3rd Party Thermal Printers

uConsole
1

Hey Folks - the uConsole doesn’t have a printer - researching 3rd part drivers…

2

Hello,

I think this is easy to use:

Greatings,
Rene

3

So I send data to the Arduino and It prints out ascii?? will look into it - other way is to set up Windows 10 machine as a print server and the windows machine printer as a network printer… spent a productive evening exploring CUPS… if I can get a PPS file or find a compatible CUPS printer I can configure a ESC/POS thermal printer via CUPS - did manage some test prints via trial and error which wasted some real paper but it did prove the DevTerm was attempting to communicate with the printer…

4

There are also some usb printers, even wireless ones like this

image

I think its around 25€ on Aliexpress

3 Likes
5

I have one like this and a larger 80mm one - issue is printer interface with linux - once I get a generic thermal printer it will work fine…

6

I have a “catprinter,” which I think is similar to this one. There’s a good github page with links to printing programs and implementation info. I haven’t tried printing from Linux yet, but I’ve had success printing from macOS!

Catprinter advantages:

  • cute cat theme
  • low price (about USD $20)
  • will probably work with your phone, too (if you use their app)

Disadvantages:

  • probably less reliable than a wired printer like the Adafruit one
  • can’t print arbitrarily long material (i think a data buffer fills up; splitting the print into chunks works okay)
  • no CUPS integration—gotta use a catprinter-specific program to print
7

I’m being told that if I can find the printer port that I just copy the print text to that location and it will print unformated text… (since linux treats everything as a file )

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Folks - I feel … very slow intellectually - I’m at an event with lots of free time found the following:

Printer plugged into Linux machine located at /dev/usb/…

did lsusb first to find if the printer is dectected:

on my machine:

/dev/usb/lp1

when I ran:

ls -l /dev/usb/lp1
crw-rw---- 1 root lp 180, 1 Aug 25 16:44 /dev/usb/lp1

changed access to port:

sudo chmod 777 /dev/usb/lp1

tested the port:

echo -e “This is a test.\n\n\n” > /dev/usb/lp1

got a this is a test out of the printer…

now use the cat command:

cat {full path with file name} > /dev/usb/lp1

or you can use

cd {full path name}

cat {file name} > /dev/usb/lp1

and it works with plan text files!!!

case closed …

1 Like
9

Thanks for suggesting this printer.
I got similar one (model MPT-II) and it works with python-escpos library in bluetooth mode if you create the rfcomm serial binding manually.
Instructions:
Note: I paired the printer through UI first, before running these. Pairing can also be done from CLI.

# Scan bluetooth
hcitool scan
# (optional) Check services for the found printer (MTP-II)
sdptool {bluetooth_mac_address}
# Create rfcomm bind
sudo rfcomm bind /dev/rfcomm0 {bluetooth_mac_address} 1
# Allow access for any user (just an example, use stricter if required)
sudo chmod 777 /dev/rfcomm0
# Install the python library in virtualenv
mkdir printer
cd printer
python -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate
pip install python-escpos[all]

Create test python file main.py with contents:

from escpos import printer
p = printer.Serial("/dev/rfcomm0")
p.text("Hello world")
p.print_and_feed(3)

Run it

python main.py

At least text and QR codes work. Going to test images later.

Open to ideas if there is a simpler method.

1 Like
10

this forum is so use full on so many fronts - I’m always learning new ways to do things in linux. I had seen some python code to do this but not tried it - I’ll copy the code - my interest in this is that I’m afraid I’ll break the printer on my DevTerm and I want to print from other linux devices and thermal printers are very convenient especially the small ones for printing notes. - thanks!