PORTS Forum

Ports and Interfaces => USB => Topic started by: dharmajy on February 27, 2015, 06:04:31 pm

Title: USB sniffer logger for printers
Post by: dharmajy on February 27, 2015, 06:04:31 pm

I have spent countless weeks looking for something but am stuck and would appreciate some help.
Background:
I would like to find a small “dongle” like device that can go inline between a PC and  USB printer. This “dongle” would sniff and capture the data sent to the printer and send the data via a cable or bluetooth / WIFI to a receiving PC nearby.  The main point being the dongle works without requiring change on the existing hardware /software between the printing PC and the printer. 

I know USB analyzers exist to do exactly what I describe, however they are costly. I need a solution that cost in $10’s  as opposed to $100’s or $1000's. Devices like keyboard loggers work in exactly that way, and meet the cost criteria but as far as I know they do not work with printers.

Anyone has such a product or is capable of designing something like?

Title: Re: USB sniffer logger for printers
Post by: Jan Axelson on February 28, 2015, 10:16:33 am

It sounds like you are looking for a way to send printer data to a printer and also to a file on second PC? It's not clear how you want to use the captured data - to store a copy of the printout, to analyze printer codes, or ?

One option would be to print a second time and send the data to a file, then transfer the file to the other PC.

There are free software analyzers, some open source, that capture data:

http://janaxelson.com/development_tools.htm#analyzers