Post by thread:[PIC]:Thermal Printer Question

My next project requires a small thermal printer (+-50mm). I am quite new to this micro thing and for the moment I do not have a clue of what I need or how to send data to a device like this. The finished product will need to produce between 50 and 100 receipts per day and I think that a paper cutter is necessary. I was planning to use a 18 pin PIC as there is very little other I/O is needed. Questions. Are some makes or types better than others for this application? If so what are they and why. Are all devices of this nature parallel? and if so what code and I/O overhead is needed. Can someone point me at a web site, or show me where to find what I need. or Should I look for something like an I2C device or similar. Thanking you in advance Philip. -- http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList spam_OUTpiclist-unsubscribe-requestTakeThisOuTmitvma.mit.edu

At 09:01 PM 10/3/00 +0200, you wrote: >My next project requires a small thermal printer (+-50mm). I am quite new to >this micro thing and for the moment I do not have a clue of what I need or >how to send data to a device like this. >The finished product will need to produce between 50 and 100 receipts per >day and I think that a paper cutter is necessary. I was planning to use a >18 pin PIC as there is very little other I/O is needed. Danger will robinson. I've done receipt printers. Is this point of sale, or some other app? You may need much larger buffer space than you're going to have in a single chip. Formatting text into graphics takes another chunk. Is this a line printer or a shuttle printer? How will you handle printhead loading? (needs to be very fast in line printers) Print pulse timing needs to vary with printhead temperature and supply voltage, unless you remove supply voltage variation. Most line printer mechs I have seen have a step motor that needs driving, and either another step motor for the printhead, (plus the printhead bits) or clocked serial into the printhead, needing to load a few hundred bits within the smaller part of a millisecond. Depends greatly also on how fast you have to print. Customers like fast. -- http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList .....piclist-unsubscribe-requestKILLspam@spam@mitvma.mit.edu

> My next project requires a small thermal printer (+-50mm). I am quite new to > this micro thing and for the moment I do not have a clue of what I need or > how to send data to a device like this. > The finished product will need to produce between 50 and 100 receipts per > day and I think that a paper cutter is necessary. I was planning to use a > 18 pin PIC as there is very little other I/O is needed. > > Questions. > Are some makes or types better than others for this application? > If so what are they and why. Not sure on what your application is. Does it need to be easy loading? Low maintenance? Cost effective? Common Media? Rugged like one finds in a POS terminal? > > Are all devices of this nature parallel? > and if so what code and I/O overhead is needed. Certainly not. Serial based receipt printers are quite common. http://www.starmicronics.com/product/receipt/index.cfm -- http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList piclist-unsubscribe-requestKILLspammitvma.mit.edu

I saw, somewhere, a single chip solution to printing with these printers. You sent it a line of text, and it spit it out on these printers. A pic should be able to handle it fine, but making a pic do that and something else would require a little bit more effort. As far as David's concerns about thermal and voltage sensitivity, I was under the impression that many models have an optical sensor to tell you how far the carriage has travelled, irrespective of temp and voltage. Perhaps I'm wrong, I've not used them before, just looked into using them. -Adam Philip Addicott wrote: {Quote hidden}> > My next project requires a small thermal printer (+-50mm). I am quite new to > this micro thing and for the moment I do not have a clue of what I need or > how to send data to a device like this. > The finished product will need to produce between 50 and 100 receipts per > day and I think that a paper cutter is necessary. I was planning to use a > 18 pin PIC as there is very little other I/O is needed. > > Questions. > Are some makes or types better than others for this application? > If so what are they and why. > > Are all devices of this nature parallel? > and if so what code and I/O overhead is needed. > > Can someone point me at a web site, or show me where to find what I need. > or > Should I look for something like an I2C device or similar. > Thanking you in advance > Philip. > > -- > http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList > .....piclist-unsubscribe-requestKILLspam.....mitvma.mit.edu -- http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList EraseMEpiclist-unsubscribe-requestspam_OUTTakeThisOuTmitvma.mit.edu

> > > Are all devices of this nature parallel? > > and if so what code and I/O overhead is needed. > >Certainly not. Serial based receipt printers are quite common. I missed the meaning of this the first time around. All non-PC receipt printers, except for a very few on specialized systems, are serial. You will likely need to learn to emulate a verifone P-250, which is itself a broken emulation of an epson printer. Also some of the commands are improperly documented, and even the P-250's bugs are used by some customers, so you'll have to emulate those as well. A couple years ago, I wrote a test suite in a Tranz-330 to test P250 emulation. I may still have the code. Buy a couple cases of paper :) -- http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList piclist-unsubscribe-requestspam_OUTmitvma.mit.edu

There are printers (such as those available from digikey) which have no controller or logic, and involve telling the printer which way to move the motor(s) and operate the head and other guts. The controllers are sold seperately. I thought that was what he was talking about when he said parallel... -Adam David VanHorn wrote: {Quote hidden}> > > > > > Are all devices of this nature parallel? > > > and if so what code and I/O overhead is needed. > > > >Certainly not. Serial based receipt printers are quite common. > > I missed the meaning of this the first time around. > > All non-PC receipt printers, except for a very few on specialized systems, > are serial. > > You will likely need to learn to emulate a verifone P-250, which is itself > a broken emulation of an epson printer. Also some of the commands are > improperly documented, and even the P-250's bugs are used by some > customers, so you'll have to emulate those as well. > > A couple years ago, I wrote a test suite in a Tranz-330 to test P250 > emulation. I may still have the code. > > Buy a couple cases of paper :) > > -- > http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList > @spam@piclist-unsubscribe-requestKILLspammitvma.mit.edu -- http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList KILLspampiclist-unsubscribe-requestKILLspammitvma.mit.edu

At 04:36 PM 10/3/00 -0400, M. Adam Davis wrote: >There are printers (such as those available from digikey) which have no >controller or logic, and involve telling the printer which way to move the >motor(s) and operate the head and other guts. The controllers are sold >seperately. > >I thought that was what he was talking about when he said parallel... The ones you're talking about (moving head) are called "shuttle" mechs. The charachters are printed like a dot-matrix impact printer, only by "burning" dots with an array of tiny resistors. Line printers (with all the dots in paralell line) move only the paper. Printing a full black like takes a pretty impressive gulp of power. DK has both I think. -- http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList RemoveMEpiclist-unsubscribe-requestTakeThisOuTmitvma.mit.edu

> >As far as David's concerns about thermal and voltage sensitivity, I was under >the impression that many models have an optical sensor to tell you how far the >carriage has travelled, irrespective of temp and voltage. Perhaps I'm wrong, >I've not used them before, just looked into using them. Shuttle mechs have head position switches or optos. I was talking about the burn pulse width. You have to compensate for printhead temperature (can be as much as 2-1) and for supply voltage, unless you print from a regulated supply. I used a regulated supply in the one I did, which is a little tricky. We had a 18V 2A transformer, and I needed 32V at 19A. It also had to run on a nominal 120VAC line, down to 70V and up to 140V. A boost switcher, with carefully designed output caps signals the processor when it has accumulated enough energy to print the next line. -- http://www.piclist.com hint: To leave the PICList spamBeGonepiclist-unsubscribe-requestspamBeGonemitvma.mit.edu

>Depends greatly also on how fast you have to print. Customers like fast. especially when it is one of those danged cheap printers at the checkout that is obviously built to a price, and not a performance spec. These seem to print a line of dots without a moving printhead, and have to advance the paper to get the next line of dots. Eight paper advances later you have one row of characters! -- http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic: "[PIC]:" PIC only "[EE]:" engineering "[OT]:" off topic "[AD]:" ad's

> >especially when it is one of those danged cheap printers at the checkout >that is obviously built to a price, and not a performance spec. These seem >to print a line of dots without a moving printhead, and have to advance >the paper to get the next line of dots. Eight paper advances later you >have one row of characters! That is exactly how a thermal line printer works. Ours was built to both. At 1.2mS per line though, you perceive continuous motion. Unless the AC line is lower than 110 V, and the printing is heavily black, in which case I can't suck enough power out of the wall wart that we had to use. -- http://www.piclist.com hint: PICList Posts must start with ONE topic: "[PIC]:" PIC only "[EE]:" engineering "[OT]:" off topic "[AD]:" ad's