HP Photosmart C7280 compatibility?

[Dan]

SITUATION/411:

After four months of slogging through hard legal/medical duty, and a ton or two of dead trees ... my trusty old HP Officejet R40xi issued forth an agonized growl, stripped all the teeth off the head belt, shredded what was left, and utterly without warning, died on station in the performance of its duties.

A new printer is in order.

I'm looking to upgrade a bit.

SIZE-UP:
Make & Model= HP Photosmart C7280 WiFi All-In-One Printer (http://www.globalcomputer.com/applications/searchtools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=3310819&csid=ITD&body=MAIN#detailspecs)
CPU= Unknown, but it takes a helluva long time for this critter to boot.
HDD= None
RAM= Unknown
NIC= Ethernet connectivity
Wireless= wireless connectivity
Video=
Display= Small display screen for picture viewing
Operating system version= Unknown, but it might well be Windows based as long as it takes to boot
Running Kernel= Unknown N/A

MITIGATING FACTORS:

I have a chance to get a refurb for less than $150 (USD)
Six ink colors really help photo prints ... but I rarely print my work. Normally it goes to a commercial printer on the production pages.

INITIAL OPERATIONS PLAN:
1) Investigate Linux compatibility
2) Determine MTBF average in Linux usage
3) Get anecdotal reports from Linux users


COMPLETED OPERATIONS:
- Several reports found on the web indicating this is indeed Linux compatible
- Ink is short lived, but with such small cartridges, I expected that.
-

QTBAs:
1) Has anyone here got personal information on this device?
2) Are there any specific Linux (fedora) related caveats?
3) In the present financial climate, should I be concerned about the future of my 401K?


That, my friends, is the nightly conundrum.

Thanks!


Dan

[Evil_Bert]

Looks good based on the HPLIP database entry (http://hplipopensource.com/hplip-web/models/photosmart/photosmart_c7200_series.html). Seems to do everything - specifically with Fedora, too.

You forgot the sections entitled "Enemy Intentions" and "Enemy Order of Battle" in your situational appreciation (although maybe you do things differently over there). ;)

[Evil_Bert]

3) In the present financial climate, should I be concerned about the future of my 401K?
Well asked. But I don't know. I know my superannuation over in this part of the world is looking OK (it's government-backed, anyway).

[Dan]

Hah! Trick question! I cashed in the 401K way back on "Black Tuesday." Been running on sweat and red ink since then! <..:p..>

[Dan]

You forgot the sections entitled "Enemy Intentions" and "Enemy Order of Battle" in your situational appreciation (although maybe you do things differently over there). ;)

I shamelessly lifted the form format from the fire service. The "enemy's" habits there are pretty well predictable. <..:D..>

[scotty38]

I just bought the C6280 and whilst I appreciate it's not a 7280, it's working fine so I can't imagine you having any problems with it. I installed the hplip stuff and got the basics working straight away but had to search this site to get the scanner working. Once I'd found a thread suggesting the install of libsane-hpaio the scanner burst into life, or rather Xsane managed to find it..... The Windows machines at home had no such problems although it probably took the same amount of time to install the utilities as it did me searching round for my Fedora fixes.....

[pstrang]

I'm struggling to get my C7280 on Fedora Core 7 working. Print jobs just hang, nothing happens (user and root). Scanning seems to be up and running though.

I have installed HPLIP 2.8.9. I get device communication error 5012 under normal user, but not as root. But no user seems to be able to print.

:(

[billymayday]

Well asked. But I don't know. I know my superannuation over in this part of the world is looking OK (it's government-backed, anyway).

That'll be news to the government. What gave you the idea that your super is government backed?

[Evil_Bert]

That'll be news to the government. What gave you the idea that your super is government backed?
You might want to look into all of the super schemes operating in this country (Australia) before jumping to conclusions. Just a suggestion.

[pstrang]

I'm struggling to get my C7280 on Fedora Core 7 working. Print jobs just hang, nothing happens (user and root). Scanning seems to be up and running though.

I have installed HPLIP 2.8.9. I get device communication error 5012 under normal user, but not as root. But no user seems to be able to print.

:(

Update:

The C7280 can be configured as a stand alone network printer. In this mode printing works (over NET); as well as scanning (over USB).

But USB printing is still broken. :confused:

[billymayday]

You might want to look into all of the super schemes operating in this country (Australia) before jumping to conclusions. Just a suggestion.

I live here and you are wrong. They guarantee deposits, not super.

Unless you are referring to a public service pension scheme, which they try to call super, which is nothing but pension.

[Evil_Bert]

I live here and you are wrong. They guarantee deposits, not super.

Unless you are referring to a public service pension scheme, which they try to call super, which is nothing but pension.
I do live here, and I can assure you that my superannuation scheme is backed by Government. It's not my problem if you can't or won't understand or do the research.

It's quite inadvisable to give incorrect statements in such absolute terms - it can make you look foolish.

[Firewing1]

I can't comment on the C7280 specifically, but every single HP printer I've used in the past two years-ish has worked without trouble under Linux, Windows or Mac OS and they're a real breeze to setup - even over LAN because the use a hostname-based discovery instead of IP-based. Chances are that if there's an entry in HPLIP, it will work without any problems.

In any case, if you're looking at other brands+models and you're looking to hook up the printer to the network, be absolutely sure that it supports hostname-based discovery. I had to get a printer working that didn't support hostname discovery once and it was a nightmare. Until static IPs were setup and the printer's IP was set to reserved on the DHCP server, shutting down the printer for the night would result in another computer taking its IP the next morning and boom, no networked printing.
Firewing1

[billymayday]

I do live here, and I can assure you that my superannuation scheme is backed by Government. It's not my problem if you can't or won't understand or do the research.

It's quite inadvisable to give incorrect statements in such absolute terms - it can make you look foolish.

So you're a public servant with a chip on your shoulder!

Your opinion as to whether I'm foolish or not is of no concern to me.

[Dan]

Ahem!

Guys ... let's get back to my printer problem.

I can get it to print via USB OK, but no go on the scanner in either FC6, F8 or F9.

I won't even begin to express my teeth grinding frustration at the network printing aspect not working. It shows up in the printer list ... but documents sent to the dang thing just disappear into the network ... never to be seen again.

[pstrang]

Strange..your problem is just the opposite of mine. In FC7 I can scan over USB and print over wireless network. But I cannot print over USB, there seems to be communication errors. I suspect the latest 2.8.9 HPLIP software.

[billymayday]

Ahem!

Guys ... let's get back to my printer problem.

I can get it to print via USB OK, but no go on the scanner in either FC6, F8 or F9.

I won't even begin to express my teeth grinding frustration at the network printing aspect not working. It shows up in the printer list ... but documents sent to the dang thing just disappear into the network ... never to be seen again.

Fair call - sorry

[Dan]

Well, I can guess that some of this is FC6. I was going to update to F9, but it turned out to be a dog on release, so I'm waiting for F10 ... and Dangermouse's script of course. <..:p..>

[Evil_Bert]

So you're a public servant with a chip on your shoulder!

Your opinion as to whether I'm foolish or not is of no concern to me.
Public Servant? Chip on my shoulder? I'm just responding to your incorrect statement.

FYI, most superannuation schemes, providing the preservation age has been reached, permit the member to withdraw funds in either a pension, lump sum or a mix of both, and many people choose a pension over a lump sum. Some of the schemes are defined benefit funds (http://www.anz.com/edna/dictionary.asp?action=content&content=defined-benefit_fund). If the employer is a government, then such a fund is government backed. These schemes (and the benefits) are generally defined in legislation.


OK, Dan, I'm done.

[Firewing1]

Well, I can guess that some of this is FC6. I was going to update to F9, but it turned out to be a dog on release, so I'm waiting for F10 ... and Dangermouse's script of course. <..:p..>
FC6 probably has a much older version of hplip, but in F8/9 things have been working fine for me over the network once I selected the right PPD driver and unblocked port 631 in the firewall. Just a tip too, if you have networked printing then you can also do networked scanning - just type the IP address of the printer into the address bar of Firefox and there's a scan tab. I never really do much scanning from Linux though, I just use the USB port on the printer itself to scan onto my USB key.
Firewing1

[ryptyde]

HP C8180 All-in-One, print and scan wireless working on F9 and F10 snap2 have the "usual req's" of hplip, libsane-hpaio, xsane. :)

[gstool]

I just purchased a C7280. It is working fine as a wireless network printer in Fedora 9 and Ubuntu 8.04

In Fedora 9, I have the following packages installed.

[root@f9-win4lin ~]# yum search hplip
Loaded plugins: refresh-packagekit
================================ Matched: hplip ================================
hpijs.i386 : HP Printer Drivers
hplip.i386 : HP Linux Imaging and Printing Project
hplip-gui.i386 : HPLIP graphical tools
libsane-hpaio.i386 : SANE driver for scanners in HP's multi-function devices

Use System > Administration > HP Device Manager.

Before finding HP Device Manager, I successfully installed it as an LPD/LPR Host or Printer using its numerical IP address (manually assigned in the printer's network setup) in the Host field, and its hostname, in my case HPB5333D, in the Queue field.

On my Ubuntu system I was able to set everything up in HP Device Manager.

Scanning, monitoring, printing, copying all work from HPDM.

I hope this helps.