7 ms·

Show HN: Driverless print server for legacy printers, profit goes to open-source

188 points by ValdikSS 1y ago

This is a device, to which you connect your older USB printer, and use it from any PC or smartphone without installing drivers (AirPrint/Mopria), wirelessly. As easy as that! * Supports all OS: Windows, macOS, Linux, iOS, Android. No drivers needed. Windows-on-ARM and Apple M1/2/3/4 also supported. * Supports the majority of printers released before ≈2018 * Profit from sold devices is shared between CUPS, SANE, AirSane open-source printing and scanning projects * Surplus and donations are accumulated to improve current open-source drivers and develop new ones The printer driver is run inside the device. It comes with lots of open-source and official proprietary drivers. x86-only drivers are running under box86 emulation, with little visible performance impact, ensuring wide compatibility with many printers and MFPs. All of this is bundled in a retail-like device, with simple web interface[1][2]. No tinkering and no DIY required, it's safe to plug off the power cord every time, and you can do factory reset. The print server is secure by default: it conforms to most of the IoT Device Security Specification 1.0[3] best practices, has built-in firewall to ensure LAN-only operation, and does not include anti-consumer features. All devices come with technical support, where I act as a middleman between all the involved projects and printer drivers. If there's a bug, I first try to debug the issue remotely, and if it's not possible, end up buying the same printer and debug it until the issue is resolved. All the fixes made during the development are contributed back to the origin projects, and there were many bugs fixed: almost every package has additional patches compared to original Debian 12 disto state. [1]: https://printserver.ink/webface-main.png https://printserver.ink/webface-main.png [2]: https://printserver.ink/webface-other.png https://printserver.ink/webface-other.png [3]: https://csa-iot.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/23-80986-013-PSWG-1.0-Specification-18-March-2024.pdf https://csa-iot.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/23-80986-013-... P.S. Brother printer lovers, the latest Brother L2800dw (2024) laser comes with the chipped cartridge, which you can't refill and reset forever anymore. The printer allows to continue printing with an "empty" cartridge with a special menu item, but it does so only to fixed amount of pages, and then stops. It doesn't allow to use cartridges without chips.

purpleidea 1y ago
Says it's open source but the link is password protected: https://printserver.ink/firmware/ https://printserver.ink/firmware/ I'll pass until that's normal.
- ValdikSS 1y ago
  This is an open source project in a technical sense (source is open and the license is open), but not in a social sense (no free as in beer available source code, no public support for everyone). Source code, as well as firmware updates and support, are provided only to the customers. When I sell the print server, I ask the buyer for the printer model, check its compatibility, and sell the device + guarantee that it would work for the buyer's printer. If it doesn't work properly, I'm first trying to debug remotely, and I could not fix it, I'm buying the same printer on flea market and debugging and fixing it until it works, and contribute the fix to CUPS/SANE/printer driver package. In other words, I sell tech support in a package, and I just don't sell the print server if it's incompatible with the printer. The goal of this project is to provide *ready-to-use, no-DIY device*, to improve the underlying software by directly contributing to it, for anyone to benefit from the fix. If you want to contribute to the printing stack and already know where to start, you should improve relevant projects, such as CUPS, SANE, printer and scanner drivers.
  - ummonk 1y ago
    This is a really cool business model. You're being paid to prepare the firmware for a specific device, but will open source what you prepare.
  - jacob019 1y ago
    You said in the same sentence that the source is open and not freely available.
    - ValdikSS 1y ago
      Yes, it's open only to the customers, as GPL requires: Selling Free Software <https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/selling.en.html https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/selling.en.html> > Many people believe that the spirit of the GNU Project is that you should not charge money for distributing copies of software, or that you should charge as little as possible—just enough to cover the cost. This is a misunderstanding. > Actually, we encourage people who redistribute free software to charge as much as they wish or can. If a license does not permit users to make copies and sell them, it is a nonfree license. If this seems surprising to you, please read on. You can buy only the firmware package as well, without the device. I'll send you the instruction on how to configure everything and which hardware modifications are required.
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]
TMWNN 1y ago
I don't need your product as I run CUPS and AirPrint on a Raspberry Pi <https://np.reddit.com/r/printers/comments/o0tin5/using_generic_label_printer_over_wireless/ https://np.reddit.com/r/printers/comments/o0tin5/using_gener...>, but you offer a useful product/service to those who are not inclined to figure out how to do so. (I use the Pi with thermal 4x6 label printers that use either ZPL or variant thereof, to access them either by Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.)
- ValdikSS 1y ago
  Right now CUPS does not publish all available custom page formats for label printers in a Windows 11 compatible way for true driverless printing, but some day I'll get my hands on this issue! https://github.com/OpenPrinting/cups/issues/1017 https://github.com/OpenPrinting/cups/issues/1017
kevinsync 1y ago
Dot-Ink is a wild TLD and very cool aesthetic choice for this project
KennyBlanken 1y ago
[flagged]
braincode 1y ago
This project made me wonder if a "physical virtual printer" exists? I'd love to send print jobs to a "non-physical" printer that any OS (and/or Adobe DC Reader) sees as a "completely legit, real, physical printer". In other words, not just the "Print to PDF" option/dialog on the OS. Then after "printing", have a valid PDF appear on that device's target storage itself (eMMC/SD Card/SMB share...)?
- userbinator 1y ago
  Yes, it's called a print server.
- bayindirh 1y ago
  Yes, and it's called a print server, as others said. FWIW, CUPS have a "virtual PDF printer" which enables "Print to PDF" feature system wide, so no application has to reimplement it. Also, I used to use a "PDF printer" in the olden days on Windows which did exactly that, and that was considered a paid, premium product. IOW, we have these. Both in personal and enterprise flavors, for a long time.
  - codetrotter 1y ago
    They are asking for a physical device with a memory card, that you attach to your computer and it appears as a printer to the computer and when you print to it, the device instead creates a PDF on its memory card. I think. I also first started typing a comment about “PDF printer” software that I used to use on Windows XP back in the day before most programs and before Windows had a native export to PDF via print dialog. (These days I run macOS. So not sure if current Windows has export to PDF at system level when you print from any program. I know Office has built in export to PDF, and I think back in the day Office did not have that.)
    - bayindirh 1y ago
      > ... for a physical device with a memory card, that you attach to your computer and it appears as a printer to the computer and when you print to it, the device instead creates a PDF on its memory card. I think. Actually, it doesn't matter. Install an operating system to any computer (from OrangePi Zero to a CRAY-1, doesn't matter), install a "virtual" PDF printer and share from the network. It'll appear as a printer. It'll print to a folder local to that machine, not yours. It's again the same thing (this is the magic of the network, actually). IIRC from administering my parents' Windows PC, the OS now has Print to PDF capability built-in, but IDK whether that virtual printer is installed with Office, but it's out of the box.
koiueo 1y ago
> If there's a bug, I first try to debug the issue remotely Does it mean you have remote access to the device?
- ValdikSS 1y ago
  I ask the customer to forward the SSH port over https://ssh-j.com https://ssh-j.com
raffraffraff 1y ago
This is cool. I had to do something similar to get an old Epson scanner to work. It astonished me that there are no drivers for it on the Epson website, no generic or legacy Windows drivers. And this was a serious hum-dinger of a scanner which is still much better than a brand new Epson because, shockingly, it's really hard to buy a decent scanner these days. They're ludicrously badly made unless you spend many thousands. Most of the high end ones are aimed at office scanning, with automatic page feed and high throughout etc. If you're an artist, you're screwed. Obviously the scanner works on Linux, but my wife is the one who needs to use it. So I hacked together a Raspberry Pi, a heavily customised PHPSane and an ancient Apple iPad (that is similarly unsupported, with almost no software available in the store). The pi boots in about 5 seconds. Now anyone on the house WiFi can scan over the network or walk right up and use the web interface via the iPad which is mounted beside the scanner. What was really enjoyable about the project was that I got to use one of my old Pis and a tablet that was heading for e-waste. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Fw7bZoPyVU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Fw7bZoPyVU
- ValdikSS 1y ago
  There's OpenAirScan for iPhone/iPad now, which was created somewhat recently, in 2023. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/openairscan/id1663611384 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/openairscan/id1663611384 It doesn't have 100% compatibility with driverless scanning, but it's trying. If you share your scanner using AirSane on the Raspberry, it may work. Strange that iOS doesn't have native scanning capabilities, only printing via AirPrint.
jessekv 1y ago
Years ago I got an Airport Express for this. They also had an audio port for connecting a stereo to AirPlay.
Beijinger 1y ago
I wanted to buy one but I had to specify the printer, this confused me. This device should not be locked for one printer.
- ValdikSS 1y ago
  It's not.
fnwbr 1y ago
Can you configure SSID and password when using the access point mode? For example when I have multiple of them in my university, I'd want to name them according to the rooms they sit in, while also making sure people can only print to the ones they can actually physically see (and therefore read the password off of a sticker)...
- ValdikSS 1y ago
  You can, but only manually via SSH. The Wi-Fi credentials are printed on the sticker, along with the QR code to connect, that's why I though it would be strange if you can't use it right away.
derbOac 1y ago
I was just wondering about this the other day with a Dell printer I love that's getting harder to setup via wifi.
1970-01-01 1y ago
This has the potential to be a big hit. Go on your Craigslist or Marketplace and search for printers. You will find lots of free or very cheap working printers being scrapped just because they don't natively work with iPhones. With a little more setup refinement, polish, and support, this could be "dropbox for printers".
- ValdikSS 1y ago
  In Europe and Asia there was once popular Canon LBP-1120, a 2002-2004 model. You can't use it in modern OS as the driver is for 32-bit Windows only, hence these devices could be bought as low as $7 on flea market. These printers are still great! They sturdy and unkillable. And they are supported in the print server :P
veggieroll 1y ago
Yes!! This is my preferred way to enable network printing and scanning. I've done this for about 5 years. I've always hated having printers on my network, because vendor software is absolutely terrible. Completely insecure and open to who-knows-what through automatic updates. I use a raspberry Pi and it works great even for non-technical family members. Printing from your phone is also really nice. The functionality is about the same as the vendor printers. But the peace of mind is amazing. 100% assurance that there's nothing weird going on, it's secure, and there's no account and stupid cloud.
ongytenes 1y ago
I was told that HP no longer allows a person scan a document into their computer without a valid HP cartridge installed. I used an old HP printer for years as a scanner without any cartridge installed. (Brothers as my actual printers) Recently it has died and I am looking to replace it. I been looking at old printers with scanners in the thrift stores as a replacement. Question is; has Brother gone over to Darkside of requiring a cartridge for non-print jobs? Is so I CAN'T and will NOT recommend Brother as my preferred printer to my clients.
- ValdikSS 1y ago
  There's at least one video which shows that scanning is blocked in the ink Brother MFC-J9950W https://old.reddit.com/r/mildlyinfuriating/comments/1arnpkc/brother_printer_doesnt_let_me_scan_when_ink_is_low/ https://old.reddit.com/r/mildlyinfuriating/comments/1arnpkc/... I'm not sure how widespread is this. Usually lower-end models (the one without touchscreen or any screen at all) tend not to block scanning.
cosmotic 1y ago
Have you considered adding a web-driven print and scan interface? Some canon printers have a webserver where you can upload PDFs, JPEGs, etc, and print them without ever invoking a print driver or operating system print feature. Another page to utilize the scanner and download a PDF directly from the browser would also be cool.
- ValdikSS 1y ago
  There's a simple web interface for scanning, but nothing for printing. I'm thinking on adding more scanning-related functions when I have more buttons and an OLED screen on the print server itself, but haven't thought about printing-related web interface. Basically, you can print from any old OS as well, such as Windows XP, with a generic driver. You'll have to add the printer manually, but it would work.
SeosisFexus 1y ago
Hi, any chance to run this printserver on different hardware, like RPi or other suitable Pi clones instead OrangePi Zero 3? Is it possible to run the device connected to local ethernet LAN for wired computers?

188 points by ValdikSS 1y ago

purpleidea 1y ago

Says it's open source but the link is password protected: https://printserver.ink/firmware/ https://printserver.ink/firmware/ I'll pass until that's normal.

ValdikSS 1y ago
This is an open source project in a technical sense (source is open and the license is open), but not in a social sense (no free as in beer available source code, no public support for everyone). Source code, as well as firmware updates and support, are provided only to the customers. When I sell the print server, I ask the buyer for the printer model, check its compatibility, and sell the device + guarantee that it would work for the buyer's printer. If it doesn't work properly, I'm first trying to debug remotely, and I could not fix it, I'm buying the same printer on flea market and debugging and fixing it until it works, and contribute the fix to CUPS/SANE/printer driver package. In other words, I sell tech support in a package, and I just don't sell the print server if it's incompatible with the printer. The goal of this project is to provide *ready-to-use, no-DIY device*, to improve the underlying software by directly contributing to it, for anyone to benefit from the fix. If you want to contribute to the printing stack and already know where to start, you should improve relevant projects, such as CUPS, SANE, printer and scanner drivers.
- ummonk 1y ago
  This is a really cool business model. You're being paid to prepare the firmware for a specific device, but will open source what you prepare.
- jacob019 1y ago
  You said in the same sentence that the source is open and not freely available.
  - ValdikSS 1y ago
    Yes, it's open only to the customers, as GPL requires: Selling Free Software <https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/selling.en.html https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/selling.en.html> > Many people believe that the spirit of the GNU Project is that you should not charge money for distributing copies of software, or that you should charge as little as possible—just enough to cover the cost. This is a misunderstanding. > Actually, we encourage people who redistribute free software to charge as much as they wish or can. If a license does not permit users to make copies and sell them, it is a nonfree license. If this seems surprising to you, please read on. You can buy only the firmware package as well, without the device. I'll send you the instruction on how to configure everything and which hardware modifications are required.

deleted 1y ago

[deleted]

TMWNN 1y ago

I don't need your product as I run CUPS and AirPrint on a Raspberry Pi <https://np.reddit.com/r/printers/comments/o0tin5/using_generic_label_printer_over_wireless/ https://np.reddit.com/r/printers/comments/o0tin5/using_gener...>, but you offer a useful product/service to those who are not inclined to figure out how to do so. (I use the Pi with thermal 4x6 label printers that use either ZPL or variant thereof, to access them either by Wi-Fi or Bluetooth.)

ValdikSS 1y ago
Right now CUPS does not publish all available custom page formats for label printers in a Windows 11 compatible way for true driverless printing, but some day I'll get my hands on this issue! https://github.com/OpenPrinting/cups/issues/1017 https://github.com/OpenPrinting/cups/issues/1017

kevinsync 1y ago

Dot-Ink is a wild TLD and very cool aesthetic choice for this project

KennyBlanken 1y ago

[flagged]

braincode 1y ago

This project made me wonder if a "physical virtual printer" exists? I'd love to send print jobs to a "non-physical" printer that any OS (and/or Adobe DC Reader) sees as a "completely legit, real, physical printer". In other words, not just the "Print to PDF" option/dialog on the OS. Then after "printing", have a valid PDF appear on that device's target storage itself (eMMC/SD Card/SMB share...)?

userbinator 1y ago
Yes, it's called a print server.
bayindirh 1y ago
Yes, and it's called a print server, as others said. FWIW, CUPS have a "virtual PDF printer" which enables "Print to PDF" feature system wide, so no application has to reimplement it. Also, I used to use a "PDF printer" in the olden days on Windows which did exactly that, and that was considered a paid, premium product. IOW, we have these. Both in personal and enterprise flavors, for a long time.
- codetrotter 1y ago
  They are asking for a physical device with a memory card, that you attach to your computer and it appears as a printer to the computer and when you print to it, the device instead creates a PDF on its memory card. I think. I also first started typing a comment about “PDF printer” software that I used to use on Windows XP back in the day before most programs and before Windows had a native export to PDF via print dialog. (These days I run macOS. So not sure if current Windows has export to PDF at system level when you print from any program. I know Office has built in export to PDF, and I think back in the day Office did not have that.)
  - bayindirh 1y ago
    > ... for a physical device with a memory card, that you attach to your computer and it appears as a printer to the computer and when you print to it, the device instead creates a PDF on its memory card. I think. Actually, it doesn't matter. Install an operating system to any computer (from OrangePi Zero to a CRAY-1, doesn't matter), install a "virtual" PDF printer and share from the network. It'll appear as a printer. It'll print to a folder local to that machine, not yours. It's again the same thing (this is the magic of the network, actually). IIRC from administering my parents' Windows PC, the OS now has Print to PDF capability built-in, but IDK whether that virtual printer is installed with Office, but it's out of the box.

koiueo 1y ago

> If there's a bug, I first try to debug the issue remotely Does it mean you have remote access to the device?

ValdikSS 1y ago
I ask the customer to forward the SSH port over https://ssh-j.com https://ssh-j.com

raffraffraff 1y ago

This is cool. I had to do something similar to get an old Epson scanner to work. It astonished me that there are no drivers for it on the Epson website, no generic or legacy Windows drivers. And this was a serious hum-dinger of a scanner which is still much better than a brand new Epson because, shockingly, it's really hard to buy a decent scanner these days. They're ludicrously badly made unless you spend many thousands. Most of the high end ones are aimed at office scanning, with automatic page feed and high throughout etc. If you're an artist, you're screwed. Obviously the scanner works on Linux, but my wife is the one who needs to use it. So I hacked together a Raspberry Pi, a heavily customised PHPSane and an ancient Apple iPad (that is similarly unsupported, with almost no software available in the store). The pi boots in about 5 seconds. Now anyone on the house WiFi can scan over the network or walk right up and use the web interface via the iPad which is mounted beside the scanner. What was really enjoyable about the project was that I got to use one of my old Pis and a tablet that was heading for e-waste. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Fw7bZoPyVU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Fw7bZoPyVU

ValdikSS 1y ago
There's OpenAirScan for iPhone/iPad now, which was created somewhat recently, in 2023. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/openairscan/id1663611384 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/openairscan/id1663611384 It doesn't have 100% compatibility with driverless scanning, but it's trying. If you share your scanner using AirSane on the Raspberry, it may work. Strange that iOS doesn't have native scanning capabilities, only printing via AirPrint.

jessekv 1y ago

Years ago I got an Airport Express for this. They also had an audio port for connecting a stereo to AirPlay.

Beijinger 1y ago

I wanted to buy one but I had to specify the printer, this confused me. This device should not be locked for one printer.

ValdikSS 1y ago
It's not.

fnwbr 1y ago

Can you configure SSID and password when using the access point mode? For example when I have multiple of them in my university, I'd want to name them according to the rooms they sit in, while also making sure people can only print to the ones they can actually physically see (and therefore read the password off of a sticker)...

ValdikSS 1y ago
You can, but only manually via SSH. The Wi-Fi credentials are printed on the sticker, along with the QR code to connect, that's why I though it would be strange if you can't use it right away.

derbOac 1y ago

I was just wondering about this the other day with a Dell printer I love that's getting harder to setup via wifi.

1970-01-01 1y ago

This has the potential to be a big hit. Go on your Craigslist or Marketplace and search for printers. You will find lots of free or very cheap working printers being scrapped just because they don't natively work with iPhones. With a little more setup refinement, polish, and support, this could be "dropbox for printers".

ValdikSS 1y ago
In Europe and Asia there was once popular Canon LBP-1120, a 2002-2004 model. You can't use it in modern OS as the driver is for 32-bit Windows only, hence these devices could be bought as low as $7 on flea market. These printers are still great! They sturdy and unkillable. And they are supported in the print server :P

veggieroll 1y ago

Yes!! This is my preferred way to enable network printing and scanning. I've done this for about 5 years. I've always hated having printers on my network, because vendor software is absolutely terrible. Completely insecure and open to who-knows-what through automatic updates. I use a raspberry Pi and it works great even for non-technical family members. Printing from your phone is also really nice. The functionality is about the same as the vendor printers. But the peace of mind is amazing. 100% assurance that there's nothing weird going on, it's secure, and there's no account and stupid cloud.

ongytenes 1y ago

I was told that HP no longer allows a person scan a document into their computer without a valid HP cartridge installed. I used an old HP printer for years as a scanner without any cartridge installed. (Brothers as my actual printers) Recently it has died and I am looking to replace it. I been looking at old printers with scanners in the thrift stores as a replacement. Question is; has Brother gone over to Darkside of requiring a cartridge for non-print jobs? Is so I CAN'T and will NOT recommend Brother as my preferred printer to my clients.

ValdikSS 1y ago
There's at least one video which shows that scanning is blocked in the ink Brother MFC-J9950W https://old.reddit.com/r/mildlyinfuriating/comments/1arnpkc/brother_printer_doesnt_let_me_scan_when_ink_is_low/ https://old.reddit.com/r/mildlyinfuriating/comments/1arnpkc/... I'm not sure how widespread is this. Usually lower-end models (the one without touchscreen or any screen at all) tend not to block scanning.

cosmotic 1y ago

Have you considered adding a web-driven print and scan interface? Some canon printers have a webserver where you can upload PDFs, JPEGs, etc, and print them without ever invoking a print driver or operating system print feature. Another page to utilize the scanner and download a PDF directly from the browser would also be cool.

ValdikSS 1y ago
There's a simple web interface for scanning, but nothing for printing. I'm thinking on adding more scanning-related functions when I have more buttons and an OLED screen on the print server itself, but haven't thought about printing-related web interface. Basically, you can print from any old OS as well, such as Windows XP, with a generic driver. You'll have to add the printer manually, but it would work.

SeosisFexus 1y ago

Hi, any chance to run this printserver on different hardware, like RPi or other suitable Pi clones instead OrangePi Zero 3? Is it possible to run the device connected to local ethernet LAN for wired computers?