Home > Scrapbook > Edimax PS-1216U to PS-1206MF Crossflashing

Edimax PS-1216U to PS-1206MF Crossflashing

Convert the Edimax PS-1216U to the more expensive PS-1206MF
By 26/10/10 [Last Edited by Joseph 03/01/11]
BOOKMARK
LOGIN
REGISTER
Edimax claims that their solution to print to GDI host based printers, is made possible by of the use of 'Special Technology'. Well, it turns out, after looking into how my PS-1216U works, that it's not really the case, and that they have cheated by writing drivers and firmware, that maps the print server USB port, to a local USB port. Therefore the printer drivers see the printer as a local device. However the PS-1216U supports LPR, and the rest, otherwise it couldn't be called more than a 'Shared Network USB Port'

After buying the PS-1216U, I was peeved that it didn't support multifunction printers. I could see that everytime I printed, it created a virtual USB port. Infact Windows enumerated the printer each time, and found the scanner, card reader, etc, but as soon as the print job was finished, the USB port would dissapear. Obviously, this made it very impractical to scan documents with. I needed a way of keeping the USB connection persistent. I then saw the PS-1206MF, which does support multifunctions and thought damn, I should of bought that. Well, it turns out that the PS-1206MF (Not the PS-1206MFg) has identical hardware to the PS-1216U, and even has the same casing. This makes sense, as that all the PS-1206MF must be doing is holding a persistent connection. After nervously pressing the 'Upload Firmware' button, I was amazed to find that I hadn't bricked my PS-1216U, and that the PS-1206MF firmware had sucessfully flashed onto it, and even kept my previous settings. I then downloaded the Drivers/Support Utilites, and it all worked. I can now print, scan, access the card reader and monitor ink levels. So you can save yourself at least £10GBP, and buy the supposedly inferior model, and just flash it.

Just go to Edimax's website, support, and find the PS-1206MF model, and download the firmware. Then go into the Print Server web interface, and upload the firmware after unzipping it.