Parallel port triggering

A PCIe device such as “StarTech.com 1 Port PCI Express” should work. USB to parallel port adapters will not, due to hardware limitations of the devices ($10 ones on Amazon are only designed for printers) and the USB protocol itself, which is not designed for low-latency control.

Instructions differ between Linux and Windows:

  • Linux

    On Linux, you need pyparallel:

    $ pip install pyparallel

    You might also need some combination of the following:

    1. $ sudo modprobe ppdev

    2. Add user to lp group (/etc/group)

    3. Run sudo rmmod lp (otherwise lp takes exclusive control)

    4. Edit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist.conf to add blacklist lp

    5. $ ls /dev/parport* to get the parallel port address, e.g. '/dev/parport0', and set this as TRIGGER_ADDRESS in the config.

  • Windows

    If you are on a modern Windows system (i.e., 64-bit), you’ll need to:

    • Download the latest “binaries” archive from the InpOut32 site

    • Extract the files

    • Run the Win32\InstallDriver.exe file (yes, even though it’s in the Win32 directory)

    • Rename the 64-bit file inpoutx64.dll to inpout32.dll

    • Place this file in C:\Windows\System32\

    • Use the Device Manager (or some other method) to get the parallel port address (from Ports➡Properties➡Resources➡I/O Range), e.g. 0x378 or 0xCFF4, and set this as TRIGGER_ADDRESS in the config.

    • If you have trouble, you can interactively test your parallel port using the parallel port tester application.