You're an amazing youtuber, I'm 19 now and have been watching you from a kid learning loads of projects. I can't believe a youtuber like you who has been uploading for years and years at this point is still only at 504k Subscribers, I always thought you would be a huge hit with youtube fans your projects are so creative and I've always loved them. From what I read in the comments i see that you are a fulltime parent, and in a fulltime job. - Amazing that you can continue the content keep up the amazing work!
You don't need a Zero W if you already have some of these $1 WLAN adapters and a bad and useless, possibly slightly broken USB hub that you can just butcher in.
Not only is this project fun, but it will help people realize that receipt printers are much cheaper than normal ones. This is, for some reason, thought opposite by lots of people. For making a simple shopping list, wouldn't it be easier to connect the printer to Windows, use LibreOffice (the GNU alternative to MS Office) to make a spreadsheet, and just print it from there?
It's 2018 and it takes a Linux computer, a bunch of libraries/packages, several scripts running as root, 2 external web services and a load of tinkering...because the Echo can't send a simple LPR print job? What an amazing technological age we live in!
Most receipt printers have a 12 V output signal for a cash drawer solenoid lock via an RJ25. You can mount a buzzer, bell or even some primitive board that plays some melody there on there to notify you acoustically of any incoming messages. The Length and strength of the signal can be controlled with ESC-Pos too. Depending on the printer you should be able to get a feedback signal on the cash drawer port as well, this is done so a cashier can't do anything stupid until the lid is closed again. Also mount it sidewards and flip the printer alignment to get old "telegraph style" messages.
I cannot believe I have been watching your videos for 10 years already! Back when you were Gigafide and you still have the same background music! omg.. the memories of all your old videos lol I'm smiling while writing this because its now just part of my childhood memories as I was only 13 when I started watching you're videos and I cannot tell you how much you helped me with life.. anyway.. gg keep it up! *Flies away*
Hi Tinkernut. I now also own one of these printers. I have to say it's quite fun to toy with. Though you get what you pay for. Trying to pass ESC/POS commands to the printer feels like trial and error with what actually works. I plan to do a project of it printing out Network speed information and time/duration of Internet outages. Thank you for the inspiration.
You should have added a bit of code to automatically feed the paper out when it's done printing so you wouldn't have to manually feed it yourself. Those commands are usually sent out anyways
This brings to mind old sci fi movie robots and tech that would spit out ribbons of paper, with scientists reading them by swiping them by their eyeballs.
There seem to be some ICs on the board of the printer. You should chek if the board doesn't generate 5V already, so you can save the power that is getting dumped by the voltage regualtor.
I am going to use my new-found knowledge of Webhooks and Ngrok to make a door bell using a QR code; the QR code when scanned will send a command to Ngrok webpage that will then trigger a python script on the Raspberry Pi that will then trigger audio playback (A doorbell noise) on a Denon AVR-X1000 audio receiver. I have already figured out the playback from the Raspberry Pi and all I needed was a trigger method via the internet, thank you for that!
Because that involves punching a hole directly from the internet, through your NAT to your raspberry pi. Tinkernut's approach means that it will only ever grab data from trusted sources and will work... Everywhere. Your approach while it will work, is less secure as anyone can send anything to your exposed service.
Another great video. Hope fatherhood is treating you well! Loving the content. Too bad about your screen recorder though :p Keep up the great stuff! (When you have the time! ahah)
Hi ! I have a printer that looks like yours but seems to be different, it works but the font size is bigger and images are not working, just print garbage characters. Do you know what could happens?. Here is the vendor id, product id, , etc... p = Usb(0x0483, 0x070b, 0, 0x81, 0x02) Thanks a lot for your help
great video but it's a good idea to skip having a desktop on the pi and just use it with the terminal. also you can enable ssh when you burn it by creating a file called "ssh" with no extension in the boot partition of the sd card after burning it.
Does it work with digital books? I wrote a book and its on amazon. Alexa print out all 123 pages goodBEan's book titled "How to waste thermal paper with lifting a finger"
InternetOfTat! Speaking of tat, is it possible to hook up an LPT without LPT to USB adapter? maybe straight to GPIO for the relevant data pins? I searched for a while but couldn't find any proper info on that. everybody uses those bloody adapters
Yes, driving a parallel port with GPIO is very easy. basically bring the 8 data pins high or low to set the value (one for each bit of a byte), then driver the strobe line high to transmit the byte. Repeat forever. To do it perfectly there are is some handshaking that you 'should' follow, and additional status lines that can be useful (like paper empty). Two way communication is a bit more work, and there are a few different schemes.
Not really. There's no way of accessing the shopping list via API or IFTTT, so you'd have to change it. You could instead make a custom command like "I need #" and have it print that single item. But then you wouldn't be able to see the list on the app or ask google to tell you what's on your list.
ManyXD sorry I was responding to Zigafide. I agree though, keep was also much faster to check. I have google music and prefer how the google homes look, but as a dev I think Alexa has more options
Thank you for the great videos :) With this project you have given me a idea to use one of these printers and a Raspberry Pi as a Retro system printer. :)
12V to 5V? Why not gut a £1.00 pound shop 12V to USB 5V car adapter? One of those small power adapters that plug in the car cigarette lighter! Small, powerful enough for a Pi, 5V USB socket on board. Only two wires to solder the 12V side to the printer. For the remote access, your router may have a DynDNS client or similar. Finally, enable UPnP on your router and install a UPnP library on the Pi to open the ports on the router.
I though away my receipt printer when the printers came down in price. I used it for printer on a Color Computer over 32 years ago. I believe it was a Sony.
Interestingly, when I have videos than the captured desktop video is in FullHD, but the real world camera only HD. And your setup is the whole opposite :D
The recorder I had was set to full HD on the entire desktop cause I wasn't sure where Windows would pop up. In post production, I decided to go a different route and zoom into the windows. I knew it was pixelated as the end product, but I didn't want to go back through and re-record everything, and I figured the content was more important than a little pixelezation.
Why is everybody using putty? In my opinion bitvise is a lot better, it has support for profiles but most important it has a file manager where you can easily upload files
Oh, the good ole days :-) I remember you from waayyy back, and appreciate your subscription. Unfortunately, I don't have time anymore to do the old style videos anymore, so these will have to suffice. :-/
You could patent this and get China to mass produce them and sell them for $100 and people will buy them! So handy! Also have them wireless and print from your phone. "Hey Google, print this recipe" etc..
I'd make an IoT connected hammer that was activated each time it heard an annoying ping noise. Then post the whole project off to my favourite tinkering nut. So each time he add an annoying ding to his video edit, the hammer would activate and bonk him on the head. One day he might realise how annoying that bloody ding really is and stop using it.
Find me an alternative sound effect that's more suited to your taste and I'll be happy to use it...until someone else complains about how annoying the new sound effect is. And thus it continues forever and ever. Believe it or not, I've tried doing a video with no background music or sound effects, and guess what....it got tons of complaints...
something along the line of the little pop sound bascially all notifications from outlook to ubuntu make when a tiny info bubble pops up in some corner of the screen. please note that apart from the sound (more like a small but noticeable annoyance to me) the video is great and I like how much info you provide. thanks!
You must be a new subscriber. I've been using the same background music for 7 years. I've tried changing it in the past, but my fans requested that I bring it bak.
Thanks for the feedback. With a full time job and being a full time parent, it's hard to record when the lighting's perfect. I do what I can to keep content coming and projects coming. If you come for the video quality as opposed to the content, then I'm afraid I can't promise that type of commitment given that it takes everything I've got just to continue posting projects.
That's a fail on behalf of the screen recorder. I noticed that too, but didn't have time to recapture video for the whole project. I decided posting when I promised was more important than a pixelated SSH prompt.
I fully understand your situation. I wouldn't like to try doing everything you're doing right now - it must be exhausting. I just thought I'd mention it, so if it is possible to fix it, you know about it. I didn't mean to be mean if it came across that way. Still love the content as I always have.
![Raspberry Pi carpc [MAKER'S REPORT]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/pS8wbvQx0h4/mqdefault.jpg)
![Raspberry Pi carpc [MAKER'S REPORT]](/img/tr.png)
You're an amazing youtuber, I'm 19 now and have been watching you from a kid learning loads of projects. I can't believe a youtuber like you who has been uploading for years and years at this point is still only at 504k Subscribers, I always thought you would be a huge hit with youtube fans your projects are so creative and I've always loved them. From what I read in the comments i see that you are a fulltime parent, and in a fulltime job. - Amazing that you can continue the content keep up the amazing work!
*Alexa whats on my shopping list?
raspberry pi mini and a receipt printer
It's a Raspberry pi zero W to be precise.
You don't need a Zero W if you already have some of these $1 WLAN adapters and a bad and useless, possibly slightly broken USB hub that you can just butcher in.
Not only is this project fun, but it will help people realize that receipt printers are much cheaper than normal ones. This is, for some reason, thought opposite by lots of people. For making a simple shopping list, wouldn't it be easier to connect the printer to Windows, use LibreOffice (the GNU alternative to MS Office) to make a spreadsheet, and just print it from there?
100th like
It's 2018 and it takes a Linux computer, a bunch of libraries/packages, several scripts running as root, 2 external web services and a load of tinkering...because the Echo can't send a simple LPR print job? What an amazing technological age we live in!
Most receipt printers have a 12 V output signal for a cash drawer solenoid lock via an RJ25. You can mount a buzzer, bell or even some primitive board that plays some melody there on there to notify you acoustically of any incoming messages. The Length and strength of the signal can be controlled with ESC-Pos too. Depending on the printer you should be able to get a feedback signal on the cash drawer port as well, this is done so a cashier can't do anything stupid until the lid is closed again. Also mount it sidewards and flip the printer alignment to get old "telegraph style" messages.
I cannot believe I have been watching your videos for 10 years already! Back when you were Gigafide and you still have the same background music! omg.. the memories of all your old videos lol I'm smiling while writing this because its now just part of my childhood memories as I was only 13 when I started watching you're videos and I cannot tell you how much you helped me with life.. anyway.. gg keep it up! *Flies away*
nice job blurring that authkey.
you can see the key in full in the last frame
what is the authkey useful for?
you can probably send messages to his receipt printer yourself with it
Hehe, that could be funny
I noticed that as well, I was going to comment if but you already did, so congrats
fail
Hi Tinkernut. I now also own one of these printers. I have to say it's quite fun to toy with. Though you get what you pay for. Trying to pass ESC/POS commands to the printer feels like trial and error with what actually works. I plan to do a project of it printing out Network speed information and time/duration of Internet outages.
Thank you for the inspiration.
exactly what i've been looking for months
The blur for the auth token stops a couple frames before the auth token is taken off screen. Good thing it's just a free account token.
And it's easy to reset
You should have added a bit of code to automatically feed the paper out when it's done printing so you wouldn't have to manually feed it yourself. Those commands are usually sent out anyways
So it's an internet fax machine?
Nailed it!
why not make it a TV? 😄😄😄
That regulator might get quite hot. Clip-on heatsink or buck converter?
This brings to mind old sci fi movie robots and tech that would spit out ribbons of paper, with scientists reading them by swiping them by their eyeballs.
I would make it print every new tweet on my feed, essentially making it into an overcomplicated Twitter checker
imagine 50 feet of paper flowing out of the thing and the only thing that is there are your emails.
There seem to be some ICs on the board of the printer. You should chek if the board doesn't generate 5V already, so you can save the power that is getting dumped by the voltage regualtor.
I've seen some mini thermal printers that can print random images and sudokus. Would it be possible to do this with IFTTT on the Raspberry Pi?
Outstanding video! :-)
Time spent very well.
Are PCBs made of plastic?
Tinkernut: "And we will do that using this hunk of plastic (RasPi Zero)."
If you own a "FritzBox" DSL Router there is a DynDNS Service already included. It's called MyFritz. Mostly interesting for European viewers.
I’ve wanted one for a while.
Dude, I actually said "-ster" when you called for it. Ahaha, you got me.
I love that music! What is it called? Nice project too! I actually may attempt this just because I find it so cool.
I am going to use my new-found knowledge of Webhooks and Ngrok to make a door bell using a QR code; the QR code when scanned will send a command to Ngrok webpage that will then trigger a python script on the Raspberry Pi that will then trigger audio playback (A doorbell noise) on a Denon AVR-X1000 audio receiver.
I have already figured out the playback from the Raspberry Pi and all I needed was a trigger method via the internet, thank you for that!
Using this method, can I convert an old card billing machine (say verifone vx520) into a custom printer?
I would use it as a small wireless note printer!
Damn i realy have to ake one of these!
Ps.:Awesome work! You really got great ideas!
great video, love it, my work has one of these under the desk, i wonder if its garbage!
For the IP address, why not use Port forwarding on your router and use your external IP address? Many ISPs provide static IPs
Narayan Bandodker and if you can't get a static IP use duckdns
Where I am, many ISP's don't provide static IP's. However, you're welcome to use port forwarding. I found this a more secure option.
Tinkernut You can use a dynamic IP and duckdns
I wish I had static
Because that involves punching a hole directly from the internet, through your NAT to your raspberry pi.
Tinkernut's approach means that it will only ever grab data from trusted sources and will work... Everywhere.
Your approach while it will work, is less secure as anyone can send anything to your exposed service.
Can this code work for all USB thermal printers or is only for this printer?
kind of late but is there any way this would work with a google home? i cant find the ingredient shopping list in ifthisthenthat
Another great video. Hope fatherhood is treating you well! Loving the content. Too bad about your screen recorder though :p
Keep up the great stuff! (When you have the time! ahah)
As an ngrok alternative, I recommend pagekite.
I’d recommend NoIP as an alternative for ngrok.
That's pretty cool, I wonder how hard it would be to have it synced to Bixby or Google assistant.
Nice gadget
Hi ! I have a printer that looks like yours but seems to be different, it works but the font size is bigger and images are not working, just print garbage characters. Do you know what could happens?. Here is the vendor id, product id, , etc...
p = Usb(0x0483, 0x070b, 0, 0x81, 0x02)
Thanks a lot for your help
My alexa was like tf is going on. when you asked yours.
I saw an amazonbranded version of this on their website. It sucks that they have to take the fun out of making fun projects
great video but it's a good idea to skip having a desktop on the pi and just use it with the terminal. also you can enable ssh when you burn it by creating a file called "ssh" with no extension in the boot partition of the sd card after burning it.
Does it work with digital books?
I wrote a book and its on amazon.
Alexa print out all 123 pages goodBEan's book titled "How to waste thermal paper with lifting a finger"
wonder if I could use one of these for a printer on my computer ?
How do you print tweets?
Liking the content... Keep it up!
InternetOfTat!
Speaking of tat, is it possible to hook up an LPT without LPT to USB adapter? maybe straight to GPIO for the relevant data pins? I searched for a while but couldn't find any proper info on that. everybody uses those bloody adapters
Yes, driving a parallel port with GPIO is very easy. basically bring the 8 data pins high or low to set the value (one for each bit of a byte), then driver the strobe line high to transmit the byte. Repeat forever. To do it perfectly there are is some handshaking that you 'should' follow, and additional status lines that can be useful (like paper empty). Two way communication is a bit more work, and there are a few different schemes.
Hey! Amazing video, I have a couple of questions -- like how to design the voltage regulator... how should I best reach out?
I would use it to print code and add a qr code that could be scanned to open the code straight in vim
cool, but the code is barely visible!
That's what the project page is for!
Can you add an auto cutter to your receipt printer?
I have a wifi thermal printer. I Wish to send esc / pos commands using wifi insdead of USB. Is there any python code ti do this ?
python-escpos - Python library
Could be used to print a chores list for Kids.
Why do so many people hate the super mario world coin sound?
Could I do this with Google home?
Zigafide Yep, just use the Google assistant service in IFTTT and configure it to something other than a shopping list
Not really. There's no way of accessing the shopping list via API or IFTTT, so you'd have to change it. You could instead make a custom command like "I need #" and have it print that single item. But then you wouldn't be able to see the list on the app or ask google to tell you what's on your list.
Graham Walters Google's shopping list isn't as good as it used to be now it's not integrated with keep
ManyXD sorry I was responding to Zigafide. I agree though, keep was also much faster to check. I have google music and prefer how the google homes look, but as a dev I think Alexa has more options
I think it depends on iftt
Thank you for the great videos :)
With this project you have given me a idea to use one of these printers and a Raspberry Pi as a Retro system printer.
:)
What's wrong with dynamic DNS and port forwarding?
Because you're punching a hole right through your NAT to your Raspi. Are you sure your python code isn't vulnerable?
I wonder how many of us have old receipt printers sat in a cupboard, I know I do, but you have to ask can all this tech replace the mighty pencil?
Now how can we change shopping list to tweets and fb notifications post
Hey, does anyone know what's the name of the intro music? Thanks.
I'd like for it to only print upon print request though...
Where i can get thermal printer, could you share the link?
Mohamed Yasir VM Go to eBay.
I've bought one from amazon warehouse.10 euros.
Silvio Didonna link?
He got the printer from a bin
Got an Alexa Ad before the video xd
How did they know!?!?!?! They're always watching...
Tinkernut Some FBI Stuff we all will never understand.
somewhere a little printer is printing a list with your name on it....
DuckDNS? I use that a lot and it works fine.
Please record your screen at a higher quality. So hard to read the text.
If you need to read the text, please visit the project page. That's what it's for.
12V to 5V? Why not gut a £1.00 pound shop 12V to USB 5V car adapter? One of those small power adapters that plug in the car cigarette lighter!
Small, powerful enough for a Pi, 5V USB socket on board. Only two wires to solder the 12V side to the printer.
For the remote access, your router may have a DynDNS client or similar.
Finally, enable UPnP on your router and install a UPnP library on the Pi to open the ports on the router.
Run Alexa service on the Pi so you don't need a separate device.
I though away my receipt printer when the printers came down in price. I used it for printer on a Color Computer over 32 years ago. I believe it was a Sony.
You can corrupt your sd card if you just remove power without shutting down!
Nice project! Is the text on the desktop a bit hard to read for anyone else?
Kars Noordhuis
He had problems with his screen capture software but decided to use it rather than delay posting.
Awesome
Thumbs up if your Alexa was triggered by this video :P
Hmmm it have a USB connection why not using it with a PC.
Interestingly, when I have videos than the captured desktop video is in FullHD, but the real world camera only HD. And your setup is the whole opposite :D
The recorder I had was set to full HD on the entire desktop cause I wasn't sure where Windows would pop up. In post production, I decided to go a different route and zoom into the windows. I knew it was pixelated as the end product, but I didn't want to go back through and re-record everything, and I figured the content was more important than a little pixelezation.
ah ok :D
Why is everybody using putty? In my opinion bitvise is a lot better, it has support for profiles but most important it has a file manager where you can easily upload files
I have an alternative port forwarding
I miss this music.
do more tutorials in the old Tinkernut styles llz
Oh, the good ole days :-) I remember you from waayyy back, and appreciate your subscription. Unfortunately, I don't have time anymore to do the old style videos anymore, so these will have to suffice. :-/
Tinkernut very understandable, also I emailed you about that documentary I told you about earlier again
Got it, and I will do my best to help you out!
Tinkernut Thanks, appreciate it very much
Please up your volume by like 300% I always have to turn my speakers up to 80% to properly listen to your videos!
Rafaël De Jongh that's what the volume knob is for
you should just have used flask_ask, that would have been easier and you would not have had to use the webhook
You could patent this and get China to mass produce them and sell them for $100 and people will buy them! So handy! Also have them wireless and print from your phone. "Hey Google, print this recipe" etc..
Woah never been this early!
just get a buck converter for the 5v. cheaper, more efficient, easier
Now do the same thing, but turn it into a offline Bitcoin wallet generator
That tiding noise is annoying please avoid using it
Pass. Thanks for the feedback, though.
I'd make an IoT connected hammer that was activated each time it heard an annoying ping noise. Then post the whole project off to my favourite tinkering nut. So each time he add an annoying ding to his video edit, the hammer would activate and bonk him on the head. One day he might realise how annoying that bloody ding really is and stop using it.
Find me an alternative sound effect that's more suited to your taste and I'll be happy to use it...until someone else complains about how annoying the new sound effect is. And thus it continues forever and ever. Believe it or not, I've tried doing a video with no background music or sound effects, and guess what....it got tons of complaints...
The music is fine. The plinking sound? Not so much. At least lower the volume.
Alternative suggestions for notification sounds?
something along the line of the little pop sound bascially all notifications from outlook to ubuntu make when a tiny info bubble pops up in some corner of the screen. please note that apart from the sound (more like a small but noticeable annoyance to me) the video is great and I like how much info you provide. thanks!
What The!
It could be done easier, but nice :-)
I did say STER :(
Too bad Alexa no longer supports IFTTT
Give the internet access to print anything through a web server >:D
or get it to print out twitch chat
2018: Still spelling URL instead of pronouncing it as "Earl."
hi
I will be honest the video was great but the music in the background was really awful and it seemed it didn't fit the topic
You must be a new subscriber. I've been using the same background music for 7 years. I've tried changing it in the past, but my fans requested that I bring it bak.
Don't change it, it brings back memories lol. I used to watch your channel all the time.
Print me some bitcoin 😎
Your videography has become appalling recently. How grainy can footage be?! Especially on a channel with >500k subscribers
I noticed that too. Even at 1080p the text on the screen showing the SSH connection was blocky and pixelated.
Thanks for the feedback. With a full time job and being a full time parent, it's hard to record when the lighting's perfect. I do what I can to keep content coming and projects coming. If you come for the video quality as opposed to the content, then I'm afraid I can't promise that type of commitment given that it takes everything I've got just to continue posting projects.
That's a fail on behalf of the screen recorder. I noticed that too, but didn't have time to recapture video for the whole project. I decided posting when I promised was more important than a pixelated SSH prompt.
I fully understand your situation. I wouldn't like to try doing everything you're doing right now - it must be exhausting. I just thought I'd mention it, so if it is possible to fix it, you know about it. I didn't mean to be mean if it came across that way. Still love the content as I always have.
you looks like bruce dickinson...
pwa
IOT - no thanks
:)
You are smiling damn too much.