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Show HN: Printercow – Turn any thermal printer into an API endpoint

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Re: Show HN: Printercow – Turn any thermal printer into an API endpoint

#21

Post by heeton »

lionpixel wrote: post #16
heeton wrote: post #8

This is awesome! I have a very hacky prototype doing something similar, you've put way more effort into PrinterCow and it looks great. What's the tech? (I'm crossing my fingers for Elixir/Nerves but I suspect that's still a bit niche) Edit, I'm now signed up - though I'm struggling to find the install instructions for the RPi.

Thanks so much! Elixir was on my list but decided for Fastify (Node v22), Postgres and Vue3 in the end as these are the things I am more familiar with. :) The command is on the Printercow homepage - though proper docs are coming by end of the week.

(I meant for the Pi software)

Edit: had a look at the firmware and it's not Nerves - but that's fine! I was just curious :)

Re: Show HN: Printercow – Turn any thermal printer into an API endpoint

#22

Post by lionpixel »

dmd wrote: post #11

> I'm particularly excited about the AI integration possibilities. Instead of yet another chat interface, you can have AI generate content that exists in the physical world – artwork, poems, todo lists, custom receipts, etc. Incredible. Instead of just creating online trash that nobody wants to read, it can create physical trash too! For maximum art, it can feed directly into a shredder.

Totally get the resentment. However, I'm particularly excited about the benefits this could bring, especially for people like my grandma with dementia. She could say, "Print my shopping list," or "Can you write down my son's phone number?" Only thing missing for now is smarter home assistant devices as Alexa is too dumb to handle such requests. :/

Re: Show HN: Printercow – Turn any thermal printer into an API endpoint

#23

Post by lionpixel »

maalber wrote: post #18

Love the idea about a demo on twitch. Simple yet effective! Next up, develop a twitch bot interface so you can handle everything directly there

Thanks for the feedback! Thought about this as well! If enough people are interested I'll integrate a one-click install option. :)

Re: Show HN: Printercow – Turn any thermal printer into an API endpoint

#24

Post by lionpixel »

heeton wrote: post #21
lionpixel wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks so much! Elixir was on my list but decided for Fastify (Node v22), Postgres and Vue3 in the end as these are the things I am more familiar with. :) The command is on the Printercow homepage - though proper docs are coming by end of the week.

(I meant for the Pi software) Edit: had a look at the firmware and it's not Nerves - but that's fine! I was just curious :)

Raspberry Pi Installation: - Open Raspberry Pi Imager - Select Raspberry Pi OS Lite (32bit) --> Lite is without desktop environment and saves some Memory on the PI :) - Start the Pi and enter: curl -fsSL https://printercow.com/pi/install.sh -o install.sh \ && chmod +x install.sh \ && sudo ./install.sh

Re: Show HN: Printercow – Turn any thermal printer into an API endpoint

#25

Post by kube-system »

heeton wrote: post #14
kube-system wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if they are, that doesn't mean they're safer https://www.epa.gov/sciencematters/are-bpa-substitutes-any-s...

That study looked at 6 similar plasticizers. The alternative chemicals for thermal paper are totally different. That's not to say that they are guaranteed safe, but that study is inapplicable. E.g. one type of paper claims to use Ascorbic Acid (vitamin C). No idea what else is in it of course, but it's not a BGA-analogue plasticizer.

> E.g. one type of paper claims to use Ascorbic Acid (vitamin C). No idea what else is in it of course, but it's not a BGA-analogue plasticizer.

How would you know it doesn't, if you don't know what's in it?

Regardless, my point is that many BPA-analogue containing products advertise their BPA-free status.

Re: Show HN: Printercow – Turn any thermal printer into an API endpoint

#26

Post by prmoustache »

lionpixel wrote: post #22
dmd wrote: post #11

> I'm particularly excited about the AI integration possibilities. Instead of yet another chat interface, you can have AI generate content that exists in the physical world – artwork, poems, todo lists, custom receipts, etc. Incredible. Instead of just creating online trash that nobody wants to read, it can create physical trash too! For maximum art, it can feed directly into a shredder.

Totally get the resentment. However, I'm particularly excited about the benefits this could bring, especially for people like my grandma with dementia. She could say, "Print my shopping list," or "Can you write down my son's phone number?" Only thing missing for now is smarter home assistant devices as Alexa is too dumb to handle such requests. :/

The results could be interesting...

Mom? Are you cooking crystal meth at home, what is all this for? And why did you bought 500 boxes of condoms?

Re: Show HN: Printercow – Turn any thermal printer into an API endpoint

#27

Post by voidUpdate »

dmd wrote: post #11

> I'm particularly excited about the AI integration possibilities. Instead of yet another chat interface, you can have AI generate content that exists in the physical world – artwork, poems, todo lists, custom receipts, etc. Incredible. Instead of just creating online trash that nobody wants to read, it can create physical trash too! For maximum art, it can feed directly into a shredder.

Why use ai to feed trash nobody wants to read into a shredder when you can use real people? https://youtu.be/SpNlp6AtTOE

Re: Show HN: Printercow – Turn any thermal printer into an API endpoint

#28

Post by redleader55 »

dmd wrote: post #11

> I'm particularly excited about the AI integration possibilities. Instead of yet another chat interface, you can have AI generate content that exists in the physical world – artwork, poems, todo lists, custom receipts, etc. Incredible. Instead of just creating online trash that nobody wants to read, it can create physical trash too! For maximum art, it can feed directly into a shredder.

We, as a society, are at the point where we can afford to waste resources in this dumb way "for art". I personally find this obscene.

I wouldn't worry though, I have a feeling this is going away by the end of the decade.

Re: Show HN: Printercow – Turn any thermal printer into an API endpoint

#30

Post by badgersnake »

sondr3 wrote: post #19
dmd wrote: post #11

> I'm particularly excited about the AI integration possibilities. Instead of yet another chat interface, you can have AI generate content that exists in the physical world – artwork, poems, todo lists, custom receipts, etc. Incredible. Instead of just creating online trash that nobody wants to read, it can create physical trash too! For maximum art, it can feed directly into a shredder.

Which then again could have AI integrations of its own! Imagine the endless possibilities of AI shredding.

A shredding company that automatically scans and uploads your documents before securely disposing of them. The scanned text is then used to train AI. It’s like the physical equivalent of ignoring robots.txt.

I’m sure YC will fund it.

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