After getting all the necessary parts together, I started assembling them.
The process is pretty straightforward, I just followed the pretty exact description at exciting.io’s tutorial.
Then it was time to connect the Arduino to the PC using the little part I bought last time, the USB to serial converter.
When I tried to load the sketch onto the arduino I ran into trouble while compiling. The bounce.h library has been updated and changed its nomenclature, making the code crash. Being a complete noob in processing and library use I first wanted to give up and wait for fix, but then I looked at some examples provided by the bounce2.h library, replacing the old one. From there I changed the code to actually compile. I also changed the MAC address so that my board was actually able to communicate.
I don’t post the details on my quickfix, because the folks from exciting.io (James) updated the sketch a few days ago and now it should be working „out of the github“ without any need for modifications. I haven’t tried this yet, but I doubt that there will be any trouble now.
I used their simple mail-to-print app for my first printout:
It works! Part of the tutorial is also a static html page that can be used to bring custom content to the printer. And I did what had to be done:
The plan was in the beginning to provide a website with a variety of information bits with the possibility to print single items and take them home. This should have happened during Doro’s Bachelor presentation, but being a bit late in the assembly process we put this idea away.
To use this printer I want now to make a website where Doro and I can put in items for a shopping list. Then, before leaving, we just hit the button and get a convenient printout that we can take shopping. Why not just use a smartphone? Because most apps need a constant internet connection to (un)check items in the list and the modern supermarket bunkers try to stop that from happening. And it’s fun to build.
I just have the rough idea until now, I have to make a decent plane how to achieve this and I have to get some knowledge on php, processing and sql in order to get there.