wha@atmel]

Hi Luca, JS & Pawel,

in general everything is correct, but I would suggest to use the "Out Port" and "In Port" functions from LabVIEW. Have a look to the simple printer_port_test.vi. This also needs the accesshw as already explained.
In addition I recommend to use buffer-circuits in between LPT and an application in order not to destroy the motherboard-Chips by accident !!

Regards
wha