5 ms·

Printer: an open source kit for exploring internet-of-things printing

34 points by tomstuart 14y ago

lazyatom 14y ago
You can poke around the source on github: http://github.com/freerange/printer http://github.com/freerange/printer There's also some fairly comprehensive documentation on the github wiki, including an architectural overview, and building your own printer: http://github.com/freerange/printer/wiki http://github.com/freerange/printer/wiki
- sjtgraham 14y ago
  James, I met you a couple weeks ago in the pub with Chris Roos. I would love to come over and check this out. Looks dope!
  - lazyatom 14y ago
    That would be great! Just send us an email and we'll figure out a good time.
reustle 14y ago
So this is an open source BERG Cloud? http://bergcloud.com/ http://bergcloud.com/ (aka receipt printer)
- lazyatom 14y ago
  I suspect that BERG have much grander plans for BERG Cloud than this, and of course BERG Cloud will be much more polished and suitable for normal people. But that said, it's a tool that might help explore a similar 'space' of possibilities, yeah.
chrisbroadfoot 14y ago
How much does an appropriate printer cost? eBay seems to indicate between $100-$300.
- lazyatom 14y ago
  The actual printer unit I'm using (i.e. not including the Arduino components) is $50/£40 and is increasingly available: https://www.adafruit.com/products/600 https://www.adafruit.com/products/600 http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10438 http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10438 http://proto-pic.co.uk/thermal-printer/ http://proto-pic.co.uk/thermal-printer/ See https://github.com/freerange/printer/wiki/Making-your-own-printer https://github.com/freerange/printer/wiki/Making-your-own-pr... for more information...
lazyatom 14y ago
Somebody asked for a live stream - http://www.ustream.tv/channel/freerange-printer http://www.ustream.tv/channel/freerange-printer Send a message or a picture using the demo apps http://printer-mail.herokuapp.com/send/freerange http://printer-mail.herokuapp.com/send/freerange http://printer-paint.herokuapp.com/send/freerange http://printer-paint.herokuapp.com/send/freerange
_wdh 14y ago
I wonder if you could print to this using a Rasberry Pi with a Gertboard?
- lazyatom 14y ago
  You definitely could, and it would be much easier to write the HTTP client code on a Raspberry Pi than it is on the Arduino! If you look at the Arduino code (https://github.com/freerange/printer/blob/master/printer.ino https://github.com/freerange/printer/blob/master/printer.ino), all it does is download a stream of bytes, doing some very rudimentary validation (Content-length), and then sending the bytes out on a serial port.

34 points by tomstuart 14y ago

You can poke around the source on github: http://github.com/freerange/printer http://github.com/freerange/printer There's also some fairly comprehensive documentation on the github wiki, including an architectural overview, and building your own printer: http://github.com/freerange/printer/wiki http://github.com/freerange/printer/wiki

sjtgraham 14y ago
James, I met you a couple weeks ago in the pub with Chris Roos. I would love to come over and check this out. Looks dope!
- lazyatom 14y ago
  That would be great! Just send us an email and we'll figure out a good time.

reustle 14y ago

So this is an open source BERG Cloud? http://bergcloud.com/ http://bergcloud.com/ (aka receipt printer)

lazyatom 14y ago
I suspect that BERG have much grander plans for BERG Cloud than this, and of course BERG Cloud will be much more polished and suitable for normal people. But that said, it's a tool that might help explore a similar 'space' of possibilities, yeah.

chrisbroadfoot 14y ago

How much does an appropriate printer cost? eBay seems to indicate between $100-$300.

lazyatom 14y ago
The actual printer unit I'm using (i.e. not including the Arduino components) is $50/£40 and is increasingly available: https://www.adafruit.com/products/600 https://www.adafruit.com/products/600 http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10438 http://www.sparkfun.com/products/10438 http://proto-pic.co.uk/thermal-printer/ http://proto-pic.co.uk/thermal-printer/ See https://github.com/freerange/printer/wiki/Making-your-own-printer https://github.com/freerange/printer/wiki/Making-your-own-pr... for more information...

lazyatom 14y ago

Somebody asked for a live stream - http://www.ustream.tv/channel/freerange-printer http://www.ustream.tv/channel/freerange-printer Send a message or a picture using the demo apps http://printer-mail.herokuapp.com/send/freerange http://printer-mail.herokuapp.com/send/freerange http://printer-paint.herokuapp.com/send/freerange http://printer-paint.herokuapp.com/send/freerange

_wdh 14y ago

I wonder if you could print to this using a Rasberry Pi with a Gertboard?

lazyatom 14y ago
You definitely could, and it would be much easier to write the HTTP client code on a Raspberry Pi than it is on the Arduino! If you look at the Arduino code (https://github.com/freerange/printer/blob/master/printer.ino https://github.com/freerange/printer/blob/master/printer.ino), all it does is download a stream of bytes, doing some very rudimentary validation (Content-length), and then sending the bytes out on a serial port.