Overview

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When I saw the "cat" printer in this Hackaday article, I simply had to have one for myself. The original poster made a library for Arduino, but I wanted to make a version that worked on CircuitPython instead.

Big thanks go to GitHub user BitBank for the original Arduino code, which was studied to implement this project.

Before trying this project, please check that your printer works by using the official "iPrint" application, since there's a lot of technology stacks involved

This project is designed for the Adafruit CLUE, but it should be possible to adapt it to other CircuitPython boards that support Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE).

I tried adapting the code to Adafruit Blinka, on a laptop and on a pi4, but the code wasn't as reliable. It tends to just stop printing part way through the image. So stick with nRF52840-based CircuitPython boards unless you want to debug it!

The CircuitPython code only supports the "Cat" printer model GD02, not the other printers shown in the Hackaday article.

Parts

Animated GIF showing CLUE board displaying data from the many on-board sensors.
Do you feel like you just don't have a CLUE? Well, we can help with that - get a CLUE here at Adafruit by picking up this sensor-packed development board. We wanted to build some...
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USB Cable with Type A and Micro B ends
This is your standard USB A-Plug to Micro-USB cable. It's 2 meters long so you'll have plenty of cord to work with for those longer extensions.
$4.95
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1 x Cat-Style BLE Thermal Printer
Pocket Mini Printer, Bluetooth Wireless Mini Thermal Printer with Android or iOS APP for Pictures, Retro-Style Photos, Receipts, Notes, Lists, Messages, QR Codes Print, Portable Smart Printer, Pink
CircuitPython on CLUE 

This guide was first published on Sep 28, 2021. It was last updated on Apr 17, 2024.

This page (Overview) was last updated on Mar 08, 2024.

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