Receipt Printer Scroll ASCII Art

Printing an ASCII art scroll using a receipt printer. A collaboration between Seaweed Factory and Johnathan Cook.


Some test prints.

ScrollPrint Software

I've decided to release the software used in this project. It's a graphical application written in Java and a sketch for the arduino uno. It's currently untested as the printer is in transit to Glasgow; some corrections may follow. It was tested under Windows and will soon be tested in OSX. You can find a preview here (choose download in the file menu):

ScrollPrint-v1.1.zip

ScrollPrint v1.1 uses a thermal printer and arduino uno to print scrolls from a text file. Each line of the text file should contain 32 characters, no blank lines allowed. Save the file with no formatting; use the MSDOS text format option if available. An example text file is included.

This program requires RXTX binaries to be installed. See the following for installation instructions:

http://rxtx.qbang.org/wiki/index.php/Installation_for_Windows
http://rxtx.qbang.org/wiki/index.php/Installation_on_MacOS_X

A graphical interface is available by running the ScrollPrint.jar file. From the command line run the following:

java -jar ScrollPrint.jar

The source for this application is included in the src folder. The project was written using Netbeans 7.1.

The sketch labeled scrollPrint.ino must be downloaded to the arduino uno. This sketch relies upon the Thermal Printer Library from adafruit. The interface circuit and library can be found at adafruit:

http://learn.adafruit.com/mini-thermal-receipt-printer/overview

If printing ASCII art, try the following converters. It helps to squish the long axis of anything you are printing by about 75 percent due to line spacing.

http://picascii.com/: Feed it images 96 pixels wide to get 32 characters back.
http://www.text-image.com/convert/ascii.html: Set character width to 32, extra contrast helps.

Send any questions or comments to seaweedfactory@gmail.com

Puredata Variable Delay Step Sequencer

The idea behind this sequencer is that each step has a variable delay between itself and the next step. This was done to create a rhythm that was not looked to a straight grid. Each slider controls the ratio of the delay time to clock time. Four gate output buses are provided that each trigger a sample. Listen at 3:28 as the clock duration is swept downward. This sequencer was built in Puredata.

Power Lines - LL Cool Tapes EP

After a two-year hiatus, Power Lines is proud to present the LL Cool Tapes EP!

Stream or download the album from Bandcamp for free:
LL Cool Tapes on Bandcamp

Thanks to Kyle Bryant for the great album artwork.

Puredata Generative Roll Percussion Sequencer

Here's another generative percussion sequencer based on probability built in Puredata. Base probabilities are sequenced along 32 steps for 4 channels. Each channel also has a second-degree of probability for increasing, decreasing or resetting the base probability. This means that steps can be active even when a low or zero probability is used in the sequence. Velocity of each hit is also computed in a similar way.