144 lines
7.3 KiB
Markdown
144 lines
7.3 KiB
Markdown
# Little Prynter
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---
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<img src="src/static/images/little-printer_banner.png" style="padding:auto">
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> Print out shit from the cloud on a thermal paper.
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## About
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This project started when I got a Thermal Printer from a friend. It's now evolved to a complete web solution to print out text and images.
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## Requirements
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To make this project work, you will need :
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- A Thermal Printer :
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- I used *Adafruit's thermal printer* at first, but it broke down. You can get it [here](https://www.adafruit.com/product/597).
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- I then used an *EPSON TM-T2OIII*. It's expensive, but it's also high quality, and has better CUPS and specific library support.
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- A Raspberry Pi or any computer with USB or Serial.
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- Some electric wires.
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- Some knowledge of the command line,
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- Some knowledge of Python.
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- You will need to install [Poetry](https://python-poetry.org/) to manage the depedencies of the projet.
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- 3h of your time, 5h if things need debugging.
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- You will need to following packages: `fswebcam`, `libjpeg-dev` ,`zlib1g-dev`,`libffi-dev`,`git`, `virtualenv`,`pip` and `python` >= 3.8.6.
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- A webcam for the webcam page to work. Will work on a smartphone. Not required.
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## Context
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### Testing your printer
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For the EPSON TM-T20III, you can get the CUPS driver from [here](https://download.epson-biz.com/modules/pos/index.php?page=soft&scat=32). It's not specific to the printer I've been using, so you can try with other printers.
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With that, you can try out your printer and print normal text, images or pdf documents for example. For the Adafruit printer, start by following the guide [here](https://learn.adafruit.com/networked-thermal-printer-using-cups-and-raspberry-pi) to install the CUPS software needed to print images. If you want, you can install it via the command line, [following this guide](https://help.ubuntu.com/lts/serverguide/cups.html).
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You can also get some information from [here](https://learn.adafruit.com/mini-thermal-receipt-printer) and [here](https://learn.adafruit.com/instant-camera-using-raspberry-pi-and-thermal-printer) if you're stuck.
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### How LittlePrynter works
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LittlePrynter itself does not require any other software than the ones installed with it, i.e the ones listed in the `pyproject.toml` file.
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The version for the EPSON TM-T20III uses a library called `python-escpos`, which doesn't need a CUPS driver or anything else. It's included in the Python dependencies.
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The project only supports the EPSON printer, but you can try to adapt it for other printers. For example, using `adafruit-thermal`, or `brother-ql`.
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### Install & setup the project :
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Theses commands will copy the software on your computer, go into the directory, then activate a virtual environnement and install all of the project's dependecies.
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```
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$ git clone https://git.n07070.xyz/n07070/LittlePrynter
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$ cd LittlePrynter
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$ eval "$(poetry env activate)"
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$ poetry install
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```
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> tip : when you're done, you can get out of the poetry environnement either by closing your terminal, or by running `deactivate`.
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### Configure LittlePrynter
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You should see a folder named `configuration`. Enter it, and duplicate the file named `config.toml.sample`, and rename the copy to `config.toml`. Now, edit this file by following the comments in the file itself.
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You should also setup the proper `udev` permissions to access the printers via USB, following the configuration found [here](https://python-escpos.readthedocs.io/en/latest/user/installation.html#setup-udev-for-usb-printers).
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You can now start the web server with
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```
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$ export FLASK_APP=src/main.py
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$ flask run --cert=adhoc
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```
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The `--cert=adhoc` argument will make LittlePrinter accessible in HTTPS with a [self-signed SSL certificate](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Self-signed_certificate). This provides a free and easy way to use HTTPS, but does not provide any trust value. It is, on the other hand, a good way to access the webcam in developpement mode or on a local network, because a HTTPS connexion is required by browsers to access the needed APIs.
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This command should start a web server with which you can test your configuration. If you plan on exposing your printer to the Internet, and give it an IP / URL, _please, please, please_, don't run it this way. Look at Flask's documentation and read about running a production server. It's a little more work, but it will prevent your computer/server being hacked in too easily.
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Voilà !
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## Contributions
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Your contributions are very much welcome ! You can either request an account on git.n07070.xyz, or send me a patch by email ( see git-send-mail.io ). Please [squash](https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/git/use-of-git-squash-commits/) yours commits into one commit, and add as much information in the commit's description. The more you add comments and descriptions, the better it is.
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Please also say if you had a printer to test your code, and which printer you've been using.
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### Linting
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If you want to contribute code, please make sure to lint the project before commiting. This helps the code keep a general structure, and avoids some commons erros and mistakes.
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To do so, you can run the following command, which will modify your files to be in a certain coding style ;
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```
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black src/
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```
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Beware that this command *will* re-write files, so doing `git add <file>` and then `black src/` and then `git diff` to see what the linter has done is a good idea.
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Then, you can run another command, called Pylint ( [documentation](https://www.pylint.org/) ) which will rate your code. Try to get 10/10 : an excellent code works better and make you a better programmer !
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```
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pylint src/
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```
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## Screenshots
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> The first page. You can print a picture, or a short message. It's basically exposing the API in html.
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> Using the webcam via Javascript, you can print out a picture from your phone, webcam, or any other video device.
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## More
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If you liked this project, feel free to support my work !
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[Donations welcome ! :)](https://n07070.xyz/about-me)
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## Links
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- [A blog post about some CUPS configuration](http://scruss.com/blog/2015/07/12/thermal-printer-driver-for-cups-linux-and-raspberry-pi-zj-58/)
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- [Github repo with CUPS drivers for the Adafruit Thermal Printer ( zj-58 )](https://github.com/klirichek/zj-58)
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- [A link to buy one in Europe](https://rlx.sk/sk/various-boards/1829-mini-thermal-receipt-printer-adafruit-597.html)
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- [Another link to buy one, direct from factory](https://www.cashinotech.com/csn-a2-58mm-mini-panel-thermal-receipt-printer_p11.html)
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- [Diagnostickoeur](https://framagit.org/stickoeur/diagnostickoeur), another printer software mainly around Brother QL printers.
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## Licence
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```
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LittlePrynter
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Copyright (C) 2020 N07070
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This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
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it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
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the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
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(at your option) any later version.
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This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
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but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
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MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
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GNU General Public License for more details.
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You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
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along with this program. If not, see <https://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
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```
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