Show HN: Print the daily weather forecast on a thermal receipt printer

I wrote this simple Python script that prints the daily weather forecast on those cheap thermal receipt printers you can get online for under fifty bucks. It fetches weather data, converts the icons to something printable, and outputs everything in ESC/POS format so you can pipe it directly to /dev/USB/lp0.

Nothing fancy, i just thought it would be nice to have a physical weather printout each morning.

You can configure it with your GPS coordinates and timezone, and stick it in a cron job.

Enjoy!

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orphea 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

Please be aware that some thermal paper is not safe: https://www.pca.state.mn.us/business-with-us/bpa-and-bps-in-...

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chr15m 4 days ago | parent | next [-]

From the link: "Handle receipts as little as possible"

Some good tips there. Will bear that in mind, thanks!

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userbinator 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

It's a vague and overblown risk IMHO.

	▲	grues-dinner 2 days ago \| parent \| next [-]
		The main theoretical risk is to workers who handle receipts often at work. A checkout operator could have hundreds of times normal exposure and checkout workers were reported to have high (3x baseline) BPA urine levels in some studies (but not others). It's the same for lead free solder. Occasional amateur exposure is probably not a major concern, and especially not for adults who won't get pregnant. Then again, if you're making a thermal printer device for fun that you plan to touch daily, especially if you want to have children using it, who are also likely to touch it with more of their hands and/or get it wet and/or put it or their hands in their mouths, loading the device with phenol-free paper seems sensible, practical and not especially onerous.
	▲	atoav 2 days ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Great opinion there, so humble of you not to share your thinking there. Makes me assume there was none. If you make claims being the receipts [haha I know] or consider that this type of comment is useless to the rest of us without receipts.

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barbazoo 2 days ago | parent | prev [-]

I like stuff like this that brings things from the digital world to the physical world. It’s very practical but also art in a way.