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Editorial Team
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Asked: 2026-05-13T23:30:36+00:00

I’m building a custom robotish machine that has 8 switches I need to interface

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I’m building a custom “robotish” machine that has 8 switches I need to interface with a laptop. The only input to the laptop is via USB.

Here’s my idea:

When the switch is closed, it sends a 5v signal to one of the input pins on a parallel to USB adapter. This adapter translates this to a USB signal and sends it to the computer, which will be listening for it.

Here’s my question(s):

Will this even work? Will the USB adapter be able to tell the computer that pin 8 (or whatever) on the parallel port side of the adapter is high?

Thanks!

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1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    If pin8 is one of the data pins then yes (assuming the adapter supports bi-directional)

    A lot of usb-serial/parralel adapters are very poorly made and have very very bad drivers so you might need to find one that somebody else has used.

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