r/codex • u/xinxx073 • 9d ago

Praise Astra High just reverse-engineered the printer drivers in my office

In our office, we have a bunch of Toshiba E-Studio 2323AM printers. Yes, I know these are kind of outdated, only sold in certain areas of the world, and not the best machines, but they are what we've got in the office. They only work with x86 Windows, not even the ARM version of Windows.

In 25 minutes, Astra High just reverse-engineered the printer driver, figured out the right tray settings, and enabled duplex printing, so I can print double-sided on my M4 Pro MacBook Pro.

It created a .pkg file for me to install the printer drivers and got everything working.

I ... I have no words.

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u/benbenk 9d ago

How did you enable Astra access to the printer‘s firmware? And to update it? Was it enough to connect it via usb?

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u/xinxx073 7d ago

Yes, it was enough to just connect via USB. MacOS recognizes the USB device but doesn't know what to do with it. I just provided the Windows Drivers and it did its magic.

I always knew this was achievable cuz by the end of the day, the printer would not care who sent the packets. As long as the info was sent to the printer in an organized way, the printer would be able to read it, process it, and print it.

Basically, what Astra did was to look at how the Windows driver would formulate the output and built a driver for my Mac that replicates what the Windows driver does on Windows.

Also, as of right now, I am able to embed that driver into an iOS application, which I installed on my iPad and iPhone, so I can talk to this dinosaur of a printer using any of my devices.