1g Airport Express lost but found and can't print?!

So I just recently repurposed an older 1g Airport Express to connect my printer to the network. I am extending a network (5g) and using the USB port to connect to a little brother laser printer.

I was able to initially configure the airport express in Airport Utility and Airpor Utility shows it greyed out when I start it back up. I can go to Configure other and type in the IP address and connect to the Airport Express. I can also ping the device. I can't however find it in airport utility (latest on OSX Yosemite) and I can't seem to print from it. If I reboot it, it will work for a little bit but if it goes dormant for a couple hours its unreachable via airport utility and printing. I have the latest firmware on the Airport Express currently (7.6.4 I believe, it is currently rebooting so I can print 🙂 )

Any thoughts or suggestions? Previously this was working perfectly as an AP for my wireless network.

Thanks,

Neil