Can it work with a Raspberry Pi?

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.
taladro
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Can it work with a Raspberry Pi?

Postby taladro » Tue Oct 01, 2019 1:58 pm

I´m interested in using a Raspberry Pi as an airprint server attached to my sublimation printer. But thinking about this I thought if SoloLink may send the image via BT directly to the Pi without the need of a second phone.

regards

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tim
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Re: Can it work with a Raspberry Pi?

Postby tim » Tue Oct 01, 2019 2:05 pm

I'm not sure what you're trying to do.
AirPrint iOS is quite limited, apps are not able to establish custom network links or choose paths. There's no airprint over bluetooth for this reason.
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.

taladro
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Re: Can it work with a Raspberry Pi?

Postby taladro » Wed Oct 02, 2019 10:05 am

MMM I don´t know how to express this as English is not my first language.
What I say is what happens if instead of going from iPad to Phone to printer you do iPad to PI.
Can sololink write to a PI?

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tim
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Re: Can it work with a Raspberry Pi?

Postby tim » Wed Oct 02, 2019 10:39 am

On your iPad are you running SoloLink or Wifibooth?
SoloLink can print to anything that offers AirPrint. There are software programs like Printopia that emulates AirPrint. You could run software that emulates AirPrint on your Pi, and then SoloLink could print to it.
If you are running Wifibooth on your iPad, then you could run an FTP server on your Pi and Wifibooth can print to FTP.
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.

taladro
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Re: Can it work with a Raspberry Pi?

Postby taladro » Wed Oct 02, 2019 1:52 pm

I´m running wifibooth on the ipad connected to a dslr camera and I already have an airprint server on my Pi which is connected to a sublimation printer. I was thinking about a way of printing when no internet/router is around so that is why I thought of sololink from the iPad as well.
Thanks for your time Tim

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tim
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Re: Can it work with a Raspberry Pi?

Postby tim » Wed Oct 02, 2019 2:07 pm

Yeah, you'd need the second iOS device running SoloLink for that, as the link between SoloLink & Wifibooth over Bluetooth is proprietary (mine), not AirPrint... and i'm not aware of any standard AirPrint over Bluetooth in iOS.
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.

taladro
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Re: Can it work with a Raspberry Pi?

Postby taladro » Thu Oct 03, 2019 3:10 am

perhaps a Sololink client for Pi may work and we don´t need another iOS device :lol:

ipadipadbooth
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Re: Can it work with a Raspberry Pi?

Postby ipadipadbooth » Wed Feb 12, 2020 10:49 am

there is no way to know, unless you try it yourself! since you already have the hardware please test it and report back asap.
There are several companies that sell raspi air print devices and they are all coded differently. I have tried ones from boothprint, airkonov and homemade ones. simplebooth and pocketbooth party did not work with airkonov at all, even though they are air print compatable, but wifi booth did.

I do not think you will need another ios device, try it you might be surprised!

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tim
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Re: Can it work with a Raspberry Pi?

Postby tim » Wed Feb 12, 2020 10:55 am

I think there are 2 conversations going on here at the same time.

1) The idea of running third-party software on a Raspberry Pi that emulates an AirPrint printer, ie. a print server. All such software expects you to use wifi or ethernet. This is a problem if your iPad's wifi is directly connected to a camera, because then you'd be unable to connect the wifi to the Pi at all. I'm not sure about ethernet: both lightning-port and USB-C-port iPads have ethernet adapters available (only some are capable of charging the ipad at the same time though, caution!), so there's the chance that you can connect the ethernet from the iPad to the print server, and the wifi to the camera. But I have not tested this and am not sure if it works. If someone is seriously considering this, I'd be willing to test the USB-C variant of this (newer iPad Pros only)

2) The idea of what SoloLink does, ie. SoloLink establishes a connection between Wifibooth and SoloLink over bluetooth not wifi, with the request to make this possible on other devices (SoloLink requires iOS, so iPhone, iPod Touch etc). This currently isn't possible, because SoloLink uses Apple-proprietary bluetooth functionality unavailable on other devices. For example, this is the same reason as why you cannot use AirDrop from an Apple device to any other kind of device (ie Android).
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.


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