Parallel port problem

[Liat]

Dear all,
We just bought a new computer that didn't have a parallel I/O card, so
we installed a MosChip PCI Parallel Port card (I/O area of EC00-EC07
or E880-E887 ), so we could interface this Eprime computer with an
External device that measures physiological signals (Biopac). We have
a paradigm with an inline script that worked fine with the old
computer with a port address &H378. I wasn't sure which of my new
ports (I/O area of EC00-EC07 or E880-E887 )I should use, I put & HEC00
in the script, when I tried to run this I got an error from e-prime
that my port value was out of range. (My E-Prime version is :
1.1.4.1).

Example of part of scripit
FastasyouCan.OnsetSignalEnabled = True
FastasyouCan.OnSetSignalPort = &HEC00 (in old computer it was &H378)
FastasyouCan.OnsetSignalData = &B0000000000000000001000000

I have tried playing around, but so far nothing works. I also tried to
run the Parallel Port Configure script provided by Eprime (http://
pstnet.com/e-prime/support/samples.asp?Mode=View&SampleID=29) with no
joy, when I try and run it, the program just seems freeze.

Your help will be much appreciated. Not sure how to fix this and if I
am using the right port address in the correct notation.

Thank you very much in advance,

Liat

[David McFarlane]

Liat,

First, this really is a job for your local IT expert, so I'm just
throwing out a few ideas which probably will not do you much good.

Second, by "I/O area" do you mean the "I/O Range" as shown in the
Resources tab of the Windows Device Manager? And is it EC00-EC07, or
E880-E887? It cannot be both.

Third, I ran my own sample program with .OnsetSignalPort = &HEC00
without any error (and I don't even have a device at that
address). But I run EP1.2, so perhaps that makes a difference. Any
reason you cannot upgrade from 1.1?

Fourth, since you have no other lpt port on that machine, can you
just reassign your card to use lpt1 (and therefore presumably port
address &H378)?

Fifth, your .OnsetSignalData has 25 bits. That should not affect
your operation at all, but it does seem a little weird.

This is as far as I can go here. Once again, I urge you to find a
competent local engineer.

-- David McFarlane, Professional Faultfinder

[Liat Levita]

Thank you so much David,
You were right, sadly no joy.

I updated to Eprime 1.2, but even during Eprime upgrade installation I got an error that the program didn't recognize the parallel port, but that I could go on with rest of installation regardless. So am not sure what is a miss. Will keep trying with help of our IT support who are also unsure about this & will keep you updated.

If you any more ideas we could try that would be wonderful.

Best wishes,

Liat

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[Peter Quain]

you don't say which MosChip card. Maybe you have to set its registers
for input/output? We had an I/O card (can't remember brand, 24 pin)
with 3 registers, 8 pins each, to work with a BioPac. We put this in
because parallel port only has 8 out pins, so at best could only
write to 8 of BioPac's 16 digital channels, and we had more
conditions than this. Before each run had to write some values to its
control register to set registers as input or output - we set 16 pins
(2 registers) for output, thus could pull each of 16 digital channels
on Biopac high 1 at a time, and mark 16 different conditions if
required. I can't remember any more about it, it was years ago. Look
carefully at your documentation, maybe this is the problem.

But - maybe e-prime just doesn't like the address range? - standard
parallel port H378 = dec 888, but EC00 = dec 60416. Or, the card is
crook. Perhaps buy another couple of cards and try them out. Or, buy
a Gigabyte m'board with onboard parallel port, you can still get them
- I think this one has a parallel port: GA 6BXC. Chuck it in an old
box, migrate RAM, CPU, Graphics card, HDD over. Systems go.

However, before screwing around with hardware, why don't you ask PST
support what address ranges e-prime likes, or doesn't? If error says
'out of range', this implies that there IS a limitation... apparently
they are overjoyed to be asked questions (correct, David?), and
promise a swift response.

Best