Twilight Zone Mystic Seer - Thermal Printer Upgrade!

myminifactory

Turn your Mystic Seer into a genuine, usable fortune teller! Instead of just a few token cards, this thermal printer upgrade means accurate and surprising fortunes every time, until the printer paper runs out. An upgrade for https://www.myminifactory.com/object/47602. Here's what you'll need to do: So, this design has some different STL files that are not included in the original. Those files are: Printer bracket. This replaces both the internal assemblies from the original and is much simpler since the mechanical dispenser is replaced with the thermal printer. Paper slot - the paper feeds through here, and provides a neat edge against which to tear the paper. Main case. The main case only really differed by having a wider slot for the paper to come out, but there was a problem with the model. Fortunately, user tonym99 has come to the rescue and fixed it up, as well as providing an alternative version: "I've included two modified models. Both have the wider slot for the thermal printer and penny slot open. The difference between the two is that one also has the keyhole removed and the other is your original with the keyhole indentation." From the original, you won't need any of the dispenser assembly stuff or the cards. You'll need the lever, but that will attach to the printer bracket now. Hardware Changes So, obviously the stepper motor and motor driver are no longer necessary. Instead, we need a thermal printer, and I used this one: https://www.adafruit.com/product/597. The above link also gives all the information required for wiring up the printer to the arduino board. In my code below, I've used the same pin assignments, just to be convenient. Arduino Code #include "Adafruit_Thermal.h" #include "SoftwareSerial.h" const int numFortunes = 15; const char* fortunes[] = { "It is quite possible", "It has been decided in your favour", "You may never know", "If you move soon", "That makes a good deal of sense", "Try again", "There's no question about it", "Do you dare risk finding out?", "What do you think?", "Your chances are good", "It has already been taken care of", "If that's what you really want", "The answer to that is obvious", "That's up to you to find out", "It all depends on your point of view" }; const int eyePin = 12; const int leverPin = 2; const int dirPin = 8; const int printerTxPin = 6; const int printerRxPin = 5; SoftwareSerial mySerial(printerRxPin, printerTxPin); Adafruit_Thermal printer(&mySerial); void setup() { pinMode(eyePin, OUTPUT); pinMode(leverPin, INPUT); mySerial.begin(19200); printer.begin(); randomSeed(analogRead(3)); } void loop() { if (digitalRead(leverPin) == HIGH) { // no need to debounce, since this will take a few seconds to execute // do some flashy eye stuff for (int i=10; i>0; i--) { digitalWrite(eyePin, HIGH); delay(i*20); digitalWrite(eyePin, LOW); delay(i*20); } digitalWrite(eyePin, HIGH); delay(1000); printFortune(); } } void printFortune() { printer.wake(); printer.setDefault(); printer.justify('C'); printer.setSize('S'); printer.underlineOn(); printer.println(F("MYSTIC SEER")); printer.underlineOff(); printer.setSize('L'); printer.println(getRandomFortune()); printer.feed(7); printer.sleep(); } String getRandomFortune() { int randomIndex = random(0, numFortunes); return fortunes[randomIndex]; }