Raspberry Pi 3B+ as Print Server?

[CrowTheRobot]

So, back story...

 

Printers are a pain in my ass when it comes to my setup.  Personally I don't need them as I work outside of my home right now, but my wife is currently working 100% from home as she works for a non-profit with people who are extremely high risk for COVID.  We had a single wireless all-in-one, but the printing side of it massively shit the bed.  Like trying to clean the print heads and get it to print consistently in black and white literally seemed to burn through a whole new ink cartridge in an afternoon and wasn't even successful.  I took the opportunity to upgrade to a laser printer which is great, but my wife still needs to scan, so we have two printers.  The AIO is wireless so I could put that anywhere, but the laser printer is not, so it has to stay tethered at the moment to my gaming PC and takes up a bunch of desk space.  My router isn't an option for a print server due to location, so my next thought would be to set up an old Raspberry Pi 3B+ I have lying around without a dedicated project to offload the responsibility.

 

So what I'm looking for is a recommended guide or set of software so that I could directly wire the laser printer to the Pi, and preferably have it attached to a dedicated email address so that my wife could just email documents to it and have them print automatically so that it can remain headless.  Any thoughts?

[Falcon1986]

20 minutes ago, CrowTheRobot said:

Any thoughts?

There are guides for this online. Ensure that at Pi setup you configure the WLAN connection first and give the Pi a static LAN IP on the network (outside the DHCP pool of your router) so that the Pi’s IP doesn’t randomly change at lease expiration and cause intermittent disconnections. You should be able to bind the MAC address of the Pi to the static LAN IP at the router, which avoids having to mess around with the Pi’s configuration files.

 

Unfortunately, I haven’t come across a way to set up printing via e-mail. However, the above guides will allow you to print as if the printer were any other network-attached printer.

[CrowTheRobot]

11 minutes ago, Falcon1986 said:

There are guides for this online. Ensure that at Pi setup you configure the WLAN connection first and give the Pi a static LAN IP on the network (outside the DHCP pool of your router) so that the Pi’s IP doesn’t randomly change at lease expiration and cause intermittent disconnections. You should be able to bind the MAC address of the Pi to the static LAN IP at the router, which avoids having to mess around with the Pi’s configuration files.

 

Unfortunately, I haven’t come across a way to set up printing via e-mail. However, the above guides will allow you to print as if the printer were any other network-attached printer.

Thanks for the links.  Email printing will definitely be something I'll miss from the AIO, even though we didn't use it that much when the printer was fully functional.

[mariushm]

There are usb printer servers on eBay from around 10$

Here's a used Belkin branded one for $15, which also has wireless (though 2.4ghz only, so you may want to keep it on ethernet only) : https://www.ebay.com/itm/254976488963?hash=item3b5dc87603:g:3MMAAOSwRyRgmvtE

 

Other examples:

 

make an offer : TrendNet TE100-PS1U 10/100 MBPS Multiprotocol USB Print Server | eBay

 

wireless only usb print server : NEW IOGEA Multi-Function USB, RJ45 Print Server | eBay

sealed box, but old, only usb 1.1, may have compatibility issues with modern printers : Airlink 1-Port USB Print Server 10/100Mbps APSUSB1 PC/Mac NEW SEALED BOX | eBay

 

 

 

 

 

[CrowTheRobot]

2 minutes ago, mariushm said:

There are usb printer servers on eBay from around 10$

Here's a used Belkin branded one for $15, which also has wireless (though 2.4ghz only, so you may want to keep it on ethernet only) : https://www.ebay.com/itm/254976488963?hash=item3b5dc87603:g:3MMAAOSwRyRgmvtE

 

Other examples:

 

make an offer : TrendNet TE100-PS1U 10/100 MBPS Multiprotocol USB Print Server | eBay

 

wireless only usb print server : NEW IOGEA Multi-Function USB, RJ45 Print Server | eBay

sealed box, but old, only usb 1.1, may have compatibility issues with modern printers : Airlink 1-Port USB Print Server 10/100Mbps APSUSB1 PC/Mac NEW SEALED BOX | eBay

 

 

 

 

 

But those are additional devices that I'd have to pay for.  I'm asking about doing it on a Pi because I already have one that's not otherwise in use, and therefore the entire project is free.

[mariushm]

7 minutes ago, CrowTheRobot said:

But those are additional devices that I'd have to pay for.  I'm asking about doing it on a Pi because I already have one that's not otherwise in use, and therefore the entire project is free.

You paid for a Pi , and using it as a print server deprives you of that Pi, if you'll ever need one for another project you'll have to buy one or spend more money doing it differently.

 

Plus, your time may cost more than a few dollars an hour... assuming it takes you 3-5 hours to set the Pi up and debug it and test everything, you're working for less than 5$ an hour.

 

[CrowTheRobot]

Just now, mariushm said:

You paid for a Pi , and using it as a print server deprives you of that Pi, if you'll ever need one for another project you'll have to buy one or spend more money doing it differently.

 

Plus, your time may cost more than a few dollars an hour... assuming it takes you 3-5 hours to set the Pi up and debug it and test everything, you're working for less than 5$ an hour.

 

I've had this Pi for at least 2-3 years, and it's never had a consistent function.  I've tried using it for various projects and there's always been some sort of hitch.  For example, trying to use it as a Plex server, it couldn't handle anything high definition that required subtitles that weren't permanently baked into the files.  Putting it to use here might be the first consistent use I've found for it since I purchased it.

 

As for setup, going off the provided directions, I feel like I'd have to quit my IT job out of principal if it took me 3-5 hours to set this up.