Printing to any printer using the Touchpad (solution!)

[mtiberio]

maybe setting it up as a pseudo service will work:




1. Click Start, Settings, Control Panel, Scheduled Tasks, Add Scheduled Task

2. Click Next to begin the Wizard

3. Instead of choosing a program from the list, click Browse

4. Browse to C:\XXXXX (or wherever you put it) and choose YYYYY.exe

5. The next window asks you to type a name for the task. Enter YYYYY Below the box for the name are some choices for when to perform the task. Choose "When my computer starts".

6. The next window prompts for the user name and password to run as. For the user name, enter "NT AUTHORITY\SYSTEM" (without the quotes). Leave the password boxes blank.

7. The next window tells you you've successfully created the task and gives you a checkbox option to "Open advanced properties for this task when I click Finish". Check that box and click Finish.

8. In the advanced properties, go to the Settings tab and uncheck the "Stop this task if it runs for xx hours" box.

9. Click OK to close the window.


You're all done! If you restart your computer YYYYY will run as long as your PC is on!

[pro2]

I really need to be able to print to my Canon printer from my TouchPad so this program promises to be a big help.
However; I can't install the printer on my touchPad. I really don't have time to read through 20 pages of forum dialogue to find a solution, so would somebody please help me.
I verified that I have Net-framework 4 installed on my Windows 7 PC and proceded to download and intall Touch2PcPrinter_v1.2.1. I selected my default Canon printer in the options tab and clicked "save". Then I went back to the General tab and hit "start". All seemed to go as expected, so i went to my TouchPad and tried to install a new printer. I get a message that says; "The printer is currently not supported". I'm obviously missing sumething but not sure what that is. Perhaps a little old-age impatience and senility is creeping in as well. So, can someone give me a hint on solving the problem.
Thanks in advance to all.
Pro2

[pro2]

Ooooooops! Please forget my previous post. I managed to figure it out. In case it applies to anyone else....
I ran "ipconfig" from the command prompt and learned something that my network management software neglected to tell me. My PC actually has 2 ip addresses, one for the ethernet connection and one for the wireless connection. I entered the ip address of the ethernet connection and, hooray, now it is succefully installed on the touchPad and i can print to my Canon printer.
Thanks for the great work guys, and keep the faith! webOS will survive, and, I hope it will thrive...

[jacjac31]

i installed touchpad to pc priner on my computer chose the printers i have hp5610 aio and epson 730 on my touchpad when i try to add printers i get message this printer is not supported i have the ip address and network info entered correctly what am i doing wrong i tried both the ethernet and wireless ip addresses same result

[taxcurmudgeon]

Works well!

One observation: must be logged on to Windows. Would be even better app. if ran as a service so Windows logon unnecessary.

[Curmudgeon555]

Originally Posted by jb23

Hi

to use it on linux (mono) I forked the Touch2Pc-Printer-for-Windows code and changed it to a commandline version. https://github.com/lwuckel/WebosPrinterServer

run it by : sudo mono WebosPrinterServer.exe print.sh

The WebosPrinterServer.exe received the data of the webos device and saved it to a tmp-file. Then the print.sh is calling with following parameters

pcl-file color-mode plex-mode

So everyone can do what you want with the pcl file.

To convert the pcl-file to ps (for printing) you can use ghostpcl (Ghostscript: GhostPCL). Look to my example print.sh

bye, Lars

When I run the command line listed above, it cannot find 'webprinterserver.exe".....no such file or directory. There is no such file in the download pointed to by this message (webosprinterserver-master). What am I doing wrong here?! Where is the file webprinterserve.exe????

[Paulscarbs]

Great little program. Downloaded, installed and configured in a few minutes.

For those unsure:

On the PC =
Download from page 1 of this thread.
Extract and run Touch2PCPrinter application.
Start service.
Save.
Allow firewall.
Be sure to know which IP address your computer uses for LAN.
Type 'CMD' enter. Type 'ipconfig'.

On the Touchpad =
open Print Manager.
Add printer IP Address.
Enter IP address (which will be that of your PC located earlier).
Add printer.

Remember your PC and printer need to be on to print (of course!).

[flamingomurphy]

I followed the directions and everything worked till I got to the IP address of my printer. My printer is connected by USB and is on my homenet. I cannot find a usable IP for the printer. It shows only as connected via USB. Did I miss a step or do I have a problem because my PC is hard wired to the printer. Thanks, Pat

Originally Posted by theomodsim

Update 10/26/2011:
Version 1.2.1 has been released. This release contains a fix that forces GhostScript to print simplex or duplex (based on the job setting). This should hopefully resolve issues that users reported about jobs not printing single-sided or double-sided (based on the selected option on the TouchPad).

Summary:
Touch2Pc Printer is a Windows application that emulates an HP printer and accepts print jobs from the TouchPad. From there, the received job is converted to PDF and optionally printed to a physical printer added to Windows.

Where can I download?
Binaries are available at: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/24894676/Tou...ter_v1.2.1.zip
Source code is available at: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/24894676/Tou...v1.2.1_src.zip

How do I run it?

1. Verify that .NET Framework 4 is installed on your machine (you can check by opening Add/Remove Programs and look for "Microsoft .NET Framework 4" or something similar). If it's not installed, you can download it at Download Details - Microsoft Download Center - Microsoft .NET Framework 4 (Standalone Installer)
2. Open TouchPad2PcPrinter.exe and configure the options as follows:
   1. If you want to print to a physical printer, select the printer from one of the drop down boxes that corresponds to the capabilities of that printer (if you have a Simplex printer that prints Color, select that printer for the “Simplex/Color” drop-down). When you print from the TouchPad and specify 1-sided color printing, the print job will be printed on the “Simplex/Color” printer that you selected. You can support up to four different printing “profiles” by selecting different printers to handle jobs that require different capabilities.
   2. If you are only “printing to PDF”, check the check box labeled “Print to PDF only”. This will disable the drop down boxes for the output printer. All PDF files are still in color (there’s no way to force black and white PDFs) .It might be convenient to set your Output Folder to your DropBox folder, so you can immediately view the PDF from the TouchPad.
3. Click “Save”.
4. Click “Start”. This will start the Touch2Pc Printer server.
5. If a firewall warning dialog appears, be sure to allow Touch2Pc Printer network access (allow the firewall exception).
6. On the TouchPad, open the Printer Settings application.
7. Tap on “Add or remove printer”.
8. Type in the IP address of your computer. If you’re not sure of your IP address, open a command prompt and type “ipconfig” and then press ENTER.
9. You can name the printer whatever you want.
10. You should now be able to send print jobs from the TouchPad to your computer!

Which ports need to be open?
Touch2Pc Printer requires that TCP port 9100 and UDP port 161 be open for the program to work correctly. Also, the computer that the program is running on must be pingable from the TouchPad.

How does it work?
The program does multiple things, one of which is respond to SNMP requests sent by the TouchPad to identify the "printer". Whenever the TouchPad sends SNMP requests, the program responds with information about the HP pseudo-printer. Namely, SNMP variable 1.3.6.1.4.1.11.2.3.9.1.1.7.0 is used to retrieve the device string. This is how the TouchPad determines if a printer is an HP or not (see line 27 and 29 of SnmpObjects.cs to see what exactly the program sends as the response for that variable request).

Once the TouchPad has received the SNMP response, it then presents the user with the print dialog. After the user confirms the print job, the TouchPad sends the print job (as a PCL file) to TCP/IP port 9100, which the program is listening on. The program reads in the job.

After the program has received the job, the job is then converted to either PostScript (for physical printer printing), or PDF (for "printing to PDF") using GhostPCL. If printing to a physical printer, the program calls into the GhostScript API to print the PostScript file.

Disadvantages
I think the primary disadvantage to this solution is that you need to have a computer on the same local network running this program whenever you want to print. If you primarily use the TouchPad wherever you have a computer, that shouldn't pose a big problem.

License
Touch2Pc Printer is licensed under the GPL v3. However, it uses some components that are licensed under different terms (see legal.txt for details).

Special Thanks
Thanks to McTristan for working on several stability and new feature updates.

I'd be happy to help anyone out if they encounter issues with the program.

Previous Versions
Version 1.2.0 binaries: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/24894676/Tou...ter_v1.2.0.zip
Version 1.2.0 source: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/24894676/Tou...v1.2.0_src.zip

Version 1.1.3 binaries: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/24894676/Tou...ter_v1.1.3.zip
Version 1.1.3 source: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/24894676/Tou...v1.1.3_src.zip

Version 1.1.2 binaries: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/24894676/Tou...ter_v1.1.2.zip
Version 1.1.2 source: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/24894676/Tou...v1.1.2_src.zip

Version 1.1.0 binaries: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/24894676/Tou...inter_v1.1.zip
Version 1.1.0 source: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/24894676/Tou...r_v1.1_src.zip

Version 1.0.0 binaries: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/24894676/tou...daemon_bin.zip
Version 1.0.0 source: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/24894676/tou...mon_source.zip

[Paulscarbs]

Originally Posted by flamingomurphy

I followed the directions and everything worked till I got to the IP address of my printer. My printer is connected by USB and is on my homenet. I cannot find a usable IP for the printer. It shows only as connected via USB. Did I miss a step or do I have a problem because my PC is hard wired to the printer. Thanks, Pat

Can I assume the printer is already shared within Windows Control Panel? Make sure it is and everything is turned on.
Let me know if this helps.

[Grabber5.0]

There is no sharing within control panel for this solution. The IP address you need is the one for the PC the Touch2PC program is running on. The main thing is making sure the ports are not blocked by windows firewall.

[Paulscarbs]

So, are you saying the Touchpad will send to the printer if it isn't shared in Windows?

[Grabber5.0]

Originally Posted by Paulscarbs

So, are you saying the Touchpad will send to the printer if it isn't shared in Windows?

Yes. Touch2PC is what is making the printer available to the Touchpad. It makes the printer look like a compatible HP WiFi-connected printer would (except it doesn't support the printer search, which is why you need the PC IP address). The Touchpad does not recognize windows printer shares, otherwise the app would not be necessary.. Just leave Touch2PC running.

[ZombieDevil]

Just a brilliant job well done!. No issues printing from my touchpad through my media laptop (that's always on) and to a wireless Epson Workforce 610. Does anyone know how to have the print-job start without the prompt printer window opening on the laptop?. Again, great job!

[Paulscarbs]

If you are using your laptop as the media device then surely that should remain on and you wouldn't need to keep starting the prompt printer window?

If you restart your laptop regularly why not add it to the start-up menu.

[Grabber5.0]

Originally Posted by ZombieDevil

Just a brilliant job well done!. No issues printing from my touchpad through my media laptop (that's always on) and to a wireless Epson Workforce 610. Does anyone know how to have the print-job start without the prompt printer window opening on the laptop?. Again, great job!

Sounds like you have a manual setting enabled or don't have a default printer set.

[bevegrif]

I followed all the instructions and still got “Unable to communicate with the printer at this time”. Added the ports, etc. still got the message. Never got a prompt to allow it through the firewall. Finally, out of frustration, I turned off the firewall and tried again. Success!
Immediately turned the firewall back on. Printer still there!
Test printer. Printed great!

Thanks so much for this program!
Sorry to gush, but I fought with this for hours. Used to have an HP printer I could print to directly but it died. Now I can print again. Yeah!

[Grabber5.0]

Windows firewall is pretty worthless. And if you have a modern router with an SPI firewall, practically unnecessary.

[jonapastor]

Here we are years later, and you still have this amazing tool available. Thanks! Installed and ran perfectly. I wish I'd thought to look for it sooner.