Printer status/label size for networked printers

philpem / printer-driver-ptouch

P-Touch PT-series and QL-series printer driver for Linux (under CUPS)

GNU General Public License v2.0

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Printer status/label size for networked printers #14

Closed dottedmag closed 2 years ago

dottedmag commented 3 years ago

There is a status request in protocol for USB-connected printers, however for my QL720-NW connected via TCP it does not work.

I have done some network sniffing and found out that manufacturer's utility to detect label size and printer status uses a separate protocol:

Printer is available over SNMP
Utility sends a SNMP request for label .1.3.6.1.4.1.2435.3.3.9.1.6.1.0 (Brother private namespace)
Printer answers with the 32 bytes of data laid out the same way as USB status iS response.

philpem commented 3 years ago

Hmm, I'm not sure what could be done on this. I think status monitoring is down to CUPS (or whatever printing system is in use). Certainly the Turboprint (and maybe Gutenprint too) drivers have a separate printer status display application.

Thanks for doing the legwork and documenting this - I'll keep this open as a reference, it's good to know even if I haven't got access to one of these printers to test with.

dottedmag commented 3 years ago

Yep. If this driver is going to be converted to a CUPS Printer Application, then the request will be a perfect match for PAPPL's status_cb.