Bidirectional printer support - working for anybody?

[m-h-l]

Hi folks,

also I have a IP4000 from Canon.

is there in the meantime a solution to get the
Ink levels respectively the status information
for printers which are connected to the WL-500g ?

There was on older thread speaking about a newer
version of 'JetDirect' which should support this.

Does anybody knows more?

Cheers,
Markus

[ATH]

You can try to enter these command in a telnet session :

killall p910nd
p910nd -f /dev/usb/lp0 0 -b

It will enable the bidirectionnal mode for jetdirect.

But i must warn you that I have never been able to see the ink level of my printer (HP 970Cxi) even with birdirectionnal mode activated, but maybe it will work for your printer.

[m-h-l]

Thx for this hint.

I have two printers connected, one to LPT and
one to USB.

- Which one is lp0 and which one is lp1 ?

- Can this work with LPT and USB ?

(Firmware v1.9.2.7 CR6b)

Markus

[ATH]

Thx for this hint.

I have two printers connected, one to LPT and
one to USB.

- Which one is lp0 and which one is lp1 ?

I don't know, wait for someone else
But, from what i've read on this forum, on Deluxe version if you have two usb printers it is random.

- Can this work with LPT and USB ?

Yes, it can

[m-h-l]

I tried it but it seems that this bidirectional support seems
not to be perfect, yet.

I'm wondering if it wouldn't be possible to write a driver
which 'simulates' an USB port on the PC, having an ethernet
connection to another USB port (like the one on the WL-500g)
and transfers all data BIDIRECTIONAL between this remote
USB and the PC.

Maybe ... one day.

none the less ... thanks for your help ... further tips & tricks are welcome!

Markus

[luka74]

I have Canon i550 connected via USB 2.0 and using Oleg's latest firmware (1.9.2.7-7b) for RAW printing over p910nd. It seems that there is no way I could enable proper bidirectional support on router that would enable Canon's Windows XP printer drivers to get proper feedback from the printer.

In particular, printer cannot report Out-of-paper status, ink levels (via Canon Status Monitor) and cannot do proper Manual Duplex or Booklet printing as those require notification back to the printer driver and user when already printed paper needs to be reloaded (it just uses fresh paper already in the bin).

Detection of the printer on low level seems to work as I get messages like this:

Jan  1 01:00:07 kernel: usb.c: registered new driver usblp
Jan  1 01:00:09 kernel: printer.c: usblp0: USB Bidirectional printer dev 2 if 0
alt 0 proto 2 vid 0x04A9 pid 0x1073
Jan  1 01:00:09 kernel: printer.c: usblp0 Device ID string [93]='MFG:Canon;CMD:B
JL,BJRaster3,BSCC,TXT01;MDL:i550;CLS:PRINTER;DES:Canon i550;VER:1.01;STA:10;'
Jan  1 01:00:12 kernel: printer.c: usblp0 Device ID string [93/max 1552]='MFG:Ca
non;CMD:BJL,BJRaster3,BSCC,TXT01;MDL:i550;CLS:PRINTER;DES:Canon i550;VER:1.01;ST
A:10;'
Jan  1 01:29:43 kernel: printer.c: usblp0: off-line
Jan  1 01:32:18 kernel: printer.c: usblp0: ok
Jan  1 01:32:44 kernel: printer.c: usblp0: off-line

As you can see, it is detected as bidirectional printer and also properly reports as off-line in case that I am out of paper, but this status does not get back to Canon printer driver on Windows XP.

Is this just issue with Canon driver or do other have similar issues?
Does any printer really work bidirectionally?