This Raspberry Pi-Based Coin-Operated Printer Is Great for Libraries

Libraries are — most obviously at least — a place for reading and borrowing books. Public libraries are one of the most important kinds of institutions for spreading knowledge and facilitating education. But libraries these days also provide all kinds of other useful services, including computers and internet access, workshops, and even tools for makers and hobbyists. They’re also a great place to go if you need to print a document. But that costs money, which is why YouTuber John Rey Bautista used a Raspberry Pi to build this coin-operated printer.

Bautista doesn’t provide much detail on the specifics of how this machine was built, just that it uses a Raspberry Pi 3. He does, however, demonstrate its operation in the YouTube video. Users insert a flash drive that contains their documents, and a selection screen automatically pops up on an LCD monitor. They can then pick which document they’d like to print, and select settings like whether it should be in color or gray scale. Once they’re ready to print, they can insert the proper number of peso coins into the coin slot, and their print will be started.

It appears that Bautista has designed this coin-operated printer to be used in libraries and other public places. The streamlined system is easy to use, and lets people do self-service printing without needing the assistance of attendants. Bautista says you can comment on the YouTube video page if you’d like the source code for the project, and it looks like he’s also planning on selling machines that are ready to use.