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rpi-cups-server

Raspberry Pi powered CUPS print server that turns the printer on when a new job arrives and off after a period of inactivity.

The script will poll the CUPS active job queue and control the printer accordingly: if there are jobs, turn the printer on; After a period of inactivity, turn the printer off. As is, the printer is controlled with a high pulse on the GPIO pin specified in the settings file. This pulse may be used e.g. to fake a on/off button press with an optocoupler (modding required).

The code is focused on a specific printer model (HP P1006) running on a Raspberry Pi, so tailor it to your needs.

Get started

First of all, figure out an easy way to interface with your printer.

Steps to start using this project:

  • Create a settings file from settings_template.json

    The settings file is by default settings.json on the same directory as the controller script. Alternatively, a custom file path can be specified as an argument when running the script.

  • Adapt setup.sh and controller.py to your particular printer model

  • Install dependencies and setup CUPS with setup.sh

  • Start the printer controller with start.sh

    By using start.sh, the controller script is started with option -O and detached from the shell with disown. However, the script works fine if run normally and some status information is output.

Extras

  1. There is code in the controller script to notify the admin of errors through a webhook previously configured. It is not necessary, but a nice addition that may be worth setting up.

  2. It is very easy to set up a crontab to start the controller at boot time. For that, run

    crontab -e

    and add the following job to the opened file.

    # Run printer controller at startup
@reboot cd /absolute/path/to/rpi-cups-server/ && ./start.sh