G+_Jason Perry Posted April 21, 2016 Share Posted April 21, 2016 So here is my idea. I want to mount a RPi with screen near my networked all-in-one printer. From here I want to use it to simplify tasks I use my printer for. For example, scan a document and send it to my bills folder on my NAS, or copy all the pictures to pictures folder. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to go about this or any software out there that serves this function. I get the feeling this isn't as straight forward as using an API or downloading a library. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_610GARAGE Posted April 21, 2016 Share Posted April 21, 2016 Jason Perry I find linux and printer drivers to be iffy. It took me weeks to get our brother printer to work properly with centos. But if your printer does provide drivers, then you should be able to build them for the pi. Your best bet (and possibly easier option) may be using a windows tablet, or a windows computer/laptop to control the printer using the printer's software suite. You could use the pi as a thin client and rdp into a headless windows box. Maby even a vm if the printer is networked. My original thinpi writeup would be perfect for this. http://610bob.com/ThinPI Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Eddie Foy Posted April 21, 2016 Share Posted April 21, 2016 Printer or scanner? If you are using the 'device' to scan your bills and dump a PDF (or the like) in a folder, I do like the SnapScan/Fitjisu. If you are looking to 'mirror' print jobs to a folder, I'm very interested, as its a great security flaw. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Jason Perry Posted April 21, 2016 Author Share Posted April 21, 2016 610bob?, I am thinking of using it with the built in scanner to scan to PDF then dump to a file. Eddie Foy?, I never thought of using it as a mitm for print jobs. Hmmmm..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_610GARAGE Posted April 21, 2016 Share Posted April 21, 2016 Jason Perry You wnat to control the printer's scanner through the pi. Correct? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Jason Perry Posted April 21, 2016 Author Share Posted April 21, 2016 Yes Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Jason Perry Posted April 21, 2016 Author Share Posted April 21, 2016 I guess that still uses the drivers. I have set up the printer on Ubuntu before guessing from there it would be a bash script. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_610GARAGE Posted April 21, 2016 Share Posted April 21, 2016 Jason Perry Yea. The drivers should work on the pi (assuming they don't need something weird). I'm not sure how scanning works on linux, but I now printing uses a thing called cups. Programs talk to the printer through cups. I'm sure scanning works the same way. after that, it should just be a simple bash script to scan to a destination folder using a timestamp for the file name. What might work out well is just a bash script for each thing. So have a bill scan script. Put a shortcut that executes your script on the desktop of the pi. Then you would just click the correct shortcut and scan your bill to the appropriate folder. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Keith Mallett Posted April 22, 2016 Share Posted April 22, 2016 Ooooooo Jason Perry - a nerd and a design guru? That setup sounds sexy! I like 610bob idea! Take pic when you are done! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
G+_Jason Perry Posted April 22, 2016 Author Share Posted April 22, 2016 Keith Mallett?, it will more than likely be anything but pretty, when I finally get around to it. My notebook has too many ideas I want to put first. Well by the time I get around to it I may have the tools to make it pretty. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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