Was he wanting to build a printer or just send data to a printer?  I got the
impression he wanted to send data to a pre-fab printer.

-- Mitch

----- Original Message -----
From: "David VanHorn" <dvanhorn@CEDAR.NET>
To: <PICLIST@MITVMA.MIT.EDU>
Sent: Tuesday, October 03, 2000 3:01 PM
Subject: Re: [PIC]:Thermal Printer Question


> 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.
>
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>
>
>

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