822: Receipt Printer with JavaScript

Syntax - Tasty Web Development Treats

Wes unveils his Hack-Week project —a thermal printer controlled by JavaScript that prints out Sentry.io errors in real-time. Scott and Wes dive into the nitty-gritty of how it works, from the ESC/POS protocol to tackling socket issues, and whether the project was worth the effort.

Show Notes

  • 00:00 Welcome to Syntax!
  • 00:38 Brought to you by Sentry.io.
  • 01:10 What is Hack Week?
  • 01:41 The project.
    • Follow the posts on X.
  • 02:40 Why a receipt printer?
  • 03:55 How do these printers work?
    • ESC/POS.
  • 05:20 Communicating with the printer.
  • 07:24 ESC/POS Encoder.
  • ESC/POS Encoder.
  • 08:42 Socket issues.
  • 09:56 Using Transformers.js to stop ‘toxic comments’.
    • Xenova’s toxic-bert.
    • Implementation in Wes’ code.
  • 10:48 Back to socket issues.
  • 12:18 Integrating with Sentry.
  • 15:01 Printing images with Playwright.
  • 16:17 Was it worth it?
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