Parallel plug

[SAISAY]

I bought a CNC machine that needs a paralllel plug in the PC.
Bought an older computer that runs XP and was supposed to have a parallel plug.
However, this one is a female that needs male pins and is screwed to the plug.
I need a male that has clips on the side instead of screws.
What to do now, please?

[_fly_]

Thats a parallel port.
Serial ports come as 9 pin and 25 pin (both male, pins showing).
The parallel port is also 25 pin and that shows as a female on the computer.
Back to the market for another one I guess.

[Skew ChiDAMN!!]

It sounds like what you have is a DB25 connector.

What you need is a Centronics connector... the problem is easily solved: you need a db25<->centronics converter. Which is basically just the two plugs connected back-to-back without any cable in between.

They both supply exactly the same signals along exactly the same wires... it's just that the Centronics plug was the norm when printers first came out, but when IBM released the PC they decided to change the standard to db25. Nothing changed electronically, except you physically can't plug one into t'other. :rolleyes:

Because both types are more or less defunct standards nowadays (Par: ports have fallen out of favour for USB. Stupidly so, IMHO. :rolleyes: ) you may have trouble finding a nice, simple converter... but you should be able to buy a printer cable with the appropriate gender DB25 on one end and Centronics on t'other.

I'd advise you to use as short a cable as possible, given that I'm assuming you'll be plugging another cable into it? You really don't want long lengths of cabling, as that way lies signal loss.

:think: Or you could simply remove the existing Centronics plug off the CNC cable and replace it with a db25. This does require some ability at soldering, of course, but it would be the most professional way.

Pin-out diagrams for both types should still be readily available off the 'net.

[SAISAY]

Thank you Skew.
Oh yes, I do remember those gender bender plugs :)
I just threw out all my old computer gear a couple of months ago :(

What's the old saying?

If you chuck it out you are going to need it, if you keep it you never will.

[SAISAY]

Found a db 25 plug in the old leccie stuff.
However, I have a slight problem.
The centronics has 36pins, the db 24 only 25 pins.
On the Centronics the wires are soldered in pairs as per attached picture.
How do I translate that to db 24 please?
263228

[_fly_]

this page has the wiring you need
Parallel cable pinout and port information (http://www.lammertbies.nl/comm/cable/parallel.html)

[SAISAY]

that didn't help me much.
As I said, on the CNC the pins are wired in pairs as in (1+2, 3+4, 5+6, 7+8), (11+12, 13+14, 15+16, 17 + 18), (29 + 30, 31 + 32, 33 +34, 35+ 36) making it 3 lots of 4 wires.