[EE] Digital signage with print button

[Van Horn, David]

Feel free to retag if this isn't engineering enough.

I'm looking at digital signage software for the Raspberry Pi, but I need to integrate a USB thermal printer and a button so that while a given screen is up, a button press will print out a reminder tag.
Tons of options out there, but I haven't seen any that have this simple feature.

Have you seen something like this? Any ideas how I could hack it into an existing digital signage package?
The part being printed doesn't even need any graphics, just text is fine. Button press performs piping file X to the printer, but when the graphics change, file that prints needs to also change in sync.

--
David VanHorn
Lead Hardware Engineer

Backcountry Access, Inc.
2820 Wilderness Pl, Unit H
Boulder, CO 80301 USA
phone: [phone] x110
email: ***@backcountryaccess.com<mailto:***@backcountryaccess.com>

[Clint Jay]

Where are your pages coming from?

Simple script trying ggered by a GPIO interrupt to print the page source or
a modified version of it to reflect an internet source perhaps?

On 5 Jan 2018 15:28, "Van Horn, David" <***@backcountryaccess.com>
wrote:

Feel free to retag if this isn't engineering enough.

I'm looking at digital signage software for the Raspberry Pi, but I need to
integrate a USB thermal printer and a button so that while a given screen
is up, a button press will print out a reminder tag.
Tons of options out there, but I haven't seen any that have this simple
feature.

Have you seen something like this? Any ideas how I could hack it into an
existing digital signage package?
The part being printed doesn't even need any graphics, just text is fine.
Button press performs piping file X to the printer, but when the graphics
change, file that prints needs to also change in sync.

--
David VanHorn
Lead Hardware Engineer

Backcountry Access, Inc.
2820 Wilderness Pl, Unit H
Boulder, CO 80301 USA
phone: [phone] x110
email: ***@backcountryaccess.com<mailto:david.vanhorn@
backcountryaccess.com>

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[Van Horn, David]

The pages will be stored on disk, I will be in places where there is no cell or wifi or any other external data.
I'm thinking of displaying a graphic and printing a text file, as in "pageone.png gets displayed for 30 seconds, and while this is displayed, pageone.txt will print if the button is pushed."
I could implement it by always printing the same file name, but copying different files into that file name when the new screen comes up.
Exact implementation TBD.

It's surprising to me how this functionality is absent in most (all?) implementations.


-----Original Message-----
From: piclist-***@mit.edu [mailto:piclist-***@mit.edu] On Behalf Of Clint Jay
Sent: Friday, January 5, 2018 8:59 AM
To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public.
Subject: Re: [EE] Digital signage with print button

Where are your pages coming from?

Simple script trying ggered by a GPIO interrupt to print the page source or a modified version of it to reflect an internet source perhaps?

On 5 Jan 2018 15:28, "Van Horn, David" <***@backcountryaccess.com>
wrote:

Feel free to retag if this isn't engineering enough.

I'm looking at digital signage software for the Raspberry Pi, but I need to integrate a USB thermal printer and a button so that while a given screen is up, a button press will print out a reminder tag.
Tons of options out there, but I haven't seen any that have this simple feature.

Have you seen something like this? Any ideas how I could hack it into an existing digital signage package?
The part being printed doesn't even need any graphics, just text is fine.
Button press performs piping file X to the printer, but when the graphics change, file that prints needs to also change in sync.

--
David VanHorn
Lead Hardware Engineer

Backcountry Access, Inc.
2820 Wilderness Pl, Unit H
Boulder, CO 80301 USA
phone: [phone] x110
email: ***@backcountryaccess.com<mailto:david.vanhorn@
backcountryaccess.com>

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[Clint Jay]

It does seem like a fairly obvious addition.

Your idea, pageone.png and pageone.txt sounds a good solution if there
isn't Wan connectivity, I wonder if perhaps there's space in the image
metadata to contain your text?

Post by Van Horn, David
The pages will be stored on disk, I will be in places where there is no
cell or wifi or any other external data.
I'm thinking of displaying a graphic and printing a text file, as in
"pageone.png gets displayed for 30 seconds, and while this is displayed,
pageone.txt will print if the button is pushed."
I could implement it by always printing the same file name, but copying
different files into that file name when the new screen comes up.
Exact implementation TBD.
It's surprising to me how this functionality is absent in most (all?) implementations.
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Friday, January 5, 2018 8:59 AM
To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public.
Subject: Re: [EE] Digital signage with print button
Where are your pages coming from?
Simple script trying ggered by a GPIO interrupt to print the page source
or a modified version of it to reflect an internet source perhaps?
backcountryaccess.com>
Feel free to retag if this isn't engineering enough.
I'm looking at digital signage software for the Raspberry Pi, but I need
to integrate a USB thermal printer and a button so that while a given
screen is up, a button press will print out a reminder tag.
Tons of options out there, but I haven't seen any that have this simple feature.
Have you seen something like this? Any ideas how I could hack it into an
existing digital signage package?
The part being printed doesn't even need any graphics, just text is fine.
Button press performs piping file X to the printer, but when the graphics
change, file that prints needs to also change in sync.
--
David VanHorn
Lead Hardware Engineer
Backcountry Access, Inc.
2820 Wilderness Pl, Unit H
Boulder, CO 80301 USA
phone: [phone] x110
backcountryaccess.com>
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mailman/listinfo/piclist
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[Van Horn, David]

Possible, but I don't want to get too far down that rabbit hole.
Inelegant is ok as long as it saves me development time.
The Pi was picked for the obvious horsepower in displaying direct to monitor, plus the ability to interface the button through the I/O pins.


-----Original Message-----
From: piclist-***@mit.edu [mailto:piclist-***@mit.edu] On Behalf Of Clint Jay
Sent: Friday, January 5, 2018 11:07 AM
To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public.
Subject: RE: [EE] Digital signage with print button

It does seem like a fairly obvious addition.

Your idea, pageone.png and pageone.txt sounds a good solution if there isn't Wan connectivity, I wonder if perhaps there's space in the image metadata to contain your text?

Post by Van Horn, David
The pages will be stored on disk, I will be in places where there is
no cell or wifi or any other external data.
I'm thinking of displaying a graphic and printing a text file, as in
"pageone.png gets displayed for 30 seconds, and while this is
displayed, pageone.txt will print if the button is pushed."
I could implement it by always printing the same file name, but
copying different files into that file name when the new screen comes up.
Exact implementation TBD.
It's surprising to me how this functionality is absent in most (all?) implementations.
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Friday, January 5, 2018 8:59 AM
To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public.
Subject: Re: [EE] Digital signage with print button
Where are your pages coming from?
Simple script trying ggered by a GPIO interrupt to print the page
source or a modified version of it to reflect an internet source perhaps?
backcountryaccess.com>
Feel free to retag if this isn't engineering enough.
I'm looking at digital signage software for the Raspberry Pi, but I
need to integrate a USB thermal printer and a button so that while a
given screen is up, a button press will print out a reminder tag.
Tons of options out there, but I haven't seen any that have this simple feature.
Have you seen something like this? Any ideas how I could hack it into
an existing digital signage package?
The part being printed doesn't even need any graphics, just text is fine.
Button press performs piping file X to the printer, but when the
graphics change, file that prints needs to also change in sync.
--
David VanHorn
Lead Hardware Engineer
Backcountry Access, Inc.
2820 Wilderness Pl, Unit H
Boulder, CO 80301 USA
phone: [phone] x110
backcountryaccess.com>
--
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View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/
mailman/listinfo/piclist
--
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View/change your membership options at http://mailman.mit.edu/
mailman/listinfo/piclist
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[Forrest Christian (List Account)]

If you can live with some python....

I would consider rendering the screens to some image format that pygame can
read. Then use pygame to display the image, and while you are waiting,
scan a gpio and if it reads the button as pushed, call your print routine.



On Fri, Jan 5, 2018 at 8:27 AM, Van Horn, David <

Post by Van Horn, David
Feel free to retag if this isn't engineering enough.
I'm looking at digital signage software for the Raspberry Pi, but I need
to integrate a USB thermal printer and a button so that while a given
screen is up, a button press will print out a reminder tag.
Tons of options out there, but I haven't seen any that have this simple feature.
Have you seen something like this? Any ideas how I could hack it into an
existing digital signage package?
The part being printed doesn't even need any graphics, just text is fine.
Button press performs piping file X to the printer, but when the graphics
change, file that prints needs to also change in sync.
--
David VanHorn
Lead Hardware Engineer
Backcountry Access, Inc.
2820 Wilderness Pl, Unit H
Boulder, CO 80301 USA
phone: [phone] x110
backcountryaccess.com>
--
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View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist

--
*Forrest Christian* *CEO**, PacketFlux Technologies, Inc.*
Tel: [phone] | Address: 3577 Countryside Road, Helena, MT 59602
***@imach.com | http://www.packetflux.com
<http://www.linkedin.com/in/fwchristian> <http://facebook.com/packetflux>
<http://twitter.com/@packetflux>

[James Cameron]

Also don't forget to handle the risk of a button contact that;

- closes and doesn't open; printer becomes toilet paper provider,

- is repeatedly pressed by a child who is enjoying the process.

Moving back up the stack; if you need tools for making images for
display or printing from simple HTML, I've used the wkhtmltoimage
program which is part of the "wkhtmltopdf" package.

Where data maintenance is by humans who refuse to learn HTML, the
"discount" package has a markdown program which can go in front.

[Van Horn, David]

Ok, that sounds reasonable (he said, cautiously..)
I don't know anything about pygame, but I've done python programming in the past.



-----Original Message-----
From: piclist-***@mit.edu [mailto:piclist-***@mit.edu] On Behalf Of Forrest Christian (List Account)
Sent: Friday, January 5, 2018 1:41 PM
To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public.
Subject: Re: [EE] Digital signage with print button

If you can live with some python....

I would consider rendering the screens to some image format that pygame can
read. Then use pygame to display the image, and while you are waiting,
scan a gpio and if it reads the button as pushed, call your print routine.

Post by Van Horn, David
Feel free to retag if this isn't engineering enough.
I'm looking at digital signage software for the Raspberry Pi, but I
need to integrate a USB thermal printer and a button so that while a
given screen is up, a button press will print out a reminder tag.
Tons of options out there, but I haven't seen any that have this simple feature.
Have you seen something like this? Any ideas how I could hack it into
an existing digital signage package?
The part being printed doesn't even need any graphics, just text is fine.
Button press performs piping file X to the printer, but when the
graphics change, file that prints needs to also change in sync.
--
David VanHorn
Lead Hardware Engineer
Backcountry Access, Inc.
2820 Wilderness Pl, Unit H
Boulder, CO 80301 USA
phone: [phone] x110
backcountryaccess.com>
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View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist

--
*Forrest Christian* *CEO**, PacketFlux Technologies, Inc.*
Tel: [phone] | Address: 3577 Countryside Road, Helena, MT 59602 ***@imach.com | http://www.packetflux.com <http://www.linkedin.com/in/fwchristian> <http://facebook.com/packetflux> <http://twitter.com/@packetflux>
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[James Cameron]

I know too much about Pygame, and I hit it in my day job a fair bit.

It is fine for simple designs based on raster graphical artwork. It
doesn't do well for GUI elements like buttons, sliders and text
fields. It doesn't do well for scaling to changing display dimensions
(e.g. when display rotated, or window resized by user). Underneath,
Pygame uses SDL.

For signage that renders static images, Pygame is a bit of overkill,
but would be adequate.

For signage that must add dynamic elements, where things move, or data
comes from outside the program, Pygame may prove useful.

For signage with human interaction with a graphical user interface,
Pygame would start to get harder, and other GUI libraries more
interesting.

Of these, Qt and GTK are the ones I've used, GTK the most. I'd
suggest Qt though, as it is hard to convince GTK to stay looking
the same after an upgrade.

Post by Van Horn, David
Ok, that sounds reasonable (he said, cautiously..)
I don't know anything about pygame, but I've done python programming in the past.
-----Original Message-----
Sent: Friday, January 5, 2018 1:41 PM
To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public.
Subject: Re: [EE] Digital signage with print button
If you can live with some python....
I would consider rendering the screens to some image format that pygame can
read. Then use pygame to display the image, and while you are waiting,
scan a gpio and if it reads the button as pushed, call your print routine.

Post by Van Horn, David
Feel free to retag if this isn't engineering enough.
I'm looking at digital signage software for the Raspberry Pi, but I
need to integrate a USB thermal printer and a button so that while a
given screen is up, a button press will print out a reminder tag.
Tons of options out there, but I haven't seen any that have this simple feature.
Have you seen something like this? Any ideas how I could hack it into
an existing digital signage package?
The part being printed doesn't even need any graphics, just text is fine.
Button press performs piping file X to the printer, but when the
graphics change, file that prints needs to also change in sync.
--
David VanHorn
Lead Hardware Engineer
Backcountry Access, Inc.
2820 Wilderness Pl, Unit H
Boulder, CO 80301 USA
phone: [phone] x110
backcountryaccess.com>
--
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View/change your membership options at
http://mailman.mit.edu/mailman/listinfo/piclist

--
*Forrest Christian* *CEO**, PacketFlux Technologies, Inc.*
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