Automating printer test pages or health checks with Node-RED?

General
1

Hi everyone,

I’ve been experimenting with automating small office tasks using Node-RED, and I was wondering if anyone has tried integrating printers into their workflows for basic health checks.

For example, in environments where printers are used daily, it could be useful to automatically trigger a test print at certain intervals (weekly/monthly) to make sure everything is working fine (no clogged nozzles, alignment issues, faded output, etc.).

I’ve seen some setups using network printers with scheduled jobs, but I’m curious if anyone here has done something similar through Node-RED flows (maybe via HTTP requests, scripts, or integrations with print servers).

Also, for quick manual checks, I’ve been using simple online test pages.

It’s helpful for quickly verifying output quality without needing to configure anything locally.

Would love to hear if anyone has built a more automated approach or has suggestions on how to implement this more efficiently in Node-RED.

4

Insert JUST DO IT! meme here

5

I have made several projects based on zebra printers with rs232, I think it can also be done with regular printers.

Most printers have SNMP, you can download status data and even reconfigure it.

6

You can also get Zebra printers to output telemetry to an IP and port

7

That's correct, but if you have several models from the same manufacturer (older ones) and want to swap devices, the compromise is to use RS232 without such advanced telemetry.
You can then obtain information about the device status, it has paper, ribbon or a problem with the printing element.