YouTuber rebuilds truck into a giant printer

A truck becomes a printer. (Image source: YouTube/Ryder Calm Down)

All sorts of interesting things can be done with the Raspberry Pi – just as the developers intended. Be it emulators for old consoles, chess computers, the pihole for blocking ads or tarot card readers. There are almost no limits to the imagination.

That has probably also YouTuber Ryder Calm Down taken to heart. In a recent video, he shows how he uses a Raspberry Pi 4 to turn his truck into a giant printer – see for yourself (video is in English:

Link to YouTube content

How does the printer work?

Printing is done by dripping water from a reservoir onto the ground while driving. This is how letters and individual messages are formed. The process corresponds to what is known as matrix or dot matrix printing, in which elements are composed of individual pixels.

The entire system is controlled via a web interface (or a laptop) in the vehicle’s cockpit connected to a Raspberry Pi 4. This in turn sits together with some relays on a specially made frame at the back of the truck.

If any text message is entered into the web interface, the writing is first converted into an image and then into individual pixels. After analysis, the operations are sent to the system at the rear of the vehicle, where a series of magnetic valves precisely open and close water supply lines.

The truck is also the largest dot matrix printer in the world. Well, one could argue that it’s probably also one of the last of its kind – but hey.

What do you think of what is probably the largest dot matrix printer in the world? Do you think this is a good idea? Do you already have experience with the Raspberry Pi and similar projects? Write it to us in the comments! Maybe one or the other contribution will become an article with us!