Brother Printers leaving Apple?

TidBITS Talk
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I have had Brother printers for years. Loved them. I recently purchased a Brother HLL2400D, a mono laser printer. I’ve had essentially the same printer in the church office I served as well as in my personal office there, and in my study at home. They were excellent. I retired I had one in my study which finally died. So I bought a printer. Two had to be returned - blew the breaker in my study! I got another and found it had no driver!! I had to download the CUPS for it. I’ve searched everywhere for a Mac driver!

Finally realize that Brother no longer seems to support Macs. I hope I’m wrong but there is no such driver on their website. And of course there is no such thing as a customer service division where one can take with a real live person either by phone or e-mail.

Has anybody else had.a similar experience or ways to locate a driver?

Oh, and the other thing is that it messes up double sided printouts. The first page is excellent but the second comes out like a series of waterfall steps - everything is crunched together.

Any help will be appreciated.

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At my summer house, the HP inkjet printer I bought in 2007 (it actually came “free” when I bought my first MacBook) finally stopped working on the LAN - I’m pretty sure that it works if connected as a USB printer, but that’s impractical, and with so many iPad users here, we needed a printer that could reliably AirPrint without being connected permanently to a Mac.

I replaced it with a Brother laser printer, an MFC-2900DW (we occasionally need to copy documents so we needed the scanner part - otherwise I would have bought an HLL2460DW simple laser model.) I can say for certain that double-sided printing is perfect on this printer - I use it all the time and there has never been an issue with it.

It works just fine on my MacBook (Sequoia) without any Brother drivers - it basically says that it is using the AirPrint driver on the Mac. But the Mac mini here running Sonoma can connect to it as well - it’s found as a Bonjour device (again, AirPrint, which means that it works with iPhone and iPad as well.)

The HLL2460DW says that it supports MacOS, so, while I know you probably don’t want to return another printer, but maybe return that old 2400D and get Brother’s current model?

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Blowing the breaker? Ow. What else is on that circuit?

I know that mine has a significant inrush current when it wakes from sleep. It doesn’t trip any breaker, but my UPS (not connected to it but on the same circuit) briefly trips in response to voltage sag when it wakes.

(If the room has first-generation AFCI breakers, you may need to replace it with a newer one. When they were first invented, they were hyper-sensitive and would falsely detect arc faults from things like fluorescent tubes turning on. It wouldn’t surprise me if a printer’s fuser unit’s quick-heat cycle does the same. I had to replace four first-gen AFCIs in my home because of “nuisance tripping”.)

Looking at the HL-L2400D’s support page, you’re right. It doesn’t offer any Mac support - Windows and Linux only. Which is pretty strange. My printer (a Brother color laser) lists Mac support, but tells you to use the AirPrint drivers built-in to macOS.

(Update. See my comment: Brother Printers leaving Apple? - #37 by Shamino. It appears that the HL-L2400D does not actually support PCL6. It is a “GDI” printer, and macOS does not include generic GDI drivers. The rest of this comment may not be valid for the HL-L2400D.)

That having been said, according to its spec sheet, this printer’s print-language is PCL6 and supports both LPR and IPP protocols. macOS includes a generic B&W PCL driver that I would expect to work:

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image632×621 63.2 KB

After adding the printer, you will be presented with an option to enable its duplexer:

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If you haven’t already done so, give it a try and let us know how it works.

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The lights in my office briefly dim whenever my Brother laser initially powers up to print. Once it is printing, however, there’s no issue.

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As @Shamino mentioned, you should be able to use the Generic PCL driver for it, but if you found something using CUPS, that should be fine, too.

It’s not uncommon for larger laser printers to draw as much as a kilowatt or more briefly at the beginning of a print job as it heats the fuser assembly. The HLL2400D is probably more around 500W, but that can be an issue, especially if you have other devices drawing power on the same circuit.

That may be a humidity or paper issue. I would try using a heavier grade of paper that is certified for laser printer use. Try to avoid inkjet paper.

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I’ve had to setup several Macs recently on HL series B&W Brother laser printers. They’ve all automatically picked up the correct printer description file after discovering the printer over Bonjour, and “AirPrint” over iOS devices work well too.

For Linux I’ve sometimes had to resort to the rather crummy Brother cli tool at Brother’s Download Site, but after that my experience has been good too. It can help, for Linux at least, to set the printer on a static ip address due – perhaps – to Avahi/Bonjour issues.

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Here is someone who seems to have a partial workaround (double-sided printing is still messed up):
https://www.reddit.com/r/printers/comments/1j695vx/trick_to_get_brother_hll2400d_to_work_on_macos/

[UPDATE EDIT]

I read TidBITs Talk via email and somehow hadn’t seen that @Shamino already offered a promising solution that includes double-sided printing.

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Most of Brother’s laser/LED printers include BR-Script (Brother’s version of PostScript), which is (I assume) why they “just work” with macOS.

(Update: I was wrong. The HL-L2400D does not support PCL6. Its printer emulation is “GDI”, and Apple does not include a generic driver for GDI. **The rest of this message may not be applicable to the HL-L2400D.)

But the 2400 appears to be PCL6-only, which is unusual. That may explain the driver issue. And why old CUPS drivers for other Brother models work - because those come in both PS and PCL variations (the ones not explicitly identified as PS are PCL).

I suspect that any driver for PCL6 (even for a printer from another manufacturer) will work, although there may be some subtle issues (e.g. halftoning or paper handling). But I’d definitely start with Apple’s generic driver and only try something else if it proves to be unacceptable.

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I second this. When I was migrating a family member with a Brother printer to a new Mac, I found that Brother now wants you to just use AirPrint, without installing anything Brother-specific on the Mac.

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Does a Mac version of the needed software/PPDs not show up at the HLL2400D download centre?. If it isn’t there for a Mac, maybe download the Linux printer driver – there is a brother-HLL2400D-cups-en.ppd file inside the .deb file you should be able to install.

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Personally, I think that’s better anyway. An OS-native driver like AirPrint is less likely to cause issues than a manufacturer-provided driver that may or may not be well-tested. Unless the printer has some special feature that AirPrint can’t access, that default driver is going to be a reasonable choice for most users.

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My sincere thanks to Tidbits for the depth and breadth of its readership and discussions – and my particular thanks to the participants of this thread for (at least potentially) solving a problem that I encountered.

I have a Brother printer in this series (HL-L2460DW) that has served without problem for 1 1/2 years – so not old, but not brand new.

I have a UPS Back-up for which the computer and monitor and key items are on back-up but the routine devices – including the printer – are purely on surge protection, not battery. For the first time I can remember I have had circuit breaker triggering of the circuit supporting all computer devices.

I read this thread, shut off the printer, moved its plug from surge to battery, and restarted it. That did in fact trigger the UPS into backup mode, but only for ~30 seconds.

Maybe my problems are due to something else. But it hadn’t occurred to me the printer could be triggering (or contributing to) the circuit breaker opening.

Thanks again.

Bob

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Laser-like printers do draw a lot of current. So check the specs and look at what other things are sharing that circuit. You might actually want to take some measurements (e.g. with a kill-a-watt device).

Also, as I mentioned above, check to see if the circuit in that room has an AFCI breaker. If it does, and it’s an older breaker, you might consider replacing it with a new “CAFCI” (combination AFCI) breaker. The modern ones don’t nuissance-trip nearly as often as the old ones did.

It is a very bad idea to plug a laser-like printer into a UPS, and every UPS manufacturer tells you not to do it.

The printer’s maximum current (when heating the fuser unit) and the initial inrush can easily exceed the UPS’s capacity, causing it to just shutdown all of its outlets. Even if it seems to work, it will likely shorten the life of the UPS.

According to the spec sheet, the power consumption of an HL-L2460DW is:

  • Off: 0.06W
  • Deep sleep: 0.4W
  • Sleep: 3.8W
  • Ready: 44W
  • Printing: 470W

Depending on the power factor (typically between 0.7 and 1), that 470W may be between 470 and 670VA - which could be more than your UPS’s capacity, especially if there are other devices sharing it.

And even if your UPS is big enough (e.g. mine has a 1500VA capacity), the startup inrush (momentary surge when waking from sleep or starting a print job) may be much higher, for a short period of time.

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You are SOOO right. In fact I have from time to time donated additional money to TidBITS because I so appreciate both the work that Adam puts in plus the remarkable knowledge and sill of the contributers, who so kindly provide great wisdom!!

It is easy to do: main screen of TidBits, click on Account, go to the bottom to ADD A LITTLE SUPPORT, click on that and use either PayPal or your own choice of payment method. That is all there is to it. I just did that myself.

Thank you to all for a great discussion. I am working to try ou some of the various suggestions. Until I have my eye surgery the end of September it is a slow go - sort of the blind looking for the right path lol. You are all a blessing and hopefully my printer will soon pretend to be a decent citizen in our house…

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David,

Thanks for the follow-up.

First and foremost – I was not sure the printer caused the prior two outages.
I was responding to the posting, moving it to cover the possibility
and was commenting on my observation
– that after it was securely plugged into the UPS (while turned off)
and then was turned on, then the UPS fired on.

Presumably the UPS considered the surge of it starting a potential circuit problem,
and went to battery in order cut off the devices from the circuit to protect them from the surge.

Everything else I had on UPS – computer, monitor, and a desktop USB hub was on
– the UPS happily kept those going
– and then after <30 seconds, it turned off battery, putting everything back to circuit.
[My UPS is also 1500 VA and relatively new]

That was the point at which I wrote my email and then read yours.

I subsequently left the printer in deep sleep for hours, used the computer without any problem,
and that time the UPS was its usual silent self.
I sent the printer a single page to print.
– and got the exact same response from the UPS
– including the UPS turning off battery mode even before the page started printing.

So all that fits your information exactly
– that the issue is the (very transient) surge of current required to get the laser printer ready to print

I took the printer off the UPS, connected directly to the same circuit,
with nothing else changed,
sent it the same page to print
and it printed – with no disruption of the circuit, no response from the UPS,
no effect apparent on my computer.

I conclude in my case it is not the printer that caused the circuit breaker to trip previously

There are other things on the circuit but nothing has changed from long before the first incident.

Regarding the circuit,
– it has a regular 15A circuit breaker – not AFCI
– essentially all the wiring in that circuit is new
– the breaker might be >10 yr old

I am inclined next to simply replace the circuit breaker.
– low cost, technically straightforward

Now ordered from Amazon.

One detail I’d appreciate your thoughts on
– would replacing the 15 A breaker with a 20A breaker be reasonable way to proceed
if one concludes that this very intermittent problem
is simply being triggered by another device with an intermittent surge demand.

The wiring is new, but it is 14G not 12G,
so I can easily understand the response could be “No, not reasonable”

Thanks for articulating your concerns about the stress on the UPS and pushing me to do more formal testing.
I was indeed a bit uncomfortable at the idea of the UPS jumping so, every time I printed even a single page.

Best,

Bob

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I know UPS vendors recommend not to plug a printer into one of the battery-backed outlets of a UPS. However, surge-suppressor-only outlets on a UPS (i.e., only providing surge suppressor capabilities, without battery backup) usually indicate that printers should be plugged in there.

Is this not recommended for a laser printer?

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I mentioned this problem a few years ago on a Tidbits thread. I had my laser printer (Brother, of course) plugged into a UPS for years and every time I used it the UPS alarm would go off. I looked into it and it is not recommended by the UPS manufacturer, so I gifted the UPS for my daughter’s TV/game setup. It is fine there.

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Not to derail the printer discussion, but to answer your question - as you suspect, it is a very bad idea to put a 20 A breaker on a circuit wired with 14 gage wire, as well as against code (which requires 12 ga wire for 20 A circuits). If you do this, there is a real possibility that if you fully load it with 20 A the wiring could overheat and start a fire, probably where you wouldn’t see it until it’s way too late to do anything about it.

FYI, I recently did some rewiring and found evidence that some of my 12 ga wire on a 20 A breaker (built per code) had gotten hot enough where it touched fiberglas insulation to melt some of the black asphalt coating on the kraft paper which allowed it to soak through the kraft paper. I did a quick search onlne and found it’s not uncommon for this to happen if the circuit is heavily loaded (but not overloaded). If this had been 14 ga wire, it could have gotten much hotter and caused a lot of problems.

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That’s not the way UPS’s work. I assume it switched to battery when it saw the line voltage sagging, due to the sudden inrush of current when the printer cycled on.

No. Not reasonable. And a violation of the national electric code (and therefore illegal in most places). If the circuit is 14 gauge wire, you can not use a breaker larger than 15A.

Old vs. new wiring shouldn’t matter. Copper wrapped in insulation doesn’t spontaneously degrade unless something has damaged it.

That should be fine. Those surge-only outlets are no different from an external surge suppressor. Personally, I fail to see the reason why some UPS manufacturers provide these outlets at all.

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David,

Many thanks for your responses.

All good, all clear.

Will obviously replace older 15A breaker with a new … 15A breaker.

Best,

Bob

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