Tech Tips: Raspberry Pi Print Server: Part 1

As I still have our perfectly functional Samsung SCX-4623f laser printer and scanner, but wanted to be able to place it away from my server. I looked at a few different options, but decided on a Raspberry Pi to be my best option. Below are the several options that I considered.

The Choices

IOGear GPSU21 or other print server

Price: $40-50
Does not list SCX-4623f as compatible
Requires Ethernet connection so not as flexible
Printer Only, No Scanner function

Raspberry Pi

Price: Varies based on options
Requires more time to setup
A learning experience/project
Wouldn't need to find new owner for existing printer

Repurposing an old laptop

Price: Free*
Not power or space efficient

Hooking a laptop up every time we want to print

Inconvenient
Can't print from phones

New Printer/Scanner with built-in wireless

Price: ~$200

Parts

Here are the parts that I went with:

Raspberry Pi 4 2GB ($30-35 at Microcenter)

Another option was the Raspberry Pi 3 B+ ($25-30 at Microcenter), but I wanted the faster processor and more memory

Raspberry Pi Power Supply ($7-10 at Microcenter)
GeeekPi Raspberry Pi 4 Aluminum Heatsinks 20PCS ($8 Amazon)

This is 5 sets of 4 different sized heatsinks, so i now have plenty of spares

Argon One v2 ($20-25 Amazon)
Samsung Fit 64GB USB ($11-12 Amazon)

Total price before tax: $82

Raspberry Pi 4 with 2GB of RAM because it was not much more than either the 1GB version or Raspberry Pi 3B.

You can get cheaper cases, but I liked the Argon the best. I considered many full coverage heatsink cases, but those left the GPIO pins and the sides of the board exposed and I didn't want the chance of those getting shorted or something getting in. There were other full aluminum housing, but I couldn't find any reviews about whether those affected the wifi range. So it was basically between the Argon One and Flirc. I chose the Argon over the FLIRC because it redirects all the connections to the back and has a fan with a controller.

Even though the Argon One has heatsinks for the CPU and RAM, it did not have any for the Ethernet, USB, or Power Chip. Since the Argon One applies the power thru the GPIO headers and not the USB C port on the Pi, I figured that the power chip would not need cooled. However, since I am unsure about how much of a load scanning might put on the USB chip, I wanted a heatsink for that. Several other brand of heatsinks that I looked at had questionable reviews about how strong the thermal adhesive was.

I went with a USB drive over a SD card because of the faster speed and increased reliability, but looking back I think I would change that. The USB boot feature of the Raspberry Pi and Ubuntu 20.04 aren't quite there.