Ever tried virtualisation?
VMware did a pretty good job at running 32 bit OS like WinXP in a window, while passing through USB hardware from the host OS (win10 64bit).
So if mach3 is running on a decent USB-PPT interface, i'd check that too.
I have run my car's OBD stonage interface via USBCOM serial port-USB bridge controller under such configurations successfully.
Well worth a try, imo. And oracle's virtualbox should do it sufficiently, too (for free).
EDIT: I googled "usb parallel port mach 3" and judging by the first three results it shouldn't be much of a problem to get things running that way.
The problem is latency.
CNC needs really precise timing, like realtime kernel precise, which is why the parallel port is on the PCI bus, USB adapters are a recipe for disaster.
I know you googled, but those hits are referring to purpose built USB input motion controllers that deal with timing internally. This thing isn't worth converting to a new motion controller...though somehow it is worth days of my time...
Hmm, i see.
Perle adapters (parallel over ethernet) might be another option, but i never tried that, i just read somewhere that these are quite timing-accurate.
Having a quick look into "pci passthru", that means passing a pci device to a virtual machine guest OS, is only supported in VirtualBox Linux version and VMWare ESX (which replaces the host OS, win10x64 in this case, to allow device level passthru). If i am interpreting the information correctly, it's a windows license thing that passthru isnt supported in windoze. These stupid redmont fuckers :/
If you really hang to it, i'd get an old win32 micro-atx box or laptop with built-in PPT and no internet access, using an old KVM switch to save space and share one set of keyboard, mouse and monitor between the two computers. I used to work like this with three local servers and a workstation in development and it was quite convenient, also because i didn't have to stay in the noisy server room next door. Just drilled a hole for the cables through the wall.
I know absolutely nothing about computers, but if your problem is that your old machine isn't compatible with a new computer, why don't you just buy an old computer on Ebay?
AFAIR, he doesn't have enough space for two boxes.
EDIT: To stay on topic, observing $7182 from the basement beside my noisy cnc router.
Downtrend channel seems to hold. Filthy grinding to the future bottom. Hail to the halving
