Name for a the plug on a printer

snipped-for-privacy@tubes.com wrote on 6/2/2017 11:45 PM:

Does the connector look anything like this?

The flat connector is USB A and the square is USB B

You can get a 10 foot cable for less than $3 (including shipping) on eBay.

Thanks for all the info.

I paid $1 for it at a garage sale. The woman who sold it is a neighbor who I know and trust. She said she got another printer with her new computer, so she did not need this one anymore. She said the ink had run out though, and it's expensive.

I did NOT buy it for printing. I dont really need a printer. I probably print something about 3 times a year, and I just let the local library print it for me at 15 cents a page, and it's on a high quality laser printer. If I wanted a printer, I'd only buy a laser type.

I bought this printer for the built in scanner. I have some old photos I want to scan, and I was quoted $3.95 per scan at a local business. I know I can scan without the printer ink. In fact, I went to a WIFI today and downloaded the drivers/software for it from HP's website. In the process I found some videos about using it, and discovered that I really dont need to connect it to a computer to scan. It has a place to plug in a SD card, so I can just put my scanned photos on that card, and then transfer them to my computer with a USB SD card adaptor.

Either way, I'm sure I'll get my bucks worth out of it. Not to mention that a new (2017 model) printer may not work on my computers, since my newest operating system is Windows XP.

Either way, if I can get a cord on ebay for $3 or so, I will buy one. At least now I know what to buy.....

Thanks

The HP Photosmart C4400 series was initially released in 2007. Therefore, you "got" a 10 year old printer. Anything that old has had considerable use, which means it full of crud and in need of cleaning. Especially important and messy is the area UNDER where the ink cartridges are parked when not in use or the power is off. Ink will drip into a felt pad and eventually pile up into a stalagmite until hit hits the level of the ink nozzles. At that point, the moving cartridges spread the tar like dried ink mess all over the printer. If the printer was transported upside down, it is likely you have a mess to deal with.

It's not a totally horrible AIO machine, but I strongly suggest you NOT purchase brand new expensive ink carts until you're sure that the printer sections operates correctly. If not, this might help: Buying cheap clone or refill carts on eBay works for me. However, I've had some failures and always buy from two different vendors to be sure at least one works. Good luck.

Just search eBay for "USB Printer Cable".

The connector on the printer is USB 2.0 Type B.

Do NOT get it confused with a USB 3.0 Type B.

I was going to try to convince you that a laser printer is much better than an ink sprayer for printing, but decided that I had said enough.

You might have a problem using it as a scanner if you don't have ink cartridges installed. Some HP printers of that era would notice that your printer was out of ink, and produce a screen full of error messages announcing that if you don't buy some new carts, the world as we know it would suddenly end. The problem was that the error messages would not go away and would appear in the middle of literally everything that you might be doing with the printer including scanning. If you get a "feed me more ink" message while trying to use the scanner, you have the problem. I know a few tricks to somewhat circumvent this problem, but finding some cheap printer carts on eBay will satisfy the printers insatiable appetite for ink, and make the demanding error messages disappear.

No convincing needed. I know a laser printer is much better. I was told that the ink drys up in these inkjets too, and only last a half year or maybe a full year. So if I print my usual amount of pages, which is less than 20, I'd waste most of the ink anyhow.

If I still had one, I'd connect up an old dot matrix printer, just for plain text stuff. The ribbons in them lasted years. They were cheap to use and did a halfway decent job on text, but not pictures.

Either way, I'll just give the library $5 or less each year for printing, and spend much less that way and wont have to cope with dried up ink. Better yet, the library can print paper about 16 by 20 inches large. Great for schematics. And it's still 15 cents a page.

I connected that thing earlier and scanned a piece of colored junk mail, just to test it. I did not have it connected to the computer (obviously, without a cable). It has a little LCD screen on it, and I saw the scan on that screen, and no error messages. My camera is packed away in my camping stuff, so I did not have a SD card handy. So, after I did the scan, the printer seemed confused with no place to copy the image. I hit "Print" and heard it chatter. Only then did an error pop up (No paper). So, I think it will work as a scanner.

I just grab them off printers lying on the sidewalk waiting for the garbage pickup. Except they seem to have no use for things other than printers, so I have a bunch that just do nothing.

Michael

The B connector seems to be the connector of choice for Arduino and other IoT bits. My MFJ-225 VNA has the B connector.

Those will generally be micro B, or mini B, not plain old B.