Very slow printing

SoloLink is an iOS app that shares your printer(s) over Bluetooth and Wi-Fi so that you can stay connected to your camera and be able to print. It can also share your iPhone's camera to Wifibooth.
rsmith4321
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Joined: Wed Aug 22, 2018 4:51 pm

Very slow printing

Postby rsmith4321 » Sat Sep 29, 2018 11:27 pm

I was using an ipad pro 10.5 connected to blueprint on an iphone 7 connected to my event location wifi. I also had a macbook pro connected to the event wifi to provide airprint on my dnp printer. I was having a lot of disconnection issues and slow printing, but I think it was just really bad wifi at the event location. So instead I connected my Macbook Pro with the DNP printer to my iPhone 7 hotspot. This seemed to provide a more stable connection but very slow prints, sometimes a few minutes. I noticed that blueprint was trying and failing to upload the pictures online because my Verizon connection on the iPhone 7 was poor. Could the poor verizon connection cause very slow prints because of the failing dropbox uploads? I'm trying to find a way to get a stable fast printing connection at an event. If I have poor internet at a location should I turn off image uploading, will that make the printing faster? Is there a way to prioritize prints and make blueprint wait to do the uploads until it gets a good connection? Or should I get something like a mobile hotspot and connect everything to that?

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tim
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Re: Very slow printing

Postby tim » Sun Sep 30, 2018 8:56 am

Great questions!
No, having very slow internet on the iPhone that runs BluePrint will not slow down the link between Wifibooth and BluePrint, because these are separate queues: there's a queue on the wifibooth side of everything to send to BluePrint, and in BluePrint there's a queue of everything waiting to go to the printer, and another queue of everything waiting to upload to the internet. These don't slow each other down.

However, having Wifibooth send Dropbox/internet uploads to BluePrint will slow down printing: although Wifibooth will always prioritize prints over other uploads to BluePrint (prints jump to the head of the queue on Wifibooth side), once Wifibooth starts sending a dropbox upload / internet upload to BluePrint, it is not pre-empted (interrupted) when a print comes along. So this means that prints CAN end up waiting for internet uploads.

See my other reply to you about using your iphone as a camera - that would solve this problem, as the link between your iPhone and Wifibooth would be wifi not bluetooth (10-100x faster)
Please write a review for Wifibooth on the Apple App store! Indie developers like me really need people like you to review their apps. Instructions on how to write a review: http://goo.gl/w8NsDI.

rsmith4321
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Joined: Wed Aug 22, 2018 4:51 pm

Re: Very slow printing

Postby rsmith4321 » Sun Sep 30, 2018 12:45 pm

I think that is the problem I was having is that the uploads to dropbox were interrupting the printing I just wanted to make sure. For my next event I will disable uploads if I have a poor signal. Is there any way to tell wifibooth to just queue the uploads and social sharing until after the event? For example if everything could work normally even with a bad connection and users could select to have their pictures emailed or texted, but it will just queue everything until I select to send.

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tim
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Re: Very slow printing

Postby tim » Sun Sep 30, 2018 12:57 pm

Yes! To do this, simply don't allow BluePrint to share its internet connection to Wifibooth. Share the printer, then on the BluePrint screen turn OFF the switch for internet sharing. Then connect Wifibooth.

Wifibooth will queue all of the uploads (that it has no connection / sharing for) on its side. Then later, connect the iPad to the internet and start Wifibooth. It'll automatically start uploading everything.

If this makes you happy, please leave me a review on the app store! Reviews really help me. Thanks :)
Please write a review for Wifibooth on the Apple App store! Indie developers like me really need people like you to review their apps. Instructions on how to write a review: http://goo.gl/w8NsDI.

rsmith4321
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Joined: Wed Aug 22, 2018 4:51 pm

Re: Very slow printing

Postby rsmith4321 » Sun Sep 30, 2018 1:08 pm

Awesome, so would that be your recommended method? I was thinking of getting a Verizon hotspot because it has a built in router so I could have my own wifi network separate from the event. But if my main concern is just keeping printing working even if the uploads happen later it would probably be best just to connect to the iPhone hotspot with my Mac correct? Then would it be best just to select share printer and not share printer/internet in blueprint? And the uploads will still queue? I'll test it out.

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tim
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Re: Very slow printing

Postby tim » Sun Sep 30, 2018 1:14 pm

Best to test everything out.
I'd wait until you've tried out using your iPhone as the camera (the new beta feature coming very soon), before you make any decisions, spend much time, or buy anything. It could be a game-changer for you. It's only a few days away.
Please write a review for Wifibooth on the Apple App store! Indie developers like me really need people like you to review their apps. Instructions on how to write a review: http://goo.gl/w8NsDI.

rsmith4321
Posts: 22
Joined: Wed Aug 22, 2018 4:51 pm

Re: Very slow printing

Postby rsmith4321 » Sun Sep 30, 2018 2:28 pm

Thanks, I've been testing the printing with the internet connection turned off in blueprint and the printing is very fast with my Macbook connected directly to my iPhone hotspot. So I think the problem was the poor service and it kept trying to upload all the pictures and was preventing the printing. Now that I know to flip that switch I think it will solve the issue!


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