An all-in-one serial printer playground

One of the most sought-after peripherals by microcomputer-obsessed youngsters in the 1980s was a printer, probably a dot-matrix device. In the decades since, printers have become almost disposable trash, as cheap inkjets can be found at any garage sale. That's not to say there isn't a lot of fun hacking older types, and there are plenty of little thermal printers to play around with. [Tanmoydutta] provided a platform that can help, in the form of an ESP32-C3 based serial printer controller.

On board is a level selector for the 5 volt printer electronics and all the appropriate connectors for the printer, as well as the ESP and the integrated USB interface. It is a network print server, but completely and completely hackable. We believe the printer in question is this one sold by Adafruit.

So this board makes a whole host of print-related projects easier, and if you try it, you'll no doubt find yourself ankle-deep in little curled pieces of paper. This printer isn't the only one in town, don't forget the cheap Bluetooth printers!