[Date Prev][Date Next] [Thread Prev][Thread Next] [Date Index] [Thread Index]

Re: How to check ink level on HP Deskjet 5500



M-L wrote:

On Tuesday 15 August 2006 16:41, Marc Shapiro wrote:
Marc Shapiro wrote:
José Alburquerque wrote:
Andrew Sackville-West wrote:
On Mon, Aug 14, 2006 at 03:13:46PM -0700, Marc Shapiro wrote:
Is there a utility to check ink levels on HP Deskjet series
printers?  I looked through the djtools manpage, and, while there
is some interesting stuff there, I do not see this.  It seems that
djtools is good for setting parameters for the printer, but not for
getting information back.  Since it is best not to actually let an
ink cartridge get completely empty before refilling it, being able
to check the ink level would be a really handy thing.
If the printer is supported by hplip, then the hplip toolbox would
probably provide this. there is a gui frontend that works alright and
there are probably command line options too. not at my desk to provide
more relevant input.

A
Also, I found a neat gui utility for ink and such things for epson
printers called mtink by looking for my printer on
linuxprinting.org.  If something exists for your printer, you'll most
probably find information for it there also.
I checked hplip (with apt-cache show) and it looks like it does the
kind of things that I need, but it also says to use hpoj for parallel
connected printers, which mine is.  The docs on hpoj do not mention
checking ink levels, but I installed it, anyway.  I do not see any
mention of it in the installed docs, either.  I will take a look on
linuxprinting.org and see if there is anything there.

Thanks.
OK.  I checked linuxprinting.org and it said that hplip should work and
reminded me that the printer DOES have a USB connection.  So I
disconnected the parallel port and connected by USB.  The output of
dmesg shows:

ohci_hcd 0000:00:03.0: wakeup
usb 1-1: new full speed USB device using address 18
drivers/usb/class/usblp.c: usblp0: USB Bidirectional printer dev 18 if 0
alt 0 proto 2 vid 0x03F0 pid 0x6004
usbcore: registered new driver usblp
drivers/usb/class/usblp.c: v0.13: USB Printer Device Class driver

so it seems to be getting recognized, but nothing prints, now.  I am
guessing that I need to tell CUPS that the printer is now connected via
USB, and not the parallel port.  How do I do that?  I have been looking

through the CUPS documentation, and the output of lpinfo is:
:/usr/share/doc/cupsys/online-docs# lpinfo -v

network socket
direct hp:/usb/deskjet_5550?serial=MY27V1K2BY2L
network http
network ipp
network lpd
direct parallel:/dev/lp0
direct usb://hp/deskjet%205550?serial=MY27V1K2BY2L
direct usb:/dev/usb/lp1
direct usb:/dev/usb/lp2
direct usb:/dev/usb/lp3
direct usb:/dev/usb/lp4
direct usb:/dev/usb/lp5
direct usb:/dev/usb/lp6
direct usb:/dev/usb/lp7
direct usb:/dev/usb/lp8
direct usb:/dev/usb/lp9
direct usb:/dev/usb/lp10
direct usb:/dev/usb/lp11
direct usb:/dev/usb/lp12
direct usb:/dev/usb/lp13
direct usb:/dev/usb/lp14
direct usb:/dev/usb/lp15

This tells me where the printer is, but I still do not know how to tell
CUPS where it is.  Do I put the full URI:
'hp:/usb/deskjet_5550?serial=MY27V1K2BY2L' into the location under
'Modify Printer'?

Any help will be appreciated.

--
Marc Shapiro

I have been trying to get my USB Epson C43UX printer to work on etch, and have not yet accomplished it. Worked a treat with Sarge. Seems to be found as your own.

I was told that you add usb:/usb/lp0

I tried this without being able to print.

By the examples given It should be usb://usb/lp0

But that didn't help either.

Maybe it should be:- direct usb:/dev/usb/lp0
But in your text where it sees the printer it uses two // rather than one
I have been working on it for a couple of weeks, but without being able to print, and no one appears to know enough to clear this up.

I think I have posted what I did in a previous thread, though it's of little use, because it doesn't seem to work.

With what I tried, I get an error message about postscript which i can't post here because I am on a different lappy and don't have the exact text.

No help, but maybe it will work for you?

Charlie

I've got the printer working, now. It was, indeed, a case of simply copying the URI output from 'lpinfo -v', namely: 'hp:/usb/deskjet_5550?serial=MY27V1K2BY2L'

into the location field. I had been leery of doing this, without being sure, but I just added a new printer (keeping my old printer config alone), using that location and everything seems to be working, but my original question remains:

I have the printer working on the USB connection and I have installed hplip. I have not found anything in the documentation that tells me how to check the ink levels in the printer. There are many new commands, all beginning with 'hp', but I do not see that any of them actually give me the info that I need.

CORRECTION: I just found hp-toolbox, which has a 'Supplies' tab showing the installed cartridges and should have the ink levels. But it does not seem to show any ink in either cartridge. The printer is printing fine, so I obviously DO have ink. Is there something that I am doing wrong?

--
Marc Shapiro

No boom today. Boom tomorrow. There's always a boom tomorrow.
What?! Look, somebody's got to have some damn perspective around here.
Boom. Sooner or later ... boom!

- Susan Ivanova: B5 - Grail



Reply to: