I am interested in controlling printers and other pieces of office equipment as well. I haven't follwed the recent posts as I've just gotten back from a trip.

I was visiting a friend out in California who has written a patch that allows him to communicate to a speakjet chip using a USB to serial adapter of sorts. I can't remember the exact model or manufacturer even.

From what I can tell it would probably be a good idea

to use the serial of comport objects to send serial data to a PIC or other programmable microcontroller. I would be interested in otherways via USB though I don't know much about the USB protocol.

On a side note, we got a microcontroller to convert analog controlsignal into a digital stream and send it via serial to hyperterminal. The sure sign that it was working was hyperterminal filling up with ascii corresponding to the controller data. A max patch he was using displayed the same results. It would be pretty simple to do the reverse and program the PIC to accept commands and computer various things.

You'll need to learn the assembly language if you're going to be dealing with most PICs but it is quite worth it. You'll be really hard core nerd.

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