3 ms·

I'd like to hack my P-Touch to not waste 1" of tape every goddamn print for no discernible reason. I've read Brother's reason and I don't see it.

by moogly 2y ago

liminalsunset 2y ago
Well fortunately, there is a setting that you can use to do "chain printing" where if you have a number of labels to print, it simply won't cut the last one it prints, and then you can send another job to the printer and it'll cut that one out and print the next (leaving the last thing it printed uncut, if you still have the box checked). I don't particularly doubt the waste of tape is somewhat necessary. The way TZe tape works is there's a double side sticky backing, a thin film with a coating of ink (selectively transfers, with the used tape re-rolled internally) when heated and pressed onto the sticky backing), and a clear coverlay. The problem is that because of the thickness of the cutter assembly (which is actually just a mechanized pair of scissors internally), there is about an inch of tape after the layers have been laminated, but before the tape is cut. The printer has to advance the tape to get it cut at the right place, but by the time it's gotten there, the tape now has a stub of white tape on it, which if not cut off, would get stuck to the next label. "Chain printing" solves this problem by letting the printer delay the "advance and cut" operation until it has something to fill the otherwise wasted inch with.
- 037 2y ago
  I studied the mechanism, and while it’s true that some tape must be wasted, I think there is room for improvement (with a different idea or even small changes, given that I have a Dymo that uses the same mechanism but wastes much less tape). I simply believe there aren’t enough incentives to research something that saves tape.
- 0xDEADFED5 2y ago
  Yep, as someone who has printed thousands of these damn labels in the past, this is the answer.
- moogly 2y ago
  The chain printing is not so user friendly, I find; I just ended up typing out multiple labels with spaces inbetween instead, and cutting them with a pair of scissors. This (along with the chain printing) only works when you know you have a lot of (similar) labels to print beforehand. To me, it's also less about the cost of the wasted tape, and more about the extra litter it produces.
037 2y ago
I have the Brother P-Touch CUBE PT-P300BT and “pwned” it (not really) some time ago. Using this code as a starting point [1], I set it up with a FastAPI backend serving an HTML+JS frontend on a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W. I connect to it using a browser, design the label, and it prints via Bluetooth. One of the first options I added to the interface is the “no feed” checkbox, which I use when I know I’ll print more than one label in sequence before cutting. My idea is to add another endpoint to the API so that using Whisper or Siri, I can say, “Print Eggs and today’s date” or “Print Coffee in medium size.” I use something similar with an Alfred workflow, but voice commands would be nice in the kitchen. I hate when someone talks about a project I’m interested in but doesn’t share any code. However, the entire thing is so ugly that I’ll never permit any other human being to see it. I’ll incorporate a Dead Man’s switch to delete everything or burn the Raspberry Pi, if needed. Anyway, it’s all very simple once you realize that Fabric.js [2] handles 80% of the interface and functionalities on the frontend. Probably with Aider [3] and Claude Sonnet 3.5, you can make it during breakfast (or 7 years: I’m a dev, so I’m VERY bad at time estimations). [1] https://gist.github.com/vsigler/98eafaf8cdf2374669e590328164f5fc https://gist.github.com/vsigler/98eafaf8cdf2374669e590328164... [2] https://github.com/fabricjs/fabric.js/ https://github.com/fabricjs/fabric.js/ [3] https://github.com/paul-gauthier/aider https://github.com/paul-gauthier/aider
- kohbo 2y ago
  I love this idea. It never even occurred to me to try something like this but that just makes stumbling on comments like yours even better.
j45 2y ago
There are other Brother printers that are not tape based, which use a continuous roll of label that it cuts and much better use of material.
MisterTea 2y ago
The Brady I use at work is really good about not wasting tape. Of course it is not cheap but money well spent in a production environment. Their cloth tapes are awesome for wire marking.

I'd like to hack my P-Touch to not waste 1" of tape every goddamn print for no discernible reason. I've read Brother's reason and I don't see it.

by moogly 2y ago

I'd like to hack my P-Touch to not waste 1" of tape every goddamn print for no discernible reason. I've read Brother's reason and I don't see it.

liminalsunset 2y ago

Well fortunately, there is a setting that you can use to do "chain printing" where if you have a number of labels to print, it simply won't cut the last one it prints, and then you can send another job to the printer and it'll cut that one out and print the next (leaving the last thing it printed uncut, if you still have the box checked). I don't particularly doubt the waste of tape is somewhat necessary. The way TZe tape works is there's a double side sticky backing, a thin film with a coating of ink (selectively transfers, with the used tape re-rolled internally) when heated and pressed onto the sticky backing), and a clear coverlay. The problem is that because of the thickness of the cutter assembly (which is actually just a mechanized pair of scissors internally), there is about an inch of tape after the layers have been laminated, but before the tape is cut. The printer has to advance the tape to get it cut at the right place, but by the time it's gotten there, the tape now has a stub of white tape on it, which if not cut off, would get stuck to the next label. "Chain printing" solves this problem by letting the printer delay the "advance and cut" operation until it has something to fill the otherwise wasted inch with.

037 2y ago
I studied the mechanism, and while it’s true that some tape must be wasted, I think there is room for improvement (with a different idea or even small changes, given that I have a Dymo that uses the same mechanism but wastes much less tape). I simply believe there aren’t enough incentives to research something that saves tape.
0xDEADFED5 2y ago
Yep, as someone who has printed thousands of these damn labels in the past, this is the answer.
moogly 2y ago
The chain printing is not so user friendly, I find; I just ended up typing out multiple labels with spaces inbetween instead, and cutting them with a pair of scissors. This (along with the chain printing) only works when you know you have a lot of (similar) labels to print beforehand. To me, it's also less about the cost of the wasted tape, and more about the extra litter it produces.

037 2y ago

I have the Brother P-Touch CUBE PT-P300BT and “pwned” it (not really) some time ago. Using this code as a starting point [1], I set it up with a FastAPI backend serving an HTML+JS frontend on a Raspberry Pi Zero 2 W. I connect to it using a browser, design the label, and it prints via Bluetooth. One of the first options I added to the interface is the “no feed” checkbox, which I use when I know I’ll print more than one label in sequence before cutting. My idea is to add another endpoint to the API so that using Whisper or Siri, I can say, “Print Eggs and today’s date” or “Print Coffee in medium size.” I use something similar with an Alfred workflow, but voice commands would be nice in the kitchen. I hate when someone talks about a project I’m interested in but doesn’t share any code. However, the entire thing is so ugly that I’ll never permit any other human being to see it. I’ll incorporate a Dead Man’s switch to delete everything or burn the Raspberry Pi, if needed. Anyway, it’s all very simple once you realize that Fabric.js [2] handles 80% of the interface and functionalities on the frontend. Probably with Aider [3] and Claude Sonnet 3.5, you can make it during breakfast (or 7 years: I’m a dev, so I’m VERY bad at time estimations). [1] https://gist.github.com/vsigler/98eafaf8cdf2374669e590328164f5fc https://gist.github.com/vsigler/98eafaf8cdf2374669e590328164... [2] https://github.com/fabricjs/fabric.js/ https://github.com/fabricjs/fabric.js/ [3] https://github.com/paul-gauthier/aider https://github.com/paul-gauthier/aider

kohbo 2y ago
I love this idea. It never even occurred to me to try something like this but that just makes stumbling on comments like yours even better.

j45 2y ago

There are other Brother printers that are not tape based, which use a continuous roll of label that it cuts and much better use of material.

MisterTea 2y ago

The Brady I use at work is really good about not wasting tape. Of course it is not cheap but money well spent in a production environment. Their cloth tapes are awesome for wire marking.