Problem of thermal receipt printer

[davidcroft]

I bought a thermal receipt printer starter pack from adafruit last week. When I powered it up today, I found the LED light on the front of printer is flashing. I can also see the red light led inside the power connector flashing with the same frequency of the front one. I followed the tutorial on the website but failed in the step of "first test". The thermal paper rolled out a little bit but without any text on it, when I pressed the button on the front. Then I burned the arduino example code and it printed some blurred words, whose picture is attached.

printed text by thermal printer

photo.JPG (72.44 KiB) Viewed 872 times

the video clip of flashing LED I shot: https://vimeo.com/101127972

I used the power supply in that kit for testing and I measured the input voltage to the printer is 5V. So I can make sure that the input voltage is right. My question is that if it is a normal status for the LED on the front side flashing? I suspected that the power is not stable in this printer so that it printed out badly. Any clue or suggestion? Thank you very much.

[Franklin97355]

We will check on this and get back to you.

[davidcroft]

Thank you. So is it normal that the front LED is flashing after power supply is plugged?

[adafruit_support_rick]

Do you have another power supply you can try?

[davidcroft]

how much current does this device need to work correctly? I have some other power supply but might not provide large current.

[adafruit_support_rick]

Needs at least 1.5A. It will take anything from 5 to 9VDC.

[davidcroft]

I don't have any power supply that could provide 1.5A current. I used the power supply from the starter pack and I think that would be fine. Do you have any policy to return this product and resend me a new power supply or thermal printer? I have a project need to test this device as soon as possible. Thanks.

[adafruit_support_mike]

The power supply in the starter pack should be able to deliver 2A, which is enough to make the printer work as it should.

Send a note to [email protected] with a link to this thread and the folks there will send you a replacement 5v @ 2A power supply.

[adafruit2]

Hi there - this has been a mystery we're investigating this more fully - it may be a paper issue. More soon...

[adafruit2]

Can you post a photo of the *paper* roll? from the end, so we can see the inner core

[davidcroft]

yeah, that's why I asked if the led flashing a normal status. If I can make sure printer works well, then it could be something else wrong. However, it seems that the printer is not working correctly now. The following are some images of paper rolls. Hope these help to target the problem. Thank you.

[adafruit2]

Hmm - does the paper fit tightly into the printer bay or is it loose?

[davidcroft]

I think it's somewhat tight; it fits the printer bay well. When I close the lid, I can still pull out the paper without much effort.

[adafruit2]

OK tear off a 1' strip and curl it into the bay, with a little sticking out as normal, does it print OK?

[davidcroft]

No, I still got nothing when I pressed down the button after power up, even though I tear several paper roll down. However I do notice that the gear edge of the lid have contacted the paper roll. Is that all right?

Can you please also check my following questions so that I can make sure my operations are correct.
1. Power up the thermal printer and press down the button on the front, it should print out the character table even if it connects no microcontroller, right?
2. What is the LED's status after power up?
3. connect the printer to an arduino and upload the pinterest, the printer will print out the receipt?

Thanks.