Mini TTL/RS232/USB Thermal Printer

  • Simomax
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2 years 11 months ago - 2 years 11 months ago #5944 by Simomax
I fell across this little thing on ebay. A mini panel mount TTL/RS232/USB thermal printer. Just like the ones in credit card machines and cash registers. I reckon one of these would go fine with a counter for printing out alerts or dose over time! I bought one and it is whinging it's way to me from China right now! 
It should be easy to implement into arduino as it uses TTL and SporkFan have code already available for these little puppies! https://www.sparkfun.com/products/14970
There are a few different iterations of these on ebay so just search for 'ttl printer'. 

       

SporkFan says this about them:

This is a thermal printer like you would find on a cash register or adding machine. It will print simple strings passed to it via TTL serial, bitmap images (poorly) and it can generate several different formats of barcodes. This model can even print QR Codes!

 The thermal printer takes 2.25" (57mm) wide thermal paper with a max roll diameter of 1.5" (39mm). Thermal paper is inexpensive and commonly found in most office supply stores in 85ft lengths. You may have to remove some paper from these rolls in order for it to fit into the printer. But, you can always use the excess paper in the printer, since you don't need to have a 'core' in the paper for it to work.

 The back panel has 2 3-pin connectors; one for power and one for serial communications. The thermal printer ships with default 19200bps baud rate. If you're using this printer in conjunction with an Arduino, you're going to need to connect it to the "Vin" pin and attach an external power supply, as the printer will draw more current than USB is capable of delivering. We've found that these printers can draw about 1.5A because they need to generate heat, the best supply for the job is our laptop-style power supply (see related products below)

 The print head has a rated life of 50km! That means this printer can handle a marathon's distance (~30 miles) of printing before the head hits its rated limit.

 Use this printer in any project where you need a hard-copy of the output, or in an art project where you want to keep the output to stick on your fridge, or to build a DIY cash register for your lemonade stand!

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Last edit: 2 years 11 months ago by Simomax.

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2 years 10 months ago #5955 by mw0uzo
Haha, very cool. The perfect addition to any random project!

Graph your radiation dose rate while visiting antique shops
Capture a gamma ray burst on paper while out at the park
Print fake tickets into the cinema

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