Hacker News new | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submit
I did this with a Raspberry Pi. The printer in question only has WiFi and USB, no ethernet (the WiFi wasn't stable, and I don't trust the TCP/IP stack anyway). So what I did was I connected it to a Raspberry Pi via USB which is connected via ethernet to the living room. I added AirPrint and brscan, and the device can be shared via usbip.

For example, you can use a USB SDR and connect to it via usbip.

Initially, I also had to actually use qemu x86-64 for the scanner part which wasn't ideal.

The only UI computers which use it, are Apple's (iPhone and iPad). In a world where the network is the computer, usbip and iscsi are very cool tech.

The reason I went with a Raspberry Pi is since it already acts as an interface for Valetudo. So it was already in use anyway. Also, I want to add Bluetooth for IoT scanning, considering to run Home Assistant on it.

But yes, what it does lack is a UI. I was thinking of adding something with a reverse proxy, but I have no idea what, and this whole project isn't residing in my house. It is in my mother's apartment.

I've been using a pi print server for a few years now. Runs my shipping label printer, an excellent HP color printer from the early 2000s, and a few other oddball printers