Jonathan Kamens 86 47I've encountered another issue with my new #Printronix #LP654C #printer, so severe that if they can't fix it I'm going to demand that they take back the printer and refund my money…
Twice in the short time I've had it, it has spontaneously disconnected from the WiFi network, failed to reconnect automatically, and failed to reconnect when I told it to do so from the control panel.
This is ridiculous. A printer which can't handle the simple task of staying on the network is grossly defective.
I emailed #Printronix support today to ask 5 questions about my new #LP654C #printer. I received a response which literally did not answer a single question. The response was clearly indicative of the Dunning-Kruger Effect: the responding tech clearly did not understand my questions but didn't know that, so he just sent me bullshit, nonresponsive answers.
I wrote back and asked him to escalate my questions to someone else. "I paid $1,400 for this printer, I expect better support than this."
I wrote back and asked him to escalate my questions to someone else. "I paid $1,400 for this printer, I expect better support than this."
#Printronix provides a "Monitoring Tool" for macOS and Windows which, among other things, can be used to monitor their web site for firmware updates for their #LP654C #printer and install them when they are available. There appears to be no documented, supported way to check for or install firmware updates from Linux.
#Printronix provides fast, full-featured PCL6 drivers for Windows and macOS for their #LP654C printer, but for Linux they provide a much slower PostScript driver instead. I was able to speed up printing on Linux dramatically by switching to the generic pxlcolor PCL6 driver in #foomatic, but since it's a generic driver it doesn't know about all of the printer's features. It's just laziness preventing them from releasing a full-featured PCL driver for Linux.
Unlike most printers, which have "media type" and "media weight" as a single setting (i.e., when you specify the media type that indicates the weight as well), the #Printronix #LP654C #printer has separate settings for media type and weight. If you don't set the weight properly, the printer doesn't adhere to the page properly and you get big blotches and/or toner scattered all over the page. Separating the two settings is IMO a terrible design.