I'm looking for a way to determine if a specific tray on a given printer in Windows is out of paper. Currenly I'm using the WMI Win32_Printer object to get the status of the entire printer, and if one of the trays is out of paper I do get a status that tells me the entire printer is out of paper.
But I'd like to know if a specific tray is out of paper. Copious Google searches have come up with nothing.
I'm writing the app in c# but pointers to examples in any language would do.
Thanks, in advance..
That is because they are usually hardware specific interfaces. If you use one hardware vendor like HP or Dell then you can probably find a way to figure this out. But the Windows interface seems to only allow notification of the printer being totally out of paper.
I haven't done this but I seem to recall you can do it via SNMP.
Related
is there a way to created a fake/virtual printer? so that our users will be able to choose it, and send their print jobs to it, and then let the c# application receive the job, and send that job to a real printer, with other properties?
my biggest wish is that i don't have to play with drivers, but of course, i don't think i can avoid that, as long as i don't have to write that thing my own... :D
printer++ is a flexible and powerful windows virtual printer that
allows you to print from any application (excel, webpages, word…) and
then have the print job sent to a printer++ SDK solution tailored to
your needs and requirements.
PrinterPlusPlus seems like an option, there is also Virtual Printer
Another way would be to redirect it, here you can see an example of it but might not be as simple as making your own.
If I need to post this elsewhere let me know.
We have some old software thats being re-written, that uses a printerdriver to a propriatery printer.
I need to rewrite the software bypassing the print driver and go directly to the printer. I do have the specs for the printer communication, thats fine, but what Id like to do is monitor the communications to the printer to view its contents (from the existing software that Im re-writing) and compare it to the specs, and what I will be sending it for validation.
I have to make sure Im not missing anything.
Any ideas on how I might be able to accomplish this?
Thanks
To capture the traffic you have to basic options.
1. Use software
If you are using ethernet, you can use a program like WireShark or USBTrace to capture the packets that are being sent out. There are similar programs for USB.
2. Use hardware
Another option would be to use an external logic analyzer. It's basically a box that sits in-between the computer and the printer that captures all the data, then uses software to decode it. There are some inexpensive options available (USBEE, Bus Pirate, and Total Phase Beagle.
I own a USBEE and I've used it to debug a simple USB device. It works well enough for that. The software is a little clunky though.
Just a quick one, if anyone knows:
Is it possible to display a TomTom devices screen on a computer (so I can interface with it's navigation ability?)
They have an SDK, however that does not have any useful information on this question, but TomTom Home can do it - so can I? C# / C++ / Whatever.
Cheers
TomTom is running linux so you can get the raw image data from /dev/raw.
cat /dev/fb > /mnt/sdcard/screenshot.raw
on the device should do it
Then you need to transfer it to your computer (needs to be done quickly).
This should be possible to do over Bluetooth, over USB or possibly by using a Eye-Fi SD card.
I don't think it is possible to do it any other way.
Access the device by Bluetooth console
I'm messing with the idea of writing a small program to mirror output of a video capture device. If you buy a video capture device you can only use it with one program at a time because the device gets locked. Instead of buying a second capture card id like to write a program to accept input from my capture device and expose the output to other applications.
Capture Device----->Program---->Flash Media Encoder
I've never done this type of thing before. Is it device driver related? Can I make my program look like a capture device to other programs without digging in device driver dev?
If someone could point me in the right direction that would be great.
Can I make my program look like a capture device to other programs without digging in device driver dev?
-No, I'm afraid not. You'd need to do exactly that, write a driver or capture source of your own. You could make some interface to serve up image to multiple apps (what a great idea!) but then it would need to be standardised, and you'd need other companies or developers to use that interface. Again a great idea but you'd need to agree on the feature set - and each developer would likely want something new or different.
(If you are talking about particular/specific other programs, they might have a particular interface you can work with already..)
(I was also assuming you were talking about realtime video capture: if you're talking about photo capture etc, you could write an image file to disk, and then import into the other apps ... not as joined up or integrated as ideal though)
Hope that helps - not an ideal situation though!
I will not say it is impossible, but I will say it is impossible in C# because this will require you to write a device driver software which can emulate virtual capture devices which your other program can use and your program can capture actual capture device and mirror or split the data to virtual capture devices that your device driver will create.
Very much same to Virtual CD Rom Drives that we can create with some software, you will need windows device driver kit for that.
You can write combination of application, one device driver and you can have some sort of C# api or program to control the operation.
I'm making a charity Windows Mobile 6 app in C# to help those affected by Alzheimer's.
The aim is for this app to let the carer set a boundary by tapping in Google maps to set points. The carer would then put the windows mobile device in the patient's hand bag or coat, so that when the patient walks out on their own, thinking that they are "going home", the carer receives an SMS text with their position, heading and speed.
However, I don't know how to...
Switch from app to google maps for mobile
tap to select points
import the coordinates of that point to my C# program
use the coordinates to Calculate the boundary
Send the text with the position information
Switch back to my C# program
HTC's HD2 comes with a compass that uses this "tap to select a point then return to app" functionality, so surely it's possible for us too?
If anyone would be able to give me a hand my out I would be EXTREMELY grateful as this will help all those affected by Alzheimer's and other similar conditions. My Gran, for example, recently started trying to walk back to the property she lived in 20 years ago...
Thanks everyone! This means sooo much! I'll even come and buy you a drink to say thanks!
James
Whatever technical issues you're considering, I think you should realize that this type of usage is, AFAICS, contrary to the terms of service of google maps. See:
http://code.google.com/apis/maps/terms.html
That is, you may only use the google maps content if its accessible for everybody, not just whomever you hand out your program to:
Your Maps API Implementation must be generally accessible to users without charge.
If you're building it as a web app, it must be accessible through the internet, not intranet:
[your Maps API Implementation must not:] operate only behind a firewall or only on an internal network (except during the development and testing phase).
Some of the terms in header 10 also seem applicable:
[you must not (nor may you permit anyone else to):]
10.8 use the Static Maps API other than in an implementation in a web browser;
10.9 use the Service or Content with any products, systems, or applications for or in connection with:
(a) real time navigation or route guidance, including but not limited to turn-by-turn route guidance that is synchronized to the position of a user's sensor-enabled device;
Why would you want to kludge something together like that? Trying to have your app interface with another application for which you don't have source, whether it's Google Maps fopr Mobile or anything else, is difficult and should only be used as a last resort.
If this app is going to be free and not require users to log in, you can use the Bing Maps Web Service API directly from your application without cost. You could then use built-in GPS through the GPSID APIs as well, and you'd have control over what data goes where, what maps to draw, etc.
This seems like a much easier path to achieve what you're after.
As a side note, I gave a link above for the GPSID sample from Microsoft. I'd recommend looking at it and the native GPSID APIs but the managed wrapper Microsoft provided is, IMO, pure garbage, so you might consider wrapping the lower APIs yourself.
To restate the problem I believe you're trying to solve:
You've a use case when a carer will sent up a "virtual boundary" on a device. If that device leaves the bounded area, you'd like an alert sent via SMS sent to a predefined recipient, saying where that device is.
My suggestion would be to use something like OpenStreetMap maps (as they're free) for when you're setting up the virtual boundary. For their tiles (each 256px square), there is a relatively trivial method for converting between lat/long and pixel co-ordinates.
You might also be able to do what you want by cannibalising one of their existing Windows Mobile applications intended for surveying, such as OSMtracker, which already includes the map controls, downloads and the like, just leaving point 5 and part of point 4 on your list to tackle.