FREEDOMFROMGRAVITY

August 16, 2012

AsciiGram

I’m trying to teach myself Python, I love Instagram, and I have this little thermal printer. So I decided to make an ASCIIGRAM - ascii Instagram feed.

I came together pretty quick but it is admittedly very hackish. I’m very new to Python and any real programming language (despite using snippets of many over the years)

So currently http://ifttt.com/ (which is amazing) sends my new Instagrams to my dropbox which in turn ends up on my computer which then a folder action launches a python script which uses PySerial to pass a ascii version of the image to the little thermal printer via a FTDI usb>serial converter and BOOM Low res goodness, It also gives me a TXT file which is fun.

I had forgot I set up the IFTTT.com thing up months ago, and I don’t use dropbox often so imagine my surprise when I found a folder full of Instagram images! Of course eventually I will learn how to hook into Instagrams API and do all this with no middleman.

Originally I set it to an 80 character width which makes the images a LOT more readable, sadly as wide as I can get this printer to go is 32 at the moment. I could possibly tweak the printer to get smaller but I’m still unsure. I could also discard the ascii all together and make a 1bit bitmap for the printer. Might try that next.

Also I had to stay one step ahead of the hipsters and their vintage cameras.