Once again, while perusing the ever-inspiring website of Brendan Dawes, I came across a great post about how to get Polaroid’s Polaroid PoGo Mobile Printer
First up, here’s what I’m working with:
- Polaroid CZA-10011B PoGo Instant Mobile Printer (Black)
- iPhone 4 (mine is running OS 4.2.1)
- a Bluetooth-enabled Mac (mine is running OS 10.6.5)
- a Dropbox account (free version)
- a copy of Brendan’s AppleScript file (available at his site)
If you just got a Pogo printer, you’ll need to pop in the battery and charge it up (but you can still use it while it’s charging). Load in the paper and turn the little sucker on. It’s really simple, but the printer comes with instructions if you need them (doubtful).
Here are the exact steps I used to pair the printer to my Mac, enable the folder action and start printing:
- On your Mac, launch the Bluetooth Setup Assistant. You’ll immediately see a window indicating your Mac is searching for Bluetooth devices. After a moment, you should see the printer pop up in the list on the left. If you don’t see it after a minute, turn the printer off and back on again (I think the Bluetooth ‘discovery’ mode on the printer only last for a short time).
- Select your printer (it should say “Polaroid” and some numbers) and hit Continue. The Mac will try a passcode that won’t work. You’ll need to choose the “Use a specific passcode” option and enter 6000. As of right now, this is the standard passcode used for all these printers.
- You should then see a screen telling you the pairing was successful. Quit the Bluetooth Setup Assistant. At this point, if you just want to print to the Pogo from your Mac, you’re done. From the Bluetooth menu in your toolbar you can choose to “Send File” and print any jpeg you want to the printer.
- Next, open your System Preferences and choose “Bluetooth”. Your Polaroid printer should show up in the list on the left. Select it and you’ll see a bunch of technical info on the right. Write down the string of characters next to Address. Something like 00-04-48-1a-4e-52.
- Launch the AppleScript Editor and open the file you downloaded from Brendan’s site. Towards the top of the file, look for the line property pogo_address and replace the numbers/letters with the ones from the step above. Save and close the file.
- Open your hard drive and move this file to Hard Drive (yes, mine is named “Mother” in tribute to the original Alien film) -> Library -> Scripts -> Folder Action Scripts.
- You can then assign this script to any folder on your machine. Simply right-click on a folder and choose “Folder Actions Setup“. A dialog box will open, ensure the box labeled “Enable Folder Actions” is checked, then choose the Print to Pogo.scpt file. Again, you could stop here. This will give you a folder that is constantly monitored by your computer. If you drop any jpeg, gif, etc. image file into this folder, it will automatically be sent to the Pogo. After the file is sent, it will be moved to a new sub-folder in this directory called “Printed Images“.
- Using a free Dropbox account, you can easily print to the Pogo from your iPhone – but the Mac that houses this script must be on to do so. Sign-up for a free Dropbox account and download the free desktop and iPhone applications. Login to both and ensure everything is syncing properly.
- I created a new folder (called “Pogo” in this example) in my Dropbox which is then accessible from my Mac and my iPhone. Dropbox allows you to easily upload photos from your iPhoto library/camera roll on your phone to any folder within your Dropbox. Why I can’t do this via my MobileMe account is beyond me, but Dropbox fills the gap for now.
- And that’s pretty much it. The process is now snap a photo on my phone and save it to my Dropbox folder. After a few seconds it pops out of my PoGo printer and the file is moved into the “Printed Images” folder. The end.
Once you’ve got the Bluetooth pairing done, there are a variety of ways to get images to the PoGo. The original blog post inspiring this exploration uses email rules, but that requires you to email a photo to yourself. Not a bad approach, just different and not quite as fast (usually). Regardless of how you end up sending files to the printer, adding AppleScript into the mix opens up some neat possibilities, and Dropbox (or a similar service) adds the to the portability of the whole system. Below is a gallery of screen caps to help illustrate the above steps.
Put your script in Mac HD -> Library -> Scripts -> Folder Actions Scripts
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- The Bluetooth Setup Assistant discovering nearby devices.
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- Enter the PoGo passcode, 6000.
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- Bluetooth pairing successful.
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- Sending a file to the PoGo via Bluetooth.
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- System Preferences > Bluetooth
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- Update the AppleScript with your PoGo’s address.
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- Put your script in Mac HD -> Library -> Scripts -> Folder Actions Scripts
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- Right-click on the folder you want to for automatic printing.
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- Choose your Print to Pogo applescript.
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- Files sent to the Pogo are then moved into the Printed Images folder.
Anyway, thanks again to Brendan Dawes for inspiring me to tackle this and to the original author of this blog post for kicking things off.
If you read this post and end up creating some nifty, alternate AppleScript workflow, please share it in the comments below.
Am I reading this wrong or does this leave the printer essentially tethered to the computer, sort of negating the portability of the thing?
I got a Pogo for Xmas and had forgotten how bad Apple crippled Bluetooth. How incredibly annoying. I wish the dev of iBlueNova would come back to it.
Yes, you are completely right. The PoGo is only as “portable” as the range of the bluetooth from your computer. The machine that is paired with the printer must be on and within Bluetooth range for any of this to work. And yea, it’s pretty pathetic how Apple has crippled Bluetooth on the iPhone.
Applescript from Brendan doesn’t seem to be available. Any chance you have it somewhere..
Did you try this link? Works for me: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/100742/Print%20to%20Pogo.scpt.zip
I’m trying to connect my iphone 4 to Pogo, the bluetooth is not recognizing the printer, power is on and I have no information from device, do I have a chance to connect anyway?
Sounds like you’re trying to pair the Pogo and the iPhone directly. In that case, no – you won’t get that to work. You need to use the computer (a Mac in my example) as the go-between. Bluetooth on the iPhone is pretty limited and doesn’t support the necessary specifications to connect to printer.
Should the Pogo always appear connected? Or does the bluetooth detect it only when the script sends a file? I’ve set this up and triple-checked my settings. One thing I note is that the printer is paired, but only connected when I’m printing (manually sending the file) and I’m wondering if that is why the script is not working.
I just confirmed that when not in use, my Pogo does show up as “not connected” in my Bluetooth System Preferences. But, as soon as I put a photo in my Dropbox the status of the printer automatically changes to “Connected” and the print job starts. I’d double-check that your Folder Script Actions are setup correctly. You need to check the “Enable Folder Actions” box in addition to selecting the “Print to Pogo” option. Hope that helps.
I had this same problem of the Pogo not printing because it was “not connected” but it only happened the first time. On successive attempts, it works beautifully. Thanks Marc!
I couldent get my powerpc imac 10.4.11 to print to my pogo, and your info made it all happen like a snap. Thanks.
I just received mine but can’t seem to do that whole apple script. When I go into the systems preference – bluetooth to change the address…there isn’t one. Help please.
thanks,
MAridette
You are on a Mac, right? That’s the only way these instructions will work. You need to open the apple script file you downloaded in the AppleScript Editor application. Towards the top of the file, look for the line property pogo_address and replace the numbers/letters with the ones of your Pogo printer.
If you don’t see a Bluetooth address for the Pogo, try removing (deleting it from the list of Bluetooth devices) and pairing it again.
Maridette, I had this problem. Click the little settings icon beneath the list of bluetooth items and choose show more info. You will then see the address.
When I drop a file on the folder I get a message saying it failed to establish a connection to the device (Pogo), but I can print fine via bluetooth. Strange!
That works really well for me! Thanks for sharing. I am working on an installation for my MA with a fullscreen interactive which prints out its artwork on the screen to the PoGo printer. I am getting my Air app to save to the AppleScript folder which sends it to the printer. The only problem I have the Bluetooth os window pops up on top of my fullscreen interactive. Do you by any chance know if it’s possible to keep the Bluetooth process window hidden?
Hrm. That’s an interesting question. I’m not an AppleScript expert, but a quick search showed that you might be able to hide the application by modifying that AppleScript. This might be a start: http://support.apple.com/kb/TA43661?viewlocale=en_US
Thanks for that, has put me on the right track, you can hide applications with AppleScript. I added this to your code:
tell application “System Events”
set visible of process “Bluetooth File Exchange” to false
end tell
Somehow the window still pops up, but once done at least it goes away and focus goes back to my Air app. I don’t mind that so much as this way the user gets some feedback on the print progress as Flash has no way of detecting that and it can take up to one minute.
Thanks for your help, found this very helpful. By the way here’s my project blog ; )
http://byteswerk.tumblr.com
Glad it worked out. Your blog is great – hope everything goes well with the installation.
Thanks for the script! Everything works (for the dropbox method) until my mac hit the transfer. Apparently, my iPhone saves the pictures as jpeg instead of jpg and my Pogo will only take jpg. Is there anyway to incorporate an extension command in the script? So far, I cannot find a independent applescript but only automator action. I hope that I can get some help.
P.S. where should I include the “hide pop-up transfer window” script into the original script?
Hrm. Googling around brought up a few threads that might help:
http://macscripter.net/viewtopic.php?id=8158
http://c-command.com/scripts/eaglefiler/replace-in-filenames
I don’t know if they’ll help, but they should point you in the right direction. From what I can tell, it’s definitely possible. In general, the MacScripter site is packed with info (http://www.macscripter.net/).
Honestly, I’m not sure where the other visitor here (lmmo) put his code for hiding the pop-up in the AppleScript. Maybe you could check out his site and get in touch with him.
im getting a “The file transfer failed: an unknown error (-21860) has occurred” it works if i send it to the bluetooth device to print but when i place the image in the dropbox it starts working but when it goes into “Printed Images folder” it gives me that message. any answer for that?
Sorry, never saw that one before. I tried google but nothing really shows up for that code. Sounds like maybe a network/Dropbox issue? If you’re printing ok via bluetooth when you send the file, maybe it’s a permissions issue somewhere. I find running OS X’s disc utility > Repair Permissions is a good starting point for these “unknown errors”.
I have the same error. I was able to print one pic using the dropbox method, but have not been able since that first print. I cannot send directly to the PoGo either. I have tried repairing the PoGo, but still no luck. Any ideas?
Thanks!
It seems this is the error code for Pogo refusing the transfer. This has happened twice for me; once for the file being too big and the other for the jpg having a .jpeg extension.
I had the same problem, and idd it’s the extention, can’t be “JPEG” must be “JPG”
It can be several things:
- change the file name to a shorter name
- make a random effekt in iphoto (works in a magic way)
- change the filetype to jpg (jpeg work too)
- make the filesize smaller
or simply take a screenshot of the photo if all above wont work
Hi I have got as fas as the system preferences bit, but an address doesn’t show up?
Hrm. I would try turning the printer on and off while you have system preferences open. I think it only ‘broadcasts’ it’s address for a little bit.
[...] got my iPhone 3GS to print images straight from the Camera Roll to my Pogo. Here’s a link on how to get your iPhone to print on the POGO using a free Dropbox account. Personally I use iBlueNova to get a straight Bluetooth connection [...]
i’m getting this error when i ‘test’ and drag a jpg into the dropbox folder:
“The target device claims it does not support the required Object-Push or File-Transfer protocols.”
Hrm, not sure what that means. “drag a jpg into dropbox” – does that mean you’re trying it from a computer? I’ve never done that. On my computer, I can just send the file directly to the Pogo via Bluetooth.
I believe Stephanie is just adding a picture to dropbox manually on her mac. I’ve tested this and it works.
I got the “The target device claims it does not support the required Object-Push or File-Transfer protocols.” error when trying to print a “png” file (I edited the script to allow it, but I don’t think the pogo supports that format for some reason).
Cool Script, thank u very much.
I got a problem: i recognized, that depending on the filename, there is a bluetooth error (The file transfer failed: an unknown error (-21860) has occurred) while sending the file. i guess, it’s because of characters like “.” & ” ” in the filename. If i rename the file in “1.jpg” for example and copy it to the dropbox folder, it will be printed.
is there any way to extend the script in order to rename the file or remove special characters from the filename before sending to the printer?
thank u guys in advance
Got an idea on how to get this to work while mobile with the iPhone but I can’t work out the kinks. There is a wifi pictbridge called a Nikon PD-10 that runs off of batteries and plugs into the pogo. I bought it off Amazon for $3.00 but I can’t get the iPhone to send a picture to it. Any Ideas? Just thought I’d toss it out there.
Hmmm. Did it all step-by-step, but nothing happens. I use a Polaroid GL10 with Mac. Also tried to put the script into the printing scripts folder on my Mac HD, but it ended up the same way.
Sending pics directly via BT works fine. Any ideas?!
Did you attach the script to the appropriate folder (ie. setup the folder action)? “Sending pics directly via BT works” – do you mean sent from your iPhone or from your Mac? It sounds like there’s at least some communication going on, so that’s good.
Sending via BT from Mac. I added the AppleScript as described and also enabled the Folder Action Script. No idea, what went wrong. As you say, communication between both devices works that far. Hmmmm.
Interesting: found a script that turns my old Brother printer into an AirPrint device, working great with iPhone and iPad2. Unfortunately, without a printer driver (and I didn’t find one) this is no solution for the PoGo or GL10. Argh! :-S
[...] It prints from the iPhone, but only when tethered to a mac computer, so not really mobile. http://www.marchawkins.com/2010/12/2…one-and-a-mac/ [...]
It worked! And I’m not a computer whiz at all! Thanks!
I’d love to see this work but under Lion it’s not passing the files on to the Pogo – pretty sure I’ve done all the steps correctly. I can send via bluetooth on the mac – no problems. The script is edited and attached to the folder. Folder actions are enabled.
When I try and restart my mac I’m getting a “services are still in use” error – kind of feels like the script is still “trying” to run. :-/
Hi!
check out this cool add-on for a Polaroid Pogo
Its a doll that produces photos
http://www.indiegogo.com/PhotoGee
cheers,
Kobika
Thanks so much for this tutorial! This worked perfectly for me under Lion. I have a Mac Mini set up as a server, so this proved to be a great solution. Now if only the Pogo didn’t shut itself off after a few minutes of inactivity…
[...] para imprimir imágenes directamente desde la cámara a mi Pogo. Aquí hay un enlace sobre cómo hacer que su iPhone imprima en el POGO utilizando una cuenta gratuita de Dropbox. Personalmente yo uso iBlueNova o el programa de Celeste [...]
Hey.
Thanks for this!
For me, it will print if, on my desktop i click on the bluetooth logo on the top right of the toolbar, then scroll to the pogo and select ‘Send File’ But won’t print via folders or dropbox.
Any ideas how?
I did the script and attached it to the folders.
这样好像真的解决了问题，但好像就失去了移动特性了。
PHEW! I think I’ve worked on this for HOURS! I tried so hard to get it to work. Being that I know very little about computers, this was very difficult for me. But thank you so much for the walkthrough. I used to have a droid so the pogo printer was very helpful for me. But when I switched to the iphone I was screwed. Until this. Thank you so much!!!
Thank you so much for this. I’ve been looking for a solution for about a year and this seems the simplest and most effective I’ve seen. I had it up and running within 10 minutes. I can drag photos in from my iPhone, iPad and straight from the mac and it all works. I can’t thank you enough. It works like a dream.