HomeBox Label Printing

Generates and prints asset tags for use with HomeBox and Brother label printers. Asset tags include the asset ID and a scannable QR code.

This lets you pre-print many asset tags ahead of time and apply them to objects as they're being added to HomeBox. I spool the labels into a small roll and cut them off as needed.

Disclaimers:

• only tested with the Brother PT-D450 using 12mm tape on NixOS via a USB connection.
• heavily vibe coded with Gemini, this is a quick and dirty project.

Installation

Dependencies (qrcode, Pillow, ptouch-print) are managed via nix-shell. To set up your environment:

nix-shell

This will drop you into a shell with all necessary dependencies available.

Usage

The qr.py script accepts several command-line arguments to control its behavior.

Basic Generation

To generate a strip of labels for a range of asset IDs:

python qr.py --start 000-001 --end 000-005

This will create an image file named asset_labels.png by default.

Command-Line Arguments

• --start <ASSET_ID> (required): The starting asset ID in "XXX-YYY" format (e.g., 001-001).
• --end <ASSET_ID> (required): The ending asset ID in "XXX-YYY" format (e.g., 001-005).
• --domain <DOMAIN>: The domain for the QR code URL (e.g., box.example.com).
  • Can also be configured via the HOMEBOX_DOMAIN environment variable. The --domain flag takes precedence.
• --print: If specified, the generated label strip will automatically be sent to the printer using ptouch-print. Requires ptouch-print to be correctly configured and the printer to be connected.
• --output <FILENAME>: Specify the output filename (e.g., my_custom_labels.png). If not specified, the default filename asset_labels.png will be used.

Examples

Generate labels and save to a custom file:

python qr.py --start 000-010 --end 000-015 --output project_x_labels.png

Generate labels and print directly:

python qr.py --start 000-001 --end 000-023 --print

Generate labels with a custom domain:

python qr.py --start 004-001 --end 004-002 --domain myhomebox.local

Using the HOMEBOX_DOMAIN environment variable:

export HOMEBOX_DOMAIN="myhomebox.local"
python qr.py --start 005-001 --end 005-002

Extra Notes

NixOS USB Permissions

If you are on NixOS, you might need to add USB permissions for your Brother printer. Use dmesg to validate that the vendor (idVendor) and product IDs (idProduct) are correct for your device.

services.udev.extraRules = ''
  SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="04f9", ATTR{idProduct}=="2073", MODE="0666", GROUP="lp"
'';

The idVendor "04f9" and idProduct "2073" are typical for Brother PT-D450.