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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

#91

Post by JJOmeo »

e28eta wrote: post #86

long shot: I’ve got a USB-based ESC/POS printer, but couldn’t get my mac nor RPI to recognize it as a printer through CUPS. The printer shows up in the USB tree, but (maybe?) needs a driver to be recognized as a “printer”? I was trying to follow tutorials that treated it as a line printer, but unsuccessfully. Any idea how much luck I will have if I try this out? Does this project rely on working drivers? Or does it h…

Some of these show up as USB to serial converters and while you do need appropriate kernel drivers for that, they'll never be recognized as a "printer". Still usable though.

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

#92

Post by JJOmeo »

nexus_six wrote: post #69

I'm not sure what the point of this really is. Many of those printers and POS systems have OpenCUPS support already, which is more or less "one command". If it requires a Raspberry Pi I have no idea what you are selling. Can you please elaborate on this?

I've got a bunch of thermal printers in my work lab that definitely don't have this but they all support ESC/POS. They're all currently produced kiosk style printers.

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

#93

Post by irs »

This is nice! Was looking for exactly a similar feature in a previous HN discussion [0]. Want something that I can integrate with IFTTT/Zapier.

I was looking to buy one of ESC/POS compatible printer but none of the official sites seem to sell directly on the site and have to contact their sales to get a quote. I see a few on ebay and from third party sellers in Amazon.

Does anyone have a recommendation on where to buy an official / new one without going through the sales call hassle? Or buying from 3rd parties is the only option?

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42599784

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

#95

Post by fmajid »

irs wrote: post #93

This is nice! Was looking for exactly a similar feature in a previous HN discussion [0]. Want something that I can integrate with IFTTT/Zapier. I was looking to buy one of ESC/POS compatible printer but none of the official sites seem to sell directly on the site and have to contact their sales to get a quote. I see a few on ebay and from third party sellers in Amazon. Does anyone have a recommendation on where to bu…

I found this one at B&H:

https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1789487-REG/epson_c31...

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

#96

Post by gibs0ns »

irs wrote: post #93

This is nice! Was looking for exactly a similar feature in a previous HN discussion [0]. Want something that I can integrate with IFTTT/Zapier. I was looking to buy one of ESC/POS compatible printer but none of the official sites seem to sell directly on the site and have to contact their sales to get a quote. I see a few on ebay and from third party sellers in Amazon. Does anyone have a recommendation on where to bu…

I've used Rongta thermal printers a fair bit, I've found them to be cost effective and easy to use. I mostly use them via WebUSB and some random JS ESC/POS lib. Though I have never bought directly from Rongta.

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

#97

Post by kube-system »

heeton wrote: post #87
kube-system wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

My comment was that BPA is not used in thermal paper as a plasticizer, which that linked study was examining.

Yes, it's a used as a developer, but as is common in many cases when replacing chemicals with other chemicals -- similar chemicals have similar properties. And in fact, some BPA-free thermal paper use BPS for example.

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

#98

Post by downrightmike »

black_puppydog wrote: post #32

I can see the value in this, but I don't get why it needs to be a SaaS. Don't get me wrong; a revenue stream for something this obviously useful is great! But why not just make it dual licensing; non-commercial projects get it under AGPL or some custom license that prevents them from using it commercially. Everyone else gets a bog-standard yearly license or such... Why not?

We're long past the point where most people have a computer in their pocket and not one on their desk

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

#99

Post by irs »

fmajid wrote: post #95
irs wrote: post #93

This is nice! Was looking for exactly a similar feature in a previous HN discussion [0]. Want something that I can integrate with IFTTT/Zapier. I was looking to buy one of ESC/POS compatible printer but none of the official sites seem to sell directly on the site and have to contact their sales to get a quote. I see a few on ebay and from third party sellers in Amazon. Does anyone have a recommendation on where to bu…

I found this one at B&H: https://www.bhphotovideo.com/c/product/1789487-REG/epson_c31...

Thanks for checking on this. Will look into this model.

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

#100

Post by irs »

gibs0ns wrote: post #96
irs wrote: post #93

This is nice! Was looking for exactly a similar feature in a previous HN discussion [0]. Want something that I can integrate with IFTTT/Zapier. I was looking to buy one of ESC/POS compatible printer but none of the official sites seem to sell directly on the site and have to contact their sales to get a quote. I see a few on ebay and from third party sellers in Amazon. Does anyone have a recommendation on where to bu…

I've used Rongta thermal printers a fair bit, I've found them to be cost effective and easy to use. I mostly use them via WebUSB and some random JS ESC/POS lib. Though I have never bought directly from Rongta.

Yeah Rongta brands are the ones that come up frequently when I search on Amazon. Will check them out. Thanks.
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