Reverse-engineered CUPS driver for Phomemo receipt/label printers

9 days ago (github.com)

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..

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

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

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

    • > 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)

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.

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.

  • 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.

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

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.

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.

  • 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.

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

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

  • 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.