Overview

Who remembers what a 56k modem looks like? I hoped to forget about that slow technology, but my job had other plans. We needed fax tracking capabilities. I found online fax services to be unreliable in the past and the ones I’ve seen limit the number of outgoing, and sometimes incoming, faxes. This looked like the perfect job for a Raspberry Pi. Warning: Very long post ahead.

There are a few posts to various online forums asking about a similar solution, but no answers. This is my first Raspberry Pi project, so any advice for improvement is appreciated.

The Raspberry Fax is a stand-alone solution that is light-weight, low-power, and has a small physical footprint. It functions completely on its own as long as there is access to power, internet, and a phone line. Optionally, it can use an external file-server for backup. It can also email and/or print faxes if desired.

The parts are interchangeable, but do so at your own risk. Some have reported issues with various modems being used on the Raspberry Pi. The TRENDnet modem linked works and is recommended. Also, if using the pIO microSD adapter, the Cyntech case is known to be a good fit. Other cases might not have the necessary clearance for the pIO microSD adapter. If using a different case, it might be necessary to use a full size SD card or another adapter.

The following tutorial is current as of November 1, 2013.