Puppy Linux Discussion Forum

[Semme]

Yeah, but is the old version still accurate?

[Illutorium]

[Semme]

Your lingo's tough to decipher. Your native tongue?

[davids45]

G'day,

Is there an inkgui or similar useful application that will report the ink level in an inkjet printer that is on a home network?

I can get the ink levels for my networked Epson multifunction printer if also I plug it into a USB cable but it's 'Printer not found' when unplugged.

I've just replaced my (broken ) cheap XP-200 with an even cheaper WF-2510 ($29! Who said there's no Santa Claus! ) and both were/are fine with the usb-connected inkgui program, but not if just WiFi-ed as network printers.

I don't know if the IP address would be important. My new Epson has been set-up on my network with the same static IP address that the broken printer had been happy with, so the software changeover is being fairly simple, if tedious, across my too-many Pups.

Thanks for any advice.

David S.

[rcrsn51]

[davids45]

G'day rcrsn51,

You can tell I'm not used to fancy printers .

Yes, my new $29 Epson WF-2510 does have an LCD screen, and by playing with its Menu button and OK-arrow buttons, in Maintenance, option 1 does show a bar chart of the levels of the four inks .

But just clicking the pinboard icon for inkgui is and has been so much easier.

Is this your way of breaking it to me gently that there is no network-printer inkgui version, or equivalent in Linux to the usual Windows package?

Is trying wine 'out of the question' if there is a stand-alone ink-level program?

Thanks once again for your help,

David S.

[Mike Walsh]

David, did you give up on the Epson-printer-utility that I mentioned some time ago?

http://www.murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?p=882652#882652

I admit, I've not attempted to use it across a network. I've only ever bothered to use it locally, on the big Compaq it's connected to via USB cable (no wifi on the old SX218!).....which acts as the 'server' for the rest of the network, and works perfectly via the p910ND print server Bill put together for Puppy.


Mike.

[davids45]

G'day Mike,

I'd forgotten that 'incident' from last year .

I did try (single go) running an old epson escputil pet with the new printer but nothing happened.

I'd suspect this package also dates back to the time when printers were mostly USB connected (replacing the parallel port which replaced the serial port, if I recall the port history semi-accurately).

If I connect my computer via a USB cable to the new printer, inkgui is fine - so if I do/did it correctly, I imagine ecsputil will be too?

It looks like technology has quickly switched to WiFi-network printing but computer-based ink-level software has not yet.

I had earlier installed Epson iPrint on my android phone for the Epson XP200 and checking just now, have switched it to the new Epson WF-2510 and this phone app reported the printer's ink levels as coloured bars a la Windows.

So this is another way to check levels without a USB connection , but presently, for my computer, just plugging in the otherwise unused USB lead computer-to-printer and clicking the inkgui desktop icon seems simplest for me.

David S.