TankControl

Native macOS driver · CUPS raster filter · full-featured control app
for the HP Smart Tank 500 series on Apple Silicon — 100% local-first, zero telemetry.

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Independent project. TankControl is not affiliated with, sponsored by, or endorsed by HP Inc. HP and Smart Tank are trademarks of their respective owners.

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Screenshots

Dashboard	Print Center	Ink Status
InkSaver™ Studio	Scanner	Maintenance
Activity Log	Settings	Developer Tools

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What is TankControl?

TankControl is a fully native macOS application and CUPS driver that gives you complete control over the HP Smart Tank 500 series — without HP's cloud software, without an HP account, and without telemetry.

It replaces HP's proprietary macOS driver with an open, hackable stack built around:

• A native PCL3GUI raster filter (rastertopcl3gui) compiled for arm64
• A SwiftUI control app with live printer status, ink monitoring, and advanced maintenance
• A CUPS queue manager with AirPrint/Bonjour bridging for iOS and wireless Macs
• An InkSaver™ continuous ink mode delivering 0–75% ink savings on plain paper

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Features

🖨 Printing Engine

Feature	Detail
PCL3GUI raster filter	Native ARM64 C implementation — no Rosetta, no hpcups fallback
Ultra-Fast Draft	300 DPI + hardware scanline skipping (\033*b#Y) — up to 45% faster on whitespace
Master Photo mode	4800×1200 optimized DPI with stochastic error diffusion
InkSaver™ mode	Continuous 0–75% ink reduction with live preview
AirPrint / Bonjour	Wireless driverless printing from iPhone, iPad, and other Macs
Paper formats	Carta · Oficio Chile/LATAM (8.5×13″) · Legal · A4/A5/A6 · Borderless

🎨 Color & Calibration

Feature	Detail
ICC Color Calibrator	3-step guided wizard generating custom ColorSync .icc profiles
ΔE spectral metrics	TRC gamma correction and perceptual rendering intent support
Paper profiles	Plain, Matte, Glossy — each with dedicated dot gain curves

🖼 Poster & Tiling Studio

Feature	Detail
Multi-page poster layouts	2×2, 3×3, 4×4 and custom banner sizes
Overlap glue margins	Configurable 5–25 mm assembly margins
Cut guides	Dashed cut lines and corner registration crosses
PDF / image input	Drag-and-drop any document or image

🔍 Scanning

Feature	Detail
eSCL / AirScan	Standard Apple scanning protocol — works with Image Capture
USB scanner helper	Direct USB eSCL bridge for offline/USB-only setups
Resolution presets	75 / 150 / 300 / 600 / 1200 DPI

🩺 Maintenance & Diagnostics

Feature	Detail
Waste ink telemetry	Real-time absorber saturation (~120 ml capacity)
CISS tube priming	prime-tubes command — purge air without vendor lockout
Printhead alignment	Auto-align with visual registration target
Nozzle check	Print nozzle check pattern on demand
USB descriptor inspector	Full USB interface map and endpoint enumeration

📊 Menu Bar Widget

Instant access to ink levels, connection status, InkSaver presets, and 1-click actions (Scan · Queue · Clean) from the menu bar — without opening the full app.

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Hardware Compatibility

Model	Connectivity	Status	Notes
HP Smart Tank 500	USB 0x03F0:0x2B54	✅ Full	Primary target — fully tested
HP Smart Tank 515 Wireless	USB / Wi-Fi	✅ Verified	PCL3GUI + AirScan + InkSaver™
HP Smart Tank 516 / 519	USB / Wi-Fi	✅ Compatible	Same ASIC — full support
HP Smart Tank 530	USB / Wi-Fi	✅ Compatible	Printing + flatbed scanner verified
HP Ink Tank 315 / 415	USB	🟡 Experimental	PCL3GUI compatible; scanner via Image Capture

Tested your model? Share results in the Hardware Survey.

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Installation

Option A — Installer package (recommended)

⬇ Download TankControl v2.0.0

The release includes:

• HP_Smart_Tank_500_macOS_Instalador.dmg — disk image with the full installer
• HP_Smart_Tank_500_macOS_Installer-*.pkg — distribution package (installs app + driver + CUPS queue)

Note: The package is unsigned (no Apple Developer ID). macOS will ask for confirmation on first run — use System Settings → Privacy & Security → Open Anyway to approve it. Do not disable Gatekeeper globally.

Option B — Build from source

Requirements:

• Apple Silicon Mac (arm64)
• macOS 12.0+
• Xcode Command Line Tools
• libusb (brew install libusb)
• Python 3 (test suite)

# Clone
git clone https://github.com/AtelierMinuit/TankControl.git
cd TankControl

# Build driver + app
brew install libusb
make build

# Run tests (245 tests)
make test

# Package
make pkg     # → .pkg installer
make dmg     # → .dmg disk image

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Architecture

TankControl/
├── apps/HPSmartTankUtility/      # Native SwiftUI macOS app (57 Swift files)
│   └── Sources/
│       ├── Views/                # All UI screens (SwiftUI)
│       ├── Services/             # PrinterManager, PosterTileService, etc.
│       └── main.swift            # App entry point + CLI flags
├── src/                          # C/CUPS driver core
│   ├── rastertopcl3gui.c         # PCL3GUI raster filter (arm64)
│   └── ...
├── tools/                        # CLI utilities
│   ├── smarttank                 # Printer control daemon
│   ├── hp_scan                   # USB scanner helper
│   └── hp-smart-tank-tool        # EWS / diagnostics CLI
├── tests/                        # 245-test Python suite
├── docs/                         # Technical documentation
├── Brand/                        # Visual identity + screenshots
└── research/                     # Engineering fixtures
    └── builds/                   # Distribution artifacts

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Project Status

Area	Status
Native ARM64 build (CI)	✅
App bundle integrity	✅
245-test suite	✅ All passing
Release v2.0.0	✅ Published
AirPrint / Bonjour bridge	✅
InkSaver™ continuous mode	✅
Poster & Tiling Studio	✅
ICC Color Calibration	✅
Apple notarization	⚠️ Not yet
Sandboxed App Store build	⚠️ Not planned

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Privacy

TankControl operates entirely on-device. It does not phone home, does not require an HP account, and does not transmit printer data to any external service. All ink telemetry, scan data, and print queue information stay local.

See SECURITY.md for the vulnerability reporting policy.

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Documentation

Document	Description
ARCHITECTURE.md	System architecture overview
CHANGELOG.md	Release history
CONTRIBUTING.md	Contribution workflow
SECURITY.md	Security policy
docs/PRINT-PIPELINE.md	PCL3GUI raster pipeline deep-dive
docs/SMART-TANK-500-PROTOCOL.md	USB/EWS protocol reference
docs/INKSAVER-ENGINEERING-AUDIT.md	InkSaver™ engineering notes
docs/TROUBLESHOOTING-TREE.md	Step-by-step troubleshooting
docs/BRAND-GUIDE.md	Visual identity system

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Contributing

Issues and pull requests are welcome for reproducible bugs and improvements within project scope. Use the provided issue templates. Remove printer serial numbers, personal data, and credentials before submitting logs.

For security vulnerabilities — do not open a public issue with exploit details. Follow SECURITY.md.

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License

TankControl is distributed under the MIT License.

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ATELIER MINUIT
_{Independent software, tools & experiments · 00:00}