Detecting Whether Airport Extreme-connected Printer is Powered Up

Scripting Forums AppleScript | Mac OS X
#1

A quick search shows that this question has been asked before but never satisfactorily answered here. I have a USB printer connected to my AirPort Extreme (first generation, I think) so I can access it from two Macs and an iPad. What stymies me is detecting whether the printer is powered up – it always shows as my printer, e.g.,


global printerStatus
set printerName to word 1 of (do shell script "/usr/bin/lpq")
pStat()

if printerStatus contains "is not ready" then
	do shell script "/usr/bin/enable " & printerName
	pStat()
end if

on pStat()
	set printerStatus to paragraph 1 of (do shell script "/usr/bin/lpq")
	display dialog printerStatus
end pStat

always displays that the printer is ready even if it’s turned off.

#2

lpq show the state of the print queue.

Would lpstat -a or lpstat -p work better? (If a printer is off it will not appear in the results)

#3

lpstat just returns that the print queue will accept jobs for that enabled printer; not that the printer is ON. Turns out, I think, that attaching the printer to the AirPort Extreme prevents the HP driver from “knowing” the state of the printer. On further thought, however, since I have to go to the printer to get the printout anyway, I can just turn it on when I get there – I don’t have to know if it’s on to submit a print job.