# Thermal Printer "not connected" (A04)

**URL:** <https://forum.clockworkpi.com/t/thermal-printer-not-connected-a04/7864>\
**Category:** DevTerm\
**Tags:** hardware\
**Created:** [January 8, 2022, 7:06pm UTC](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/t/thermal-printer-not-connected-a04/7864 "2022-01-08T19:06:40Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![dest\_chums](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dest\_chums](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/u/dest_chums)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2022, 7:06pm UTC](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/t/thermal-printer-not-connected-a04/7864/1 "2022-01-08T19:06:40Z")

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I got my A04 the other day and its great, super cool little device! However I have been running into an issue with the printer, which is one of the main reasons I wanted this in the first place. The thermal printer keeps saying “may not be connected” when I try to print anything, unless its the test print from the command line. I am a big noob with Ubuntu/Linux in general so I am sure that’s a source of this problem, but I have reseated the ribbon cable, tried installing new things (which sometimes doesn’t seems to work due to permissions or some directory doesn’t exist but should??), which all has me a bit stumped.

Has anyone gotten this to work?

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**Author:** ![pajp](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex029/user_avatar/forum.clockworkpi.com/pajp/32/5889_2.png) [@pajp](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/u/pajp)\
**Post date:** [January 8, 2022, 11:21pm UTC](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/t/thermal-printer-not-connected-a04/7864/2 "2022-01-08T23:21:45Z")

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I have the CM3 and the printer worked out of the box for me, I can print from most applications as well as from the command line using “lp” and the commands here: [DevTerm/Code/thermal\_printer at main · clockworkpi/DevTerm · GitHub](https://github.com/clockworkpi/DevTerm/tree/main/Code/thermal_printer)

One issue I have is the paper jamming if I try to print something more complex, like a rasterised photo, but that might be a topic for a different thread.

edit: here’s how it looks in action for me: [iCloud](https://share.icloud.com/photos/0f8upvc4mo1zPPJjc1rNw9IDA)

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**Author:** ![dest\_chums](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dest\_chums](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/u/dest_chums)\
**Post date:** [January 9, 2022, 12:15am UTC](https://forum.clockworkpi.com/t/thermal-printer-not-connected-a04/7864/4 "2022-01-09T00:15:26Z")

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The A04 works that way with the command line too, weird it doesn’t also work with the apps like you have in that image.