Mobile Printing - Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

gump · 12-03-2004, 10:23 AM

i'm trying to help a friend of mine out and wanted some other opinions. in her job she needs to be able to use a lazer printer on the go. what i was kind of thinking was hooking up a wireless adapter to her printer and notebook then get a power inverter in the her van to power the printer. i've never done anything like this so that was best guess. am i on the right track? thanks

skaven · 12-04-2004, 11:17 AM

Sounds like it might work. Also might be a very expensive failure. Laser printers require a lot of juice, so the inverter is going to be expensive, and will need to be installed directly to a high-capacity battery. (your generic 100W laptop inverter won't cut it). Also, who knows what the steel shell of the car will do to a wireless signal, especially one that's already potentially dirty from the nasty power inverters generate.

That said, it would be freaking awesome if she could head into the building and do some work, meanwhile printing stuff out back inside her van. If you end up getting it working, take some pics and post them.

gump · 12-04-2004, 11:46 AM

thanks for your input skaven. i'm not for sure if she's going to do it but if its a go i cant wait to get started. i've been looking at a few inverters and i came across a 430watt for $100 which i didnt think was to bad. the printer i'm looking at is a brother hl-1440 and i got this off their site

Power Requirement 100/120 VAC +/- 10% 50/60 Hz
Power Consumption Printing: < 340W
Standby: < 70W
Sleep: < 5W

i'm pretty confident it'll work with a little tweaking. if we do it i'll post some specs and pics.

12-03-2004, 10:23 AM	#1 (permalink)
gump Addict Location: TN	Mobile Printing i'm trying to help a friend of mine out and wanted some other opinions. in her job she needs to be able to use a lazer printer on the go. what i was kind of thinking was hooking up a wireless adapter to her printer and notebook then get a power inverter in the her van to power the printer. i've never done anything like this so that was best guess. am i on the right track? thanks

12-04-2004, 11:17 AM	#2 (permalink)
skaven Insane Location: Austin, TX	Sounds like it might work. Also might be a very expensive failure. Laser printers require a lot of juice, so the inverter is going to be expensive, and will need to be installed directly to a high-capacity battery. (your generic 100W laptop inverter won't cut it). Also, who knows what the steel shell of the car will do to a wireless signal, especially one that's already potentially dirty from the nasty power inverters generate. That said, it would be freaking awesome if she could head into the building and do some work, meanwhile printing stuff out back inside her van. If you end up getting it working, take some pics and post them.

12-04-2004, 11:46 AM	#3 (permalink)
gump Addict Location: TN	thanks for your input skaven. i'm not for sure if she's going to do it but if its a go i cant wait to get started. i've been looking at a few inverters and i came across a 430watt for $100 which i didnt think was to bad. the printer i'm looking at is a brother hl-1440 and i got this off their site Power Requirement 100/120 VAC +/- 10% 50/60 Hz Power Consumption Printing: < 340W Standby: < 70W Sleep: < 5W i'm pretty confident it'll work with a little tweaking. if we do it i'll post some specs and pics.