Byte read and write from parallel port with powershell

[777subob]

I'm sitting in front of a Dell Precision T5500 running Windows 7 Professional, 64bit. It has a parallel port, (device manager describes it as "ECP Printer port LPT1"), with a driver provided by Microsoft, (c:\windows\system32\DRIVERS\parport.sys). If I were to connect some dip switches and pull-up resistors to the data lines of the parallel port, can someone show me a sample powershell script that would read those switches--the byte established by those switches, and create a variable? And If I were to connect some LEDs to the data lines of that port, can someone show me a sample powershell script that could send a byte to illuminate them?

 

[Berton]

Good question and I have no answer, haven't seen DIP switches as were used on some Dot-Matrix printers in 20 years. It does seem to me the port doesn't actually send electricity, just data signals which have to be processed by something at the other end of the cable. Serial ports [9-pin or 25-pin] are different, and Yes, there used to be Serial port printers, fortunately I never had to work with them.

 

[777subob]

The parallel port can certainly be used in the way I've described. The data lines send and receive 5 volt logic. I've done this sort of thing in Windows XP using a SourceForge utility called "ParaShell". But it doesn't work in Windows 7, and all development of ParaShell seems to have ceased. So I'm fishing for alternatives.