... I find that it does not work. I am using a usb to parallel port adapter. I did a few searches and saw some brief threads that were dead ends on this topic. Seems like the xtronics people are no help either, apparently they just want you to buy a new one.

I haven't used this thing in years and the last computer I had with a parallel port is long gone. Has anyone figured out a way to get this to work with a parallel port adapter and windows 7?

 

I have one of those PP II units as well......and the bad news is Yes, you need a real parallel port on a PC to make it work. Sorry, but i dont think the adaptors will work. I am lucky, still have an old Dell Latitude PC with the port, so i can still make it work. No surprise on what you said about Xtronics!

 

I used a "card" to produce a parallel port on my newer laptop. Worked well. That was 5-6 years back before I went to EBL with USB.

 

I also have a PP2 parallel port version and it DOES NOT work on win7. I tried this and even resorted to buying a parallel port card. What I discovered is that win7 will not allow the direct port access that the pp2 needs. winXP is ok, but not win7. I actually resorted to going out to the garage and salvaging parts for several "OLD" computers to build a basic system with a parallel port and installed winxp just for using the pp2.
Soon after that I bought a cheap "TL866" on ebay for under $50.00 which works great! I cant speak for the other "cheap" programmers out there, but the TL866 seems to be a good one. It also does micro controllers and supports a really wide range of memory devices.

 

GQ-4X usb universal programmer from mcumall electronics
another option-works great!

 

If you have a parallel PCI card and need to run WinXP, you can install a virtual box, like VMWare, that you then install a copy of Windoze to. I have done this on my laptop for a program that won't run in Win7. I have not tried this with peripherals like a PCI card, but have talked to a few people that have done it, and have considered doing it for a serial port card I have, that doesn't have Win7 drivers available.

Or as suggested and likely a better option is to get a programmer that has native USB support, such as thw Willems GQ-3X (I own one), GQ-4X or a BURN2 from moates (I also own one of these).

 

Thanks for the info and tips guys. Looks like I will be retiring the pocket programmer. I've been out of the programming scene for awhile so I'll have to research what the current options are before I move forward.