SiPix Mobile Printer on Sale for $29.99

[Crystal Eitle]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.overstock.com/cgi-bin/d2.cgi?PAGE=PROFRAME&PROD_ID=420820' target='_blank'>http://www.overstock.com/cgi-bin/d2...&PROD_ID=420820</a><br /><br /></div>"Print from your Palm, iPAQ, laptop, or desktop computers with ease. Connect with infrared, or take advantage of the serial port connection for non-infrared connectivity. Using advanced thermal technology, the Pocket Printer A6 doesn't require ribbons or cartridges. Get high resolution, continuous-tone memos, addresses, to do lists, mail or date books from your Palm or Pocket PC."<br /><br />This tiny printer, normally $149.99, is on sale for $29.99. It uses thermal paper, but it might be a handy solution for those who need to print while on the go.

[Ethan]

Thanks. I grabbed one. At that price, it can feed my new gadget lust nicely! I think this will be particularly useful to print out mapquest directions from a hotel room.

Review of the printer here:

http://www.pocketnow.com/index.php?a=portal_detail&t=reviews&id=151

The manufacturer seems to be defunct. Anyone found a free print driver for the device? The ones I've found so far are:

http://www.anycom.com/products/pocketprint.html ($40)
http://www.fieldsoftware.com/PocketClipPrint.htm ($15)

[Crystal Eitle]

The manufacturer seems to be defunct.
Eek! The review you linked to mentions that this printer uses special SiPix paper. You can buy the paper here (http://www.buy.com/retail/product_jump.asp?sku=10277803).

[Ethan]

OK, I found the Sipix Web site and they do offer a Windows CE driver that doesn't mention any time limit:

http://www.sipixdigital.com/support/index.shtml

Also HP has a free driver that might work:

http://www.hp.com/hpinfo/newsroom/press_kits/2002/mobile_printing_launch/factsheet2.html

Here are some reviews of the drivers:

http://www.pocketpclife.co.uk/featureddetails.asp?article=140
http://www.mobilecritics.com/content/software2002/printpocketce3/

[Majestic]

Be prepared! I bought this and NEVER used it. Nothing but problems with the drivers. No support for XP even though they claim it does and getting it to print with half decent clarity was a chore to say the least.

Worst part, I paid $129.00

[thanos255]

Well, usually when I see good deals like this, they charge TONS for shipping and handling....overstock only charged me $2.95 for shipping.....not bad at all.

Worse comes to worse....I am sure I can break even and sell it on ebay :)

Thanks
Thanos

[Ethan]

Actually they are going for even less on ebay, I searched completed auctions and saw several between $20 and $30. And other sites similar to Overstock have them as well...I think there are plenty of these devices floating around. Guess they tanked. Reminds of the IBM Z50....and by the way, that device with this one would be a killer combo.

[thanos255]

Now why did you go telling me that?

:)

Thanks
Thanos

[arebelspy]

Be prepared! I bought this and NEVER used it. Nothing but problems with the drivers. No support for XP even though they claim it does and getting it to print with half decent clarity was a chore to say the least.

Worst part, I paid $129.00

Owch.. that doesn't sound good. Still, for $30, I'm willing to take that risk. :)

-arebelspy

[nosmohtac]

The link to Buy.com shows that the paper is plain paper.

The description of the printer also says that it takes rolls or single sheets of plain paper.

I'm confused :?

[Ethan]

Not sure why they say "plain" paper because its definitely a thermal printer. Click the detail link at the Buy.com link to get this page:

http://www.buy.com/retail/computers/product.asp?sku=10277803&loc=

Scroll down you'll see it says "thermal technology."

Anyway thermal isn't so bad...you do have to buy the special paper but there is no ink to worry about, and thats always the trouble on inkjet printers. Plus I think they are more power efficient, not sure if you could run an inkjet from battery power.

[Pony99CA]

Actually they are going for even less on ebay, I searched completed auctions and saw several between $20 and $30. And other sites similar to Overstock have them as well...
I'm the one who submitted this item. Yes, many other sites had the A6, but Overstock.com had the lowest price. Before I submitted this, I did price searches on both Froogle and PriceGrabber. The Overstock.com price was the cheapest by at least $5, if I recall correctly

I don't check auction sites for two reasons. First, I don't use eBay, and their results don't show up in the price search engines that I use. Second, many times those products are used, and I would want a new printer if I were to buy one.

Just for the record, I have no affiliation with Overstock (I've never even bought from them).

Steve

[Pony99CA]

The link to Buy.com shows that the paper is plain paper.

The description of the printer also says that it takes rolls or single sheets of plain paper.

The Buy.com link I gave to Crystal listed two paper items -- one with six pieces, the other with 100. I assume that the six-piece item contained six rolls of paper, while the 100-piece item contained 100 sheets of paper.

I would have guessed that "plain paper" meant sheets, as opposed to rolls, but even the six-piece item said "plain paper". Maybe they just copied the description from one item to the other.

All of this is just my speculation, though, based on reading about both items.

Steve

[arebelspy]

Speculate no more.

Just look at the pictures.

http://ak.buy.com/db_assets/large_images/802/10277802.jpg

http://ak.buy.com/db_assets/large_images/803/10277803.jpg

:)

-arebelspy

[thanos255]

Well, I got mine today....I don't use the stock software, It doesn't seem to work. PrintPocket CE works great.

It is a cute little thing...and for $29 it was worth it...

Now I just need to figure out what the heck to do with it :)

Thanks
Thanos

[gossipninja]

I just got one of these from CompUSA for around 23 bucks shipped. After screwing with it a bit i got it to print from my XP box off the serial port so i know the printer prints but for the life of me it wont work on my Jornada 568 running ppc 02. I even did a hard reset and installed ONLY their driver, nothing, then i tried with pocketprintce, still nothing. Anyone have any suggestions? I comes up Error cannot find printer.

[Sven Johannsen]

Unfortunately that is a known problem and my guess is it has to do with the Jornada IR implementation, (you are trying this IR, right?). I never got it to work with my Jornada either, though it did with my Axim and an old WinCE2.11 Handheld I have.

The problem is noted at http://www.sipixdigital.com/support/PocketPrinterA6/cefaq.shtml

With both items (J568 and SiPix A6) being discontinued though, I don't expect to see any resolution.

[gossipninja]

thanks for pointing that out, i wish i would have seen that before buying it thought, Well i guess ill have it when i upgrade my PPC whenever i decide to to that.

[phmurphy]

HI all,
It took me two days to figure this out...

The extremely strict rules of printing with the SiPix printer using the IPAQ 1945, 5455, 5555 all running PC 2003. Note, the 5455 was upgraded from PC 2002 to 2003.

If you fail to do the resets when required, you are likely to get a failure.

IPAQ 1945
If you have already installed the SiPix drivers you will need to uninstall them, then do a soft (pin) &lt;reset>.

The bad news if you have already installed PrintPocketCE is that you will need to backup your DATA (NOT PROGRAMS) and do a hard reset. A HARD RESET WILL CAUSE YOU TO LOSE ALL OF YOUR DATA (UNLESS IT IS ON THE IPAQ FILE STORE AREA OR ON THE SD MEMORY CARD) – AND YOU WILL HAVE TO REINSTALL ALL OF YOUR PROGRAMS!!!! MOST IMPORTANT IS THAT YOU DO NOT BACKUP AND RESTORE PROGRAMS OR WINDOWS REGISTRY ETC. Because that is where the problem is!!!! A hard reset is a simultaneous soft reset with the pin, combined with holding down the power button.

After going through the initial windows that follow the hard reset:

Install the PrintPocketCE trial software then do a soft &lt;reset>

Turn the printer on (or off and on if you already have tried to print and failed).

Make sure the Ir beam is set to accept incoming beams by - Start>Connections>Beam icon>check the “Receive all incoming beams” box.

Check that PrintPocketCE is working by printing out a small text file. You will need to select the SiPix printer from the list of printers.

Then install the SiPix printer drivers then do a soft &lt;reset>

Then test the printer after turning it off and on once.

You can then decide which printer program you like the best. You can uninstall PrintPocketCE and the SiPix program will still work.

PrintPocketCE is the source of the problem/solution. You have to install PrintPocketCE FIRST or there is a problem. There is something in PrintPocketCE that is installed but not removed when it is installed, and those items are required for SiPix printer drivers to work/install correctly – I guess. Whatever those items are, they don’t install properly if SiPix is already installed, and they can’t be simply removed by uninstalling both programs and then reinstalling them in the proper order (at least on the IPAQ 1945). I think that PrintPocketCE leaves behind something that prevents this from working. I have no idea how to get to the real source of the problem.

IPAQ 5555 and 5455 are easier. For some reason I could just uninstall everything and reinstall the programs in the proper order.