I have had for a long time a Panasonic B/W printer that has served my needs well. When I bought my second computer a few years ago I got a free Canon color printer which I have never hooked up. I can obviously replace the Panasonic printer with the Canon. But is it possible to have both connected?
Is there some connector that is available? (Both printers use a parallel connection.)
I have Windows XP if that makes a difference.
They make little boxes to which you can connect three printers and your computer. I forget what they’re called.
These days, I suspect you can find USB to Parallel interfaces, and then could have as many of those as you want connected.
However you connect the printers, WindowsXP should “see” the new hardware and set it up for you under Plug-n-pray.
~Wolfrick
Ummm… since a lot of parallel based inkjets have bundled “toolbox” applets that constantly monitor the port status and require constant bi-directional communication a USB to parallel cable adapter or a switchbox might be problematic.
Having done this “2 printers on one PC” scenario several times I have found the most reliable and least problematic way to accomplish this was simply to put an additional PCI parallel port card in the PC, thus giving the PC 2 parallel printer ports it could use at once. Let the existing printer sit on LPT1 and put the second printer on LPT 2. No switchbox and cabling headaches, no USB adapter bi-directional communication flakiness, just 2 parallel ports that can used individually or at the same time by two different printers. No muss, no fuss.
These cards usually go for around $ 20.00 or so but may be less on Ebay.
I agree with astro. Also you might be able to use a USB-to-parallel adapter for the second printer.
Astro’s got one solution. Another, less elegant one, which I use at work where I have an Epson Stylus and an HP Designjet hooked up to my computer, would be to use a Belkin data switch. You run one parallel cable from your computer’s parallel port to the Belkin, which has two parallel outputs that you cable to the printers. A toggle switch on the Belkin lets you select which printer gets the output.
Another solution is to get a little print server. $25 for the server and $10 for an ethernet card (if you don’t already have one) and not only will you be able to hook two printers to your computer, but you’ll be able to print to those two printers from any computer on the network, even when your primary computer is off.
Cheap, elegant, and flexible.
I have an HP Laserjet 1000 with a USB connection and an Epson Stylus Photo with a parallel connection. They both work just fine. If I had another USB connection, I could set up the Epson to use my USB to parallel converter to manage it. I have done that in the past, but now I have a USB Scanner which uses the second USB port.
Thanks everyone for the ideas. I’ll probably go the route that astro suggested. Cheap and easy.