After being given an older Epson point-of-sale printer from a friend who returned from a sale, Philip Hayton set about understanding the Centronics parallel-printer interface and has documented how to drive the printer from an Arduino board. This is a great start as there are many, many older printers with the Centronics interface that could be used as well.
So to get started with your own Arduino-based docket system or hacking away with other Centronics-interface printers, visit Philip's fascinating project site here. And we're on twitter, so follow us for news and product updates as well.
So if this sort of project intrigues you and you're new to Arduino, the first step is a solid board for your projects - our Freetronics Eleven - the Arduino-Uno compatible with low-profile USB socket, onboard prototyping space and easy to view LEDs:
