Autoprint device : Utopia?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Martin
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M

Martin

I've been thinking for a while now about the fact that the autoprint
utility for Windoze requres a computer to be left on, and if you're
talking about a 6 week period of just sitting there it's a lot of
electricity being used up.

So.. I was wondering if anyone has every considered, played with or even
found...

.... a piece of electronics that you could hook up to a printer or even a
series of printers (probably very wishful thinking) that just uses a
simple AA battery and every once in a while sends the print command to
the printer it's connected to.

Seems to me that'd be perfect for someone who wants to go away for a
holiday but doesn't want to be leaving the computer on for all that
time, just to keep the printer happy...


Anyone?
 
A lot of electricity?
I started leaving my PC on all the time a couple months ago, and my
electric bill only increased about 5 bucks a month... And that is an
AMD 64 3500+, 2G ram, 2 SATA 200G drives, an EIDE 100G drive, ATI
radeon All in wonder Pro 9800...
 
Martin said:
I've been thinking for a while now about the fact that the autoprint
utility for Windoze requres a computer to be left on, and if you're
talking about a 6 week period of just sitting there it's a lot of
electricity being used up.

So.. I was wondering if anyone has every considered, played with or even
found...

... a piece of electronics that you could hook up to a printer or even a
series of printers (probably very wishful thinking) that just uses a
simple AA battery and every once in a while sends the print command to the
printer it's connected to.

Seems to me that'd be perfect for someone who wants to go away for a
holiday but doesn't want to be leaving the computer on for all that time,
just to keep the printer happy...


Anyone?
Click to expand...

I thought that's what friends were for...? I'd be more concerned of the fire
risk than the electricity consumption.

You could use the hibernate feature in Windows. Set a task up in Task
Scheduler to run as often as you need it with the option selected to "wake
computer up to perform this task", set the hibernate feature in Power
Options to kick in after the task has (or is likely to be) finished.

All modern PC's (newer than about 5 years old) will be woken up from
hibernate and perform the task.

...not sure why you need to print something though.. I've happily left my
printers for more than 6 weeks without printing and have had no problems.
 
... a piece of electronics that you could hook up to a printer or even a
series of printers (probably very wishful thinking) that just uses a
simple AA battery and every once in a while sends the print command to
the printer it's connected to.
Click to expand...

It would need enough horsepower to do either USB or ethernet, and somehow
know how to run your printer.

If you are smart with electronics, you could probably rig a microcontroller
to the circuits in the printer to fake the button presses to print a test
page (from the perspective of a Canon Pixma 5000 owner, tht shoulds seem
easy on that printer).
 
Yes, that's a lot of wasted electricity. Even assuming your numbers are
correct (and I question them) and you are paying 20 cents per kilowatt
hour, that's 25 kilowatt hours per month per person. That's the
equivalent of leaving a 100 watt light bulb on for over 200 hours a month.

And by the way, you are also wearing out your computer components -
there is no longer an argument about that with current power supplies
and surge reduction circuitry.

If you live in the US, that's probably electricity made from burning
sulfur coal, also, producing massive amounts of CO2, acid rain, and
particulate matter than causes asthma and other respiratory illnesses.

Every hear of global climate change?

But even from a totally selfish economic argument, $5 month = $60 a
year... what a complete and utter waste of money.

Art
 
OK, if people really think this is necessary (I just suggest putting
some water or ammoniated window cleaner in the cleaning station pads
before putting the printer down for the last time, or even wrapping the
printer in a garbage bag for the duration of the vacation to try to
maintain the moisture level.

However, if there must be a "gadget" the answer is probably just some
type of device that can be mounted onto the printer with a cam of some
sort with two bumps that turns (battery or AC power) that pushes the
on/off switch and/or cleaning cycle button on, and then pushes it off
once every 3-6 days, or whatever.

Art
 
If you are smart with electronics, you could probably rig a microcontroller
to the circuits in the printer to fake the button presses to print a test
page (from the perspective of a Canon Pixma 5000 owner, tht shoulds seem
easy on that printer).
Click to expand...

Or, if you are running a router, odds are there are at least some
provisions for WOL and NTP time syncronization. You could point it at
your pc rather than an ntp server and have it flip it on every 24 or
48 hours or so, shouldn't matter whether your running any sort of time
service or not. have this timming corispond with a print event or
some such.
 
I would like to ask some primary question: why does someone need such
a device at all?
If there is need for, OK this could be a market, but is there a need
and will it be bought by someone except for some very special apps?
 
Otto Sykora said:
I would like to ask some primary question: why does someone need such
a device at all?
Click to expand...

Given that nobody has actually said what the "autoprint utility" does,
it's hard to tell.
 
this what I was puzzled in first

why the hell needs someone a ghost printing all the time on a printer
just for fun?
 
this what I was puzzled in first

why the hell needs someone a ghost printing all the time on a printer
just for fun?
Click to expand...

Because if you have a printer that clogs easily or you're planning on
going away for half the year (seasonal residents), you want the
printer to keep running in order to prevent the print heads from
drying out and clogging up.

Also, if you have a CIS system for your printer, it's a good idea to
keep it printing every day to make sure the ink keeps flowing
properly.

---

http://www.FenrirOnline.com

Computer services, custom metal etching,
arts, crafts, and much more.
 
Fenrir Enterprises said:
Because if you have a printer that clogs easily or you're planning on
going away for half the year (seasonal residents), you want the
printer to keep running in order to prevent the print heads from
drying out and clogging up.
Click to expand...

Seems like replacing the printer with one that doesn't have the clogging
design flaw would be a more practical long-term solution.
Also, if you have a CIS system for your printer, it's a good idea to
keep it printing every day to make sure the ink keeps flowing
properly.
Click to expand...

Presumably this would be for daily clog prevention. (Doesn't seem like
there'd be many people with a CIS on a seasonal printer!)

If it's used enough to justify a CIS, the computer that drives it could
just be left on with a cron job that tells the printer "please don't
clog" once a night.
 
Warren Block said:
Seems like replacing the printer with one that doesn't have the clogging
design flaw would be a more practical long-term solution.


Presumably this would be for daily clog prevention. (Doesn't seem like
there'd be many people with a CIS on a seasonal printer!)

If it's used enough to justify a CIS, the computer that drives it could
just be left on with a cron job that tells the printer "please don't
clog" once a night.
Click to expand...

Inkjets all have a potential to clog when unused for a long period of time,
and Inkjets are the best at this time for doing excellent photo prints
yourself. An autoprint routing is a reasonable way to keep some printing
going while the printer is unused for weeks or months while you are on
vacation or otherwise away from home.
 
Burt said:
Inkjets all have a potential to clog when unused for a long period of time,
and Inkjets are the best at this time for doing excellent photo prints
yourself. An autoprint routing is a reasonable way to keep some printing
going while the printer is unused for weeks or months while you are on
vacation or otherwise away from home.
Click to expand...


Thanks for the discussion on this and apologies for the late response..

The reason for this is primarily because this sort of scenario happens a
lot in schools and given that I now provide CIS equipped printers to
schools it's important that they continue to work properly when the
school shuts down for the summer.

You can imagine 4 or 5 printers sitting in a nice computer lab, baking
away in the summer heat and then come the start of term again,
everything just refuses to print.. Not fun.

I have to admit though it's obviously a "wishful thinking" type exercise
when you get to the bottom line but I think Art probably said it best
in terms of just shutting down and providing a moist resting place so
everything can stay healthy during the break.

Thanks again...
 
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