Portable Printing Options?

Mike-

On the Mac, run System Preferences. Select Print & Scan at the right of the Hardware line. If you have not set up the printer to print with your Mac, click on the Plus sign under the Printers Window, and add your printer.

Select the printer in the Printers window and Open Print Queue. You can click on Printer Setup to see if the printer's network parameters can be set there.

If they do not, run Safari and see if your printer appears under the Bonjour tab near the top of the window. If it does, you should be able to setup the printer's network there.

A CD should have come with the printer. You may need to run a setup program on it if neither of the above procedures work.

Fred

Hi Fred

Thanks for your reply...

i have installed the software that came with disc, the only thing i'm confused about is the bonjour tab is this the tab that appears in the "show all bookmarks" icon which looks like a book on top left corner of safari, if so this just takes me to this url http://www.apple.com/support/bonjour/

i'm sure what ever you describing in your message is not what i'm doing, i just don't know what bonjour is, lol... sorry.

is it a tool that i should have access to on the safari toolbar?

Mike

Mike-

Under the Safari menu, select Preferences. Click on Bookmarks and under Bookmarks bar, check the box to "Include Bonjour". That should make the Bonjour choice available along with your Bookmarks Bar. Immediately to the right of the book icon, I have the word Bonjour.

If the only choice in the Bonjour menu is "About Bonjour", then your printer can not be accessed that way. I have an HP networked printer that appears under Bonjour. When I select it, it opens the printer's internal web page which allows changes to its setup. Mine is not a Wifi printer, so there is no way to make it host an Ad Hoc Wifi network!

I suspect your printer may require a temporary USB connection with the Mac to change its WiFi setup. I do not recall if you mentioned which printer you are trying to set up. If it is the HP H470, look on pages 17 and 51 of its manual. On page 52, it states that the factory default setting is for an Ad Hoc network.

Fred

Thanks all for your help, i had a cousin of mine stay over for easter weekend and he has setup many printers in ad hoc( he specializes in security in IT and has HSBC as a customer for the company he works for) he really knows he's stuff, anyway , unfortunately it's not worked for me, we did manage to get my windows laptop running xp to setup the 3 wireless settings on the back of the printer but none of them comunicated wirelesly , so i ended up buying one of these http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/230773695264?ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1 497.l2649

i'll report back on weather this works for me and my hp h470 and ipad with several printer apps to choose from...

dunno why some of you have managed to get your printer and ipad working without any extra accessories and i have had no success...

Mike-

I assumed you already had one of those. That is what makes the H470 into the WiFi version.

It may come preset to the Ad Hoc mode. Chances are that your iPad's WiFi setting can see it as soon as you plug it in and turn on the H470.

Fred

Hi Mike,

If you didn't have a WiFi dongle before - well, that explains perfectly why you couldn't get it to work! As Fred points out, I think we all assumed you did. When I bought mine (also off eBay), it came with a Bluetooth dongle which I knew wasn't a go-er for the iPad and so bought the dongle you've linked to - haven't looked back since.

While researching I learnt early on that you have to be careful about terminology ... "wireless" usually refers to bluetooth whereas we want "WiFi" (and specifically AdHoc WiFi) to work with the iPad. I also found that most portable WiFi printers needed some kind of additional card/dongle.

Anyhow, when you get that dongle, you'll be up and running for sure :-)

Thanks,

Keith

I found a way to set up a mobile printer to work with iPad, but it requires you have an iPad with the mobile hotspot feature. I've created a parts list and a youtube video to help you get it set up. They can be found here:

http://makethisstuffwork.blogspot.com/2013/07/how-to-set-up-mobile-printer-to-wo rk.html

checkout the ipad app mobi print. it allows printing via bluetooth from ios devices.

I don't find an app called mobi print in the App Store.

its in beta i believe. check arrowheadphx website for it

You are going to need a disclaimer when you post here about this software.

Is it possible this app is intended for use with iOS 7? Under all current versions of the OS your app would not have access to the APIs and ports necessary for use in printing nor does any current iDevice have the Bluetooth profile to do so.

I looked. It is in beta and it only works with two models of Zebra printers that are designed to print 2" or 3" receipts.

It actually will work with larger printers and all zebra printers..like the 220 which is 8" wide...but in bluetooth only those 2 models for now. We do have a 4" beta printer we are testing. It works in ithe current version of ios6 and ios7. PDF printing is pretty straight forward, printing data requires to store the static label format in the app and pass the variables.

It says it will only work with your iOS Bluetooth printers and those were the only two that I can find currently for sale.