Reverse-engineered CUPS driver for Phomemo receipt/label printers

124•Curiositry•3mo ago

Comments

triyambakam•3mo ago

Are these devices popular? My friend has two and is excited about them, but I have no exposure to them outside of that, so it's cool to see it pop up here.

zihotki•3mo ago

They are quite handy for some people. Once you get one, you'll start labeling all stuff. It's fun and also helps finding stuff faster.

trollbridge•3mo ago

I assume part of the appeal is much cheaper label supplies than eg Epson?

bayindirh•3mo ago

The appeal is the ability to make decent labels which can withstand almost all indoor use and abuse for a reasonable amount of time.

I generally hand-label my boxes and things with specialized ink, and they hold very well even after a decade.

But if I'm going to label a spice jar or something gonna handled a lot, I use the printer. It's legible, resistant/resilient enough and reprinting things is easy.

kotaKat•3mo ago

I think part of it is that these printers end up offering so much more flexibility than your traditional labeler. Single-font single-line labels are boring, crummy built in excuses for emoji…

inferiorhuman•3mo ago

Meanwhile once I bought a roll of blue painters' tape I started labeling freaking everything.

alwa•3mo ago

Painter’s tape is where I started, too… then I learned that gaffer’s tape comes in 1” rolls, and I’ve never looked back.

inferiorhuman•3mo ago

I went with the 47 mm wide roll of tape because that was the easiest to find on the shelf at the big box store. 3M painters tape because it will generally come off cleanly well past its rated time of like two weeks.

SoftTalker•3mo ago

This is the way. Tape and a sharpie. No wires, drivers, usb, bluetooth, or wifi needed.

kasabali•3mo ago

Is there a driver for the cat printer? :D

voxadam•3mo ago

You can print a cat?!? Please, don't tell my wife.

I love Fry, our wonderful cat, but...

haunter•3mo ago

Yes, there actual multiple ones

https://github.com/NaitLee/Cat-Printer

https://github.com/NaitLee/kitty-printer

https://github.com/rbaron/catprinter

https://github.com/xome4ok/cat-printer

https://github.com/TheNitek/CatGFX

jamesbelchamber•3mo ago

Agh, I got myself a Niimbot D110 because it seemed to be the best supported "cheap" label printer (using the excellent https://niim.blue/ website).

If I knew these printers had CUPS drivers I might have gone that way instead..

bayindirh•3mo ago

I have a D110 and D110-H, and they're little, neat printers. What's not to like about them?

Crosseye_Jack•3mo ago

> What's not to like about them?

The required RFID label stock? But the rolls are imo reasonably priced from the likes of AliExpress, so not the end of the world.

(unless there is a way to use non RFID label rolls I'm not aware of)

jamesbelchamber•3mo ago

No CUPS driver :)

ValdikSS•3mo ago

I use Xiqi printer for barcode printing on a self-adhesive paper. It's about $11 only, battery powered, light, bluetooth.

somehnguy•3mo ago

Whoa, I had no idea about niim.blue, thanks for posting that. These little printers are great - replaced my Dymo completely.

ValdikSS•3mo ago

CUPS driver for Xiqi printers ("FunnyPrint" application)

https://github.com/ValdikSS/printer-driver-funnyprint

saxenaabhi•3mo ago

Does anyone know any good wifi printers receipt printers?

The only one I could find was Epson TM-30III but it's like 280E here.

mk_stjames•3mo ago

So, after seeing how cheap and available these Phomemo printers are and with this CUPS driver looking like a good option, my instinct as someone who also wants one of these sitting permanently on my home network as to appear all the time on all my machines' available printer options, is to get one and tether it permanently to a tiny linux SBC that has bluetooth and running the driver and print sharing. Like the OrangePi Zero 2w I have sitting unused in a drawer somewhere collecting dust.

wolrah•3mo ago

There are very few cases where there's a good reason for a printer of any kind to be on WiFi and even less for a receipt printer. If it's being used in a portable application with a laptop or mobile device that's what USB or Bluetooth are for. If it's sitting on a checkout counter and needs to be shared between multiple PCs that's what ethernet is for.

I'm not saying that there are absolutely no situations where WiFi is actually beneficial in a printer, but most of the time that a printer is connected to WiFi it's just making the printer less reliable than it could be if it was connected another way for no reason other than the user not liking wires.

A universal truth of networking: If it can be practically wired it should be wired. Wireless is for things that move and things that need to be put in weird spots it doesn't make sense to ever wire.

messe•3mo ago

That's not always an option, and doesn't answer the question.

Some people rent and can't simply run Ethernet everywhere.

SoftTalker•3mo ago

A good reason is that it's easy. Turn it on, connect to wifi, done.

cachius•3mo ago

Recently I learned there are Wi-Fi printers without Ethernet port!

ris•3mo ago

Have been tempted to get one of these just for printing out tickets/QR codes so I can keep my dumbphone and not fight dried up ink cartridges etc.

cue_the_strings•3mo ago

Is there a device you can recommend for printing (sticky) labels occasionally? I have a little Brother printer for those narrow little labels, one with a rubber keyboard, but would love something with sticky labels AND Linux connectivity. Something I could script when organizing my workspace, parts, ... to print the appropriate label.

all2•3mo ago

If your printer speaks ZPL, I might have a solution in the near future. I'm working on a ZPL server that handles printers (USB and network), label templates, CSV uploads (for batch printing labels), and the like.

fmajid•3mo ago

I really like the Brother QL series with continuous tape. They are available in 62mm and 102mm widths.

kelvie•3mo ago

I've been using labelle (on github) with my Dymo labelmaker on Linux and it's been great.

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