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Is this printer compatible with the propeller? — Parallax Forums

Is this printer compatible with the propeller?

Private19872Private19872 Posts: 61
edited 2014-04-03 12:26 in Propeller 1
I found this one day, and after searching through the documentation I couldn't find any information on how to control it besides a 19,200 baud serial connection. From what I've read, there's a library for it on the Arduino. Do any objects for this printer exist on the propeller at the moment? If not, how hard would it be to run with Full Duplex Serial?

https://www.sparkfun.com/products/10438

Comments

  • PublisonPublison Posts: 12,366
    edited 2014-04-01 13:50
    Looks doable. The Propeller can handle the 19,200 baud rate with no problem. Just have to be careful of the 5 Volt lines into the Propeller. A 3.3K in series would suffice.

    FullDuplexSerial.spin should work with it.
  • Private19872Private19872 Posts: 61
    edited 2014-04-01 18:51
    Thanks. Would it use an extra cog to make a object that could control the printer without having to remember the exact command codes? That would be built right around Full Duplex Serial but I don't know if it would run the serial in one cog and the driver object in another, or if the driver object would call for the serial object when you run a command.
  • ElectrodudeElectrodude Posts: 1,658
    edited 2014-04-01 18:57
    The printer driver would be written in spin and would run in/share your main cog (or whatever cog is sending commands to the printer). FullDuplexSerial would still need its own cog.
  • Private19872Private19872 Posts: 61
    edited 2014-04-01 20:02
    Ok, thanks.
  • Mike GreenMike Green Posts: 23,101
    edited 2014-04-02 07:21
    The printer driver would not need a cog for itself. It would use the cog used by the program calling it since it would be serving as library subroutines to your main program. Most of what's special about this printer is configured during initialization by sending escape sequences. For text output, you send the text followed by a line feed ($0A). FullDuplexSerial uses a separate cog for the low-level serial I/O routines. The Spin interface routines all are just subroutines called by the user (of FDS).
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2014-04-02 08:36
    Take a look at the Character Set references -- it does ASCII, which is good for English, plus it seems some Chinese in an Extended Character mode -- not sure if it is Traditional or Simplfied (or Both).

    Seems it will do the oddball European character stuff as well.
  • Duane DegnDuane Degn Posts: 10,588
    edited 2014-04-02 19:07
    I have one of those printers and I've used it with the Propeller. I'm pretty sure I've posted some example code to the forum.

    BTW, You don't need to worry about the 5V to 3.3V issue. The serial line from the printer is 3.3V not 5V. 3.3V from the Propeller works fine with the printer.

    If you need more help with this let me know, I will likely be slow to reply for a few days but I will reply if you have a question.
  • Duane DegnDuane Degn Posts: 10,588
    edited 2014-04-02 19:28
    I found the post with some example Spin code to use with th printer.

    Let me know if you have any questions.
  • Private19872Private19872 Posts: 61
    edited 2014-04-02 20:15
    Do I really need to get one of those power supplies for the printer, or do batteries work but go dead very quickly?
  • Duane DegnDuane Degn Posts: 10,588
    edited 2014-04-03 11:34
    Private19872 wrote: »
    Do I really need to get one of those power supplies for the printer, or do batteries work but go dead very quickly?

    Any power supply that outputs between 5V and 9V and can supply 1.5A should work. You could use batteries as long as they can povide enough current.
  • Private19872Private19872 Posts: 61
    edited 2014-04-03 12:26
    Ok, thanks.
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