Mini Thermal Printer print only blurred dots

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mihaigeorge
 
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2014 4:00 am

Mini Thermal Printer print only blurred dots

Post by mihaigeorge »

Hello,

My name is Mihai and i have recently bought a mini thermal printer like this:
http://www.adafruit.com/products/597

I have connected it to an Arduino One and run the printertest.pde tests, but all I get are just some dots.
These are some images with my wires connections and the printing result:
http://imageshack.com/a/img27/4200/2lqu.jpg
http://imageshack.com/a/img834/3404/h4q8.jpg

I would appreciate very much if you could give me a hint about what my problem is.
It could be a problem with the printer?

Thank You,
Mihai Cracan

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adafruit_support_bill
 
Posts: 88090
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2009 10:11 am

Re: Mini Thermal Printer print only blurred dots

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

It looks like you are powering the printer directly from the Arduino. The printer requires more power than the Arduino can provide. You will need a separate power supply with at leas 1.5A for the printer. http://learn.adafruit.com/mini-thermal- ... nter/power

mihaigeorge
 
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2014 4:00 am

Re: Mini Thermal Printer print only blurred dots

Post by mihaigeorge »

It seems that this was the problem. I have added an external power supply and it printed something, but unfortunately this was the result:
http://imageshack.com/a/img203/1024/3l6s.jpg

All I have available for now is a 1A power supply, so I have powered the printer with 1A.
Could be this the problem or is something else that caused it?

Thank you!

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adafruit_support_bill
 
Posts: 88090
Joined: Sat Feb 07, 2009 10:11 am

Re: Mini Thermal Printer print only blurred dots

Post by adafruit_support_bill »

It looks like you have more power to the printhead now. Not sure about the strange characters.

Was this a printer you purchased from Adafruit? There are other models based on the same printer chassis that have different firmware or default settings.

mihaigeorge
 
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2014 4:00 am

Re: Mini Thermal Printer print only blurred dots

Post by mihaigeorge »

One of my local shop helps me to get it from Sparkfun, but I was thinking that all of them are made by Adafruit. I found some code examples on Sparkfun too and I will test them.

On this occasion let me thank you for these great products that you made. You really do some great work here.

Thank You.

mihaigeorge
 
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2014 4:00 am

Re: Mini Thermal Printer print only blurred dots

Post by mihaigeorge »

I have tried with some libreries from Sparkfun but unfortunately I got the same strage characters.

My printer model is CSN 2 T, the same model as on Adafruit.

Thank You.

mihaigeorge
 
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Mar 27, 2014 4:00 am

Re: Mini Thermal Printer print only blurred dots

Post by mihaigeorge »

My problem is solved!

Same issue as here:
http://forums.adafruit.com/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=28909

Thank you for your support.

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