Re: Wanted: slink-e parallel port "breakout box"

A couple of thoughts. First, if the Control-S devices you are try to control are all different, or have different IDs (eg VCR1, VCR2, etc), you can connect them ALL to the same Control-S port. Control-S is essentially a wired version of IR and you don't have to worry about one devices responding to the commands of another. So basically you just need to "Y" your cable to all of your devices.

If instead you needed to control 24 VCRs, you would indeed need to convert the other 7 IR ports into Control-S ports. You could do this at the DB-25 connector by using an inverter IC and some resistors. If you want to get inside the Slink-e, you can do it with only one resistor per port, by emulating what is done in the schematic.