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Posted
Just rolled out 8 of these bad boys, RPi3 fully wireless barcode scanning release stations. Fair to say the populace loathe me now :) until they see the benefits that is!

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Posted
Just rolled out 8 of these bad boys, RPi3 fully wireless barcode scanning release stations. Fair to say the populace loathe me now :) until they see the benefits that is!

looks useful i guess the barcode scanner is so staff can scan a card to release their print jobs?

Posted
Yes, when we issued badges starting a couple of years ago, we added their 6 digit database number as a barcode for "future use", read filling space on the card. So staff print to a pool printer, rock up to a photocopier and scan their staff badge, printing can then be released :) Obviously if we had smart cards, we could add a USB reader for whatever type they would be, as long as it gets the number to the login field.
  • Thanks 1
Posted

Ah ok, well you need:

 

Print release licence from PaperCut :(

A Raspberry Pi, I am using 3's with built in wifi, but a 2 will do the same with a dongle or patch cable

Touch screen compatible with above, I am using the official touch screen and a all in one case from CPC/Farnell

A keypad, keyboard scanner, usb or gpio or whatever way you need to get your card numbers in

Standard Raspbian

Java and the java client from the release directory on the papercut server

adjust config.properties to reflect the printer to be released on(or pool of printers), always fun on April 1st(or every day) to set the release to be on a random printer :) dance monkey dance

set pi up to run said script at startup

Marvel at your ingenuity :)

 

Thats the basics, but I can expand on any point you need.

 

James

Posted

That's cool.

 

I've stopped using papercut now in favour of Uniflow, but when I asked Papercut if this could be done less than 12 months ago I was firmly told it was x86 only.

 

What's changed?

Posted
Nothing as far as I know, there is a windows client, linux cli client and a java sh script for linux, all using the standard config.properties in the release directory and has been for the whole of v15.
Posted

G'Day from Australia,

 

I'm the guy who created the new Raspberry Pi Release station image with help from my colleagues. More information from

 

PaperCut KB | Run a PaperCut NG or MF Release Station from a Raspberry Pi

 

To answer @Oaktech's question. We have been very nervous about providing support for the Pi as it's not a tier 1 platform for us.

 

However after lots of requests from customers (and a bit of pushing from me) our support team agreed that making a pre-built image available would probably work. So that's now what we do, but I'm still building the images by hand each release. The May release of Raspian had me jumping through hoops this time because of the disk auto-resizing, but I hope to be pushing a new 16.1 image in the next couple of days.

 

Once I get all the wrinkles sorted in the image creation we hopefully can automate the whole process and they will drop out the end of the build. However because we are shipping Raspian as well there are additional issues, so it's not straightforward.

 

If you use my build then I've added the ability to configure the release station from a desktop workstation (config files are linked from /boot) which makes life easier. I've also provided a note on the above article on how to provide a custom image in the /boot partition.

 

To return to the instructions from @CAWJames, you don't need to copy over the JVM because you need to run the ARM JVM supplied in Raspian. Make sure you install the correct JVM version as we upgraded to Java 8 a few months ago.

 

I'm happy to answer more questions, so fire away.

 

Cheers

Alec

  • Thanks 1
Posted
Thanks Alec, should have said I don't copy over the actual JVM, just the directory so I have the script on the pi :) I do make sure there is Java working on the pi first though. I did not know there is an image, would have saved me some time, but oh well. Can I have a copy? :)
Posted
Oh double dangit, they bought 16 out about a month after our 6 month initial support ran out. I've been toying with paying to upgrade to 16, but can't see any major features we would use :(

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