Microprinter Arduino library, Java and Ruby API

http://rooreynolds.com/category/microprinter/
http://microprinter.pbworks.com/

Contents

• microprinter_sketch.pde - an arduino sketch
• Microprinter.java - a java class to communicate with the arduino
• Microprinter.rb - a ruby class to communicate with the arduino
• Microprinter_debug.rb - ruby class which prints to console rather than printer
• ImageMicroprinter.rb - a subclass of Microprinter which can print images
• microbroker-sinatra - sinatra app
  usage: ruby -rubygems microprinter-sinatra.rb
http://localhost:4567/print/weather
http://localhost:4567/print?text=test text
http://localhost:4567/print?feed=http://rooreynolds.com/feed/

Setting Up the Sinatra App

For the sinatra app, you will need:

The Sinatra gem. #=> gem install sinatra The Sinatra Config File gem. #=> gem install sinatra-config-file

There's very little in the way of documentation, and the code is currently a hash of notes to self, ideas, and doodles.

Working on that.

Really.

Elsewhere:

Ben O'Steen has a Python port of the library.

TODO

In no particular order, some things to be done:

• add code to manage /print?url=http://url.com
• check RSS feeds and print new items as they appear
  Examples: twitter, latest links on pinboard.in, latest instapaper items…
• make URL for weather reports configurable so it's not hard coded to south of england (!)
• create a config file for arduino port, RSS feeds, weather location
• re-integrate debug library into microprinter.rb - pipe serial messages to console for debugging and automated testing.
• format the RSS feed item printout to shorten the URL and print properly so that it can be OCR'd with Google Goggles
• possibly port Ben O'Steen's image stuff so that you can print QRCodes on links, as well as images.
• barcodes, 1D (built-in capability)
• make / do something useful, like display a form that you can feed printable items into.

Also, I want a pony

Some todo items that may or may not end up being useful, feasible, interesting, or just plain dumb.

• add some kind of polling behavior for specified feeds
• integrate tom taylor's microprinter-over-ethernet-shield setup, so you can use this sinatra app with one or the other?
• bookmarklet for printing locally