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Forum Index : Microcontroller and PC projects : Thermal Printer for the Micromite...
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Grogster Admin Group  Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9066 |
These printers cost about US$30 or so from eBay and the like - easy to drive, and produce surprisingly good results: 
Simple testing code: 
Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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OA47 Guru  Joined: 11/04/2012 Location: AustraliaPosts: 911 |
Good get, Grogs |
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| WhiteWizzard Guru Joined: 05/04/2013 Location: United KingdomPosts: 2794 |
Hi Grogs, Is that the one I linked you to or is it an 'eBay' one? The reason for asking is that if it is the 'linked' one then I am interested in knowing how 'noisy' it is (i.e. in a dark room at night time in a quiet house!). Also interested in peak operating current when printing. Thanks for any info . . . WW For everything Micromite visit micromite.org Direct Email: whitewizzard@micromite.o |
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| WhiteWizzard Guru Joined: 05/04/2013 Location: United KingdomPosts: 2794 |
Another point I forgot to ask - can you possibly print a line of 80 characters (and just a few lines to see the 'line spacing'). By the way - I didn't know you spoke Chinese (looking closely at you sample print above!)  For everything Micromite visit micromite.org Direct Email: whitewizzard@micromite.o |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9066 |
Hey WW. 
Standby for the printout. It is no louder then any other thermal printer - pretty quiet, and I doubt you would notice it from across the room when printing, even in a quiet room. It is not silent though, so depending on how good your hearing is.... Current consumption when printing varies between 1.2A and 2A @ 7v - it is very sporadic and NOT constant. This makes sense when you consider just how it works. I have not seen it pass 2A - depends on the density of the line it is printing at the time. Print time is very short - about 500ms for a line, so As to the Chinese, that happened when I sent it some wrong commands by mistake - it must have interpreted them as Chinese characters or something.... EDIT: Forgot to mention - is eBay one. Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9066 |
Here is a shot of the character set, along with a self-test print at the bottom. You can have 32 characters per line in normal font. 
Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| astroboy Newbie  Joined: 28/12/2014 Location: AustraliaPosts: 38 |
Hello Grogster Do you have an Ebay link please? John |
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| WhiteWizzard Guru Joined: 05/04/2013 Location: United KingdomPosts: 2794 |
Nice one G. I see under your Chinese message to me that FontB is 41 characters per line (if my eyes are correct) and a leading space (or two). Is there another font offering 80(ish) characters per line? This is just about readable in the photo but what is it like to read when it is front of your eyes (i.e. physically in your hands)? Whilst on FleaBay did you see any wider thermal printers? Sorry for all the Qs but have a requirement for something . . . . WW For everything Micromite visit micromite.org Direct Email: whitewizzard@micromite.o |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9066 |
@ astroboy: here is the link I got mine from, but WW also has a source. @ WW: Can you please re-post YOUR link? I think it is exactly the same unit, but it would be good for other members to have options. As to the printout questions, I will make a short video so you can see(and hear) the printer in action, and will post a link to it soon. Printout is extremely nice - very easy to read, not fuzzy or anything - just like any receipt you get at a shop. I have not played with the mini font yet, but that is next - you are right - that one gives more characters per line. Character bytes 128-255 in the ASCII table are not the extended ASCII characters you might expect, but rather Chinese characters. The manual does go into how to re-define the characters, so one of the things I was looking at, was redefining some of those characters to the likes of extended ASCII for the single and double-line boxes(179-218). Not sure about this - depends on how easy or not it is to do, and how long it would take to send that data to the printer when you initialize it. Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| WhiteWizzard Guru Joined: 05/04/2013 Location: United KingdomPosts: 2794 |
Thermal Printer Link For everything Micromite visit micromite.org Direct Email: whitewizzard@micromite.o |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9066 |
Arrrghhhh! 
Have not been able to select FontB no matter what I do - The manual is not that great, being written in Engrish. I will make the video now, and play some more with this idea later. Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9066 |
I have found a better technical manual for this printer here. Selecting Font B(the smaller one) is done by setting bit0 in the data byte of the ESC+33 command. Therefore, ? #1,CHR$(27)+CHR$(33)+CHR$(&B00000001) selects the smaller FontB. Clearing bit0 restores FontA(the default size). 
Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9066 |
OK, 1AM here - need sleep. 
However, good progress: 
Print time for each full message is about one second, and it shows up well despite the relatively narrow paper size of 58mm. More tinkering tomorrow, but for now, my brain wants the company of a pillow. Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| WhiteWizzard Guru Joined: 05/04/2013 Location: United KingdomPosts: 2794 |
Blimey - you come from the future (assuming your clock is set correctly!)
edit: Do you know the roll lengths? And cost? For everything Micromite visit micromite.org Direct Email: whitewizzard@micromite.o |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9066 |
Date and time correct - we are about a 12 hours ahead of UK, 4 or so hours ahead of Australia etc. For UK, it is our night-time when you are having your day and vise-versa. So, as I write this, you are probably asleep.  (as it is daytime here now)
I bought the paper as a ten-pack from a local NZ supplier, and it cost me about NZ$8 for a pack of ten rolls, each roll is about 15 meters long. You can get cheaper paper then that - have seen listings of 50 roll boxes for NZ$30, but I chose higher quality paper, as it is smoother and thus is more gentle on the print-head. Cheap paper is rougher(so also rougher on the print-head), and the black print tends to be more grey then black, but if you wanted absolute rock-bottom price for paper...... Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| WhiteWizzard Guru Joined: 05/04/2013 Location: United KingdomPosts: 2794 |
I still prefer to think you're from the future!! (And Zonker from the past)
Anyway - I'm up and wide awake - neighbours house got broken into so have been supplying police with CCTV footage. Now time to catch up on TBS posts even if it is the middle of the night. Another question regarding the thermal printer - with the paper you have there - what is the 'retention'/'durability' like of the image on the paper. I remember years ago I had a thermal printer which was fine until you actually touched the paper. Your body heat was enough to leave big dark 'blotches' on the paper rendering the printout useless when touched. Same thing if you rubbed your thumb over the paper. Somewhere I have an old ZX80/ZX81 thermal printer too - perhaps I should get that going as it will probably be big enough for 80characters per line. Thanks for all your replies - very useful info . . . . For everything Micromite visit micromite.org Direct Email: whitewizzard@micromite.o |
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CircuitGizmos Guru Joined: 08/09/2011 Location: United StatesPosts: 1421 |
And here I was thinking September 5th... I prefer ISO8601 date/time format. Micromites and Maximites! - Beginning Maximite |
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BobD Guru Joined: 07/12/2011 Location: AustraliaPosts: 935 |
Yes, it's the only way to go. I use it all the time in file and folder names as it self sorts into chronological order. No other date format does that successfully. |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9066 |
@ WW - Image retention is supposed to be at least 7-years, when stored correctly.(in a cool, dark place) This paper does NOT leave marks when you leave your fingers on it, nor does it leave smudges when you pull it quickly through your fingers. This is a NZ made paper, for the NZ market, so I expect it is up to scratch in that department. The seven year thing will be cos the Mafia(Inland Revenue - "Give us da money. Give us da money NOW!") need you to keep seven years of records for auditing purposes. @ CG and Bob: Will check the ISO thing out, but that is really only a problem Internationally. Here in NZ, that is the standard date and time format, so there is no chance of anyone working here and familiar with our formatting, thinking it means 5th of September, for example. I respect and understand the need for an internationally standard date format, but in my application, it is not required unless I was to start exporting, which I don't - yet.  Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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| Grogster Admin Group Joined: 31/12/2012 Location: New ZealandPosts: 9066 |
I found another source for these printers - about 1000 units of black and white in stock. US$16.80 each + postage, but even with tracked airmail, it comes out as US$25.25 per unit including postage, which is pretty good. I have also looked at 80mm printers(there are plenty of them for sale on AliExpress), but they are quite drastically more expensive, so I think that the 58mm ones are the ones to work with. Small printer and narrow paper, but....... Smoke makes things work. When the smoke gets out, it stops! |
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