About UoWPrint

UoWPrint is an up-to-date device created to bring wireless network capabilities to older printers, scanners, and all-in-one devices.

It is designed as an easy-to-use add-on appliance and allows you to:

  • Convert your old USB printer (or MFP) into Wi-Fi printer/MFP
  • Print and scan without drivers from Windows/macOS/Linux, as well as iOS/Android

Contrary to older-generation print server hardware or home routers with printer-sharing functions, UoWPrint does not require to install any printer-specific drivers or applications on your devices but uses universal standard drivers available in any contemporary operating system.

In other words, with UoWPrint you can use AirPrint and Mopria protocols on your USB-only printer.

Compatibility

UoWPrint is best compatible with consumer printers and MFPs released before 2018 and supports a very wide range of inkjet and laser printers and scanners, however some printers are not supported well or at all.

In general, HP devices work well, support for Samsung and Xerox is also quite complete, and compatibility with Canon depends on the generation of the device.

Some printers for which there is no driver for the ARM architecture run in x86 emulation mode, so printing may occur with a delay. Scanners operating in emulation mode work as usual, performance does not suffer from emulation.

Check almost full list of supported devices

Web interface

Miscellaneous configuration

The "Miscellaneous configuration" section includes special options that are required for some models in certain cases.

  • Enable SSH server (firmware 1.12+) allows to connect to the device using SSH protocol.
  • Support for USB-to-parallel port converters (LPT) (firmware 1.14+) enables LPT/Centronics cables to connect older printers.
    Do not enable this option unless necessary; it may break other models due to the use of the usblp kernel module, which is not required by other printers.
  • Support for Canon CAPT printers runs the proprietary Canon CAPT driver for Canon Laser Shot LBP family. Before firmware version 1.09 this option has provided support only for LBP-810/LBP-1120 models, but since 1.10 it supports the whole CAPT family.
    Do not enable this option unless necessary; it may break other models due to the use of the usblp kernel module, which is not required by other printers.
  • Use foo2zjs HP firmware loader instead of hplip uses an alternative method of downloading firmware for printers that do not have their own memory and require firmware download every time they are turned on:
    • HP LaserJet 1000, 1005, 1018, 1020
    • HP LaserJet P1005, P1006, P1007, P1008, P1009, P1505
    • HP LaserJet Professional P1102, P1566
  • Accept only raster data (do not accept PDF and PS) disables support for PDF and PostScript vector formats, forcing your computer or smartphone to convert pages to vector image pages in PWG Raster and Apple Raster formats.
    Helps eliminate long delays before printing starts in some cases for large documents.
  • Use GhostScript instead of Poppler for PDF to PS processing (firmware 1.10+) uses GhostScript to process PDF files and convert them to PostScript format, instead of much faster Poppler library used by default. Poppler doesn't support color to grayscale conversion which may result in color printing when grayscale is requested on some printers (depending on printer driver).
  • Suppress GhostScript errors to stdout (could fix PS printing) (firmware 1.05+) fixes printing of PostScript documents containing embedded comments, as seen in Windows 7 with MS Publisher Imagesetter or MS Publisher Color Printer drivers.
  • Disable AirSane HP AIO scanner driver (firmware 1.13+) disables support for HPLIP-supported scanners, to hide duplicate devices if the scanner is supported by multiple drivers.
  • Run AirSane x86 for emulated scanner drivers (Panasonic, Brother) (firmware 1.07+) starts emulated version of scanning server, currently used for Panasonic panamfs and Brother brscan/2/3/4 devices which missing native driver.

Low-level device access

SSH

The device provides root access via SSH.

Hostname: uowprint.local
Username: root
The password is the same as the password for the Wi-Fi network.

USB ACM

To access via USB ACM (virtual COM port):

  1. Install 2 jumpers at the USB connector towards the MicroUSB connector
  2. Remove the single jumper from the audio jack
  3. Connect the device with a MicroUSB cable to the computer

The USB ACM interface and the device’s network interface will appear on the computer. To access it on Linux, run screen /dev/ttyACM0.

Reset the device to factory defaults

Press and hold the button on the device for more than 15 seconds. The green LED will begin to flash quickly, after which the device will reboot and reset all settings.