close printer

[colore]

hello

there is something very annoying with my printer, it doesn't closes itself after some minutes of inactivity and I have to click its power button myself

is there any automated method for this?

thanks

[cluberti]

I've pruned this thread a bit and left only relevant info. @colore, please do provide the make/model of printer, and the printer driver being used on your XP system. Also, did this work in the past and just started failing recently, or has this printer always done this on this particular installation of XP?

[colore]

printer does this by default, it doesn't have feature to do what I want, that's why I try to find and OS level solution

printer is canon pixma ip 4300 and driver is 1.95.2.70

[cluberti]

So the printer does not go to standby after a set period of time (I'm assuming the green power light will switch to orange, or flash, or something)?

[colore]

I need it to close completely (as when I click the power button), because even in stand-by, it consumes energy

so I print something, then I leave, why it stays in stand-by? I need it to close

[iamtheky]

Power consumption: printing = approx 11W

Standby = approx 1W

OFF = .5 W

you would need a brick or unplug for it to draw 0.

Edited July 8, 2010 by iamtheky

[colore]

Power consumption: printing = approx 11W

Standby = approx 1W

OFF = .5 W

you would need a brick or unplug for it to draw 0.

printing takes few minutes, standing by may take hours, days, months so the energy loss is considerable

[cluberti]

Right, but what I'm trying to figure out is what it's not doing - is it that the printer doesn't stand by, or doesn't turn off all the way?

[colore]

it doesn't turn off all the way

but not due to a bug

due to a lack of this feature

[cluberti]

Ah, OK, I understand. I'm not sure of how we'd do something the logic board doesn't support though, as all of this is handled in firmware from the printer. If some sort of function to actually turn the device off without pressing the power button doesn't exist in the printer's logic board itself, you aren't going to be able to emulate it in software - what would you call? You could probably look at the microcode stored on the logic board itself if you don't mind taking it apart, have the tools to do this, and know where the microcode is stored and in what language(s) it is written in, but there's not going to be a windows-side function for this until or unless the printer supports doing it as well remotely over a serial, parallel, or USB connection. It supports the standard power properties that any external device supports, but an actual power on or power off event is a completely hardware-dependent function. Unless the device exposes in it's microcode the equivalent of a BIOS Int19 call, you're not going to be able to do this. Canon could probably answer this for you if you were to find the right person to ask, but that is probably not something you'll get from a newsgroup as that would involve exposing the inner-workings of their device(s), which I'm guessing is a trade secret they're not going to provide you.

[CoffeeFiend]

so the energy loss is considerable

Hardly. It's more like negligible. The total cost for your printer being in standby for the whole year:

365 days * 24h/day * 1W or so of power draw = 8760 Wh = 8.76 kWh.

energy.eu says in Greece you pay around € 0.089 per kWh, so the total cost for the device to run in standby the entire year is € 0.78 including all applicable taxes which is pretty much $1 USD at the current rate.

If you only wanted it to go in its "almost off" state which only draws 0.5W or so, then you savings would be only half of that (an euro saved every almost 3 years)

There is no way to *really* turn off a device like this (and have no power draw at all) unless it has a physical power switch. Nothing done in software (both in the printer or on the computer) will change anything to that. The only thing you can do is use a power bar (or unplug it), but even then a decent power bar will take several years to pay for itself in power savings from that device. There's no real savings to make by turning this off as its power usage is very, very low (low enough to make a real power switch pointless IMO)

If you want to save money on power, look elsewhere (heating, lighting, efficient appliances, insulation, etc). This can save hundreds of times more power.

[colore]

pity, cause this should be enabled by default

it saves energy

[cluberti]

I would have to agree - a device using ~$1USD of power a year (in standby) is still $1USD, but appliances (not sure what you've got in your home) are the largest consumers of electricity in a normal home, followed closely by lighting and heating (A/C units use the most, but not everyone would have one of those depending on where you lived and the climate, etc). It was cost effective to seal up the house as well as could be done with the structure we had, install energy-efficient appliances, use the A/C and heat less, and put the computer to sleep (not off) when it wasn't in use. Saved quite a bit, and paid for itself in about a year.