Parallel Port Monitor (c) 1997-2002 Fred Bulback email: fred@geekhideout.com url: http://www.geekhideout.com ************************************************ * * This program is freeware.

It may be freely * distributed provided: * * 1) There is no accompanying fee of any sort. * 2) The executable file has not been modified * in any way. * 3) This file, "parmon.txt", accompanies the * executable. * ************************************************ Parallel Port Monitor is a utility for windows 95/98/NT that permits the three registers of the parallel port to be spied upon. FAQ Q: How do I change which parallel port is being spied upon? A: Click on any cell in the port column. If there is more than one port, the next one will be selected. Q: How do I edit the values ports values? A: Simply click on the cell that you wish to edit and type the new value. Press <ENTER> when you are done, or <ESC> to cancel the edit. Some registers cannot be edited and therefore will not change. Q: What's the "Beep" column all about? A: You can toggle each beep cell between "Yes" and "No". When the cell is yes, a beep will sound when the corresponding register changes. If for some reason you want to toggle all cells, just click on the column title. Q: Is there a way to toggle individual bits? A: All of the output bits may be toggled by clicking on the appropriate pin on the connector diagram. Obviously, input pins cannot be toggled. Q: What's the deal with the female/male connector box? A: Suppose you have a cable in front of you. By selecting female/male, you can easily match up the pins to those in the connector diagram. Q: On the connector, some pins are green while others are red. What's the difference? A: Green pins are low, red pins are high. This can be changed to whatever you want, however. Q: What does "Always on top" do. A: Since this program *is* a monitor program, chances are you want to see what it's doing. By checking

this box, the program will always be visible. Q: Why would I want to disable the connector? A: If your system is particularly slow, you may find that it flickers when it is updated, which can be annoying. Q: What does sample rate do? A: Sample rate determines how often the state of the port is sampled? It defaults to "as fast as possible". You may find, however, that this will slow your machine down too much. Q: What about the blink on sample box? A: When this box is checked, a small indicator will appear to the lower left of the connector. Every time a sample is taken, it will blink to a different color. This is useful if your sample rate is fairly long. With a short sample rate, checking this box can have detrimental effects. And the most frequently asked question: Q: Can you change Parallel Port Monitor so it logs the data? A: Yes I could, but I'm not going to. The reason for this is that the program works by taking periodic samples of the state of the parallel port. Therefore all state changes between samples are not even noticed. While this is ok for viewing with the eye, it is rather lousy for logging because a lot of information will be missing from the log potentially causing confusion. -------------------------------------------------------I welcome all comments and suggestions: fred@geekhideout.com